The Nuthouse

The highlight of my life, perhaps, came last night at about 3 a.m. during the National Baseball Congress World Series game between Liberal and Hays.

As Liberal manager Mike Hargrove (read previous blog entires to learn about the history between the former Indians skipper and me) was trotting to his third-base coaching box … OK, wait. Just so everybody knows, I was running the sound for that game. You know, all the music and the sound clips and stuff like that.

And we’ve been using Limewire to download some songs to play between innings because after 80 games, the same old songs get pretty lame and boring. So we like to keep it fresh. And since I’m an Indians fan and everything, I decided to look for this geeky, nerdy Indians theme song that they play as like an introduction to radio broadcasts and stuff. I don’t even know where it came from.

So I played it and good ol’ Human Rain Delay Grover Mike Hargrove looks up to the booth and shakes his head and smiles. I think it was a look of appreciation, but mostly I think it was — How did they find that song? Oh, I know, Mike …. I know. So to be acknowledged by a guy who was partly responsible for several heartbeaking experiences for me …. well, I guess that’s something.

The next thing I need to rant about is the USA’s olympic baseball game against South Korea. Highly disappointing. And I’m into the USA olympic baseball team this year because it features two Indians prospects — relief pitcher Jeff Stevens and outfielder Matt LaPorta. Both were acquired in trades for stars (Stevens for Brandon Phillips, LaPorta for CC Sabathia).

So the USA leads 7-6 in the 9th and Stevens comes on to close it. Yeah, he blew it and the USA lost 8-7, but it wasn’t his fault. The USA third baseman, Mike Hessman, was playing way off the line and Stevens allowed a leadoff double to the left-field corner. If Hessman is playing where he’s supposed to be, guarding the line against a double, that’s an out.

And so is the groundball by the guy two batters later. Instead, with a guy on third base the infield is in — to protect against the TYING, not WINNING run, and I’m not sure why — and Jayson Nix makes a bad throw home from second base and the run scores. By the way, Nix was a complete jerk to me in an interview a few years ago when I covered the Wranglers and he played for Tulsa. Karma, baby.

Then Stevens makes a wild pickoff throw to first, the guy gets to third then scores on a sacrifice fly to win the game. But he wouldn’t have been on first if Hessman just knew how to play third base. I guess they don’t teach you that in the midst of the 7 million minor league games he’s played.

Finally, I must mention that the Wingnuts are actually more alive for a playoff spot then I let on yesterday. At least I think they are. If Sioux Falls can somehow catch Sioux City and win the second half, the next playoff spot goes to the team with the second best overall record. And right now, the Wingnuts are 2.5 games behind Sioux City for that mark.

That’s where it gets confusing. Sioux Falls and the Wingnuts play six times down the stretch — four more I think — and it’s going to be difficult for both teams to make up ground on the teams they’re chasing. So while it’s only 2.5 games, the Wingnuts probably won’t do it because every Sioux Falls win prevents Wichita from making up ground and every Wingnuts win doesn’t help Sioux Falls win the second half. You got that?

Go USA.

I’m not sure how a title about a Detroit-area rockstar will attract readers to a baseball blog, but I felt it necessary to start this post with an admission. I like Kid Rock.

I covered his concert at the Kansas Coliseum back in the spring and found myself oddly enjoying it. I tried to move past those feelings, since the last thing, really, I want to do is like Kid Rock. We have nothing in common as human beings — I just can’t identify with him. But recently, that “All Summer Long” song has just grabbed me. So you got me, Kid — your newest fan.

And I know, that “All Summer Long” song has been out for about six months, but I never listen to music on the radio so I miss a lot. Just like apparently “Lean Like a Cholo” is about a year old. Who knew? Everybody but me, I guess. I’m 25 and already out of touch with popular culture. I’m proud and ashamed of that at the same time.

But this IS a baseball blog, so I guess I should get focused. I tend to ramble sometimes, if you haven’t noticed. My new pick to win the NBC, now that Liberal and my new friend Mike Hargrove have a tough road to get through the losers bracket, is Santa Barbara. And not just because my mom (shout-out alert) went to UCSB for a couple years during her tour of California colleges.

No, Santa Barbara is not a homer (or mother) pick simply because it appears to be the best team in the field. Certainly the best hitting team, at least. The Foresters have put up 42 runs in three games, all wins, and scored double figures in all of them. If they can get quality pitching performances from here on out, I don’t see who could beat them.

The most impressive player on a Santa Barbara team full of them is Kevin Keyes, who is about to be a sophomore at Texas. He had a double, triple, and home run against Vienna on Sunday night and his last five hits have all gone for extra bases. I expect him to be a difference maker next season with the Longhorns and in the Big 12, but he’ll have to cut down his strikeouts — he had 24 of them in 59 at-bats as a freshman.

I made the mistake last night of coming up to the NBC last night just to check on its progress. I wound up staying for about five hours and doing P.A. for a game that was supposed to start at 1 p.m. but actually started a little more than 12 hours later. It was fun, though. The crew in the sound room is entertaining to say the least and our music choices only get weirder as the hour becomes later.

And I’m back at it again tonight — or this morning. This will be the latest night yet, since the late game will start at around 3 a.m. Wish me luck. I might go the Mike Dean route and take a nap on the couch in the press box, though. I won’t tell you whether the NBC Hall of Famer snores, but I will say that … yes, he does.

Last night was a great night. I interviewed Mike Hargrove, he came up to the Lawrence-Dumont Stadium press box to wait while I wrote my story, then we jaunted on over to the Hyatt to watch a DVD of Game 6 of the 1995 ALCS between the Indians and the Seattle Mariners. What a great game — Kenny Lofton scored from second on a wild pitch!

On a serious note (except maybe that did really happen), Hargrove sure had his Bee Jays ready to play last night. For a team that plays its home games in a relatively-small western-Kansas town, Liberal sure didn’t look intimidated to be playing against the defending champ, Havasu, in front of a big crowd. The Bee Jays were loose and confident and they played like it. Along with Santa Barbara, I’d say Liberal is a favorite. But I haven’t seen every team play.

My responsibilities during the tournament have included doing “sound” for 10 p.m. games when I could make it, public address for 12:30 a.m. games and, my absolute favorite, covering the games for The Eagle. It barely beats out doing sound — who doesn’t love to have 6,000 quotes from “Anchorman” at his disposal? I get pretty power-hungry.

Tonight, though, I’m making my color commentary debut. Debut as in this is the first time I’ll ever have done this and I’m saying there’s a 49.9-percent chance that I fall flat on my face and embarrass myself and ruin the family name. And a 51.1-percent chance that I’m working for ESPN next week. Really, there’s no middle ground. I will either be awesome or horrendous.

EDIT: Yeah, I know … that’s 101-percent total. Whatever. By the way, I was in between. Not great, not horrible. OK, maybe a little great.

So check the 5 p.m. game (It’ll start way late because the first game of the day went 15 innings) on KGSO, 1410-AM. I’m quite thankful that I’ll have Shane Dennis at my side doing play-by-play. My boy is a pro and he could make a capable color man out of pretty much anybody. I’m a little nervous, but I’m doing my research and of course drinking my lime juice.

Finally, the Wingnuts. They took a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning at Lincoln last night before closer Byron Embry gave up the lead and Wichita dropped the final game of the three-game series. Losing two of three at Lincoln didn’t end the Wingnuts’ season, but it may have been the beginning of the end. They still have to pass four other teams and don’t have much time to do it. A winning streak pretty much had to start yesterday.

I saw one of the strangest plays in recent (or non-recent) memory last night in the National Baseball Congress World Series in the game between the Park City Rangers and the Gunnison (Colo.) Colts.

It was the eighth inning and Park City had the bases loaded with no outs, trailing 2-1. The batter hit a deep fly ball to center field, which the center fielder dove toward the warning track to catch. It was an amazing play. He flipped the ball to the left fielder, but since he was slow to get up, two runs scored on the sacrifice fly.

But the batter, who was out, obviously, since the center fielder caught the ball, was called out again (?) for passing the runner who had been on first base. So somehow, there were two outs even though:

A) There were only four people involved in the play — two scored, one was out, and one was on base.

B) How is that possible? If a runner is on base he is not out. And since two others scored, there could have only been one out. Right?

C) Again — 2 runs + 1 on base + 1 out = 4.

The Park City manager argued the play and apparently got some sort of explanation that he was OK with. But if I’m the manager, I absolutely do not leave the field until the umpires come up with a solution that is correct. And the correct solution in this case would be that the runner stays at second, the batter is out and the two runs score.

That’s essentially what happened, but the question then becomes, how are there now two outs? Nobody really ever figured that out. Even official scorer Mike Dean, who has been serving in that capacity at the NBC forever, had never seen anything like it. His explanation from the umpires was that it was a double play, yet somehow the runner was allowed to stay at second.

Um, what? What if that runner had scored? Would that run be taken off the board since that runner was technically out? The worst thing about this for Park City was that Gunnison ended up winning. If ever there were a correct time to protest a game, this would be it. The umpires completely screwed up this call. And I’m not one to ever call out umpires, but let’s again recap.

Four players involved — the batter and three runners. Two scored, one was on base. That makes three. Yet there are two outs.

It’s just not possible. It can’t happen.

So that was crazy.

And I got a comment asking if Doug Hurn would be a viable candidate for the No. 5 starter’s job. Well, he’s as good a choice for that spot as anybody. My choice, however, would be Justin Young. He’s had major confidence issues since moving to the bullpen and hasn’t necessarily thrived in that role. But he was probably Wichita’s best pitcher early in the season and J.Y. can find that success again in the rotation, I think. It’s not like he can do any worse than the others who have tried to fill that role, and I like Hurn better in the bullpen, even though he got hit around last night.

I made my P.A. debut last night. And I guess you can’t technically call it a debut — when I was about 15 or 16 I did P.A. for a game in a tournament my summer league team was playing in. For some reason my teammates thought I had the voice for it.

I don’t think I have a great P.A. voice, though I’ve always said my dream job was to do P.A. for the NBA — but only for the visiting team. I’d be the guy saying “basket by Tim Duncan” in that low, bass-heavy voice after the home P.A. guy got through saying Shaaaaaquiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillee OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO’ Neeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaalllllllll. You know, that guy.

I was making a joke to my friend that you pretty much have to call me the voice of the NBC World Series now. I said the pecking order for the history of the tournament was 1) Satchel Paige; 2) Hap Dumont 3) Larry Davis; 4) Jeffrey Lutz. And then Mike Dean at No. 5, but everybody else is on the second tier. It’s a joke, people. I could never compare to those guys in the NBC Tournament or any other walk of life, most likely.

But honestly, for 1 a.m., I wasn’t bad. I had Newton vs. Houston and a couple times I called Houston “Newton” and vice-versa. It happens. Blake Gailen, one of the Wingnuts players, sat with Stephen Pearson in the sky box next to the sound room and told me to “Tigthen it up.” I had to admit to him that I just blew it. Blake’s a tough critic.

Overall, I’m glad I did it. And I’m looking forward to another game tonight, but I’m definitely not looking forward to getting to sleep at around 4:30 a.m. The thing that’s rough on me is that when I get home all the shows I DVR’d from that day are readily available, and I feel like I have to watch them. So it’s tough to get to sleep.

Tonight it’s the Community Bank Cowboys, who will definitely be fun to do P.A. for. They’ve got the old guys like Terry Elliott and J.P. Roberge and my guy Ben Keiter, who doesn’t qualify as an old guy but is an ex-WSU pitcher. If I’m not mistaken, I think he starts tonight.

In interest of keeping the blog on a Wingnuts focus, the ‘Nuts play tonight at Lincoln after three days off. It’s the first of 13 straight games on the road for Wichita, and they need to start making up ground. The Wingnuts are 12-16, 4 1/2 games out of first and trail second-place Lincoln 9-6 in the fifth. It’s a slugfest tonight, and Wichita can’t get the road trip started on the wrong foot.

Oh, and I’ve made my final choice. The best walkup song, despite the only two votes going the other way, is “Lean Like A Cholo.” A generous donation to the Jeffrey Lutz Fund will be made in the name of Dustan Mohr. Congratulations, D-Mo.