Southern Leaguer

Bucci retired the only 2 batters he faced in the 4th, Stars score 2 in the 5th to tie the game 6-6. Welch is off the hook and Bucci is still in the game.

18 year old Nick Bucci now pitching for Huntsville! Come on, Stars, score some runs and make a winner of him!

In '94, the Stars got into a similar situation where they had had several rainouts and had a few doubleheaders in a short period of time. They called up a pitcher, Gustavo Gil, from the Arizona Rookie League. He flew to Carolina, started one game and went 4 innings. His Stars career numbers ..... 4 IP, 6.75 ERA, 6 H, 1 BB, 1 K. He went back to Arizona and, as far as I know, never got out of Rookie Ball again. With Hand starting the 2nd game tonight (no surprise), they will still need 2 more starters this week. Baron? Ellison? Aguilar? Wahpepah? Bucci? Another time they got shorthanded of pitchers, coach Bert Bradley was activated and got into a game (or 2?) during a road trip. I wonder how Curtis' arm is feeling ......

I believe Rottino requested to go down to Huntsville so he could play everyday.Although Vinny made an error in left field during the 9th inning debacle on Sunday, he had made a great sliding catch earlier in the game. He also made at least 2 outstanding plays at 1st base on Firday night, both of which saved runs and kept the game scoreless, leading to the 1-0 Stars win.

#23 is Donavan Hand and he didn't pitch Sunday. Derrick Ellison came in with 2 outs in the sixth and retired all six batters he face. Juan Sandoval (#25) came in with 2 outs in the 8th and got the 3rd out. The Jaxx didn't have a baserunner in the 8th but Sandoval struggled in the 9th, that's when West Tenn scored 5 runs. And you're right, they don't display names on the scoreboard but they did announce "Now pitching for the Stars ......." each time there was a change.

I've been buying cards from Dave Weber for many years and he is a great guy. Each season I get team sets from the Brewer affliates and then, for players who appear with Huntsville but aren't in any of those sets, I order individual cards of them from Dave. Thanks to him, I have minor league cards of 626 of the 630 who have played for Huntsville. If he doesn't have what you need, let me know. I have the '04 Snappers card and the '06 Sounds card. The '04 Snappers card is signed.

I don't know if they were shill auctions, but the seller was sammy_goose He has 100% positive feedback. It may well have just been pre-sell, want-it-quick hysteria. Once all are posted and sold, I expect the average value to be maybe a couple of dollars more than the Weeks Huntsville Bobblehead but nothing near what these 3 Fielders sold for. There was definite speculation going on at the game last night as I saw a couple of guys buying them up as fast as they could. We got extras only because my family of 5 was there.

I posted three on eBay late last night (eBay user mpo) on five-day auctions, I plan to be out of town by the time a 7-day one would end. I have a 100% favorable rating and have the bobbles boxed and ready to go out Friday, the day after the auction ends, priority mail and insured.

"Hernan Iribarren led off the home ninth with a single off Jim Henderson, moved to second base on an Alcides Escobar sacrifice bunt and scored on a Michael Brantley pinch-hit single to tie the game at four. Moss then drove a 3-1 offering into the alley in left-center field for the decisive blow" Brantley went to second on the throw home. The throw was way too late to get Iribarren, got away from the Smokies catcher and rolled to the backstop. Brantley stopped at second, didn't even take a turn. Money was beside himself at third, yelling and motioning to Brantley (who could have walked to third) but by the time he finally noticed his manager it was too late. Even though he got the clutch game-tying hit and scored the winning run, I'm sure young Brantley got a personal base-running lesson after the game.

?7,000+ attend at Joe Davis Stadium? Wow, good for Huntsville. I've been to games there where I would have sworn I was the only one there, it's so spacious.? ?almost 7,300 fans were lured, not just by the weather, but by free red jerseys with the Stars logo emblazoned on the front for the younger set.? I think more than the jerseys or the weather, the crowd was so big because Boeing, a major employer in the area, gave out free tickets. "It made sense to manager Don Money, who came out of the dugout to argue umpire Chris Ward's safe call. But, as I later learned after the game, Ward said he couldn't call Spearman out, because he didn't see him -- or even Palmisano -- kick the ball, although he agreed it was kicked. West conferred with all the other umps, but they didn't see what truly happened either........ Joe Simokaitis followed with a hard grounder to Alcides Escobar that he could not make a play on. That moved Spearman to 2nd. Nate Spears then singled up the middle to score Spearman and give the Smokies a 2-0 lead." The best part of all of this was Rich Sauveur's reaction. After the run scored, Rich made a visit to the mound. It was obvious that he wasn't going to leave until the home plate umpire came out to break up the conference. Rich had some words for him on the mound and then walked halfway back to the plate with him, talking all the way, before heading back to the dugout. Then, in the bottom of the inning, Rich went out to coach first base (something I've never seen him do) and stayed in the first base umpire's ear until the Stars got a base runner. It was classic Sauveur and just added to the fun of another great game for the Stars.

I have an extra Weeks Huntsville bobblehead, I would like to trade for the 2007 card sets from Helena, West Virginia, and Brevard County.

We were at the Stars' game and Escobar made more than just a couple of outstanding plays, there were at least 4 or 5 that could be called web-gems.He dove for a groundball behind 2nd and flipped the ball to Iribarren with his glove to start a double play. He went deep into the hole, dove, and threw from his knees for another out, and dove back and to his left to grab a sinking liner for another. He showed his arm on a routine grounder that he charged, had a little trouble getting the ball from his glove and still got the runner at first. On his baserunning mistake, I agree he should have been called out for dumb baserunning but we were sitting a couple of rows up and just down the line from 3rd and I'm sure the umpire got the call right. Even worse than that, Iribarren didn't slide at home on Brantley's double and could have easily been called out. We're going back tonight and hoping for another exciting Stars' win.

He's not a first-year manager, it's his first year managaing the M-Braves. He's a former manager of Chattanooga, where this all took place. It sounds like a very intersting game ... It started with a rain delay, Wellman's show came in the 2nd inning, the Braves' pitcher was ejected in the 5th for using a foreign substance on the ball, a couple more Braves were thrown out of the game and the Lookouts' J.C. Boscan fell victim to the hidden ball trick. The Lookouts website has the story. www.lookouts.com/news/new...newsId=311

That's right, with the accent on the 'K'. If he wasn't still in the system, he would have been on my list of favorite former farmhands.

Bucky, Derek Lee, and Jared Mathis I think would be at the top of any Stars fan's list. I would also add Dave Pember, Scott Sollmann, Toby Kominek, Brian Moon, and Jeff Winchester.

I recently got the book and it's a good read. If I had read it back when it first came out and my sons were 13 and 9, I would have probably have one of those walls in my backyard.

Money put himself in this bind from the very start by starting Gerrit Simpson, who had pitched Wednesday, instead of Travis Phelps, but I'll cut him some slack if Phelps was unavailable because of some arm tightness or something. Phelps hadn't appeared in a game since June 9 I'm not nit-picking and I know David has seen (endured?) waaay more of the Stars' games this year than me but I was there Thursday night (June 15) and I'm pretty sure Phelps pitched 4 innings in the completion of the suspended game with West Tenn.

This from huntsvillestars.com - The Milwaukee Brewers have announced that Stars pitcher Carlos Villanueva has been promoted to Milwaukee and will join the team during their current series against the Cincinnati Reds. Villanueva, in his second season with the Stars, has posted a 4-3 record with a 3.52 ERA in nine starts for the Stars this season. He spent part of the 2005 season with the Stars going 1-3 with a 7.40 ERA in 3 starts. He was acquired by the Brewers from the San Francisco Giants along with former Stars pitcher Glenn Woolard in exchange for Wayne Franklin and Leo Estrella in March 0f 2004.

Mass Haas, thanks for the kind words about my website and for the link. I am in the process of changing it around some so it may not look too good right now but everything is still there. I'm trying to make it easier to use and also hope to add some more to it so it looks like I'm going to have to break down and start paying for the hosting and get rid of Angelfire's ads. I don't have the STARS record holders on there anymore since David was providing them and he now has them on his great site. Great to see that Ben will be back in a STARS uniform. We won't get to see him, we're going down to Mississippi for the Sat. and Sun. games. One of the local news stations said tonight that his second start would almost certainly be in Nashville rather than Huntsville. I'll wait til I see it on Brewerfan though, it's MUCH more reliable than any of the local stations ......

Zumwalt's first pitch is ripped for a double. After 2 outs, a 2-run HR cuts the Sounds lead to 5-4. Stetter is warming up in the pen. OK follows with a bunt single before a K ends the inning. Zumwalt has 2 k's in the inning but also touched for 3 hits and 2 runs. Sounds 5, Redhawks 4 going to the 7th.

Sac Fly for Barney. Then Knox is caught stealing to end the inning. Nashville 5 - Oklahoma 2 in the middle of the 6th. Glover is done, Zumwalt in for the bottom of the 6th.

Derek Lee leaves the game with 1 out in the 6th and the Sounds with runners on 1st and 3rd. I'm pulling for the Sounds to win the series but really wanted to see Derek have a good outing. Knox is now 3 for 3, Rottino has 2 RBI. Barnwell is 2 for 2 and is the first hitter for the new OK pitcher.

Still 4 - 2 Nashville, now with 2 outs in the bottom of the 5th. Oklahoma has runners on 1st and 2nd (single and walk). Zumwalt is warming up now, Glover is already over 90 pitches. Glover with a big K to end the 5th. 4-2 going to top of the 6th. We're going to Nashville Saturday night for game 4 (if necessary) of this series.

Nashville 4, Oklahoma 2 with OK batting in the bottom of the 4th.

Alec had just finished warming up and was coming in to pitch the next inning. Using him to bunt and then pitch made sense. It saved a player for later, plus he is as good as any other option available. It is unfortunate that it happened but the move made sense at the time.