At midseason, senior Buccos in the thick of it

Summer Solstice winds were ornery in the Valley, and both pitchers were walking 'em like it was a dog park. But it was the Buccos who strolled to victory over the Killabrews, concluding the first half of the season tied for fifth in the standings in the 14-team league.

     After the game the mid-season managers pow-wow with the league commissioner from the LA County Parks and Rec Dept was roiled by controversy when the shrewd Mike Abeles tried to add a pitcher from outside the league to replace an outfielder out for the season with an elbow injury.

     Mike was trying to find someone to replace his own hapless pitcher, the one substituting for the Killabrews  against us. He issued an astounding 15 walks, ten of which came around to score. (The Buccos also pounded out 17 hits.) Ten of the walks came around to score. Eight were issued to the bottom six in our order, who combined for an incredible .666 OBP, and eight of our 19 runs. A pitcher’s worst sin is to walk someone at the bottom of the order – let them put the ball in play and they’ll likely be out.

     I issued six free passes himself – but all to the top five in the order, thus limiting the damage, Dave Aguilar at first base providing a “rhythm “chorus to remind me when I strayed from my mechanics.

     "The wind was tough for both pitchers, resulting in walks and high scoring," Killabrews manager Steve Wachtel told me afterward. "But it was a fun game," he said unconvincingly.

     Talking to veteran coaches is a feature of this blog chronicling my rookie season as a manager in the county league. Steve has long been one of the game’s most successful managers, and in his late 60s, is still one of the best players. He also had a reputation for volatility and carrying grudges in a league that features the kind of politics and gamesmanship seen at all levels of amateur American sports. He once tried to kick one of his best players off his team for substituting for a team whose manager he was feuding with. He’s lost his temper with players only to profusely apologize afterward.

     “I try not to let it get to me anymore, or take the game home with me,” he tells me. “Don’t make people feel bad about mistakes. When you look at the big picture, it’s not that important. Why make them feel bad, when this is the only place they have to play. I wouldn’t want someone not to come back and play for me because of what I said or did.”

     Mike Abeles, whose team went undefeated in the Fall/Winter season, is having a mediocre summer season, mainly due to the fact that he unwisely drafted a pitcher with a proclivity to throw far more balls than strikes.

     So when one of his infielders incurred a season-ending injury he pounced on an opportunity to replace that player with a new pitcher. This was not brought up at the mid-season managers meeting when teams – starting with those at the bottom of the standings – can draft new players from a wait list.

     The pitcher Mike wanted to add to his Mudhens team, however, was not on the waitlist. He told me later there would have been no players available to him when it came to his turn at the midseason draft. He said he asked the league for permission to add a player who was not on the waitlist. Instead, the League sent out an email to the managers the day after the midseason draft asking them to take a vote on Mike’s proposal.

     This was predictably greeted with howls of protest about “Machiavellian Mike”. Most of us thought the pitcher Mike wanted to add should have been put on the waitlist.

     “This is a swindle -- more Mudhen shenanigans!” one manager sputtered.

     The proposal was decisively voted down.

     Mike told me later the league commissioner would not let him add his proposed pitcher to the waitlist, and also would not let Mike jump the draft queue and get the first pick on the waiting list. In fact, it was the league’s idea to put the proposal to let Mike add the pitcher outside the draft to a vote.

     The league, however, did not say that in the email: “It has been proposed…”, was how it was worded. Personally, I think the league did Mike a profound disservice by not explaining all this – preferably at the managers’ draft meeting or in the email that followed it.

     Mike will probably be forced to find a substitute pitcher from other teams for the rest of the season, and his lack of pitching will likely doom his prospects when playoffs begin next month.

     Or maybe the wild pitcher still on his roster will somehow find his own rhythm in the midst of the coming hot Santa Ana winds that blow through the Valley during playoff time in late August. Yeah, no that’s not gonna happen.