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July 18, 2010
Wire-To-Wire,
Chillicothe Style?
By Doug Kimsey
Paints Boosters Club Member
With all of the great
memories from the 20th anniversary of the Cincinnati
Reds' “wire-to-wire” 1990 championship being dredged up this
mid-summer weekend, it occurred to me the 2010 Chillicothe Paints
have a shot to achieve that baseball rarity as well. By starting
the first half of the season 8-0 and the second half 6-0, Brian
Mannino's crew has never been any place in the standings this season
other than first place in the East Division of the Prospect League.
But there's work to be done before Paints' fans can at
long-last rally around a league championship banner. It's mid-July
at this writing and only 18 regular season games remain on the 2010
calendar – 12 at home, six on the road.
The opponents remaining on the Paints' schedule – 10
different teams – have a combined win-loss record of 167-197 (.459),
a full 30 games below .500. Most of the final 18 games – 12 to be
exact – remain inside the East Division. Chillicothe has earned the
title “Beasts of the East” by piling up an 18-4 (.818) win-loss
total.
Here is how the Paints have fared versus all opponents
through 38 games, rolling up a 27-11 mark: (Remaining games are
shown in parentheses.)
East
Division W-L
vs. West Virginia
(2) 5-1
vs. Lorain County (3)
7-0
vs. Butler (4)
2-2
vs. Slippery Rock (2)
4-1
Central
Division W-L
vs. Richmond (1)
3-2
vs. Terre Haute
(0) 0-2
vs. Danville (2) 0-0
vs. Nashville (0) 4-2
vs. Dubois County (1) 0-1
West
Division W-L
vs. Dupage (1)
1-0
vs. Dekalb County (1) 1-0
PAINT STOKES – Entering play on
July 18, the Paints' offense continued to be by far the best in the
Prospect League. Chillicothe batters have combined over the first
37 games to lead the PL in most offensive categories, including:
Runs Scored 252
Runs Scored Per Game 6.8
Hits 368
Hits Per Game 9.9
Doubles 78
Triples 24
Home Runs 21
Bases On Balls
181
On Base Pct. .384
Slugging Pct. .427
A former Paints
all-star from the professional era is putting together another good
campaign at the plate. Travis Garcia, back with the
independent Atlantic League Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, was
batting .267 with 11 homers and 39 RBI in mid-July. Garcia, who was
drafted by the Seattle Mariners last summer and spent the remainder
of the '09 season at Double-A West Tennessee before being released,
returned to the Blue Crabs this season. Garcia recently belted his
100th professional home run. Still age 27, Garcia is
playing in his eighth professional season. He remains one of the
Paints' classiest alums and one of the game's truly good guy.
Another ex-Paint great, and the only former Chillicothe
player to win a World Series championship ring, Mike Cervenak,
is playing at Class AAA Buffalo, the top farm team of the New York
Mets. Cervy, of course,
was a member of the 2008 World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.
Through mid-July this season, Cervenak was batting .249 with 16
doubles, four homers and 24 RBI in 69 games. It could be that Mets'
skipper Jerry Manuel may want Cervenak and his veteran bat on the
big league squad when teams expand their rosters after Sept. 1.
Let's hope so.
Paints' fans who were fortunate enough to see Cervy in
a Chillicothe uniform will recall that 10 years ago this week – July
17, 2000 – the New York Yankees signed Cervenak and teammate Joe
Colameco to minor league contracts.
Cervy and his Buffalo Bisons visit the Columbus
Clippers for a four-game series later this month, July 27-30. |
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