Ok, such as Western North Carolina went without rain for most of the month of August, the Blog has gone just as long without an entry. That drought ends today with Asheville wrapping up their three-game series with the Greenville Drive and begining their final series of the regular season against Augusta on Saturday before the playoffs begin on August 3^rd.

Hey Now You're An All-Star...

         Even Smashmouth thinks thats a lot of star power  

This week the post season all star roster was announced and to nobody's surprise the Tourist had a fair share of representation. Joe Mikulik earned manager of the year for the second straight season and Michael Mitchell, Helder Velazquez and Darin Holcomb all earned All-Star honors. On top of that domination, Jhoulys Chacin was tapped as the best right hander in the league despite leaving to High-A Modesto shortly after the All-Star break. The Tourists have more star power than the Democratic National Convention, all we need now is some Sheryl Crow.. oh wait here she is....  You can click here to hear the Tourists congratulations to there stars... all star final .mp3

 Did you say Dalmations..or Domination?

101.. that's the amount of runs Darin Holcomb has batted in this season.  While the term "101" might indicate either an introductory course for Biology or English class, Holcomb is the one doing the teaching in the SAL this season. Voted as the league MVP on Tuesday Holcomb's numbers are atop the leader board in nearly every offensive category. His 46 doubles is one shy of the Asheville franchise record set by Hal Magert in 1937 and a six RBI night on Thursday pushed Holcomb up 101 driven in on the season. It ha been sheer dominations for the 12^th round selection by Colorado. Holcomb has gone quietly about his business leading the Tourists into the playoffs and hopefully into the championship series. So while 101 might mean a Disney dalmation to some, for Holcomb it is another day at the ballpark and a season that has been anything but spotty.       

Asheville has endured two big losses -some would call spankings or whitewashings -  at the hands of the Columbus Catfish. Clearly Columbus is not the same team the Tourists beat seven of eight times in May as the Catfish are now tied with Asheville for second place in the second-half standings and are fighting for their post-season lives. However Asheville has received giant production from unexpected sources such as Brian Lapin (three homeruns in the past three games) and Brent Bowman.

"Brian Lapin delivers the Championship Bulldog Power"

For Lapin it is a relief to see the Fresno State product pick up the pace and recover from injuries that he endured at the beginning of the season. Perhaps the emergence of Lapin can be better summed up by the famous cartoon character He-Man: "By the Power of Greyskull, I have POWER!." The Rockies and Lapin knew that all along.

As for Bowman, the Tourists are able to float along without Jeffrey Cunningham who is still recovering from a strained muscle. Bowman was called up from Tri City during the last homestand and has been making solid contact ever since. With Bowman in the lineup, Joe Mikulik has been able to use Darin Holcomb as the number three hitter and gives the skipper what looks to be a solid RBI style bat.

The pitching is a whole different concern and we will reserve judgment on Australian Shane Lindsay until his next couple of outings. Lindsay in a limited debut for Asheville had an impressive 2 2/3 innings pitched on Saturday and delivered explosive mid- 90's fastballs before leaving in the third inning.

            To sum up some sentiments around the Park, here for everyone's pleasure once again is the Comic strip. Enjoy. For the full readable version click here

The Team goes into a funk, losing 7 of the next eight and 14 of 15 prompting everyone to start pointing fingers at one another.

The Entire team shaves their heads in protest of the archaic tie-breaker rule.

The Bus breaks down in the middle of July heading from Savannah to Charleston for the one-game playoff, causing several players to question the meaning of life and the plausibility of a higher power.

While waiting for AAA (the automotive service not the level of baseball) the team's bald skulls get sun burnt so badly, three players are forced on the DL and Trainer Chris Dovey quits with the words "Rubbing bald heads with aloe vera is not in this job description"

The scheduled one-game playoff is rained out forcing the teams to play a doubleheader the following day. The "playoff" game is now a seven inning contest in front of 450 fans.

The New York Yankees send both Phillip Hughes and Carl Pavano for rehab appearances forcing Asheville to face two Major League arms in the playoff game. Both big leaguers hurl three innings and Jonathan Ortiz closes the game with a scoreless seventh.

Bruce Billings goes the full seven innings for the Tourists allows one run, a solo homer to Jesus Montero and the Tourists lose 1-0.

Okay, so some of that is out of the question, but truth be told the Tourists will face Phillip Hughes and Carl Pavano in the game tonight, in what could have been, may have been a playoff game. What if....What if...

Helder Opens It up - Opening Day against Lexington Helder Velazquez hits a ball over the centerfielder's head in the 11^th to plate Michael Mitchell and Asheville wins 5-4. Craig Baker pitched the top of the inning with two strikeouts to pick up the win...

Brian Rike walksoff  - Cinco De Mayo celebration a 5-4 victory over the Savannah SandGnats. Rike smacks his 7^th homer of the season to "announce his presence with authority." The Tourists were on the verge of losing three consecutive games against the Sand Gnats unitl Rike's prophetic blast. An RBI sac fly from Warren Schaeffer and an RBI single from David Christensen in the eighth set the stage for Rike's coupe de grace... Rike's homerun heard here... Rike Walkoff 5.5.08.mp3

Holcomb's Doubles Do It - A 2-1 win over Hickory that featured a pitching match up between Chacin and Duke Welker. Neither starter allowed an earned as David Christensen hit his eighth homerun of the season in the seventh to tie the game and Holcomb Doubled in Michael Mitchell in the bottom of the tenth. Holcomb was credited with a single but could have had a double if he touched second base. Bruce Billing followed up the win the next day with a seven strong innings as the Tourists take two of three form Hickory.    

 The Comic Continues - This time radio broadcaster Eric Little makes his comic debut. For the readable version just click here

Asheville won both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday, with Connor Graham tossing another seven inning shutout. The Tourists hold the best record in baseball at 61-33 and the comic continues... for the readable version click here... and for last night's Sitel "call of the game", Darin Holcomb's homerun click here. Holcomb HR.7.13.08.mp3.

The Comic coming back in full force... for the readable version just click here........ Asheville trying to bounce back from the extra-inning loss to Lake County on Friday.

Thats right! The comic will be making a comeback and to get a clear, readable version of today's version simply click here... enjoy 

The Tourists had their eight game road trip postponed on Monday with a rainout from Hagerstown. It always seems to rain here and now the field looks like the Belmont race track circa 1977 - sloppy. Don't believe us? Well Hagerstown has dealt with rain before and at one point even changed their name to the Hagerstown Raindrops...

Asheville made it three consecutive wins with a 4-3 thriller over Rome on Thursday in front of over 4,000 fans. Darin Holcomb smacked a two-run homer to extend his on-base streak to 30 consecutive games, the longest such streak in the league. The Tourists had a 4-1 lead entering the ninth inning and Randal Taylor picked up his league-leading 24^th save of the season with a dangerous ninth. Taylor managed to register a strike out of Carlos Lee that went down as the "Sitel Call of the Game" and can be heard here taylor.7.3.08.mp3...

Although last night was a save situation for Taylor it has been a topic of conversation with closers entering the ballgame in non-closing situations. A couple of interesting articles on the topic can be found with this link regarding Rivera and the all-time save leader Trevor Hoffman

 Here is the break down with Taylor:                      "RT Stands for Real Tough"

24/24 in save opportunities - 23 IP, 5 ER 1.95 ERA

And the NON save situations - 9.1 IP 4 HR 9 Earned Runs  

Taylor the Flavor Saver -

Not sure why this is with closers. From Mariano Rivera to Billy Wagner to the minor leagues in Randal Taylor it seems to be a mindset more than anything else. On a completely unrelated note, here are some more photos of Melissa Chambers Miss North  Carolina International. From the looks of it she seemed to have a good time on the broadcast.. could another appearance be in the works sometime in the future.

Ask.. this guy right here.

"We'll be back in 2-and-2" 

The Tourists try to get four consecutive wins on this Fourth of July and are expecting a sellout crowd. Houston Jimenez continues to coach third base as Joe Mikulik has removed himself from the lineup with Houston bringing in the runs managing the third base bag. Yeah, baseball is that superstitious.

..Yup, that about sums it up

  We are still not sure how to handle last nights 13-12 walkoff loss by Che Hsuan-Lin in Greenville. The initial response that came across the internet and instant messenger was WTF. For those who don't know about the WTF,  the citizen-times had a story on it earlier this week which can be read here.

Asheville battled back from a 10-2 deficit with big hits all around. Everth Cabrera smacked a two-run homer in the ninth inning that can be heard here.  Cabrera 4th.6.29.08.mp3. David Christensen tied up the game with a single in the ninth that can be heard here Christensen. tie 1B. 6.29.08.mp3. And Warren Schaeffer put the team out in front with a single that can be heard here... Schaeffer Go-ahead.6.29.08.mp3All of that was uplifting, until Che Hsuan-Lin hit a walkoff that can be heard here... Lin WO.6.29.08.mp3. That my friends is a recap of the WTF at Flour field yesterday evening.....          "Che Hsuan-Lin......Really?"

            It all poses the the simple question: "What was the Greatest comeback that never ended up being a comeback" Any thoughts on this are certainly appreciated and the initial series that came to mind was Boston in '75. Remember, Bernie Carbo hit a game tying three-run homer, and Carlton Fisk hit his historic homerun to give the Red Sox the win in game six. Well.. umm.. the Reds not the Red Sox actually won that series and if WTF had been around in 1975 then that would have been the response. You tube has a run down of the top ten comebacks in sports history.. and yes available here 

So while we sort out if this was actually a spirited, never-say-die-Rudy-valiant-effort comeback or a heart wrenching-spit-you-out-punch-me-in-the-face loss - think of some of the best comebacks that never actually happened and let us know.

The optimists here give the fellas an "A" for effort and move on to try and avoid the longest losing streak of the season with Robison Fabian making his third start of the season tonight, the first in the stead of recently called up Jhoulys Chacin.