Tag: Long Beach Coast

Oakland Ballers weekly report Jul 27-28

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Oakland Ballers played this past week against the Boise Hawks on Sun Jul 26, 2026 at Raimondi Park in Oakland (Oakland Ballers photo)

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Oakland, CA

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Another challenge is keeping up with the Ballers’ transactions. We usually find out about them when the PA announcer tells us that a player entering the game is making some sort of debut. The PCL’s transfer screen’s entry was out of date when I looked at it at 10:00 o’clock last night. Here’s the new information I found:

· The Ballers signed  right handed pitcher Brock Mayer early in July.

· They acquired Myles Beale from the Schaumburg Boomers on July 3.

· They traded outfielder T.J .McKenzie  to the Red Pocket Mobiles for a player to be named later.

· They received outfielder Mitchell Stanford from the Gateway Grizzlies in exchange for a player to be named later.

With the indispensable Tremayne Cobb still recovering from his injury, the slugging outfielder Tristan Moore and promising short stop T.J. Rogers  got  and will continue to get a lot of playing time.

This past week of Ballers baseball began on a bleak note. There was no expected date for the return of Tremayne Cobb, their key player, both offensively and defensively. Still, Miles’ Marauders fought on so well that it didn’t seem too unrealistic to hope that they could claw their way into the post season. But, before the team could even start to rise, it had to fall for the seventh straight time. That’s what it did in the first game of the second week of the second half of the baseball year, overwhelmed by the first half division champs from Long Beach.

The week also ended with an Oakland loss, but, oh, what a glorious ride separated the two defeats!

The B’s endured the six hour bus ride to Long Beach only to be caught in the undertow and drowned, 7-0, on Tuesday, July 21. The results of that no-contest gave no hint of the team’s return to life that would start on Wednesday.

Oakland Ballers (0-7,22-33)               000 000 000   0  6   0

Long Beach Coast (7-0,44-11)           100 320 10x   7 10  0

Winning pitcher: Jack Martin (6-0)   Losing pitcher: Hunter Day (0-3)

Time: 2:33   Attendance: 1,831

The only Baller to get an extra base hit was Jake Allgeyer, whose leadoff double down the right field line was wasted. Brendan O’Sullivan, trying to fill Cobb’s cleats, was the only Oaklander who had a multi-hit game, and both of his singles also were wasted. Hunter Day, the first of five Baller hurlers, took the loss. He surrendered eight of the Coast’s ten hits and six of their seven runs. The other was charged to Chistian Díaz, and it was unearned, the result of a passed ball that allowed Patrick Roche to advance to second and score on Cooper Vest’s single to center.


The next evening, July 22, saw some extraordinary baseball. I’m not sure if any previous Pioneer Baseball League game had gone seven full innings with only one run having been scored. But this one did, and it was the Coast that scored it. 

Oakland Ballers (1-7,23-33)               000 000 020   2   7   0

Long Beach Coast (7-1,44-12)           010 000 000   1  10  0

Wnning pitcher: Valek Cisneros (5-0)   Losing pitcher: Johnathan Kozasky (1-1)

Save: Langston Burkett (2)

Time: 2:57   Attendance: 1,096

But then, in the top of the eighth, Esai Santos worked a full count walk and swiped second, moving on to third on Jeter Ibarra’s ground out to first, driving Jaxon Byrd, LBC’s third pitcher of the night, from the mound. Tristan Moore drove Jonathan Kozasky’s second offering into right field for a single that brought Santos home with the tying run, Allgeyer then walked on a full count, moving Moore into scoring position. Nick Leehey’s fly to right was deep enough to allow Moore to reach third. He scored from there on an error by second sacker Roche.

Thursday the 23rd  rolled in, and the Ballers just kept rolling along.

The game began with a celebrity start on the mound for Long Beach. He was their pitching coach, Jerome Williams, who had pitched for the San José and San Francisco Giants, not to mention the Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska. He faced four batters, walked one, struck out one, and retired his two other adversaries on ground outs.

I still think that Shoot Outs at the KO Corral are an abomination, but they bother me less when the Ballers win them. That’s what they did on Thursday. Neither team was able to send its best candidate to the plate. I say “best candidate” rather than “slugger” because it’s one thing to hit a home run against someone who’s trying to get you out; it’s another thing to hit a batting practice lob out of the park. We don’t know exactly what Cobb’s condition is, but we know he was unavailable on this ocassion. Oakland suffered another fright when Nick Leehey left the game in the top of the third after he fouled a pitch off his left foot. But he was back in action in Oakland the next day, pinch hitting for Tyler Rogers, although he was listed officially—thanks to the vagaries of the PBL’s tie breaker rules—as a catcher. 


The Coast’s slugger Matthew Bardowell also was on the IL. Manager Miles sent Cam Bufford to the plate to take Oakland’s first post game swings. Nada. Troy Percival went with power hitting rookie Easton Jones. Zilch.  Round two featured Jeter Ibarra, still leading the PBL in HR’s. Nothing. Ditto for Cooper Vest. Then came round three. Tristan Moore went to the plate for Oakland. The third time was the charm; it was Moore’s third game as a pro. His one “home run” bested Long Beach’s Jacob Jablonski’s two near misses.

Robert K. Fitts, has published an interesting article in the latest, Spring 2026, issue of the Baseball Research Journal, titled “How William “Big Chief” Watkins Began His Career as ‘a Japanese.’” After relating one of Watkins’ performances in 1905, he comments, “All the newspapers agreed that it was a sensational game ‘replete with lively hitting, speedy base running and good and bad fielding.’”  Kind of like the game I’m commenting on right now.

Oakland Ballers (2-7,24-33)               010 053 010   10   14   0

Long Beach Coast (7-2,44-13)           060 022 000   10   10   4

There was no winning or losing pitcher. Oakland won in the third round of knockout innings.

The bus ride back to the East Bay still was six hours long; but they were more pleasant than they’d been on the previous two journeys.

The flame that was kindled in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Long Beach, spluttered in Thursday’s nine frame draw, and recovered in the three round KO inning victory that followed it, finally burst into full glow on Friday, July 24, when the Bosie Hawks succumbed to the Ballers’ offense and, more notably, the superb mound work of Griffin Smith. 

Boise Hawks (6-4, 29-29)              010 000 000   1  4  0

Oakland Ballers (3-7,25-33)          030 003 10x   7 11 0

Winning pitcher: Griffin Smith (1-4)   Losing pitcher: Humberto Vela (0-2)

Time: 2:19   Attendance: 1,851

Not only was Smith’s performance only the second complete game thrown in the short , two and a half year history of the Pioneer Baseball League, but it was remarkable in light of the righty’s pregame record of 0-4, 11.32. Smith’s won-lost totals now art 1-4, and he’s lowered his ERA to a far from respectable, even for the PBL, 9.79. Jeremiah Begora’s leadoff four bagger in the second accounted for the only run scored against him.

Michael O’Hara, the  hero of ’25 championship  game, was  welcomed as a prodigal son before the game. The fellow feeling lessened when he was announced as the beer batter. (He went one for four and was spared the infamy of a strike out).

Collura, Allgeyer, and Bufford, first, second, and third in the batting order, had multi-hit nights for the B’s, with two each. Collura and Buffford hit a double apiece, and Noah Blythe, Esai Santos,, T.J. Rogers and Brendan O’Sullivan also contributed a two bagger. The last two can play short, but they’re a long way from being able to fill the void left by Cobb.  Nor were the Ballers free of self inflicted pain;  Allgeyher ran into a final out in the bottom of the second.

On Saturday, July 25, the Ballers were far from the dominant team they’d been the night before. It took a two run homer in the bottom of the ninth to force a KO inning, in which Bufford’s bp fence clearing shot surpassed Wyatt Grant’s fruitless attempts at one and allowed the Oaklanders  to snatch a precarious victory from the jaws of defeat.b

Bosie Hawks (6-5,29-30)               102 000 005   8  10  0

Oakland Ballers (4-7,26-33)          060 000 002   8  10  1

There were no winning or losing pitchers. Oakland won in first round of  the KO inning, 1-0..

It was only a matter of time before the law of gravity would assert itself, and it asserted itself on the beautiful afternoon of Sunday, July 26, when the Ballers let a fourth inning four run lead skip away from them until they were trailing the Hawks 6-4 after seven and a half frames.

They narrowed the gap to 6-5 on Esai Santos’s tenth home run of the season only to see it widen to 7-5 when Julio Rosario, recently signed and missing from the list of transactions I gave at the beginning this column, came in to pitch in the top of the ninth.

He struck out Austin Folds, and retired Darryl Jackson on a ground out to third, but then walked Ethan Underwood, who stole second and scored on a double to left by Ryan Recio. In the bottom of the ninth, Jeter Ibarra increased his league leading home run count to 25 to close the gap to one run. But there already were two outs, and Leehey fanned for the final out of the game and the Ballers’ four game winning streak.


Bosie Hawks  (7-5,38-38)              100 012 021   7   11  0

Oakland Ballers (4-8,26-34)          011 200 011   6   11  0


Winning Pitcher: Cameron Witte (1-0)   Losing Pitcher: David Thomas (0-2)

Time:3:03         Attendance: 1,922

The Ballers’ brief winning streak that ended Sunday, brief as it was,  is a hopeful sign. They will need to resume their winning ways and string together more stretches in which they come out on top over at least as many consecutive contests. No lead is safe in the Pioneer Baseball League, and I wouldn’t bet against a Ballers’ comeback that gets them into the playoffs, especially if Tremayne Cobb recovers soon. 


The Ballers will take on the Yolo-Sutter Freebirds in Maryville at 7:05 tonight, Tuesday, through Thursday, and then return home for a Friday night game on July 31, which will beGrateful Dead Night. They have released this announcement to explain how special that night will be:

What started as an April Fool’s joke became one of the most requested ideas in Oakland Ballers history. On July 31, that joke becomes reality when the Oakland Ballers take the field as the Oaksterdam Blazers at Raimondi Park. The game marks a historic first in professional baseball, as the Ballers become the first professional team to partner with and celebrate the legal cannabis industry during a live game.

The on-field uniforms will feature the Oaksterdam Blazers name and will not include cannabis imagery or paraphernalia.

Game time on Friday will be 6:35. The game times and promotions for the two weekend games will be 4:35 for Public Transit Night (Ride The Rally) on Saturday and  1:05 for Soak The Town Sunday / First Responders Day on Sunday.

Oakland Ballers weekly report: Follow The Bouncing Ballers 7/5/26 and 7/6/26

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Oakland Ballers outfielder Noah Blythe (27) take a big cut at the plate against the visiting Yuba Sutter Freebirds on Sat Jul 4, 2026 at Raimondi Field in Oakland (Oakland Ballers photo)

Monday, July 6, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–When, on June 28th, the Ballers closed out their home stand with back to back wins over the team formerly known as the Yolo High Wheelers but now sporting the moniker Yuba-Sutter Freebirds, it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that the Raimondi Rowdies had recovered the knack of flirting with disaster but going to bed with success. But when the Pioneer Baseball League resumed play this past Tuesday, June 30th, the Ballers fell back into their newly acquired bad habit of ceding the last and deciding comeback to their opponent. 

That opponent was the Long Beach Coast, a new entrant in the PBL’s newly named and restructured South Division of the Pioneer Baseball League. As a new creation, the Coast don’t have an old name they could discard, but they manage to have an alias, the Regulators, which they often spring on their opponents. Whatever name the tenants of Blair Field assume, they also have a hell of a lot of talent. When the July 4th week end was over, they led the 12 team circuit with a won-lost record of 32-10, a half a game ahead of the runner up Billings Mustangs.

The Ballers, on the other hand, were like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead; when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid. Milton Berle changed that to “when she was bad, she was popular.” That’s not the case with the Ballers anywhere outside of their home territory. as the three digit attendance figures for several of their road games indicate, but there’s no denying that they’ve been playing some pretty horrid baseball recently. It showed in the line score.for the last day of June

Oakland Ballers (16-22)                     100 400 101      7  11  1

Long Beach Coast (30-8)                   000 313 001      8   9   1

Winning pitcher: Zach Voelker (2-2)   Losing pitcher: Matthew Maloney (1-1) 

Time: 3:12   Attendance: 1,984

Valek Cisneros, who was winner of the B’s previous game, in which they had defeated Yuba-Sutter in Oakland, opened the door for the Long Beach victory on Tuesday. He entered the game in the sixth inning, trying to protect a 5-4 lead and allowed three runs on a hit, two walks, and a wild pitch. To his credit, only one of those runs was earned, but that was enough to tie the score at five. The unearned tallies put Oakland fell behind, 7-5. A Conner Smith homer to left closed the gap to a single run in the top of the seventh. 

The Ballers almost pulled off when of their vaunted comebacks when, with two out and the bases empty, in the top of the ninth, Jeter Ybarra blasted a 2-0 pitch over the left field wall to knot the score at seven.

It was up to Matthew Mahoney, coming in to relieve Connor Goodwin, to hold the Coast in check and take us to a knock out round. He walked Cuba Bess on four pitches. Jaylen Edmonds ran for Bess and promptly stole second. Jacob Jablonski walked on the ninth pitch of a full count walk. Anthony Mata lay down a sacrifice bunt, fielded by Mahoney. This text book move allowed Johnny Pappas’s sacrifice fly to left to score the winning run of this too  little, too late disappointment.

The new month saw a variation on the theme with which the old month had ended. Oakland made a valiant comeback attempt that fell just short and lost to Long Beach, 8-7. A detail of the line score rubs Long Beach salt water in the Ballers’ wounds; they outhit their hosts, 15-1.

Oakland Ballers (17-2)              001 100 122           7  15  1

Long Beach Coast (30-8)           015 020 00x           8   5   1

Winning pitcher: Jake Dixon (2-0)   Losing pitcher: Charlie Hurley (1-3)

Time: 3:14   Attendance: 736.


It was close, but no cigar. Cole Percival relieved Steve Odorica after he had walked Allgeyer to open the visitors’ ninth. A Collura double and Ybarra single, and a passed ball with Brendan O’Sullivan at bat with two down allowed the B’s to draw tantalizingly close, but O’Sullivan fanned, stranding Ybarra on second

There were some interesting personnel notes to this night’s happening. One of the few portions of the PBL’s rule book that are available to the public are those pertaining to eligibility. One of those rules authorizes each team to carry a franchise player. The requirements for such a designation are that the player

·       Must have previously played at least two full years in the PBL.

·       Must have finished the immediately prior season on that specific club’s roster.

·       Can only be tagged as a Franchise Player for a maximum of one year.

·       Can serve in a player-coach capacity. 

Cole Percival, the reliever who almost blew the game in the ninth is the son of the Coast’s skipper, Troy Percival..

The other personnel item is that Oakland’s starting pitcher, Nick Bautista, who pitched decently by Pioneer League standards (two runs, both earned, on seven hits, two walks, and a hit batter in 4-2/3 innings, was traded by Oakland to Long Beach before the season began. For some reason, unknown to me, the trade was voided or never was consummated.

July 2nd  offered us a change from the couldof/wouldof spectacles of the two previous days, a complete baller meltdown. The Coast beat up on four Oakland pitchers to win, 14-1.  It was the reductio ad absurdum of a Ballers blown lead; the B’s led, 1-0, after 2-1/2 innings of play.

They never threatened again, making it easy for southpaw Garrett VanDeventer to throw the first complete game since the league was founded in 2024.           

The B’s hit into two double plays and blew several chances to turn them against Long Beach in the middle innings.

Oakland Ballers (16-23)         010 000 000      1   9  3

Long Beach Coast (31-8)       003 002 45x     14 10 1

Winning pitcher: Garrett VanDeventer (3-0)   Losing pitcher: Griffin Smith             (0-2)

Time: 2:37   Attendance: 1,089

The Oakland entourage returned home at about 10:00 the next morning, Friday, July 3, before moving on to a 7:11 start in Modesto that evening. At least they would have a legitimate excuse for a sloppy performance. And they did make play sloppy baseball, O’Sullivan let a double play ball pop out of his glove and hit third base umpire  Alan Walker cost only one run, but it set the tone for a team that already was in a slump, not having won a single game so far on this road trip.. That was the only error chalked up against the B’s, but  subsequent plays like Leehee’s failure to corral Santos’s perfect throw that turned what would have been the third out in the seventh into a double for 최병용 (that’s Byungyong Choi to you and me) are errors that don’t show up on the score sheet. Bradford’s misadventures in left during the wind tossed eighth were explicable because his recent role had been DH. Explicable or not, they had a lethal effect and sealed the Ballers eventual and seemingly inevitable doom. Neither his bumbling nor the exculpatory history behind it is a matter of statistical record.

Bad base running, like Cobb’s attempt to stretch a single in the fifth are costly self defeating mistakes but  are missing in action when you look at the box or line score.

Speaking of which, the grim line score went like this (note the early two run lead, that marks the kiss of death):

Oakland Ballers (16-24)                  200 010 000    3  9   1

Modesto Roadsters  (25-15)            013 000 03x    7 13  0

Winning pitcher: Anthony Díaz (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Hunter Day (0-1)

Time: 2:45   Attendance: 4,37

The Ballers’ 8-4 come from behind victory on Independence Day offered a glimpse of their ability to lose a lead and then regain it, raising hopes that, although long eliminated from the first half championship race, the team might come back and still qualify for the league crown with a second half surge. But it also demonstrated how damaging the squad’s sloppy play could be. Again, there were reasons for the sloppiness: Friday’s physically and emotionally exhausting game, the holiday’s  2:50 game time, and the 94o heat were challenges withwhich  both teams had to contend. The Ballers did it better.

Oakland Ballers (17-24)                100 210 022     8  15   2

Modesto Roadsters (25-16)           012 100 000     4   8    0  

Winning pitcher: Valek Cisneros (1-0)    Losing pitcher: Preston Kelly (0-1)

Tremayne Cobb once more led the Oakland attack, going three for five, including a home run to left on the second pitch of the game and an RBI double to center in the eighth episode. He hit another two bagger to center in the ninth. that one producing two runs. C.J. Blowers, the number one hurler in the Ballers rotation ,started the game for the B’s. As usual, he pitched decently by PBL standards, giving up four runs, all earned, on eight hits in 5-2/3 innings. He is the son of journeyman third baseman Mike Blowers, who played 129 games and hit .237 for or the Oakland Athletics (remember them?) in 1998.His moment  of glory in that lackluster season came on May 18, when he hit for the cycle against the White Sox. He went on to become the television commentator of the Seattle Mariners. Here’s a link to his contribution to baseball lore. It’s worth watching and listening to:. https://www.facebook.com/Mariners/videos/happy-birthday-to-mariners-broadcaster-mike-blowers-/1823433321474713/

The bottom of the sixth in the July Fourth game illustrates why frequent mistakes, whatever their circumstantial causes may be, have long run consequences. Valek Cisneros relieved Blowers with the Ballers hanging on to a 4-3 lead and a runner on first and one away. Osiris Johnson hit the ball to Brian O’Sullivan at third (remember him from the previous night’s fiasco?), and, instead the side being retired, Modesto now had the potential tying run in scoring position and the potential leading run on first. Cisneros fanned Justin Boyd and then made his own fielding error, putting both runners in scoring position. Cisneros then retired the dangerous Tyler Williams, who finished the day with a .362 batting average, on a seven pitch groundout to second..


When you can’t trust your fielders to do their job, you’ll try to strike out every batter you face, and that’s no way to do your job.  This time, Cisneros did his (if you forget about his own fielding lapse)), and Langston Burkett, who replaced him for the home half of the ninth, did his, and the Ballers survived to play a rubber game on Sunday, July 5.

They should have saved themselves the trouble. A game time of 11:00 in the morning of Sunday, July 5 and a temperature that reached into the 90s didn’t help, even though the Oaklanders had spent the night at Modesto’s Double Tree Hilton.

The game was such so long and lopsided that the official scorer didn’t bother to record the time of the final out or calculate the duration of the non contest.. (I found it by clicking on to the Ballers’ Youtube channel and checking the length of the broadcast).

Oakland Ballers (17-25)        000 003 001     4 14  0

Modesto Roadsters (26-16)   520 571 00x    20 22  0

Winning pitcher: Devyn Hernández (3-1,4.57)   Losing pitcher: Aiden Risse (1-5,4.51)

     Time: 3:40   Attendance: 455

Although Oakland’s offense managed only four runs, it did put together 14 hits. Modesto jumped ahead and never was headed off. All of Oakland’s runs were scored in two innings, three in the sixth and one in the ninth.

(Y)our battered Ballers hope to bounce back tomorrow, Tuesday the seventh, in the first of three more games against the Roadsters, this time in Raimondi Park.  As they always are on Tuesdays in Ballerland, the cheap seats go for two dollars.  The theme for this game is

“Immigrants: We Get the Job Done,” and the pin that the first 750 fans will receive looks like a grand addition to your collection (if you have one).

Game time is 6:35, the same as on the remaining weekday contests. That consistency might introduce a welcome element of stability for the Ballers as they try to regroup for the season’s second half, which will start in a week, on Tuesday, July 14.

Follow the Bouncing Ballers: Long Beach and Oakland end up in 7-7 tie; plus more game coverage

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Trymayne Cobb (3) looks at this handywork during the home run derby after the Oakland Ballers and Long Beach Coast both finished in a 7-7 draw at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Tue Jun 16, 2026 (Oakland Ballers photo)

FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALLERS

Monday, June 22, 2026

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Oh, you can go to the east go to the west,
But someday you’ll come 

Weary at heart back where you started from.

You’ll find your happiness lies, right under your eyes
Back in your own back yard.

Al Jolson sang it over a century ago; the Oakland Ballers lived it—or at least some of it—last Tuesday, June 16th, when they returned to the embrace of Scrappy the Rally Possum at Raimondi Park. They beat the nearly invincible Long Beach Coast, 8-7.  by winning that abomination, the knock out round, in a game that featured excellent starting pitching, another loss of a comfortable lead, chill night winds, and a lot of fun.

But first a word from Lewis Rubman’s Collection of Connections You Might Not Have Thought Of: 

You don’t usually expect T.S. Eliot to pontificate on baseball, although he wasn’t adverse to proclaiming his opinions on a wide range of topics. Parody is a way to pass judgement on its target, and Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, the source of the Broadway musical Cats, contains a parody of  “Casey at the Bat.” If you don’t want to read the whole thing, feel free to put it in your scrap book, next to your clippings about the Ballers’ mascot.  The poem is called “Growltiger’s Last Stand,” and it goes like this:

Growltiger was a Bravo Cat, who travelled on a barge:
In fact he was the roughest cat that ever roamed at large.
From Gravesend up to Oxford he pursued his evil aims,
Rejoicing in his title of ‘The Terror of the Thames’.

His manners and appearance did not calculate to please;
His coat was torn and seedy, he was baggy at the knees;
One ear was somewhat missing, no need to tell you why,
And he scowled upon a hostile world from one forbidding eye.

The cottagers of Rotherhithe knew something of his fame;
At Hammersmith and Putney people shuddered at his name.
They would fortify the hen-house, lock up the silly goose,
When the rumour ran along the shore: GROWLTIGER’S ON THE LOOSE!

Woe to the weak canary, that fluttered from its cage;
Woe to the pampered Pekinese, that faced Growltiger’s rage;
Woe to the bristly Bandicoot, that lurks on foreign ships,
And woe to any Cat with whom Growltiger came to grips!

But most to Cats of foreign race his hatred had been vowed;
To Cats of foreign name and race no quarter was allowed.
The Persian and the Siamese regarded him with fear –
Because it was a Siamese had mauled his missing ear.

Now on a peaceful summer night, all nature seemed at play,
The tender moon was shining bright, the barge at Molesey lay.
All in the balmy moonlight it lay rocking on the tide –
And Growltiger was disposed to show his sentimental side.

His bucko mate, GRUMBUSKIN, long since had disappeared,
For to the Bell at Hampton he had gone to wet his beard;
And his bosun, TUMBLEBRUTUS, he too had stol’n away –
In the yard behind the Lion he was prowling for his prey.

In the forepeak of the vessel Growltiger sat alone,
Concentrating his attention on the Lady GRIDDLEBONE.
And his raffish crew were sleeping in their barrels and their bunks –
As the Siamese came creeping in their sampans and their junks.

Growltiger had no eye or ear for aught but Griddlebone,
And the Lady seemed enraptured by his manly baritone,
Disposed to relaxation, and awaiting no surprise –
But the moonlight shone reflected from a hundred bright blue eyes.

And closer still and closer the sampans circled ’round,
And yet from all the enemy there was not heard a sound.
The lovers sang their last duet, in danger of their lives –
For the foe was armed with toasting forks and cruel carving knives.

Then GENGHIS gave the signal to his fierce Mongolian horde;
With a frightful burst of fireworks the Chinks they swarmed aboard.
Abandoning their sampans, and their pullaways and junks,
They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks.

Then Griddlebone she gave a screech, for she was badly skeered;
I am sorry to admit it, but she quickly disappeared.
She probably escaped with ease, I’m sure she was not drowned –
But a serried ring of flashing steel Growltiger did surround.

The ruthless foe pressed forward, in stubborn rank on rank;
Growltiger to his vast surprise was forced to walk the plank.
He who a hundred victims had driven to that drop,
At the end of all his crimes was forced to go ker-flip, ker-flop.

Oh there was joy in Wapping when the news flew through the land;
At Maidenhead and Henley there was dancing on the strand.
Rats were roasted whole at Brentford, and at Victoria Dock,
And a day of celebration was commanded in Bangkok.

After that detour through trivial erudition, reading the line score from last Tuesday, June 16th may come as a relief.

                                                                                     

Long Beach Coast (19-6)        000 011 302   7 10 1

Oakland Ballers (12-13)         212 000 111     7  11  1

There was no winning or losing pitcher.

          KO round. Oakland: Cobb: 4; Long Beach:

          Bardowell, 3.

OAKLAND–The Ballers had their followers singing “You only build me up to let me down” as Oakland built up a 5-0 lead over the first four innings. The B’s bats were blazing. Tremayne Cobb, who would get three for four with a walk and a double in the game and four dingers to win the knockout inning for his team in the first round, started it all with a single to center.

Three batters later, Jared Collura, who would go two for four, launched a blast over the BART sign in left field, and the Ballers were on their way. But from the fifth through the bottom of the ninth it was deja vû  all over again.

Back to back doubles to left by Jacob Jablonski and Johnny Pappas shaved Oakland’s lead to 5-1. As the song says, little things mean a lot. Patrick Roche’s solo shot to left center with one down in, the sixth, and it was 5-2.

Valek Cisneros replaced C.J. Blowers on the mound to face the Coast in the seventh. He got Cuba Bess to line out Davis Drewek in left center. Emilio Corona also to left center, but the 1-1 pitch Cisneros sent his way ended up over the fence, and the B’s now led by two tiny tallies, a spec in a gnat’s eye in the PBL.

Another hit to left center, Jacob Jablonski’s single to (you guessed it) left center brought the potential tying run to the plate. A passed ball put Jablonski in scoring position. Cisneros walked Johnny Pappas, and the potential leading run was at bat in the person of Derek Laferriere. Cisneros fanned him on a full count and gave way to Dylan Delvecchio, a southpaw, as was Blowers. Edy Pelc hit to left center, a single that drove in Jablonski with the tying run and moved Pappas to third.

Delvecchio loaded the bases by hitting Cooper Vest with a pitch, and Langston Burkett, whose uniform number had been 0 but now was 13, struck Matt Bardowell nine pitch full count to preserve what now was a precarious tie.

Jeter Ybarra smacked a Julién Hernández fast ball a long way from home, 401 feet to be precise, over the center field wall. The blast gave Oakland the lead in the game and Ybarra the top spot among the league’s home run hitters.

Pesky Eddy Pelc led off the ninth with a round tripper to center off Brandon Nelson, who had relieved ‘Burkett in the eighth. Things got worse after that.

Roche walked and moved up a base when Vest was hit by a pitch. Both advanced another

90 feet on a wild pitch. With a full count on Bardowell, Nelson managed a called third strike. Cuba Bess then was called on to hit for Jaylin Edmonds. Bess grounded into a force out at second that plated Roche. Nelson handed the ball to Matthew Malone, who retired the side. But the damage had been done, and the Ballers now trailed, 7-6.

Zach Voelker took over mound duties for Long Beach and fanned Cobb. He then gave a free pass to Esai Santos on the sixth pitch of a full count. T.J. McKenzie replaced him as a pinch runner and advanced to second on Jake Allgeyer’s infield hit, also to second.

T.J. McKenzie pinch ran for Esai Santos. Collura, as he had in the first, came through. He singled to center and took second when McKenzie was thrown out, Corona to Roche, when he tried to take third on Colllura’s hit. Noah Blyth flew out to right, ending the inning.

That brought on the Shoot Out at the K.O. Corral. Cobb’s four “home runs” bested Bardwell’s three.

You probably are at least as exhausted from reading this prolix recapitulation of the Ballers thorny path to victory against the Coast as I am from writing it.  I’ll try, for your sake and mine, to limit the rest of this column to the line scores and some brief comments about what made the game interesting to me.  

Sgt. Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet, the popular police procedural television show of the 1950s “Just the facts, M’am.”. I’ll try to do that, but I probably won’t be able to resist saying, as Sgt. Colombo did 20 years later on the show that bore his name, “Just one more thing, sir [or M’am, as the case may be….]”

It was Parks and Recreation Day for the Wednesday afternoon encounter that wrapped up the Long Beach-Oakland series on the seventeenth.. There was very little recreation for the hosts, who took an early lead (what else is new?) with a Jaden Collura double that drove in Tremayne Cobb in the first inning.

The Miles’ Minions, fell behind by two in the second frame, and, in spite of a three run sixth, never came close to catching up with their guests. The final reconning was 12-8. Jeter Ybarra homered in the fourth and ninth, bringing his league leading total up to 14.

Nick Leehey extended his hitting streak to eight games. Without minimizing the importance of winning games, we should remember that one of the purposes of partner leagues like the Pioneer, is to foster the development of young talent. To return to the long digression with which I began this week’s column, T.S. Eliot coined the phrase, “Tradition and Individual Talent.” The PBL isn’t particularly traditional, but it does provide individuals of  talent for the  traditional teams of  MLB and MiLB.

                                                                      R  H   E

Long Beach Coast (20-6)    103 400 505     18 21   0

Oakland Ballers (12-14)      100 000 130       5  7    0


Winning pitcher :Nathan Hemmerling (2-0)   Losing pitcher: Michael Riley (1-1)

Time: 3:17   Attendance: 2,991

The Coast’s hitting stand outs were Matthew Bardowell, who got five hits in six Abs, including a pair of two baggers and a round tripper, driving in three runs in the process

Derek Laferriere and first baseman Cooper Vest got four hits each. Vest’s included a double and a home run. Jaden Collura was the only Baller with a multiple hits. He got two, one of which was a double.

I’ve reported recently on the success of previous Baller pitchers who have moved on to major league organizations. The winning on Thursday the eighteenth was a one time Baller who had moved on to another PBL team. Nick Bautista allowed three runs, all earned, on eight hits and a walk in five innings on the bump. Those are respectable numbers in the hitter friendly, erratically fielding Pioneer Baseball League. 

                                                                        R    H    E

Long Beach Coast (21-6)       031 232 100    12  16    0 

Oakland Ballers (12-15)         100 103 012      8   13   1

Winning pitchers: Nick Bautista (3-1)   Losing pitcher: Aidan Rise (1-3)

Time: 3:15   Attendance:1,607.

On Friday the nineteenth J.T. Snow’s Modesto Roadsters made their first appearance in a regular season game at Raimondi Park. Tremayne Cobb placed a roadblock to their hopes by smacking a couple of home runs, the second of which was a three RBI walk off fence clearer that allowed the Ballers to sneak past their powerful rival to the north. Nick Leehey’s round tripper, this one a shot to left with Cam Bufford on base, put the B’s on the comeback trail and extended the second baseman’s hitting streak to nine games. It was his third dinger in as many games.

                                                                                    R   H  E

Modesto Roadsters (16-12)         310 000 010           5     8  0

Oakland Ballers (13-15)              000 020 023           7     7  1


Winning pitcher: Matthew Maloney (1-0)   Losing pitcher: Mike Cardinal (1-2)

Time: 2:39   Attendance:1,850

The Ballers’ recovery was stalled on Saturday afternoon. Although their performed well enough to a dozen runs on as many hits, their pitchers misfired. Only one of the four they used was unscored upon, and I’ll get to that after I give you the line score.

                                                                                    R    H    E

Modesto Roadsters (17-12)                052 300 530    18   13   2

Oakland Ballers (13-16)                     300 400 122    12   12   1  

Winning pitcher: Aaron Moreno (3-1)   Losing pitcher: Griffin Smith (0-1)

Time:3:20   Attendance: 2,710   

Now, to what got my goat: I wrote this on June 29, 2024 for Sports Radio Service:

In my report on last Saturday’s Baller-Yolo High Wheelers game in Davis, I discussed JP Gates pitching in relief to two Yolo batters without retiring the side and then being replaced by Connor Richardson without any objection by the umpires or High Wheelers. 

It caused quite a buzz in the press box. Tyler Peterson, the B’s sportscaster on 860 AM was especially animated, but no one in the press box, including the knowledgeable Doug Greenwald, had an explanation for this violation of the three batter or last out of the inning rule. 

After this afternoon’s contest, I had a chance to talk with the Ballers’ manager, Micah Franklin. He had a very simple explanation for this puzzling event; that rule doesn’t exist in the Pioneer League. There’s a certain irony to this. A few days before I went to Davis to cover the game, I wrote to the league offices to ask how I could acquire their rule book. Their answer came after I’d returned to Oakland. They said the rule book wasn’t available to the public. Go figure.

In Saturday’s game, the right fielder, Noah Blyhte, relieved the pitcher, Diylan Del Vecchio, and Esai Santos entered the game to play in right. The game was delayed for at least 15 minutes while home plate umpire Robert Headley and both teams’ managers discussed the fine points of who should bat in what slot. We never got a clear explanation. In any case, Blythe came to bat and flew out.

Since 2024, I’ve been trying to get a copy of the PBL’s rule book. The most recent response came about a week ago. They sent me a ticket and told me to wait.

Go figure.

Sunday’s loss was marked by all sorts of rookie mistakes: trying to take the extra base when caution would have been preferable, throwing to the wrong base, that sort of baseball growing pains. I’ll give you the line score, make some observations which seem relevant to me, but that’s for you to decide, and then call it a day.

                                                                        R  H  E

Modesto Roadsters (18-12)    172 113 210   18 15  1

Oakland Ballers (13-17)         104 100 200     8 12  1


Winning pitcher: Johan Castillo (3-1)    Losing pitcher: Jacob Petersheim (0-1)

Time:2:59   Attendance: 3,277   BTW: It was Petersheim’s pro debut

As I drove home, I thought about the rookie mistakes I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Then I listened to a CD of the anecdotes with which Hall of Fame pitcher Waite Hoyt, who enjoyed a 24 year career as the radio voice of the Cincinnati Reds, would regale his listeners during rain delays.

Hoyte was the losing pitcher in the final game of the 1926 World Series, the one in which Tony Lazzeri hit the foul ball that comes closer to having been a home run each time someone tells the story. Hoyt didn’t dwell on that classic moment; he said that Grover Cleveland Alexander pitch well and that he struck out Lazzeri.

What rankled the pitcher turned announcer was the bone head plays of a couple of his teammates that had allowed the Cardinals to take the lead. If members of the powerful 1926 New York Yankees, how can you blame youngsters just starting out on their baseball careers for trying to take the extra base at the wrong time?

The Ballers will hit the road for a three game series against Modesto in Modesto. Game time will be 7:11 each day, Tuesday through Thursday. Then they’ll come home to face the Yuba-Sutter Firebirds on Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday afternoons.