ASS THE WAY I LIKE IT; KICKED
By Slidell Montgomery
The
Dogs came back home last Monday with an air about them. They
had, the night before, delivered the Mahoning Valley Scrappers
the ass whupping they had coming. The ass whupping the Dogs
knew somebody had coming. It had been too long. They had put
up only five runs in their previous five games, losing the
last four of those, and were hitting less than .240 on the
season as a team. The two most recent losses had come at the
hands of the Scrappers, at their park in Niles, Ohio, to the
tune of 9-0 and 5-1.
For the last game of the road trip, however—hardly a
getaway game seeing as how both teams were headed back to
Batavia for three more—the 'Dogs had, on this Monday,
their mojo-of-the-mound, Carlos Cabrera, heretofore aloof
to defeat, working for them. Cabrera went into Monday's game
4-0 with a ridiculous ERA of 0.51. And for the first night
in a while the 'Dogs bats 
arrived at the park with the rest of the team. Despite
Cabrera's absorbing his first touching up yet (surrendering
3 earned runs over 5 innings in a winning effort), the 'Dogs
let 'em have it for a 9-run, 14-hit walloping, winning 9-3.
"On
the bus back from Ohio last night they got their first real
'that's the way to kick their asses speech', said 'Dog's public
relations/radio announcer/dynamo Jonathan Meyer, "[pitching
coach] Warren Brusstar stood up, toasted them and said 'Tonight
we kicked their asses'. It was great."
Meyer suggested that the sudden spike in the 'Dogs offensive
production could be due in part to a recent visit by mothership-Phillies'
organization traveling coach and former big league journeyman
Milt Thompson.
"He's
primarily a base running and outfield throwing specialist,
you know working the cut-off angles and that," said Meyer
of Thompson, who played outfield for six teams in the National
League between 1984 and 1996, having probably his best year
with the Phillies in '87 when he hit .302 with 9 triples and
46 stolen bases, "but he thought he could help with their
hitting so he made a couple suggestions. They went off last
(Monday) night."
So, Tuesday the 'Dogs were home and coming off one of their
strongest batting performances of the season. Cafiero had
gone into Monday's game in Niles trying to claw his way closer
to .200 and went 4-for-5 with 2 RBI leveling him off at the
two-bill mark. Luis Rivero came in hovering just above the
.200 mark, enjoyed a 3-of-5 game, scored twice and raised
his average to .237.
Rangy right-hander Lee Gwaltney, out of Louisiana Tech, took
the pill on Tuesday for his first start of the '02 campaign.
He was rock-solid in three scoreless innings, handing the
ball and a 1-0 lead to Michigan man and righty Bobby Korecky.
Korecky kept things correct despite hitting a couple snags
in the sixth, when the Scrappers, having already scored two
runs, threatened with runners at the corners and one out.
But Korecky was able to serve up a double play inducing pitch
to some Scrapper batter and he was off the hook.
The 'Dogs partied it up for five runs in the bottom six after
third baseman Barthelemy reached on an error and was followed
by a barrage of offensive from catcher Mark McRoberts, right
fielder Andre Marshall, dh Luis Rivero and leftfielder Chris
Roberson.
Korecky cruised with about an eight or ten pitch seventh.
He then turned it over to lanky right-hander Jeremy Rogelstad,
a Californian, for the duration, who held fast despite the
hint of rally from the Scrappers in their 2-run eighth, facilitating
an 8-4 win for Koreckybehind another 14-hit performance.
 Who
knows, if Thompson's pointers stick and the pitching holds
the 'Dogs might get a good run out of the rest of the summer.
Go out early and catch a pre-game
'Dogs warm-up hivetoss
around. Batting practice/fielding warm-ups look like a Fifties
propaganda film touting the glories of macro-system ingenuity
in the American workplace. At home plate there is backstop
netting that domes three-quarters of the immediate sky above
the plate. Within this netting stands the guy taking batting
practice. He gets several cuts at the pitches coming from
Manager Ronnie Ortegon who is standing on a ramp, protected
by more netting, about forty-five feet from the plate. Over
on the third base line one of the coaches is hitting ground
balls to Rob Cafiero and Ryan Barthelemy, both over at first
base. Along the first base line, not even halfway to the bag
is yet another coach hitting grounders to shortstops Nielson
Abreu, Carlos Rodriguez and others. Meantime there are players
practicing their base running in conjunction with the results
of the hitters at the plate. To protect the players taking
fielding practice and to avoid dangerously distracting those
in the batting cage the coaches on the baselines wait for
the pauses of only a few seconds between pitches to hit balls
to the fielders.
And that's just what's going on in the infield.
As of the afternoon of July 17, 2002 the Muckdogs are 14-14,
four games behind Pinckney Division leading Auburn.
- Upcoming
'Dogs Home Games:
-
7/22, 24- vs. Jamestown
-
7/26 vs. Auburn
-
7/31, 8/1,2- vs. Hudson Valley
www.muckdogs.com
585-343-5454
Noteworthy
Road trips:
7/27-29 vs. Brooklyn Cyclones
Coney Island, Brooklyn (Cyclones games sell out early, call
ahead)
www.brooklyncyclones.com
718-449-8497
Editor's
Note
Cafiero reading when he should've
been proofreading
In
last issue's Muckdogs installment
Rob Cafiero's name was repeatedly (read: consistently) spelled
"Calfiero." After receiving much mail from Muckdog fans taking
exception to this we feel compelled to change our position
on the spelling to the more popular and, as it turns out,
correct spelling "Cafiero." Our apologies, Rob. As recompense,
the Muckdog column writer's name will be misspelled in this
issue. Also, in some of the even less edited editions of our
last issue (fortunately distributed only to the less significant
reaches of our circulation area) Mr. Montglomery described
Mr. Cafiero as "belligerent, contrary and inebriated." Mr.
Cafiero is, in fact, lucid, affable and chatty. We regret
any inconvenience.
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