hirambocachica.com

Boca likes sushi.  We discovered this while sharing a meal with his family at one of Seattle’s fine Japanese restaurants.  Nothing can be more satisfying than sharing a meal with someone who shares your passion for good sushi.

It appears that Hiram will now have the opportunity to partake of the worlds best sushi.  He’s moving to Tokyo.  In February, rather than traveling to North America for spring training, Hiram will be making his way east.  He won’t have to try out for a team.  His spot is already secure in center field. 

He will be hearing his name chanted in ways similar to when his fan club started ramping things up in Arizona in 2004.  “Boca…Chica!” 

Any day now Hiram will be flying to Orlando Florida where Japanese League Seibu Lions will announce that Hiram will be their starting centerfielder come start of the new 2008 season.

He’s brokered himself a pretty sweet deal.  Much better than if he decided to stay and play in the states.  He will also have fans who put the F in Fanatic!  I am told that baseball in Japan is nothing like baseball in the states.  EVERYONE in the stadium is into the team.  They live for their team.  Huge cheering sections, chanting signature cheers when each ball player comes up to bat. 

There are a lot of unknowns for Hiram, his family and this fan club member.  Here’s what we do know: the sushi is going to be fantastic.

I just have to wonder how baseball players and their families do it.  It can’t be easy dealing with the uncertainty of baseball.  Players who seemingly have a solid contract can really be traded at anytime.  Bench players are fodder for deals that can happen at anytime.  Families get settled into some kind of normalcy only to be thrust into a state of transition at the drop of a hat.

The days where a player remained with the team that drafted him are LONG gone.  Loyalty and committment are no longer part of the vocabulary.

This, they say, is the name of the game.  Part of the package.  The cost of being a sports celebrity.  Nobody is forcing them to do play professional baseball.  Deal with it.

Most of the Scout.com forums have a thread dedicated to trade rumors.  Many are over 15 pages long.  I get exhausted reading through them.  On a forum not related to the rumor mill a poster claimed that his wife was sick of his ranting so he rants on the forum site.  Great…now we get bombarded by his inane comments. 

Today my friend, Joel, asked me if I heard that the Padres were looking at Milton Bradley.  I asked him where he had read that information.  He claimed it was just a rumor. 

Yeh, I read that rumor three days ago…on the madfriars.com Scout site.  Rumor.  Drivel. Non-sense.  At least that is what I am hoping.  Why would a sane man like Kevin Towers bring on someone like Milton Bradley?

Last year when the trade deadline rolled around, I remember thinking how nice it would be for players to know they were settled.  Perhaps now they could huncker down, focus their batting average, paying  attention to fine-tuning their game rather than worrying about what team they would be playing with by the end of the week.  I learned a lot last year: trade deadlines aren’t really deadlines.

I still don’t understand the whole thing but a trade deadline doesn’t really mean a player can’t be traded.  I remember asking my husband last year why do they even have a trade deadline when there are so many exceptions!!

With so much uncertainty, no wonder I spend so much time on the internet trying to keep abreast of the latest baseball news.  As I surf I question myself wondering who really knows the truth?  Forum trollers?  Heck no.  Sports writers?  Maybe, but even they have ulterior motives.  Maybe this is what keeps the game exciting when games are not taking place, you know…all the off-field moves.

But I am just a fan.  My life does not depend on my batting average or defensive skills or the need for power at the plate or the whim of a general manager.  If my favorite ball player gets traded, I still wake up in my nice, new king-sized bed.  My job stays the same even if my favorite ball player changes leagues.  And I don’t have to worry about being away from my family if I move teams that are on opposite sides of the country. 

And so goes the game of baseball. 

Hansa, the 6 year old elephant from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, died suddenly sometime during the night on Friday, June 8th.

 http://www.komotv.com/news/7905822.html?video=pop&t=a

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003739820_webelephant08m.html

http://www.zoo.org/pressroom/pr/2007/pr06_08_2007.htm

 My brother in law and sister work at the zoo.  Russ is an elephant keeper.  I have ‘known’ Hansa from her conception.  The grief that I am feeling this day overwhelms me…I can’t imagine how sad the zoo staff is. 

A neocropsy will be performed to see what caused her death.  Hansa had been a complete picture of elephant health until a week or so ago.  Multiple tests and treatments have been administered.  The tests were negative.  The zoo staff closely monitored her over the last week.  Her death has come as a great shock.

Elephants are amazing animals. 

I am grieving for my brother in law and sister, the entire zoo staff.  I am grieving for Chai, Hansa’s mom and her ‘aunti’ Watoto.  My heart aches and while I haven’t seen Chai for a few years, I have memories of playing with her trunk, giving her ‘zerbers’ and feeding her carrots.  Watching the videos on the zoo website was always a treat.

She loved the exercise balls that her keepers would give her to play with.  The picture you see is titled “Joy” and it fits more than the image can express.

Already though, the so called ‘animal rights’ crazies are speaking against the zoo.  They are speaking against the people who loved and cared for her.  I wish their tongues could be silent. 

My heart goes out to everyone at the zoo.  But epecially to her keepers: both past and present.  My prayers are with you all.

 While my own heart is breaking, I can’t imagine how sad the zoo staff must be.  All day I have been remembering her through pictures, re-reading the book written about her.  Remember how she loved her exercise balls?  We are all a little richer because of the joy she brought to so many people.  Now in our grief may we find some solace in her short life:  she lived life to the fullest, she loved completely and she was “supremely happy.”

Actually, it was San Ysidro.  My parents rented a house on the Kuebler Ranch up past Brown Field in an area called Otay Mesa.  The Kuebler Ranch was used to raise cattle.  A man named Mr. Dallett was the ranch manager and at one time Jimmy Durante owned a part of the place. 

Besides cattle those leasing the land planted grains, tomatoes and celery.  We watched branding and horn cutting and “leap frog” amonst the cattle. 

I attended Sunset and Beyer Elementary schools in San Ysidro.  I was in love with a boy named Richard and Ramon.  My favorite teacher was Miss Wildman in 4th grade. 

My mom used to drop my brother and I off at the San Diego Zoo at 9 am some Saturdays and then pick us up at 5 pm.  We loved the zoo.

We loved La Jolla Cove and Mission Beach.  I raised sheep in 4-H: showed and sold a couple at the San Diego County fair in Del Mar. 

My mom worked as a nurse at the doctor’s office where football great Lance Alworth was a client.

My parents arrived in San Diego when I was six months old.  Oregon became my home by the time I morphed into a teen.

Last  year my brother treated my daughter and I to a trip to San Diego.  My daughter and his wife ran in the Rock and Roll Marathon a year ago.  We visited our old home. It’s true what they say…it’s hard to go home again.

I attended a Padres game in 1988 with friends (season ticket holders) when the team played at Jack Murphy Stadium.  I attended a game in Petco with these same friends three years ago.

But you can go home again.  I went home last week when Hiram became a San  Diego Padre.   

I am a San Diego Padre fan.

Well, Boca is headed to Washington tonight.  He will meet up with the Padres when they leave Pittsburgh.  “Welcome back to the National League, Hiram.”  Looks like for now he will forego a stint in my neck of the woods: Portland, Oregon, home of the AAA Portland Beavers.

Last February, Hiram got the “best” of ‘Mr. Beane’ when he was released from the organization.  (Although he had ended the season on the play-off roster, he never saw any playing time.) So Boca left Arizona and headed home.  His agent started shopping him around and at that time the Padres were interested.  Then Beane called…promised him  and Boca finds himself back in Sacramento…where fans love his style of play.

He’s stuck there because of the Beane screw up and even though the A’s needed him, he’s in Sacramento.  He gets called up in May knowing he was a band-aid.  That’s gotta make a guy feel needed.  He struggles at the plate, is nervous and makes rookie type errors.  I know most people might think this was his ‘big chance’ and he squandered it, but I will tell you that he never felt he was given the chance.  Most people don’t know the attitude in the clubhouse.  From the time he connected with the team he felt the vibes: this wasn’t going to be his chance to shine no matter what he did.  The high priced players on the DL would be back and he would be out.  (Can’t help but wonder what Cust is feeling too.)

Should he have trusted Billy?  Second guessing himself, he slids into the waiting game of waivers.  And then his agent calls his wife: Hiram was so down he had turned off his cell phone. The see-saw of major league baseball.  One day you are up and the next you are down, and up again.

But Hiram has pretty much followed this path most of his career.  Steve Bitker told me that when Hiram was drafted in 1994 he was the top prospect out of Puerto Rico.  A baseball hungry kid gets picked up by a flailing team (Expos) and he begins his adventure of professional baseball through and in and out of the minor league system.  He plays well enough to have the major league team notice him and they bring him up when they need him.  But no one has ever really believed in him and said “You are our guy. Period.”   He almost got that chance in Los Angeles.

You can say what you want: his stats in the majors do not represent his ability.  Baseball players are human beings, not machines.  They are affected by their emotions just like the rest of us.  Fans criticize them for not performing or winning games.  But do we really know what their lives are like away from the ballpark? No. 

Who really knows what the Padres have in store for Hiram.  Right now they have their starter on the DL (Brian Giles) and Mr. McAnulty has struggled at the plate.  He’s going through the same thing that Hiram has been facing.  I don’t know what his defensive skills are, but Hiram’s are stellar.  When he was playing next to Ichiro in Seattle the two were spectacular.

And so I bid you adieu, Oakland fans.  I’ve said my peace.  Thanks for being nice to Boca this year.

I watch the games on MLB’s ‘gameday.’  It’s a pretty  nice way to keep track of the game’s progress and accomplish some things around the house. 

Lately, when Hiram comes up to bat I watch the computer screen through my fingers.  I get nervous.  Do I even dare to trust the report on the screen?  Tonight there was good news.  And tonight, Boca smiles.

Although I know better, I just can’t keep from reading the plethora of fan forums on the web.  The Oakland fans especially seem to think they have a direct pipeline to the facts and reality of the situation on the field.  And while it takes every ounce of discipline I can muster to keep from logging on and adding my perspective, I know my words will be dismissed.  I keep my words from entering the world wide web…at least on that specific forum.

It’s been a week since Hiram left the secure and successful fold of the River Cats to the oft injured and shaky team in Oakland.  In front of the Sacramento fans he is the starter and fan favorite.  His batting average soared and then leveled out at about .320.

All that changed as Hiram left Iowa and flew south from home (Sacramento) into Oakland.  He barely gets off the plane and he finds himself in center field.  Of course he’s hitless, as is most of his teammates.  Even the sensational bat of Hiram’s friend, Jack Cust, is silenced. 

Two games come and go before Hiram sees the outfield again.  He’s thrust in one game in the 7th inning, but once again the A’s bats are put on hold.

Of course, Hiram knows better than anyone that he’s got to perform.  I am sure that the manager and GM are watching more than Hiram’s batting average.  But the entire team seems to be in a funk right now. 

Players of the game know that baseball is game that has a groove.  To get in that groove you have to have all the orbits in line.  And then you probably aren’t gona hit the ball 100% of the time.  That’s why the game deals in averages and numbers.

Tonight Hiram hit the ball (for outs), got on base with a walk and although he didn’t get a hit, he looked stronger.  No one is working harder than Hiram at trying to figure out how to get into the groove.

Meanwhile, Hiram the human being, is thinking about his job…and his family.  A week ago he was thinking that he would be having a reunion this week as his family was planning to leave Puerto Rico and fly to Colorado Springs where the River Cats have a four game series with the Sky Sox.  Hiram’s sister and her family live in Colorado Springs.  The reunion would have been awesome.  Just what a man needs after two months of baseball….travel on the road….food on the road.  Yet, this is the dream.  Hiram is living his dream.  He’s been trying to get someone to believe in him for 11 years now.  Come slump or high cheeses, he needs someone to say “you’re our guy in center field.” 

Jocy, Hiram’s wife, has made some changes to their flights but overall she knows that this is part of the package.  The reunion in Colorado Springs won’t include Hiram.  She will meet up with him later this weekend. 

While the game has its privileges , it also has its trials.  I just wish the know-it-alls looked at the whole picture.  But I won’t hold my breath.  They will continue to try my patience, keeping me working on self-control.  They will continue to know all the answers to the problems their team is facing.  I will choose to ignore them.

Thanks Mr. Beane,for keeping your word.  And now, as soon as Hiram is eligible, he is back with the A’s.  He earned it too.  He’s played very well with the River Cats.  In fact, he was on task for having a record breaking year.

Boca’s been here before, a couple times in fact.  This time it looks like he will get a chance to play full games.   In the past he’s been called on to pinch hit or run.  It’s hard to find your groove given those tasks. 

Here’s to your hard work and good attitude, Boca.

I just have one question: I hear from some fans in Iowa that you were dancing in the outfield.  What’s up with that? 

Shit happens…they say.  Make lemons out of lemonade.  Maybe just keep playing hard and make them sorry they didn’t pay attention to the rules.

Given the battered state of the A’s right now, I am sure that Billy Beane rues the day he sent Hiram back to AAA.  At the time I must believe that Billy didn’t realize tha Kielty, Kotsay and Bradley would all end up on the DL so soon in the season.  Don’t cry over spilt milk…the deed is already done. 

Eleven days from today Hiram will be eligible to join the A’s.  But don’t count your chickens before they hatch.  In the game of major league baseball nothing is certain.

 In the last two days the A’s have added two new players to their club.  Both are former team mates of Hiram: albeit Chris Snelling was on the DL during Hiram’s year as a Mariner.  The second player added, Jack Cust, was a team mate with Hiram on the River Cats a couple of years ago. 

If Hiram had been eligible to join the A’s he would have been there ahead of these two guys.  The revolving door holds open for no one.  It can slam shut for anyone. 

It is this part of baseball that makes me crazy.  Watch the game live or on TV, what goes on behind the dugout would scare most of us.

I love the ‘arm chair managers’ on scout.com.  Okay, I read that crap.  I get mad and want to respond but don’t.  With the situation in the A’s camp, most of the posters on that site have all the answers.  Too bad they don’t have Billy’s direct line.  I am sure he’d love to hear what he should be doing. 

What hacks me the most are statements about Hiram’s short comings, that he has never proven himself when he had the chance.  The problem with that statement is that Hiram has never really had the chance to prove himself.  No one can really ‘prove themselves’ if they are in a game every few days.   The pressure is strong from that kind of opportunity.  The ball player knows he has just this one chance to prove himself.  Nerves get the best of them.  Besides, each day Hiram plays with Sacramento he proves himself.

So Hiram finds himself in a position where perhaps Billy Beane does feel bad about what happend in February.  Maybe he feels so bad that despite the recent additions to the club, he does plan to call Hiram up to the big club and give Hiram that chance that has so far eluded him over that last few years.

Maybe Hiram feels the same way.  But while I wait impatiently, Hiram just keeps playing hard.  You just have to listen to the crowd at Raley Field to know that it should be “Bocachica Time” Oakland.

                                          Photo by Mike Martin

Triple A baseball players must be the most frustrated of all professional baseball players. Rick Renteria agrees with me.

This week I contacted the Sacramento Rivercats front office. I phoned Rachel Rosen, Coordinator for media and community relations, asking if I could get an electronic picture of Hiram. I was hopeful, but nonetheless surprised when I received not one, but three pictures of Hiram, taken by photographer, Mike Martin.

^{The first picture was a team photo of Hiram. He looked sad. The mom in me wanted to ‘kiss his boo boo and put a Mighty Mouse bandaid on it.” My husband said he just looks “cool.” No, he appears to be sad.At the end of last season, after a stellar season with the Rivercats, Hiram was called up to the majors as the A’s entered into post-season play. His time on the field was limited, but still, he was on the team.}

^{Back home in Puerto Rico, Hiram had a good season with his winter ball team, the Ponce Lions. Subsequently he was invited to play on the team that played for the Puerto Rican championships. He went on to play in the Carribbean Series and although he was sick most of the week, he played in almost every game.  After a short break he left his family and arrived in Phoenix for Spring Training. Technically a non-roster invitee, he had been led to believe that he had a shot for a backup spot in the outfield. Then in late February…he was released. I read it on Foxsports.com. My heart sank, his must have been bleeding. I cannot repeat the thoughts that I had towards the A’s and their GM.  After a few days I texted Hiram’s wife, Jocy. A few hours later I received a call from Hiram. For some unknown reason, the A’s picked up the oft injured Shannon Stewart. When they did that they had to remove someone from their 40 man roster. They had already cut outfielder Charles Thomas, I guess they figured Hiram was the next to go. However, when they did that, the A’s broke a rule regarding players who end the season on the 25 man roster. Their only option was to release Hiram. They couldn’t just send him to AAA.   After hearing this news, Hiram went home to Puerto Rico. Hiram’s agent apparently started shopping him around and he had a couple leads. Then Billy Beane called. He apologized to Hiram, admitting that they had made a mistake. They didn’t intend to release Hiram, and asked if he would consider coming back to the A’s organization. Eventually, Hiram agreed. I can only wonder if Billy knew the ramifications at that point. I hope he didn’t…cause if he did….damn him.Back at Spring Training, Mark Kotsay and Bobby Kielty both experienced some minor injuries.  Even with the arrival of Shannon Stewart, Hiram’s chances for making the 25 man roster for the A’s were looking better all the time.}

But then, more bad news. Because of the A’s blunder, and then resigning him, Hiram will have to stay in the AAA organization for at least 45 days after the start of the regular season. No matter how Hiram plays during spring training, he’s stuck in Sacramento. No wonder he is sad.

Two years ago Hiram was hit on the wrist by pitcher Matt Wise on the last day of spring training. He had bad medical advise (the A’s doctor?) and then finally, a year later, had the surgery he should have had immediately after the wrist was broken.  He spent most of last year recuperating and then playing with pain just to get back to the bigs.

He played hard for the Rivercats and by the end of their season he gets the call up to Oakland. And now this.

The Oregonian ran an article in the paper (April 13, 2007 )^{about the new Portland Beavers manager, Rick Renteria. As a former player, Mr. Renteria (which is a really fun word to say out loud, by the way) has a unique perspective to the game. He has also managed Single and Double A minor league teams.}

^{He states that “few, if any professional baseball players want to be Triple A players.” It’s obvious as to why the players are in a Triple A club: they are either on their way to the bigs or being demoted for one reason or another. Renteria goes on to say that, given the players situation, he is not only managing player’s physically but mentally (emotionally) as well. Each Triple A player is evaluated by the parent club (other clubs as well) in case an immediate plug-in is needed at a spot where an injury has sidelined the starter. Renteria’s approach to managing these polished athletes is to be a booster – an encourager.}

^{These days, most of my off-work time is spent monitoring the minorleague.com site.  As I look over the rosters of these Triple A clubs I begin to recognize the names of a few players who, like Hiram, has spent some time on the yo-yo machine from the minors to the majors. The minor leagues are filled with players who  just need a chance to play everyday in the bigs. They are that close to ‘making it.’ And they all know it. That is what makes the job of a manager at the Triple A level more like a psychologist than a manager of a baseball team.  As Rick Renteria says, players at the Triple A level have the skill and polish to play in major leagues. In fact, many of them have. Hiram is one of them.}