Quakes win in 10 with DH on the 10

When the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes clinched their spot in the postseason Sunday night, the man who started the night as their designated hitter was probably somewhere around Pomona, heading back to Los Angeles.

Matt Kemp is caught in a first-inning rundown

Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp continued his rehabilitation work with the California League farm team, but was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and a first-inning walk that later turned into an out when he was caught in a rundown between first and second.

Meanwhile, the Quakes were trying to earn a wild-card spot in the playoffs that start on Wednesday. They went into Sunday night’s contest needing a win or a High Desert loss to take the third and final spot.  

Lancaster took a 1-0 lead over the Quakes on a Brandon Meredith homer in the fourth, but Rancho answered with Corey Seager’s sacrifice fly to forge a 1-1 tie in the fifth.  As the innings went by, and Kemp struck out twice, High Desert won a seven-inning nightcap over Lake Elsinore after having dropped the opener to the Storm. To avoid some Labor Day drama, the Quakes needed a win Sunday night.

Kemp, who is now hitless in four games with the Quakes, left the game after his second strikeout ended the eighth. As the game moved to the 10^th, he signed about 50 or 60 autographs and climbed into an SUV that had been wheeled up to gates outside the café section down the third-base line.

About the time Kemp was leaving LoanMart Field, Quakes right fielder Noel Cuevas and catcher Chris O’Brien (who was not in the starting lineup) combined to nail Chris Epps trying the score the go-ahead run for the Jethawks, ending the inning.

Noel Cuevas touches home as the Quakes pour out of the dugout

Then, as these things often work out, Cuevas led off the bottom of the 10^th with a double, and after moving to third on a groundout, he scored the winning run on an O’Brien single to left, putting the Quakes in the playoffs.

The first thing I thought about was the fact that Kemp was not in the ballpark when the Rancho players celebrated their win. While the weekend rehabilitation assignment has been a disappointment for Kemp, the Quakes had bigger business to attend to. While the purpose of the farm teams is to groom new talent for the parent club, and decisions are often made that are at odds with winning games or championships, it would have been a disappointment to take this moment away from players who have been working so hard to get there.

One spectator noted that this was not Kemp’s team that won the playoff spot, so his early departure probably avoided some awkwardness. The more I think about that, the more I agree. Yes, it would have been nice for him to be at the end of the game he started, but Dodgers relief pitcher Brian Wilson left in the fourth or fifth after pitching an inning for the Quakes a few weeks ago, so this is something that is typical.

Clay Condrey pitches in Reading

And a lot of times these assignments don’t work out as well. When the Phillies needed a place to get Clay Condrey an inning of work before he was to come off the disabled list in September 2009, they dispatched him to Reading, where the R-Phils were in a best-of-five series against Akron. Akron had already won two games at home, so Reading was hanging on for dear life. After Condrey gave up two runs in the first, things went from bad to worse. By the fourth, the Aeros were up 7-0 and they cruised to a 9-3 win.

So while Kemp struck out with a runner on second in the eighth, he did not cost the Quakes the game. And folks who have been around the ballpark the past few days said the Dodgers outfielder has been signing autographs and buying the clubhouse spread for the Quakes – one guy told me their interest in finding the credit card receipt Kemp signed for a pizza order on Saturday.

Warming up Sunday afternoon, Kemp appeared to still have concerns about the ankle he injured sliding into home plate in Washington in late July. That game was his first after an earlier stint on the disabled list, and he homered and doubled in the second inning as the Dodgers won 9-2. 

While Kemp was back on the DL, the Dodgers have continued their improbable surge from last place in the division, and are looking for their first NL West crown since 2009. And there are still lots of questions about how he might fit into the formidable order manager Don Mattingly has put together. Striking out against young hurlers who are still working on their third or fourth pitch doesn’t help answer those questions.

Kemp’s a good guy, so Sunday’s victory for Rancho was tinged with a bit of concern for the organization. But the win has to give the Quakes a healthy dose of optimism heading into the postseason.

All ears

While Time Warner and CBS continue to hash out their differences over a new contract to allow the cable company to carry the network's owned and operated stations, channels 2 and 9 have been returned to our Torrance abode thanks to a $20 set of rabbit ears. Which I got for free.

It took a little bit of time to find the right spot, and it's still not perfect, but when the Dodgers return to KCAL, we'll be able to see them. When "Under The Dome" airs next Monday at 10, we'll be able to see it as well. And the next time we hear that there's a freeway chase, the KCAL News at 8, 9 and 10 will be available to us.

I am still trying to figure out why a broadcaster can get money from cable companies for the same material it sends out over the air for free. When cable television started in the 1950s in Pennsylvania, the idea was to get the signal to more eyeballs so you can sell commercials for more money.  After the sat-casters started to become prevalent in the late 1970s and early 1980s, cable became more popular in areas where there was no difficulty receiving signals from ABC, NBC, et al.

But when these sat-casters figured out they could charge the cable companies a fee for each subscriber, the cost for service went through the roof. I still remember paying $11 a month for 36 channels, including ESPN, in 1988. Now, ESPN gets something in the range of $6 a month per subscriber from the cable and satellite television providers. While other cable nets cannot command that kind of price, there are a lot of channels getting 50 cents or 75 cents, and it adds up fast.

The broadcast networks saw this, and after landmark legislation in 1992 they were also able to demand payment from providers. These providers just pass the costs on to consumers, so bills have continued to climb. The cable companies are not absolved of all of this, since they have been charging a pretty penny for some of their hardware, like DVRs. Despite the fact we don't have any premium channels, the cable portion of our bill is close to $100 a month now.

No wonder people are "cutting the cord," although those who are interested in live sports will find it quite difficult as long as the regional sports networks are able to black out programs such as local baseball and hockey games. But there has to be a breaking point soon (although I will admit I said that about baseball salaries in the 1980s too).

As the conflict between CBS and Time Warner enters its third week, the cable company is offering subscribers in Los Angeles, New York and Dallas a free indoor antenna to receive the over-the-air signals that have gone dark. I picked one up at Best Buy on Tuesday, and it took me about five minutes to get KCBS this morning, but a little more work to pull in KCAL.

So it will be interesting to see how much longer Time Warner and CBS are at odds. Then ESPN's contract with DISH comes up at the end of September, and there will be many more of these battles to follow. A big battle looms when Time Warner Cable gets control of Dodgers telecasts in 2014.

For the time being, we have channels 2 and 9 back, although we might still have an issue if someone or something interferes with those rabbit ears.

A nightmare on the 405

Okay, granted that this is nothing new, and all my friends back east are going to laugh about Southern California traffic because they always do, but the poorly advertised closure of the eastbound 22 ramp from the southbound 405 over the weekend, coupled with heavy traffic to San Diego, and then the somewhat usual nighttime road work, really made for a nightmare on Saturday.

There's a big project going on to improve connections between the 22, 405 and 605 in the Seal Beach area, and it is one that I am intimately familiar with since I am often in the area writing sports assignments for the Orange County Register, and one of my favorite places to play trivia is nearby. When I visited in August 2011, and drove to San Diego to see the Padres and Marlins, I had the fun of a three-hour drive down the I-5 that usually takes two hours.

I had noticed in passing that the 22 was going to be closed over the weekend, so with a little thought we could have avoided the bottleneck that started in the middle of Long Beach and stretched about about eight miles, but there is not much you can do when everyone in LA decides it would be nice to visit San Diego on a Saturday. Other than the eight-lane stretch of I-5, you cannot get around Camp Pendleton unless you drive 30 miles to the east and take I-15 south.

Christina and I were driving with our friend Dan, who is visiting from Calgary, to play trivia with LILJOL, who is so well-known in Buzztime circles that Ken Jennings mentioned playing with him in his book "Brainiac." I got a chance to play with Joel a few months ago, and had a lot of fun, so when Dan said he wanted to come out west following Triviapalooza 6.0 in Cincinnati, Christina and I were happy to make the return trip.

We got there later than we wanted, but still had a great time. Then, 13 games of Countdown later, it was time for us to head back to Torrance. We said our goodbyes, and just 90 minutes later we were already in Huntington Beach zipping along into....the mother of all traffic jams.

CalTrans, in its infinite wisdom, had decided that 11 p.m. on the Saturday of the U.S. Surfing Championships was an excellent time for a full freeway closure of the 405 at Westminster. This annual event draws several hundred thousand people to town (and is usually pretty peaceful, Sunday night's riot notwithstanding), and it should not have been a surprise that many of them were headed home after grabbing something to eat or drink after the competition.

So here we were stuck on the freeway with a lot of people who all wanted to get back to Los Angeles County at the end of a long day. And five lanes of traffic being reduced to one and then taken off on a poorly marked detour that was still four miles away.

Having seen similar, though less harrowing traffic,on the northbound 405 the week before, I exited early to make my own detour at Golden West Street, and that seemed to work well until we tried to get on the westbound 22 and saw that it, too, was closed at Valley View. The "nice GPS lady," as my friend Jim Heffernan calls her, was of absolutely no use as she would just try to put us back on the 405. Luckily, Dan is a highway buff and had an actual paper map in the car, so he found us a roundabout way that took us through Garden Grove and
Los Alamitos before getting us back to the 405 north and on the way back home.

I understand the need for overnight and weekend work, but I would think better communication between agencies could help reduce or eliminate a lot of this stress that seems to happen often. The message board signs all called attention to next weekend's 405 closure, but it was only at the Beach Boulevard exit where it was finally noted that they had closed the freeway RIGHT NOW. Too late to get in the exit lane, and they were still letting people onto the northbound 405 there. Also, especially on a Saturday, an 11 p.m. closure seems a bit early. I would say they could wait until midnight or even 1 a.m., and if it is closed until 9 a.m. Sunday they still get eight hours. On weekdays they need to open the lanes by 5 a.m., of course.

Four hours to San Diego and more than three to get back is not anyone's idea of a relaxing trip. Christina noted it was the worst jam she had seen in 15 years living in Southern California. I'm just glad we did not have to set up camp on Springdale Street and wait for first light to get out of there.

Joe Williams' big write-in win

At one time in my journalism career, I was responsible for coverage of 11 towns in Rockingham and Shenandoah counties in northwestern Virginia. At the time, I was a staff writer and Sunday night wire editor at the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg.

For the most part, it wasn’t as crazy as it sounds. I went to as many town council meetings as I could, not only to get live coverage, but also to generate follows and trend stories. Between that and covering Shenandoah County it was not difficult to generate the eight to 10 stories a week they wanted from me, in fact, I sometimes provided more.

But coming into the town council elections in May 1998, I had my hands full. Thankfully, another reporter was assigned to compile the Rockingham County towns’ results, so I was able to concentrate on New Market, Mount Jackson, Edinburg and Woodstock. Still, there was a big surprise in Mount Jackson, and one that I often reminded reporters about through the next 15 years.

While five-term mayor Dewey Jordan was unopposed on the ballot, there was enough discontent in town for a write-in candidate to take hold. Wait, not just take hold, but to dominate. Joe Williams, whose campaign included handing out pencils that said “Write-In Joe Williams For Mayor,” took a 202-122 decision over the incumbent. The loss so discombobulated Jordan that he “resigned” over the phone while I was trying to get a quote from him. The formal resignation happened the next night as the Mount Jackson Town Council appointed Williams as mayor two months before his official full term was to begin.

Williams served as mayor of the nearly 2,000-population town until earlier this week, when he died after a brief illness.

I only covered Mount Jackson for another year after his victory, but working at The Northern Virginia Daily allowed me to keep tabs on the town for years after the write-in win, and I saw Williams take easy victories in 2002, 2006 and 2010. I did not see much of Williams after 1999, but he was always gracious and forthcoming in our interviews while I still covered the town.

When I started covering Mount Jackson in 1997, it was facing a serious water crisis as several of its wells showed nitrate contamination. The first attempt at drilling a new well also failed because the water was similarly contaminated. The council, first with Jordan at the helm and then Williams, worked hard to find a solution with the help of the state. 

One of the things that probably cost Jordan his job was the insistence that Mount Jackson did not need a town manager to oversee its operations. Within a year of his election, Williams and the council hired Charles Moore to take on that job, and everything I heard from our reporters indicated that the town was operating quite well through the years I was at the paper in Strasburg.

It was sad to hear of Williams’ passing, but I was happy that one of the former Daily reporters who did such good work, Preston Knight, thought to pass the word along.

If I took nothing else away from Joe Williams’ victory over Dewey Jordan 15 years ago, it was that write-in campaigns should be taken seriously in local elections where turnout tends to be lower, and people can be more motivated to vote if the circumstances dictate.

There’s the old saw about all politics being local. I know one thing, they are often the most interesting.

Tijuana beisbol is...wacky

A big crowd gathered at Esadio Gasmart in Tijuana for the Toros' game against Ensenada on June 8.

Minor league baseball can be wacky. My experience with entertainment from Mexico (mostly the Bee Guy from “The Simpsons”) has shown it to be wacky as well. So what do you get when you combine minor league baseball AND Mexico? That’s right, infinite wackiness.

Knowing how much Christina and I like minor league baseball, her friend Cynthia suggested that we might enjoy a visit to Estadio Gasmart for a Toros de Tijuana game. Cynthia has visited Tijuana a few times with Turista Libre, which runs day trips in northern Baja California.

The Toros play in Mexico’s Northern League, which is not to be confused with the AAA-level Mexican League. We were still trying to figure out the particulars, but it seems like this six-team league – with teams also located in Ensenada, Tecate, Mexicali, San Luis Rio Colorado and San Quintin -- plays at a AA level. The Tijuana roster included a few players who had been part of major league organizations here in the United States, most notably Reggie Abercrombie, who worked his way through the Marlins chain to play parts of two seasons in Miami, and also saw some time as a Houston Astro.

Still, a lot of this was unknown to us, so it was with some trepidation that we headed to San Ysidro earlier this month to meet with with Cynthia and about 15 other folks to seek out authentic Mexican cuisine and a Toros game against the Ensenada Marineros. We were met near the border by former Union-Tribune writer Derrik Chinn, the brains behind Turisa Libre, which he admits he started after having difficulty convincing friends from nearby San Diego to visit him and see the sights in Tijuana.

We parked on the U.S. side and walked into Tijuana.

The crossing into Mexico on foot was quick and before we knew it we were walking toward the spot where the bus would pick us up. We were waiting for two more groups who would meet us there and then we were on our way. Since this was more of an overall tourist venture, the group stopped for some authentic Mexican cuisine -- Christina had a tripe taco -- and then picked up some beer before continuing on to the stadium.

The bus driver had to take us on a couple of back streets to get around traffic, and it was already the fourth inning when we got inside the stadium, but we still had plenty of time to get a sense of what minor league baseball is like south of the border. 

Christina and I had just found seats a section or two past first base when Javier Brito, a former Astros and Padres prospect, and Abercrombie hit back-to-back home runs to give Tijuana a 2-0 lead. When Brito hit his homer, we noticed that everyone came out of the dugout, but his first congratulations came from the gorilla mascot, Chango 0.

Javier Brito got a furry welcome after his home run.

As it turned out, the mascots pretty much had the run of the place, with a chicken named Pollo Layo getting much more involved with the umpire at first base than the San Diego Chicken or Philly Phanatic would dare. The chicken even transitioned from the Ensenada side of the field to the first base line during one at bat. Toro Torin (the bull who serves at the main mascot), Pollo Layo and Chango 0 were seldom out of sight, and filled much of the 2 ½-minute changeovers with help from cheerleaders. During one of the skits the chicken came out dressed as a police officer but eventually ended up nearly naked. I am still quite shaken.

This was a little more over the top than the work of the San Diego Chicken or Philly Phanatic.

At one point, Pollo Layo ran from the Ensenda side of the field between pitches.

 

A nearly naked masot...still scary.

 Music was played between pitches during each at bat, including some tunes familiar to ballpark denizens in the U.S. At one point, the scoreboard showed people in the stands, such as a guy wearing a cowboy hat, and appropriate music was played to the delight of the crowd.

Another time, a guy who looked like Pitbull (thanks for clearing that up, Christina) was shown and they played a Pitbull song and would not leave him alone until he obeyed the request that he dance (“Que baile! Que baile!”) displayed on the scoreboard. Meanwhile, the public address announcer talked very fast and was quite boisterous; delivering the name of each Toros batter twice (JAVIER BRITO!!!! Javier Brito.) 

When they tell you to que baile, you'd best que baile.

These items were 50 pesos, or about $4.

 In the stands, the vendors got a workout, selling everything from plates of shrimp and meat to churros filled with several kinds of icing and even American ice cream.

 We recognized the cotton candy despite different packaging, but there were bags of other items we had no idea about. The vendors also sold $1 Tecate beers with paper cups dipped in a hot pepper powder. Hot dogs and hamburgers were available from stands throughout the concourse.

The vendors even sold plates of meat and shrimp in the stands.

 The atmosphere was amazing. As Christina noted, it was almost like something from a dream. The excitement was palpable, even if some of the baseball was a little less sound than one might like. (We got to see two rundowns between first and second base within 15 minutes of sitting down.)

A Toro player is erased at second base via a rundown.

Former Marlin and Astro Reggie Abercrombie

As the game winded down with the Toros up 3-0, I wanted to head down behind the Toros dugout because I had brought along two cards to be signed by REHHIE ABERCROMBIE (as the PA guy was calling the former Carolina Mudcat and Albuquerque Isotope). We got there just as the game was ending, and called out Reggie’s name. He stopped, and was nice enough to autograph the cards.

It was a great time, and going in a group with Turista Libre certainly helped allay any fears I might have had about going to the stadium, which recently underwent $2 million in renovations. The bus ride and game ticket was only $15 for each of us, so it was a great deal. 

 

Reggie Abercrombie signs cards after the game.

Christina and I had such a good time that we might go back, although the league’s season only lasts from May to July, so it would have to be next year.The parking lot had a lot of cars with California plates, and it turns out the stadium is not far from the border crossing at the 905, which is not quite as busy as the station right in downtown Tijuana. 

Reggie Abercrombie is congratulated after fourth-inning homer.

For those who wonder about these things, the businesses we went into and all of the stadium vendors and concessions accepted U.S. dollars at 12 pesos each, which is a good rate, and yes you need a passport even if you are only going to Tijuana. Most of the fans we encountered in the ballpark were friendly, even if we could not converse very well. The smile after a home run does not require translation.

Howling at the moon in Fullerton

Talk about your weird, fun sports experiences.

Christina and I, and a couple of our baseball friends, went to Saturday night's NCAA regional game between Arizona State and Cal State-Fullerton, and the fact that it started at 9:45 p.m. did not turn out to be the weirdest part of the night.

We were looking forward to the weekend because it included lots of baseball and a party with friends in Gardena. We did not count on the second game of the four we planned to see being the strangest for me in a long time. Christina and I arrived at 7:30 for what was supposed to be an 8 p.m. start, and our friends Alex and Robert were already in line, so we joined them. Based on the previous night's experience at UCLA, where they did not let us in until 5:30 for the 6 p.m. start, nothing seemed awry. That is until someone noted the Columbia-New Mexico game going on inside the stadium had gone to the 10th inning tied at 5.

The NCAA has scheduled these regionals rather tightly. It needs a 55-minute break between games to clear the stadium and get the teams for the second game on the field to take infield practice. So we knew at that point we would be starting late. How late depended on what happened inside Goodwin Field. As the game moved on to the 11th and 12th, it got dark outside and even a little chilly. Finally, Columbia came through for a run in the 13th and held on to beat the Lobos 6-5.

Despite the fact there were 4,000 people in line outside the stadium, the ticket-takers were very efficient and we had plenty of time to find general admission seats in the first section past third base. And the lines for food were not as bad as might have been expected, with lots of options still available at the late hour.

Why did people stick around? Well, Fullerton is a great baseball school and the match-up promised to be excellent with two 11-0 pitchers -- ASU's Ryan Kellogg and Cal State's Justin Garza -- on the mound.

As you might expect with that kind of firepower, ASU was quickly retired in the first as Garza recorded three strikeouts and a hit batter. In the bottom of the first, Kellogg showed off a rather lousy move to first that would not fool any baserunners all night, but eventually got out of the inning. Garza got out of the second unscathed and we settled in for what would ultimately be a great pitcher's duel that Fullerton won 1-0.

But as the bottom of the second got underway, we saw an usher come running down the aisle next to us chasing....an Alaskan husky. The usher went halfway down toward the field (there are maybe 16 or 18 rows) and then threw up his hands. I first thought it was because the dog had decided to relieve himself, but it was because the animal had jumped the railing and was now on the field.

 He went from third base to second rather quickly, passing the two rather surprised infielders along the way, then made a beeline for the outfield. First I though he'd find a way out by right field, but failing to do so, the dog came back along the warning track all the way to left field before leaving via a gate that was opened just for him.

I had already regretted that such a marquee match-up would be seen only by fans that realized it was on ESPNU that late in the evening, and now something this fun would slip into the nether reaches of sports television. Luckily, some folks tweeted about it and the video eventually made its way on the internet.

The rest of the game was not quite as eventful, although the fans got on Kellogg more and more as he tried to catch someone napping at first base. Robert and Alex decided to call it a night in the fifth inning, but Christina and I stayed for the duration, and enjoyed the Titans' efforts.

The late start meant singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" just before midnight, and the pressbox also got into the act. After the husky visited in the second inning, "Who Let the Dogs Out" was played during a mound conference. As it neared midnight, we heard "All Night Long" by Lionel Richie and "Sunday Morning" by Orange County's own No Doubt.

I have been to thousands of sporting events, and I have to say this regional game will rank high on my all-time list. A fun game, some weird highlights and an outstanding presentation. Kudos to the Titans, and I hope we get a chance to see them again in the Super Regionals.

By the way, here is a link for the TV coverage of the husky's visit:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZmaMmmpdIk