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Sunday, August 12, 2001

The wakeup calls arrive this morning in a dozen hotel rooms in Somerset, N.J. Rooms occupied by members of the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds.

Already, you're one up on their occupants. They will be up, out of bed, out of the shower and on their way to breakfast and still might not remember the name of the Atlantic League town they slept in last night.

"I couldn't tell you what today is," admitted one honest Black Diamond.

No need to know which one. Theirs are names you'll likely never know, anyway. This is a last-chance league, after all, for players that can't let go of the dream of making it back to a big-league organization. And managers, too. Theirs once guided Aberdeen (S.D.) to the Prairie League record for wins in a season (56-13 in 1995). Noteworthy here if only because the Prairie League does not exist anymore, which makes it strangelt symbolic in the case of the Black Diamonds. Because in the consciousness of most fans, even those in their "home" region of Northeast Pennsylvania, the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds do not exist.

All the more reason their story deserves telling.

You see, the Black Diamonds have no home this summer. They have no stadium. No home games. They play their entire 126-game schedule on the road. Ownership problems left a new park near Easton half-finished and left the franchise in control of the league, which needed an eighth team for scheduling purposes.

Jerry Garcia could not imagined just how long and strange the trip could be.

For, in an independent, unaffiliated league such as the Atlantic, these young men without a home half of the ninth already exist on the very edge of the baseball universe. The last place where The Dream lives. To have this wrinkle thrown in, well, even Ernie Banks would have a hard time exclaiming, "Let's play two!"

Manager Bob Flori, who has been in the game for the better part of 25 years dating to his days in the Reds, Cubs and Yankees minor-league systems, knew why The Guy In The Stands was calling. The Guy could tell in the knowing laugh. It's the same reason ESPN was in the stands this week.

"It's quite unique," says Flori. Unique? More like imagining a Steelers game without a Rolling Rock. It just doesn't happen. "We opened up in Somerset May 4 and have been going ever since."

Going, and mostly losing. While other teams in the league pay up to $2,100 a month for former minor-leaguers and up to $3,000 a month for former big-leaguers like the Newark Bears did for Jose Canseco, Pete Incaviglia and Jim Leyritz, the Black Diamonds were limited to $1,000-$1,200 a month salaries. Oh yeah, and $18-a-day meal money.

Even with Friday's 5-1 win vs. Somerset, they were, considering their circumstances, a fairly predictable 28-61.

But of parallel import when you are 33 games under .500, the Black Diamonds were 29 hotels down in this 42-hotel May-to-September odyssey that began in Somerset, ends in Camden, N.J., Sept. 19, includes stops as far north as Nashua, N.H., and will cover 4,716 miles.

By bus. And not always the same bus. Which means players must carry their personal belongings everywhere for fear that the bus that took them to Newark might suddenly become two vans that will take them to Bridgeport, Conn., depending on the needs of the transportation company employed by the league.

"You get in at 2 or 3 in the morning and have to unload everything. You can't go right to bed. It's tough then," says Harvey Hargrove, an outfielder from Sacramento, Calif., by way of the Seattle Mariners' organization who is among the team leaders in home runs (6) and RBIs (34). In case you're interested, DH Chad Gambile leads in those areas with 9 homers, 49 RBIs and a .291 average.

"It definitely wears on you," says Hargrove. "Coming out every night and getting our butts kicked. I'll think late at night, laying there in bed, 'What am I doing here? I'm wasting my time.'"

It would be an upset if each one of them didn't think those thoughts at one time or a hundred others.

"If you have a sense of humor, you'll probably get by," Flori adds.

And what's that they say about that which does not kill you?

"It's hard, but [this season] gives you strength, the motivation to play harder because you've been through all this," says Hargrove.

Yet, ultimately, it comes down to the obvious yet unspoken bottom line that Flori left unsaid until he was just about to get off the phone.

"You're still in baseball. And when you're on the field, that's all you think of."

Speechless

ESPN.com's Jayson Stark on Bill Mazeroski's tearful, abbreviated induction into the Hall of Fame last Sunday. Wrote Stark: "Words are just words. Words aren't always real. But tears never lie."

Series of the week

Cubs (66-49) at Astros (65-50 through Friday), tomorrow-Wednesday. ... Tomorrow WGN (8:05 p.m.), Wednesday ESPN (8:05 p.m.). ... The unbalanced schedule begins to pay dividends.Teams meet 10 times in the final 48 days. ... Cubs' lead over Houston in the NL Central is down to one game, the closest the teams have been since July 23 ... Key matchup: Astros bats (.278, 620 runs, 2nd in NL) vs. Cubs pitching (3.75 ERA, 2nd in NL). ...Chicago's Sammy Sosa (.303, 41 HRs, 107 RBIs) needs 43 RBIs to join Hack Wilson as the only players in NL history with two seasons of 150.

This 'n' that

Behind the numbers in Greg Maddux's streak of 70 1/3 innings without issuing a walk: Of the 275 batters he has faced since issuing his last base on balls (Florida's Charles Johnson, June 20), he has gone to 3-ball counts just 19 times. Maddux gets the start today vs. Arizona. ...

Never let it be said that former Pirates infielder Wally Backman blows smoke up anyone's sliding pants. Said Backman, manager of the White Sox's Class A team in Winston-Salem, in evaluating his 44-73 Warthogs this week: "Half of them are dogs, and to tell you the truth, half of them may be released this year." ... In case you wondered, the Mariners' magic number to clinch the AL West is 30.

Shot and a jeer

Shot: So, because teams that have trailed by 12 runs and come back to win are now 3 up and 6,336 down since 1900, it's OK for Rickey Henderson to pad his stats when his team is up 10 runs? The exception does not an unwritten rule break.

Jeer: If the Indians' improbable 15-14 comeback victory against Seattle is supposed to render meaningless sport's unwritten rules, then, well, Winston Cup driver Ricky Rudd -- running 39th and 53 laps down with 10 laps to go at Indy last Sunday -- should have attempted to block the leaders from getting around him (an unwritten no-no) under the guise that, "Hey, one 38-car pileup, and I'm right back in this thing."

Box score lines of the week:

Good, but didn't Slammin' Sammy hit three homers Thursday? Yawn! Been done 14 times already this season. But six hits? Only twice.

Putting the improbability in the improbable, Seattle's vaunted bullpen of Jeff Nelson, Kaz Sasaki & Co. had allowed only eight runs in the previous 25 games.

Not only did he not retire any of the six batters he faced in this debacle, he didn't retire any of the four batters he faced the night before, either.