I Don’t Believe What I just Saw

Da Bulls

I went to the Durham Bulls game Saturday night with Red and ACE.  We have the season ticket mini plan.  One reason I purchased this particular plan is that the Bulls give away pretty good “gifts” during certain games.

We hadn’t picked up any of them before Saturday, so we showed our ticket to the young lady, and we were given three nice white old timey Bulls hats - with a bull on the front, like a 1908 Cubs hat, and an inconspicuous sponsor logo on the back just above the velcro fastener.  Anybody want one?  One size fits all (almost).  We were told paperweights would be available in the fifth or sixth inning, but we didn’t pick up one of those yet.  The piece de resistance was a replica player batting practice jersey.  I hoped to get an Upton (wink), but had to settle for three Jonny Gomes.  Anybody want one?  It’s an XL.

On this night the Bulls were hosting the Rochester Red Wings, the AAA affiliate of the Minnesota Twins.  The Red Wings have the best record in the North Division of the International League.  The Bulls are well back of the Charlotte Knights in the South Division.  The Bulls do have a handful of players that are bonafide prospects and the Red Wings have at least one or two.

The starting pitchers for each team were quite exciting.  The Bulls sent Brian Stokes to the hill.  He throws very hard, hitting 97 at least once on the gun and regularly humming it in at 94-95.  The Red Wings sent Internet favorite Boof Bonser to the mound.Bonser also threw pretty hard, mostly hitting 93 on the gun.  The odd thing, and I don’t think I have my pitchers mixed up was that Stokes throws his curve ball at 76.  That’s right - 18-20 mph slower than his fastball.  That is very, very strange.  Usually the difference is 10-12 mph.

The Red Wings go a run in the first when Andrea Torres singled, stole second, went to third when Bulls catcher threw the ball into centerfield and scored on a groundout to short.  Stokes threw well, but shortstop Tommy Watkins was sitting dead-red and jacked the first pitch he saw over the Blue Monster to make the score 2-0 going to the bottom of the third.  That is when things got really strange.

Boof had struck out BJ Upton to lead off the game, and ended the first striking out Delmon Young.  He sat the Bulls down in order again in the second and had gotten the first out, first baseman Wes Bankston, to open the bottom of the third.  Brent Butler, who is basically a utility player for the Bulls was playing left field and batting eighth.  You may remember Butler as the 2002 Colorado Rockies second baseman.  That year he posted a 68 OPS+, and it was better than Rockie centerfielder Juan Pierre that year.  But I digress.

Butler singled to left in front of Quinton McCracken.  (You know, Vörös once told me he wanted a jersey of his).  McCracken has 2500 major league at bats and went to school at Duke and was a Bull in 2000.  He’s applauded locally.  Batting ninth for the Bulls is an Aaron Gleeman favorite, Luis Rivas.  Rivas lofts a medium depth fly ball along the right field line.  Rochester right fielder, and a real prospect I assume because he is just 22, Alex Romero ran over and was going to make the catch just fair.  Butler on first set to tag up.  Romero makes the catch, and Butler tags and busts it for second base.  As Butler reaches second, Romero inexplicably tosses the ball to the fans.  Um, Alex, that was just the second out.  The umps award Butler third base, since he was on first base.  Bulls Manager John Tamargo alertly ran to the home ump and pointed out that Butler had already tagged and advanced to second before Romero tossed the ball into the stands.  The umps conferred and awarded Butler home.

That’s right, Butler scored from first on a sacrifice fly.  It was something I have never seen before in a baseball game.  I’ve seen guys hand the ball to fans after the second out and I’ve seen guys tag up and advance to second on a fly to right field, but not the two in combination, and certainly not score from first on an out like that.  Tamargo is a very alert manager, although possibly a little too hot under the collar. 

I think that irritated Boof quite a bit.  He walked Upton quickly.  Upton stole his 45th base, but was stranded on second.

The fireworks weren’t over.  In the top of the fourth, with two outs, semi-prospect Garrett Jones doubled to right.  Alex Romero then singled to left.  Jones isn’t the fastest runner, but Butler has a second baseman’s arm, so there was a play at the plate.  As I mentioned for those unfamiliar with the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, there is a Blue Monster (click section 206 for my view), so the left fielder plays shallow like Manny Ramirez in Boston.  Butler comes up throwing, and I was surprised to see big (6-4, 250) Garrett Jones rounding third.  Even with Butler’s arm, it wasn’t going to be very close.  Bulls catcher Shawn Riggans stepped forward to catch the throw, and Jones made a slide wide of home plate.  From where I was sitting, it appeared Riggans tagged jones, diving back behind the plate.

Then there was the moment frozen in time.  Riggans showed home plate umpire Healey the ball.  Everyone waited for a call.  Healey made none.  Jones quickly realized what was happening, and he crawled/lunged for home and tagged the plate - Healey calls him safe.  Riggans goes nuts.  Romero kept running, and cruised into third.  Riggans kept yelling and Healey, who evidently has a quick trigger, threw Riggans out.  Riggans goes even nuttier “What for?  What for?” Romero breaks for home, but Riggans is alerted and turns to tag him.  the umps quickly put a stop to that - as we learned this year in a MLB game, once somebody gets tossed, the play is dead. 

Now Tamargo comes out of the dugout.  He lasted about ten seconds before he got tossed.  Tamargo yelled at each ump and nearly wouldn’t leave the field, nor the dugout.  It held the game up for nearly 10 minutes.  I thought the umps were hot enough to call a forfeit as Tamargo stood in the dugout yelling while backup catcher Kevin Cash got loose.  The next Red Wing batter, catcher Shawn Wooten, singled on the first pitch to score Romero.  Watkins then hit another drive that Bulls centerfielder Darnell McDonald ran down on a great catch to end the inning.

Bonser had to still be stewing over the play by Romero and the long wait between innings.  When he came out for the bottom of the fourth, he was not sharp.  Delmon Young ripped a double to leadoff.  Kevin Witt, who leads the minors in home runs with 30, hit a bomb to dead centerfield - probably a 430’ shot.  It almost conked some people sitting on a blanket on the centerfield lawn seats.  Darnell McDonald singled and stole second.  Bonser was really struggling.  Then Boof whirled and picked off McDonald in a nice 1-6-5-4 rundown.  That settled Boof down, and he proceeded to own the Bulls for the rest of his time - retiring 11 straight, striking out six of those, and not allowing another ball out of the infield.  One of those was BJ Upton, and “his biggest fan” in the section beside us started yelling “That’s number 89, Melvin!  You think that’s Big League material?  It ain’t!” that guy rides Upton every game for every error and every strikeout.  It’s a little rough for a 21-year old.  Bonser was relieved by Kevin Cameron, who brought some heat.  He struck out Young, Witt and McDonald to end the game.

The Red Wings won 5-3, and it was very entertaining.

But the kicker - the absolute kicker for me on the evening was the “Vote for the Greatest AAA player of All Time” contest.  Is it:

A. Mike Piazza
B. Kenny Lofton
C. Gary Carter

or

D. Jeff Manto

I laughed and laughed.  ACE pointed out that it is not who had the best MLB career.  I chuckled and nodded and texted in my vote for Manto.