I saw a Class A game played by the Salinas Spurs who hosted the Bakersfield Dodgers. It was on a cold Tuesday night and the attendance was under 600. The Spurs were an independent team at that point. The Bakersfield Dodgers pitcher walked a batter on four pitches, then threw three balls to the next guy. The pitching coach came out to talk with him.

The PA system played the Final Jeopardy theme music and someone shouted out “What is a strike? The pitcher clearly didn’t know. I’m sure he heard it since there were so few people there and little crowd noise.

Ferguson Jenkins is a Hall of Fame pitcher. I remember when the Phillies traded him right before he became a star. Terrible move. They got pitchers nearing the end of their career for Jenkins and Adolpho Phillips.

The 2021 minor league baseball season begins today. That reminded me that in 2019, The Wilmington Blue Rocks mascot Mr. Celery celebrated the 50th anniversary of Woodstock with “Woodstalk”. I bought the bobblehead on eBay and the jersey from the Blue Rocks. I used the number and name they had in the online sample jersey.

Andy Hawkins threw a unique no-hitter in 1990. Because of errors and walks, he lost 4-0! He only pitched eight innings so it no longer counts as a no-hitter but it was a remarkable baseball game.

Remembering Andy Hawkins’ Not No-Hitter On July 1, 1990 (audacy.com)

This tweet thread reminded me of it today:

The entire game:

The Orioles have started the 2021 season against the Red Sox. This reminded me of the 2011 Orioles-Red Sox game when Robert Andino’s hit off Red Sox closer ended the Red Sox playoff chances. The Orioles were bad but it felt good to Orioles fans to knock another team out of the playoffs.

That winter, Robert Andino was signing autographs at the Orioles FanFest. I was behind a couple of young guys who had a picture of the Andino hit and heard one say “I tried to get him to sign it “Suck it, Pap” but he wouldn’t.” That was a great idea.