The Tourists Web Blog is on a Time Out while the team takes on the Rome Braves and COlumbus at home. Asheville currently is in first place with 1 1/2 lead over Chalreston. The Blog will pick back up On May 29th from ROME GA - The Tourists Cartoons can be seen by clicking here 

Check out the newest Tourists Comic Strip !!!! We are very excited about this addition to the Blog. Click on the link to see the full version!  

Asheville arrived in Charleston, SC early Friday morning to begin a battle once again for first place. With the 4-3 loss to Savannah on Thursday, the team has lost three straight for the first time this season and will once again fight it out with the RiverDogs who won again last night over Greenville.

Yeah all three are tasty.. Asheville needs a candy bar

The Tourists still hold a saucy little record of 27-14 and are happy to be leaving the town of Savannah. We think the over all team sentiment is a pithy "eh, these things happen" attitude. Good managers know how to manage peaks and valleys and if three losses and nine errors in a series is the lowest valley in a season then big deal... remember there are 140 games to be played.

Our largest piece of excitement today is the announcement of R.E.M. band member Peter Buck heading up a Baseball Music Project scheduled to be released on July 8^th. There is no doubt that this will make the broadcast on multiple levels and surly will be part of the summer of 2008, and perhaps there is a Tourist theme song in there somewhere.

Some of the song titles include "Gratitude (For Curt Flood)" and "Satchel Paige Said"  

Check out some of the lyrics : "So long ago, so long/Pastime, are you past your prime?/The DiMaggios, Shoeless Joe, Minnie Minoso, Yo La Tengo"

Almost sounds like R.E.M.'s baseball version of "End of the World as We know It."

We are already preparing for Karaoke time with this one.

Yeah needless to say this will be awesome and it begs the question what, if any song can be conjured up to describe the 2008 Asheville Tourists club. Everyone knows the 79' Pirates had the "We Are Family" bit, but can the Tourists pull out a (clean) song that could be played at McCormick Field throughout the season?

With the slim ½ lead for first, we were going to suggest the dated Wilson Phillips song "Hold On For One More Day" Hey, don't knock the classics. Any suggestions are welcomed here.

Are these gals not cool anymore?  

Savannah has not been the "Hostess City of the South" that the travel industry claims it to be. In fact this tourists town has held the Tourists club to just seven runs in the first three games and Asheville is in jeopardy of losing three straight for the first time this season. Bruce Billings pitched the morning game on Wednesday and set down the first 11 batters and faced the minimum through four innings. Billings left after five innings and allowed three runs on the day.  

 Supersized Fries and the Biltomore on a first date? Indeed.

We could easily match-up the hot travel spots of Savannah with those of Asheville but that contest was nullified this morning when the hotel lobby here in Savannah had on the Travel Channel and the feature was the McDonald's at the Biltmore. You know your city has made it big when the Travel Channel does a feature on a fast food chain that has over 31,000 stores worldwide and the one in your city is somehow worthy of a 20 minute feature. So even if the Tourists have a tough time against the Sand Gnats we can take solace in the fact that our McDonald's would whoop Savannah's any day of the week. Don't even get us going on the Wendy's or Burger Kings. Chick Fil-A would bring the hammer as well.   

So statistically speaking, you would assume that Asheville (27-13) would be able to handle Savannah (17-22, team ERA of 4.65) but we all know that is not the way things work. Some teams get your goat. Some players (Michael Parker I am looking at you) don't do anything all season long but then deliver in clutch situations and forces everyone to think "Where did that come from."

 Take it to the rack BJ, just not agianst MY team

 Call it the Luis Sojo experience or the BJ Armstrong phenomenon whatever salts your pretzel. The point is there is always that one team that can get another team when least expected. The Sand Gnats are that team for the Tourists this season. Consider this:

Asheville has been held scoreless just twice this year, one of those shutouts coming against Savannah and nearly a second on Wednesday until Warren Schaeffer doubled in the ninth. Nearly 1/3 of the team's losses have come against Savannah and the Sand Gnats have arguably their best pitcher on the mound tonight in Angel Calero.

So to put it all into perspective we give you the shameful movie reference of Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

If you have not seen this flick, do not feel left out. The plot essentially is that Romy and Michelle go to their high school reunion under the burden of not really accomplishing anything since graduation, so they fabricate the story of inventing the sticky office notes known as post-its.

Not much happens throughout the entire film and watching it just might lower your I.Q. seven points, but there is the underlying theme that in high school, there is a hierarchy of people that make fun of and pick on other people. Nothing ground breaking right?

Here is the revelation: Janeane Garofalo's character.  A dark and bitter women (our kinda gal)  who invented quicker burning cigarettes and felt that everyone made her life miserable. HOWEVER she realizes at the reunion that she too made people's lives miserable with her apathetic attitude and hurtful remarks.

So the point being is there is always someone that gets at you and the Sand Gnats are just that for the Tourists. I realize after writing this the Lion King's circle of life might have been an easier movie reference to go with, but hey nobody's perfect.  

Back in action as the Tourists took to the road yesterday and eeked out a victory over the Savannah Sand Gnats. Asheville maintained its ironclad half game lead on first place with a 3-2 thanks to the longest outing of the season by Cory Riordon.

Some thoughts to ponder -

Why are the Tourists in first place? Well, they probably have the best team, so I guess that would be a start. They have had consistency in the lineup and rotation throughout the season. Consider some numbers (and you know how we love numbers)

Team batting average  .275 (first in the league) 

Runs per game 5.65 (first in the league)

Team ERA 2.99 (yeah they got that too)

Riordan, one of many reasons why this shoe will not drop. 

So why, with all the talent, the league leader in homeruns (Brian Rike has nine) and two of the top five RBI men Darin Holcomb (28) and Jeffrey Cunningham (28) does it feel the other shoe is going to drop? As if at any moment they could be on the outside looking in.

Perhaps it does not feel that way for the team, but after working for a very poor team that never won ever for three years, from this perspective it feels like things are just bound to take a turn for the worse. Always the pessimist.

Was Brandy to hot and chaming for Joe? Survey says Heck Yeah

 Remember the Movie Joe Dirt? Joe (played by David Spade) had the permanent mullet and had fallen in love with this gorgeous girl Brandy and throughout the entire movie everyone thought she was too hot for him (which she was) but in the end they wind up together.

Following a first place team in a playoff race is similar to that. Hopefully it ends with a happy ever after and Brandy and Joe have little Dirts and eventually film a sequel. Its like dating the girl that is out of your league, you know, the one that will eventually leave you for someone with more money, charm or muscle (or perhaps all three if you are really lucky, a trifecta of heartbreak and failure).   

Expect the worst. Expect a five game skid. Anticipate that string of losses that every team endures, and hope the shoe does not drop unil after the All-Star break..    However that may be hard to do considering... despite opening the season 27-11 the Charleston RiverDogs have battled through injuries and remain just .5 behind Asheville.

The Tourists pounded the RiverDogs two best pitchers and took three of four from Charleston and still only have the slim lead. The big series is upcoming in Charleston this weekend, but the Tourists need to apply the pressure and take care of business in Savannah first. Last night, the shoe did not drop, the Tourists woke up and yes the beautiful girl was still around to make pancakes for one more day

The Tourists returned home late last night in sole possession of first place after a 3-0 shutout of the Columbus Catfish. The win marked the fourth shutout for the season for the Tourists pitching staff. The team begins an eight game homestand on Saturday and with a first place standing you can bet the beer will be colder, the Seadogs will taste better and the cheers will sound louder... The web blog takes another timeout until the team hits the road again on May 12^th... Till then -   

In the words of the great Patrick Ewing "We may make a lot, but we spend a lot" The Tourists offense is something similar to Ewing's philosophy. The team leads the SAL in homeruns (32) and slugging percentage (.438) and the next closest team in homers is Hagerstown with 26. However with all that raw power there is a price, as the Tourists are leading the lead in strikeouts (268). Thus tweaking Ewing's sage like adage to "Yeah we hit a lot, but we strikeout a lot"

            But don't let those numbers fool you. The Tourists are a close second in stolen bases (52) seven behind the Columbus Catfish who have the world's fastest man in Emil Salem. But any team can lead the league in stolen bases, just attempt a steal every time you get on base and hope for the best.

The Tourists have not only been speedy, but sneaky and opportunistic as well. Asheveill has turned in a success rate of just over 80% in stolen bases and that includes CF Michael Mitchell being 11 for 11 even though he has not swiped a bag in eight games.  

So how often do you see a team lead the league in homeruns, slugging percentage AND stolen bases. Not very often. If Asheville can keep the pace they could be the most powerful and fastest team in the League.

                                         Michael Mithcell: Speed? Yeah we got that.  

With credentials like that and with the Movie Iron Man recently released it forces us to pose the question, "If the Tourists were a Superhero, which one would they be?" Superman of course being the most popular and dominant, he is immediately out of the equation. The fastest and most powerful superhero around, one that fits the character and charm of the 2008 Tourists... only if Ted.E.Tourist could fly...(can he T.J?) let's give a list of candidates:

Spiderman? Perhaps too wussy, and not fast enough on the ground.

Iron Man ? To Artificial, Tony Stark really has no power except for the suit.

The Flash? All Speed no power, needs to hit the gym.

Batman? Noble, quick and strong but not to overpowering with a strong social conscious. Perhaps?

What exactly is your "super power Mr. Nightcralwer? The Ability to not be as cool as the others?  

Anyway point being is the Tourists offense has been spectacular with strong contributions from Darin Holcomb, Brian Rike and Everth Cabrera. The team has other players that have potential to break out with catcher Lars Davis and Kevin Clark heating up. Helder Velasquez has been a big question mark, but has come up with big hits in certain situations and may just need a little time to develop (see Jason McGill's well formed piece on Velasquez). The offense has formed with players such as Warren Schaeffer filling in and Jeffrey Cunningham emerging in the past couple of weeks with a few tape measure homeruns. Bottom line, the club can win the close ones (4-1 in games decided by one run, 2-0 in extras) and can also blow out opponents (a 16-1 victory over Columbus on Tuesday). Asheville is averaging over five runs per game and has put together a solid team effort from every player on the roster. A team Batman would be proud of .      

"The pitching and why the NBA and NHL Playoffs along with Olympic ballyhoo take a back seat to Asheville"

Ok, so maybe the world does not start and stop with minor league baseball. Maybe there are more important things in the world to focus on. We get that. However, America can only digest so much of a Clinton vs. Obama, USA vs. Beijing, Britney vs. sanity in a  muddled media agenda that just grinds your gears before turning attention elsewhere. That's where the Tourists come in. And the Asheville crew has turned in one of the finest months of professional baseball ending April with seven consecutive wins and a solid 20-7 record. Consider this:

Asheville has two of the top 10 pitchers in the South Atlantic League in Cory Riordan (3-1.65 ERA) and Jhoulys Chacin (4-1, 1.85). Both Chacin and Riordan have recorded seven inning complete games and both rank amongst the league leaders in strikeouts and innings pitched. America has not seen a 1-2 punch like this since Lil' Mac in "Mike Tyson's Punch Out" for the old NES. Nearly the same thing, but instead of facing Bald Bull and Soda Popinski, Chacin and Riordan are knocking out teams such as Augusta and Kannapolis. Same thing - almost.

So sticking with the poor "Punch Out" comparison, that leaves starting pitchers Connor Graham (3-2, 2.96) and Bruce Billings (2-1, 33 Ks) as the "star punch" portion of the rotation. In a four game series, Asheville gets the opponent stunned with Chacin/Riordan fierce combo and then hits the "start" button on the Nintendo Controller to release the star punch power of Graham and Billings. See, you can't get the star punch if you don't stun the guy first... then you can yell "hit start hit start" and only then can the true knock out blow be delivered.  I guess if you have never played Nintendo or Punch out itself, this whole analogy does not work at all.

                                                    They are stunned Bruce! Hit the Start Button! Hit It

So to simplify, the starting rotation is good very good but despite that the Tourists may have and even greater.. wait for this......... bullpen!

Has there ever been a core of players so widely ignored but just as valuable to a team then a baseball bullpen? Perhaps an offensive line in football or the blockers in a roller derby contest (which is a whole separate topic and yes Asheville has a roller derby team and yes they are called the "Wham Bam Thank You Maam's", and yes they will be featured here and on the broadcast at some point this season)

However consider this... the number one overall pick in the NFL draft this past Saturday was, you guessed it a lineman.. can anyone claim that the next pick in the MLB draft will have a GM sputtering the words "Yeah, this guy is going to be one hell of a set up guy in five years from now.  That mentality just is not there. However the crew that sits in the bullpen has been the key to success for teams throughout history, from the great A's of the 80's to the Reds of 1990 to the Yankees in 1996-2000. Bullpen dude, bull-pen. B-U-L-L-P-E-N......Lets take a look at the Asheville pen.

Here is the formula that works with several outside variables

C² + RT =V

Craig Squared, Rodriguez and Baker plus Randal Taylor equals a victory. The Tourists are currently 17-0 when leading after five innings, meaning essentially the lock it down. Remember, it is not just the getting of the lead, it's the holding of the lead.

Rodriguez and Baker (or perhaps we can call them the "Craigs" like the "Coreys" of the 80's. But then we would have to debate which one would be Corey Haim and which one would be Corey Feldman, and this is not the right time for that discussion)

 have allowed a combined two runs, (one earned) in 24 2/3 innings pitched this season with 28 strikeouts  Fan-fricking-tastic, nuff said.

Not to mention Andrew Groves(see post below) Edgmer Escolona and Joey Williamson (read Joey entry from first road trip).. all forming a solid relief corps that has answered with a ERA of just under 2.70. Oh and Randall Taylor picked up his seventh save of the season to end the Month with a 4-2 win over Columbus.  

So basically what we are trying to say is the Tourists have the equivalent of the Nintendo game classic "Punch Out" with a bullpen that has Goonies, Gremlins and Lost Boys star power and an equation that rivals E=MC². Its been a good month for baseball in Asheville, and the team cant wait to return home on May 3^rd with a free T-shirt night and a four game series against first place Charleston on the schedule.