The Nuthouse

The Wingnuts begin a four-game series at Sioux Falls tonight with a doubleheader starting at 5 p.m. Wichita sends Leonard Landeros and Justin Young to the mound tonight.

Wichita needs at least a split in this series, which would keep them 1 1/2 games behind the Canaries in the American Association North Division. St. Paul is also 1 1/2 up on the Wingnuts, and the Saints are playing a series at last-place Sioux City, splitting a doubleheader last night.

A split keeps the Wingnuts in third place but puts them in a great position to make a move in the final week-plus of the first half. Wichita has series remaining with El Paso, Shreveport and Sioux City, three of the bottom feeders in the league. There will be plenty of opportunity to pick up ground in the standings in those series.

Sioux Falls has statistically the best offense in the league, but the Canaries didn’t impress me much during their series in Wichita last month. They swing at pretty much everything and it’s easy to get them out by just throwing strikes.

That’s why I see a split in today’s doubleheader — Young throws strikes while Landeros sometimes struggles in that area. I’ve noticed that walks in this league have a lot to do with wildness of the pitcher, rather than patience on the part of the hitters. If Landeros is in the zone, he should be OK.

Randy Smithson made his way into the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium press box for about an inning on Sunday afternoon. The former WSU, Butler and Cowley basketball coach was wearing a shirt supporting the Wingnuts’ opponent, the St. Paul Saints.

Why, you ask?

Randy’s son, Zach Goldberg is the backup catcher for the Saints. He actually started all three games in Wichita because regular starter Kevin Sullivan has been nicked up since taking a hit at the plate from Kevin Hooper. Maybe you know what I’m talking about — it was the impetus for the bench-clearing brawl during Saturday night’s game.

Anyway, I knew it had recently come out, via Smithson, that Goldberg was his son. I wasn’t sure of the whole story behind it. But Randy had a brief relationship with Zach’s mother and knew of Zach for the kid’s entire life. Randy said they were both scared to approach or contact one another, but Randy finally made the first move and called Zach not too long ago.

Randy said it was the smartest thing he’s ever done. The two hit it off immediately and we now have at least one St. Paul Saints fan in Wichita. Goldberg, who played at Kapaun Mount Carmel and Heights, was cut by the Wingnuts in spring training but had a hit in every game during the series.

The suspensions after last night’s brawl between the Wingnuts and St. Paul Saints are as follows for Wichita: Byron Embry, 4 games; Stephen Pearson, 2 games; Felipe Del Rosario, 1 game.

I talked to Embry in the clubhouse a few minutes ago because I was told he regretted saying some of the stuff he did, notably “I’ve got to kill you,” and “I’m crazy.” And he was a little upset at me for printing his comments, which he said were the primary reason for his four-game suspension. He mostly regretted saying those things on the record and I think we cleared the air.

I took my time going into the clubhouse after the game last night because I knew the Wingnuts, Embry in particular, were still “in the moment.” When I did go in, I asked Embry if he needed a few minutes and he said that he did. So I waited and when he thought he had calmed himself, we did an interview. I didn’t rush him. But it’s possible that he thought I would just go away and when it was clear that I wasn’t going to, he called me over before he was really ready to talk.

I debated whether to blog some of the extra quotes from Embry, Wingnuts manager Kash Beauchamp and St. Paul manager George Tsamis, but after talking to Embry I decided against it. He admitted today that he still wasn’t totally within himself when we did the interview, and I think the point got across through the one quote of his that I did print. The damage has already been done — he’s got a four-game suspension to deal with and today’s a new day.

As a reporter, even one who’s paid to be unbiased, it’s hard not to take sides. I cover the Wingnuts and deal with them pretty much every day, so I found myself agreeing, right or wrong, with a lot that they were saying. I printed Embry’s most inflammatory quote probably to not give the appearance of bias. In reality, I’m not biased at all. But I was a little bit caught up in the moment last night, too. Especially after talking to Tsamis, who isn’t Beauchamp’s biggest fan and had no problem sharing that with me.

Still, Embry has to watch himself in that situation. If a major league organization was thinking about picking him up and read his quotes after the game, do they turn the other way? I think four games is a relatively light suspension for Embry, but I’m not sure how the American Association handles discipline.

Two things I do believe, however — Embry and Sullivan are friends and if Embry would’ve wanted to hit Sullivan, he would have. Sullivan is the godfather to Embry’s oldest child and the two have been teammates frequently during their careers. The most important part of Embry’s game is intimidation, though. And when he steps on the field, he has no friends. That’s what I hear about Sullivan, who, by all accounts is a great guy off the field but an ultra-competitive player who can rub people the wrong way.

Also, I agree with Wingnuts people that St. Paul was wrong to take offense to the Disney music being played during the Saints’ batting practice. I have never seen a game at St. Paul so I can only assume it’s true that they award the “Player of the game” to the opposing player who had the worst game — and that Wichita second baseman Brenan Herrera was selected in a game there last weekend. Also, apparently when Michael Thompson hit a home run it was announced over the P.A. “too bad he has to go back to Wichita.” Weak.

But it’s great that the Wingnuts have a rival, and it’s even greater that the rival is St. Paul, the flagship independent franchise. No offense to the rest of the league, but a Wichita-Pensacola Pelicans rivalry wouldn’t have quite the marquee value. If you want a team hating you, you want it to be the Saints because that probably means you’re a threat to their basically perennial spot at the top of the standings.

We’re a little ways into the Wingnuts season already but better late than never, right? As I write this, Wichita leads St. Paul 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium on a lovely Friday night.

Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Jeff Lutz (distant relative of Eagle columnist Bob Lutz) and I’ve been around baseball for my entire life. So this blog will be about 80-percent Wingnuts and 20-percent anything else I want to write about within the game. I love major league baseball and spent last summer as an intern with MLB.com covering the Atlanta Braves. So I’ll tell a lot of stories about my days there just to make myself feel and seem more important.

I very much enjoy covering the Wingnuts so far. The players are very accessible and easy to deal with and manager Kash Beauchamp is one of those “baseball guys” that you’d just know when you see. I’m going to write a lengthy feature story about him later this summer because his story is an interesting one — No. 1 overall draft pick in 1982 and never made it to The Show. But a guy who seems made to manage at this level; he definitely seems to have independent baseball figured out.

And then there’s Kevin Hooper. I’m not going to ever use the word “scrappy” or “gritty” to describe him because I hate cliches like that about players who perform above their natural ability. But this guy is really fun to watch. Here is a cliche, though — he plays the game “the right way.” I feel so dirty writing that. But he knows exactly what to do in every single situation.

As a small example, Hooper was on first when Chris Colton hit a groundball to second earlier in this game. Hooper stopped in the baseline, making the second baseman throw to the bag to force Hooper out, and Colton beat the throw back to first by a step. If Hooper runs into the tag, it’s a sure double play. It’s easy to wish Hooper would have been born with more natural ability, but then we couldn’t watch him get by on mostly effort and it wouldn’t be nearly as much fun.

Anyway, check back every day because I will write frequently. It’s now 4-4 and I’m losing track of pitch count. I hate that. Talk to you soon.