Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #16

Game: August 11, 2013

Buzzards top Miners on the air waves, 9-4

The Gold Country Buzzards circled-in on James Field to play the annual radio game. This year the Buzzards (10-5) were battling the Gold Country Miners (11-4) with Auburn radio station, KAHI, broadcasting the game live over the 950AM air waves and on the world-wide web streaming live via kahi.com. The Gold Country game followed the Oakland A's broadcast on the station. The 55+ Ol' Buzzards had been shut-out earlier in the year by the 45+ Miners 10-0 in mid-May at Antelope High, so the task was large, to win the radio game.

The Buzzards have played seven radio broadcasted games and have not lost yet. So with many of the wives, girl friends and family watching and listening, there was extra pressure to win again. The day was excellent weather-wise with temps in the mid-80's and a little breeze. At 2 o' clock KAHI went live from James Field and the game began a few minutes later.

On the mound for the Miners was the hard throwing lanky, right-hander, Tony 'just 50' Madrigal #4. The home team Buzzards sent tough righty, Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe #15 (61 in June) to the hill to open the game.

The Miners are a good hitting team and showed it by threatening to score in the first three innings, but clutch defensive plays prevented any scores. After the leadoff batter got on via a controversial play (bad call) at first base, he was picked-off by a quick move by Big Mac and a strong tag by Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray at first. The next batter doubled and an out later was followed by a short single. No runs scored when the inning ended on a (6-3) ground-out.

In the second inning with a runner on, a sure double was turned into a fabulous out with a jaw-dropping, over the shoulder catch by Barry 'Crush' Forman in left field. Crush took a tough angle on the deep fly ball and was looking into the sun on the run toward the fence in left-center field as the ball sailed over his head, Barry then reached out with his back to home plate and made the 'wow' basket catch.

  In the third dig with runners at second and third and two outs, the pull-hitter went opposite field with a sinking-fast blooper into short right field. Paul 'Youngin' Lee raced in from medium right and went into a slide to catch the ball on his chest with both hands and hung onto the ball for the inning ending 'wow' out. Again, no Miner scored.

The Buzzards were able to jump on the scoreboard in their first at-bats. Taylor 'Welzy' Welz led-off with a bouncer up the middle for a base hit and advanced to second on a passed ball by the catcher. Welzy moved to third on an infield out and scored on a ground-out by Dave 'Evy' Everingham.

In the third inning the Buzzards scored again, this time with a crooked number. Steve 'Cookie' Cook started it off with an eight-pitch walk after fouling-off several tough pitches. Cookie moved to second on a wild pitch. Up next, Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri slammed a full-count pitch on a line to deep left field for the only Buzzard double of the day and scored Cookie. Salmo received a cortisone shot in his throwing arm last week, but the way that ball jumped off the bat did look like a PED hit. One out later, Welzy singled through the infield sending Salmo across home plate. Surprise - not, Welzy then stole second. With two outs, Evy knocked his patented base hit to right field and Welzy scored for a 4-zip lead after three innings.

The Miners fought back and scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game up. In the inning, a leadoff double by Madrigal, a ground-out, a run-scoring single by Alton Cooper, a walk then a double by Wes Boulware down the left field line scored two more. Wes moved to third on a dropped third-strike play with a catcher throw-down to first (2-3) for the second out of the dig. Wes scored later on a wild pick-off throw from catcher to third base.

The next batter, Johnny 'Speedy' Vlassopoulous, the catcher, took first via a base on balls. Johnny V then tried to steal second base, but catcher Norm 'Burner' Tucker would have none of that. On the play, Johnny V got a good jump despite Big Mac throwing over several times to hold him closer to first. Speedy went diving back two times to the bag, so he was anxious to steal and showing it. The strong throw by Burner was right on the bag for Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir, playing second, to apply the tag on the head-first slide to end the inning. Later, speedy Johnny revealed that he had not been thrown-out stealing for the over six years of playing lots of men's baseball including World Series tournaments in Phoenix. That information made Norm's day, and maybe season, and added to the defensive gems of the game.

The Miners changed pitchers late in the fourth inning and the tough lefty Mike 'High Kick' Vargas #11 got through that frame and the next two with no Buzzard runs scored. The Buzzies went down in order in the fifth and sixth. Tom 'TK' Keatley started it off in the seventh with an infield hit. Big Mac, batting next, hit a 1-0 pitch hard up the middle. The hot one-hopper aimed at his belt buckle, hit off of the pitcher's glove and knocked him in the nuts (without a cup) and sent him and the ball to the ground. Vargas scrambled for the ball and from his knees, next to the mound, threw high to second base and everyone was safe. Mike then took a while before proceeding to the mound. At the time, the Buzzards thought the ball had hit High Kick in the belt area because he was acting like the ball hit him somewhere. He did not look comfortable pitching and left the game three batters later. Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia ran for Big Mac at first.

Up next, Burner hit a line-drive single to left on the first pitch to load the bases. The Baron ran for the Burner. The next two batters walked, Cookie and Salmo, on five pitches each to force in TK and KG with the go ahead runs. The Miners then brought in Bret 'Red' McCourt #17 from shortstop to relieve Vargas. Mike revealed after the game that he was hit pretty good in that bad place and it did bother him, hence the walks. After one out, Welzy singled to left to drive in Pete with the last run of the inning. The score after seven full innings was 7-4 Buzzards and the clock was ticking with about 20 minutes left. A nice three-run rally late in the game to take the lead is always a good thing.

The Miners got a couple of hits, but no runs in the top of the eighth. In their half of the inning, the Buzzards scored two more runs to burn up the clock before the game ended at the three hour mark. With one out, the Baron started it off with a sharp single to left field. Cagey then lined a single to left before TK singled up the middle to load up the bases. McCabe, batting next, knocked in two runs with a sharp single to left. Before Tucker could get in the batter's box, the umps called the game with the final score Buzzards 9 and the Miners 4. The radio station was caught by surprise and the announcer, Dave Rosenthal, quickly explained the time limit to the radio audience as the players shook hands after the game. An outstanding game by the Ol' Buzzards.

Buzzard pitching was excellent and one of the keys to the victory. Big Mac threw the entire eight-inning game. Welzy was warming up for the ninth, but it was not necessary. McCabe faced 39 Miners and threw 127 pitches (78 strikes & 49 balls) in giving up four runs (three earned) on 13 hits with two walks and five strike 'em outs. The Miners left 12 runners on base in the eight frames.

The Buzzard offense was up to the challenge in facing tough young pitchers. The Big O had 16 hits with eight walks. The hit club for the game included: the Baron-2, Big Mac-2, Bull Dog-1, Burner-1, Cookie-1, Evy-1, KG-1, Salmo-1, TK-3, Welzy-2, and Wookie-1. Those important RBI's were knocked in by: Big Mac-2, Cookie-1, Evy-2, Salmo-2 and Welzy-2. The scored runs were accounted to: Big Mac-1, Burner-1, Cookie-1, KG-1, Salmo-1, TK-2, and Welzy-2. The eagle-eyed Ol' Buzzards getting on base via walks without walkers included: the Baron-1, Burner-1, Cookie-2, Crush-2, and Salmo-2. A nice offensive production against the Miners.

The defensive gems were also key to the win. Other plays not mentioned so far were Welzy's jumping snag at shortstop of a high screaming line drive, with white ball showing on the catch, for the first out of the sixth inning. In the seventh frame with the score knotted at four and with the bases loaded from three consecutive singles and no outs and the infield playing up on the grass, Welzy tracked down a little looper near the left field line for the first big out. The next play was another lopper into shallow left field that Taylor had a longer run and made a spectacular running catch for two 'wow' plays in a row. Those were very difficult catches especially with the infield drawn in. Big Mac struck out the next batter for no runs scored. The Buzzards then took the lead for good in their half of that inning.

In the eighth dig with Miners at first and second, a sharp bouncer was hit up the middle that appeared would easily get through to score a run, when Cookie, not giving up on the play, hustled to deep behind second base and with outstanding back-hand glove work, snagged the grounder and flipped to Welzy covering the bag for the inning-ending force-out and again no Miner runs scored. Players and fans said 'wow' a lot during the game, too bad this wasn't a televised game.

There were three fly ball outs, all nice plays including Cagey's catch in center in the sixth. There were lots of ground ball outs with 11 put-outs by Pete at first and one by Mike covering the bag on a grounder to Pete in the fifth. Good D and the good pitching all game long made it tough for the Miners to score.

After the game over 40 players, family and friends got together in the picnic area for the catered barbecue meal from the fairly new barbecue restaurant in Auburn, Bam Dazy. The ribs, brisket and potato salad were especially awesome. Family and friends, cold drinks, good food and a nice baseball victory made for a really good day to be a Buzzard.

Buzzard Note #1: Thanks to the sponsors for buying radio time for advertisements. It made the radio game and festivities possible. Thanks to: Back to the Drawing Board (Barry), Felipe's Mexican Restaurants (Paul), Keys Plus (Pete), Mount Pleasant Farm and Gardens (Gregg), RAH Environmental (Ray), RE/MAX Gold (Kelly), Vintage and Pioneer Clothing (Pete & Dan), Welz Financial Services (Taylor) and NABA.

Buzzard Note #2: Just two games left in the regular season. The next game, August 18th, is the last home game of the year. The Buzzards play the Red Sox at 2 pm at James Field. The following Sunday, August 25th, the team has a 10 am game in Galt against the Solons. The playoffs are on September 8th at 2 pm and the 15th. Mark those calendars.