Unlike Sun Jun 14, 2026 game against the Missoula Paddleheads where the Oakland Ballers launched a 23-11 hit campaign for the win. The Ballers lost to the Paddleheads Mon Jun 15, 2026 17-5 at Raimondi Park in Oakland (photo by the Oakland Ballers)

Monday, June15, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–There was a broken heart for every Baller lead or comeback during last week’s six game series against the Great Falls Voyagers, in which the mountain men mercilessly mauled Aaron Miles’ minions in each and every encounter. You could say that Kalispell, MT and environs was a Boulevard of Broken Dreams   . . . if, that is, there were any boulevards in that neck of the woods. Moving west to Missoula, also in Kansas, the B’s, who had lost two of the three games they played on May 21-23 to open the season against the champions of last year’s Mountain,—this year’s North— Division, hoped they could get some R and R before pursuing their quest for validation of their credentials. 

What they validated last Tuesday, the ninth, in Missoula’s Allegiance Park, the site of the opening fray of this week’s action, was their recent tendency to come from behind only to falter and fall further behind. The line score once more told the frustrating tale.

                                                                                R   H   E

Oakland Ballers (7-11)                 010 400 000      5    7    2

Missoula PaddleHeads (11-7)      350 220 32x     17    1    5

Winning pitcher: Reece Fields (3-1)    Losing pitcher: Langston Burkett (1-0)

Time: 3:16   Attendance: 1,368

The first pitch of the no-contest was delayed by three hours. In the famous words of Dizzy Dean, everyone involved “should’ve stood in bed.”  I also thought of Chico Marx’s classic progress report in Duck Soup, “Friday it rained all day, there was no ball game, so we stayed home, we listen to it over the radio.” If you’d like to experience Chico’s entire discourse, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmScynxUaa8

By now, many of you will have noticed, perhaps with exasperation, my twin penchants for playing Name That Tune and indulging in namefreakism, especially, of the bilingual sort. The Tuesday Night Massacre gave me a chance to indulge in these guilty pleasures.

Oakland’s tiny chance to stay alive in the top of the ninth ended when Nick Leehe flew out to Anthony Manisero in deep center field.  The combination of Manisero being Spanish for Peanut Vendor and the Marx Brothers rang a bell. In my 2011 doctoral dissertation, On the Poetry of Baseball, I had written, 

The rumba “El manisero” ‘The Peanut Vendor’ had enjoyed worldwide popularity for over a        decade when Humphries wrote “Polo Grounds.” In “El espantoso redentor Lazarus Morell” 

‘The Horrendous Redeemer Lazarus Morell’ (1935), Jorge Luis Borges lists the consequences

 of Bartolomé de las Casas’ successful advocacy of the importation of African slaves to the Americas in order to relieve the sufferings of the Caribbean Indians, an advocacy Borges calls

a “curiosa variación de un filántropo” ‘curious variation of a philanthropist .[….]’ One of those consequences was “la deplorable rumba El manisero” [….] The context of his list makes 

Borges’s choice of this example of the law of unintended consequences less heinous than it 

might otherwise seem. Still, it is interesting that he calls the song a rumba, the misnomer

under which a variety of Caribbean musical genres used to be grouped outside   of the Antilles. “

“ El  manisero” is a pregón ‘a vendor’s cry,’ a variety of the son.  This imprecision indicates the    

song’s acceptance outside its original audience. The Marx Brothers’ tossing of peanuts at the         

operagoers in A Night at the Opera as the orchestra breaks into “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,”       

may have been inspired by the way Antonio Machín opened the Orquesta Casino’s act at the

RKO Palace in New York, “throwing peanuts into the audience, singing ‘Maniiii . . . maniiii . . . ’”

The quotation was from Ned Siublette’s Cuba and its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, published in 2004 by the Chicago ReviewPress.

Every time I hear that song, I think of that movie, especially of the last time a saw it.  That was in 1976 in the small Andalusian town of Arcos de la Frontera. The dialogue had been dubbed into Spanish, and I think that my wife and I were the only people in the theater who understood the relation between the music and the mimed ball game that wrought havoc in the filmic orchestra pit.

If you’d like to read more of my dissertation, you can find it at academia.edu. 

You can find a video of the first New York performance of “El manisero” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkiJh3y7e2w. Note how Antonio Machín’s tossing of peanuts to the audience prefigures the chaos triggered by Harpo’s slipping the score of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” onto the music stands of the orchestra in  A Night at the Opera.

You can find a video of the Marxist musical mayhem at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1djDThK8e4

I think you’ll get a kick out of both performances.

I also was amused by the coincidence that Allegiance Park is one of the few, if not the only, minor league venue that does not have a beer batter. The good burghers of Missoula celebrate the Peanut Inning, in which fans receive a free bag of peanuts if the PaddleHeads score in the sixth.

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Oaktown Nine the next day, either. Wednesday the tenth in Missoula’s neck of the woods featured temperatures in the mid to low 50s and occasional rain. This, combined with the Ballers recent troubles, help explain the despondency with which Raimondi Rooters followed the action on their various cyber devices.

Under normal circumstances, the seven runs the Ballers scored in the initial frame would have been encouraging, but it wasn’t particularly so in the context of their great falls

from grace in the previous week. C.J. Blowers started on the mound for the B’s. His name and the team’s are pronounced ‘Blau-ers” and “Ball-ers,” but it was hard not to hear mental echoes of “Blow-ers” and “Blow-ers.”

Sure enough, the game almost went down to the wire. The PaddleHeads had runners on second and third with two down in the home ninth and the Ballers needed a spiffy backhard grab and throw from behind second base by Esai Santos to nab Michael Koszewski at first for the final out.

This time, the line score reflected a disaster … averted. 

                                                                               

Oakland Ballers (7-12)                720 203 300      17  20    1

Missoula PaddleHeads (12-7)      131 141 010     12  18    2

Winning pitcher: Liam Rocha (1-0)         Losing pitcher: Thomas Resinger (1-2)

Time: 3:16   Attendance: 868

The Ballers went on to gain their first back to back road wins of the year when they thumped the PaddleHeads on Thursday, the eleventh. 

                                                                                   

Oakland Ballers (8-12)                  402  004 020       12 11 0   

Missoula PaddleHeads (12-8)        401 000 200         7   9  1

Winning pitcher: Derek Murphy (1-1) Losing pitcher: Brendan Beard (5-3)

Time: 3:09 Attendance: 1,512 

As the line score indicates, the B’s, sparked by Tremayne Cobb’s leadoff 466 foot homer, jumped off to any early lead. But Ballers fans know enough by now not to jump to any conclusions on the basis of a productive early inning, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that starting pitcher Joel Torenero coughed up four runs with the 40 pitches he threw in the two thirds of an inning he lasted before being yanked. Those runs came on one hit and six walks, which allowed Missoula to knot the score at four all.

Several Ballers provided reasons for optimism that the team was putting its act together. These included

·      Noah Blyths two extra base hits, an opposite field three run four bagger to right center in the initial frame and a double to right in the sixth  

·      Davis Drewek’s two home runs.

·      Two more B’s, Tremayne Cobb and Cam Bufford, cleared the fences.

·      Cam Bufford’s 421 foot homer in the sixth with two B’s on base

·      Derek Murphy, who hadn’t looked good up til now, gained his first pro win, with 2-2/3 innings of effective, if not outstanding, relief.

·      Michael Riley’s 3-1/3 frame stint in relief of Murphy, while also not outstanding, atoned for his horrendous start against Great Falls on the seventh (Remember that nine runner third inning?)

·      The top of the third, in which three different Ballers hit two baggers. They were Esai Santos, Jaden Collura, and Jeter Ibarra. 

·      Braydon Nelson earned his second save in as many days. The B’s hadn’t been having too many save opportunities, much less successful ones, reently.

Game time on Friday the 12^th in Missoula was windy, a portent of the winds of change that soon would blow away the Ballers’ nascent optimism.

After a rocky opening frame, in which Aidan Rissse surrendered two runs on three hits, a walk, and a balk to the home team, the Ballers took a 3-2 lead that seemed secure after five and a half innings of play. But then the Oakland brains trust decided to change pitchers. The change was necessary, but it had awful consequences. In that bottom half of the sixth, everything changed, changed utterly. Well, not quite everything; one stubborn fact was immutable: when hostilities ceased, the Ballers still had three runs to their credit. The PaddleHeads had 15. That’s not a misprint; check the numbers for yourself.

                                                                              

Oakland Ballers (9-12)                  000 300 000    3   7  1

Missoula PaddleHeads (12-9)        200 009 40x   15  9  0

Winning pitcher: Jarren Jackson (1-­2)        Losing pitcher} Aidan Risse (1-1)

Time: 2:53   Attendance: Not1,425 (estimated)

Our boys plated their trio of tallies on a one out single to right by Noah Blythe, who moved into scoring position on Jaren Jackson’s wild pitch. Jaden Collura’s single to center drove Blyth home. Collura went to second on Cam Bufford’s safety to center.   Bufford moved up 90 feet and Collura crossed the plate on Nick Leehey’s two bagger to right. Nick Poss’s sac fly to center platted Bufford. That was the Ballers’ last hurrah.

The fatidic home sixth is painful to relate. With one out, Risse issued full count walks to Xavier Casserilla and Tyler Stone. C.J. Dean’s single to left center moved both of them up a notch, loading the bases. A four pitch free pass to Michael Koszewski tied the score and left the basepaths filled with Paddleheads (a type of fish, in case you wondered where the nickname came from). At this point, Campbell Spradling replaced Risse. This was followed by an RBI single to right by Joskar Feliciano, an RBI walk to Jeremy Platkiewciz, a wild pitch that allowed Koszewski to score and advanced the two remaining runners. Will Bermúdez drove them in with a single to right.

That ended Spradling’s ill fated efforts. His 23 pitches failed to achieve a single out, and he was charged with five runs, three of them earned, on three hits, a walk, two wild pitches, and a hit batter. He gave way to Jake Tirk who “held” the PaddleHeads to four earned runs, all earned on two hits, a half a dozen passports to first, and a wild pitch over the next 1-1/3 innings.

With apologies to Damn Yankees!, I don’t have the heart to continue the chronicle of this meltdown inning from hell.

 

The PaddleHeads weren’t through abusing Oakland’s pitching. They got to Jake Kirk for four runs, all earned ,in the seventh, but you could hardly call what was happening by then significant. The only Baller who was unscathed on the mound was outfielder Damien Stone. He pitched 1-1/3 innings, faced five batters, throwing 14 pitches, and allowing but one Missoulian to reach base, Joskar Feliciano, whom he walked in the eighth.

The original title of Gone With the Wind was Tomorrow is Another Day. That’s an ambiguous expression; it can mean “we’ll have another chance tomorrow,” but it’s not a predictor of success. The B’s were successful in winning Saturday’s set-to , but their troubling tendency to falter hadn’t disappeared. If there had to be a theme song for the game’s opening innings, it would have been “I Hear You Knocking, But You Can’t Come In.” But when the final out was recorded, “Just in Time” wouldn’t have been out of place. Nor would that old standby, “Three Blind Mice,” although the arbiters of on the bases didn’t seem to have had much trouble doing their job. In any case, the Ballers had taken the series lead at 3-2 and had a chance to wind up their visit to Big Sky Country on a high note.

The name of the winning pitcher, Charlie Hurley, is matches his job title. It sure beats Walker. The Sacramento native, who toiled last year for Myrtle Beach, the Chicago Cubs’ class A affiliate in the Carolina League, now is 1-1, 11.37, in three starts. As a Baller.

                                                                          

Oakland Ballers (9-13)              000 301 121    8  11   0

Missoula PaddleHeads (13-9)   000 100 040    5    4   5

Winning pitcher: Charlie Hurley (1-0)      Losing pitcher: Ryan Wentz

Time: 3:03      Attendance: 2,817

The Ballers managed to clinch the series in Sunday’s afternoon’s resounding 23 -11 trashing of the PaddleHeads, a game that nonetheless did little to alleviate concern about the B’s pitching and its tendency to squander comfortable leaders, if there is such a thing in the Pioneer Baseball League. 

Since I’ve been nominating theme songs for the last few encounters, I’ll suggest a slight variation of Ring Lardner’s wisecrack about the 1919 World Serie” for Sunday’s blowout that never really felt safe. It’s “I’m forever blowing big leads.” It’s hard to worry about not holding on to leads when you win by 12 runs, but when you realize that after four and half innings—half way through the game—the Ballers were up by 16 runs, you can’t feel much confidence in their relievers. In this bullpen game, the opener, Campbell Spraudling, and Matt Lozovoy, who followed him and was credited with the win, pitched a combined 4-2/3 innings and allowed five runs, all earned. Derek Murphy, Matthew Maloney, and Liam Rocha, the trio that carried on until the final out, pitched 4-1/3 frames between them and surrendered six runs, all earned, on nine hits. Only Rocha, in his 1-1/3 inning intervention, was unscored upon, and he gave up two hits. The Ballers’ bats saved their bacon and left the PaddleHeads singing the blues. That’s part of the excitement of Pioneer League baseball., hidden in the line score of the Ballers’ most recent battle royal.

                                                                               

Oakland Ballers (10-13)                401  761 400   23 29  2

Missoula Paddleheads (13-10)      020  033 120   11 14  2

Winning pitcher: Matt Lozovoy (1-0)    Losing pitcher: Luke Wechsler (1-1)

Time: 3:50   Attendance: 1,397)

There’s no rest for the weary. Ballers were scheduled to catch a 7:00 o’clock flight to Seattle this morning and, after a lay over there, move on to OAK, and then to their bay area digs for some well needed shuteye. All this before they set about girding their loins for a three game series against the league leading Long Be\ach Coast. Game time for Tuesday the sixteenth is 6:35. You can watch the game for as little as $2.00 and also participate in a Celebraation of Cal. The first 750 fans through the gates will receive a Scrappy & Oski drawstring backpack. There will be limited-edition Blue & Gold Ballers caps available for purchase.

Day games after night games are the bane of the people who work in the baseball grind.  First pitch of the second game Ballers-Coast series is set for 1:05.       It’s Parks & Rec  Day, and the  B’s remind you that “if you need a reason to sneak off to the Ballpark, Dr. Scrappy will write you a note this one last time.”  The first 750 fans through the gates receive a championship belt pin.

It’s back to 6:35 for the wrap up confrontation with the Coast. On Thursday. That will be Little League Day.  The first 750 fans will get a beaded ecklace with a Scrappy medallion. Adults can enjoy the510 Happy Hour, with $5.00 Fieldwork beers and $10 cocktails from the time the gates open until first pitch is thrown.

The Modesto Roadsters, with Captain J.T; Snow at the helm, will heave into town on  Friday. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.