A League of Their Own
By Don Dennis
General Manager, Alaska Goldpanners
SEPTEMBER 2002
The Alaska League will hold a meeting on Sept. 5 in Anchorage and the usual list of items will be on the agenda. But in addition to the usual--which ball to make official for '03; how to organize the umpires, outline for the non-league and league schedule --will be the task of cleaning up the mess created after the end of the '02 season when a couple of teams decided to devise some new league rules.
In question is the so-called "co-championship" asserted by the Glacier Pilots. League rules stipulate that the team with the best winning percentage at the end of the league season shall be declared the champion. The 2002 league season ended following the games played on Friday, July 26. League rules say nothing about playing on after the league season is over for any purpose.
Further, just a year ago at the fall meeting the assembled general managers voted to change tie-breaking rules to make the head-to-head series the means of determining any advantage. This rule alone should have prevented the creation of a new "post-season" game to create a final standing as the Goldpanners had a comfortable 5-2 season edge on the Pilots, meaning the only thing out there for the Pilots to accomplish would be to pull even in the win/loss column.
It is a fact the only playoff ever contemplated after the merger in 1998 was to determine a participant in the NBC World Series (i.e. a deadlock for second place where one team would continue and the other go home). But, even this was changed in the fall of 2001 to be determined by the head-to-head play. A sensible change for the league as in recent seasons the clubs have been matched an uneven number of times. All general managers were in agreement on this change. It was a good move because now it is known at the earliest possible date which team is second and will see its season continue.
The 2002 mess was created by a rainout in Kenai (with the Pilots) on Thursday, July 18. League rules specify a game is to be made up as soon as possible and gives a rundown of the various situations, including the final meeting of the year of the teams--as was this case. In that event the two general managers are to set the makeup. In the event they cannot agree another league official would take the job. Truth is, the teams, particularly the Pilots, had no interest in playing the game. For if they had the Oilers were passing through Anchorage the very next day and the Oilers had the day off. The Pilots had a game with AIA at 7 p.m. but it would have been a simple matter to play an earlier game with Kenai. But, in this case, the Pilots were in control of the league--fewest losses--and that bodes well for a team in a percentage race. It is always best in the percentage game to have the fewest losses. Had the Pilots trailed by just one-half game at this juncture of the season it is a pretty safe wager that all the King's horses and all the King's men could have not prevented the teams from playing again--before the end of the league season.
Of course what was to happen was the Pilots dropped three of their next four league games and Fairbanks kept winning to move ahead in the all-import "loss" column. So, when the make-up game was not played and the league season closed the best the Pilots could do would be to finish with the same record as the Panners at 22-13 (again the best the Pilots could do) and the Panners had won the season series 5-2. The Panners did operate as the legitimate champion and took the first pick in the player draft (the one to pick up players for the NBC trip) and took the league's highest seeding in the national tournament.
Here it is interesting to point out that Fairbanks had exactly the same situation earlier in the season--a rainout of the final game of the season with AIA. What Fairbanks did was proper--bring AIA back on an off day two days later and the Panners doubled up playing AIA a nine-inning preliminary just before a crucial game with the Pilots. How popular was the Panner front office with the competitive side? You can just imagine. In the middle of a vital four-game series with the Pilots the coach is informed that he must find a pitcher for a game being inserted prior to the second game of the series. The Panners, in fact, lost. Had that game not been played--as the Pilot/Kenai game--then the whole exercise at the end would have been useless because the Panners would have won the percentage race because of one fewer loss--that even if the July 18 Pilot/Kenai game was played in proper time and the Pilots won. I can assure you the Panners would not have played a so-called make-up game with AIA after the season just to see if Fairbanks could sink back to the same record as the Pilots--even though Fairbanks would still be the winner based on the season head-to-head. How ridiculous can it get? This is merely the shoe being on the other foot
The whole exercise was difficult to understand. And, it isn't even that important. It is only significant in terms of the tone it sets. A tone that has led to two previous eruptions and a splitting of the Alaska teams. It is an attitude. Try this. "We can do it because it is not specifically covered in the rules--this exact situation that is." Well, try this. "If it is not called for in the rules then it can not be done." This seems to be the basic difference of opinion here and a number of times in the past. The Goldpanner organization tolerates the league. Sometimes it is very hard to do.
The league has long suffered from a credibility problem. Now, add to the mix the entire state media proclaiming a league champion--and being absolutely correct in doing so--on July 25 when the Panners won their game at the Bucs, only to hear talk a day later about some "created" make-up game AFTER THE LEAGUE SEASON. It was a silly notion on the face of it as the Pilots had nothing to gain from the uproar.
But, in some ways it is hard to blame the Pilots for their ignoring the end of the league season because they felt they had something to gain by having the same league record. Hard to accept is the lack of action from the Anchorage Bucs front office or tournament committee (allowing a bogus game to be played right in the middle of their tournament under a different set of rules). The Bucs' Invitational Tournament has absolutely nothing to do with the Alaska League, except that Alaska League teams are invited along with others. Bucs' GM Dennis Mattingly is my favorite counterpart in summer baseball and I consider him a genuine friend as well. He has acknowledged--and so have some of his other team officials--that the Bucs should have not allowed the game during the tournament Simple. The league season ended before the tournament began. .
Personally I am also disappointed in Kenai, which has been a pretty strong defender of the league and league rules. It was out of character for Kenai to participate in something outside of the rules. I even told the Kenai general manager upon his arrival in Fairbanks on July 20, "the way this thing (the league race) is coming down the Pilots are probably going to wish they had made up that game." Kenai and the Pilots had a final chance to make up the game on the final day of the league season when with a little arranging the Oilers could have been in Palmer to meet the Pilots preliminary to the Pilots' regularly scheduled season finale.
A final question? If the Panners had believed there was still a league race going on the final day of the league season does it not seem reasonable that more of an effort would have been made to win the Panners' league finale with the Bucs. Fairbanks lost that game in the 14th inning with an outfielder on the mound and little used position players on the field throughout the game. Had the title not already been tucked away it is certain the Fairbanks coaching staff would have taken an approach to the game 180 degrees from what actually unfolded.
Well, we will no doubt come out of the league meeting with a new definition of end of the league season and maybe a little tweaking here and there as a result of this. The sad thing is that end of the league season does not require any additional defining.
On a much lighter side I want to offer best wishes to former Goldpanner pitching coach Steve Rousey who has taken over as head coach at Cal State-Northridge. Steve served as pitching coach for the Panners in 1998 and 1999 under Manager Dan Cowgill.
Northridge got into the NCAA regionals last year but most of the key players are gone and the best returning player, Ryan Haag, transferred to Fresno State. Haag, of course, was a standout with the Panners in the recent season and was a big cog in the NBS World Series Championship. Rousey has brought in 24 new players, most of them from junior colleges, as a means of keeping the program at the level it has attained.
It is Steve's first four-year head job--he was the Matadors pitching coach last season--after guiding Los Angeles City College and spending some time as a high school mentor. Steve played his collegiate ball at Cal State-Fullerton and during that time pitched for the Arizona Sundowners, his first link to the Panners. The Sundowners were a full out subsidiary of the Panners and were managed by Jim Coveney--the first ever manager for the Anchorage (then Cook Inlet) Bucs. The Sundowners went to Wichita and placed fifth after dropping an early round 4-2 game to the Panners.
The one-year Sundowners (1984) still have a member of the pitching staff throwing in rotation in the major leagues today. Bob Mlicki is a starting pitcher for the Houston Astros.
By Don Dennis
General Relativity
9/1/2002
