Six-time gold glover Eric Chavez, the Oakland Athletics’ third baseman who has not suited up this year after offseason back surgery, will be making his first appearance in Sacramento wearing River Cats maroon this week. Chavez will take the field in the homestand that starts tomorrow night at 7:05 against the hated Salt Lake Bees. The Cats are tops in their division in this young season, with the second best record in the PCL next to the Bees’ insane .789 winning percentage. The river crew have won 5 out of their last 6. Come on out and cool off with a Dinger costume head sweet freeze!*

*Not available in reality

Dinger will be an even cooler cat with the Rivercats’ acquisition of the Merlino’s Freeze empire.

Given this new business development, what new flavors do you propose for a frosty treat?

Tonight at 7:05 the River Cats take the field of Raley for the 2008 season home opener against the hated Las Vegas 51s. The Cats have won 3 straight behind solid hitting, and Dan Meyer looks to get a win in his first start tonight. I’ll be there and will post photos. There is a scheduled non-virtual meetup with Nick Miller who is doing gonzo blogging at River Chat and wrote this great feature on the Cats for SNR.

In preparation you should check the roster because it’s quite different from last year’s. Go Cats!

Just got the press release that Tony DeFrancesco, River Cats manager the last 5 seasons, will be reporting to Oaklandtown to be the new A’s third base coach. With 3 PCL titles and a Triple-A championship, it was a great run and he’ll be missed.

Who’s got River Cats championship fever? I know I do, and the rash is killing me. Hooray for Jorge (call him George) Piedra and AA callup Brant Colamarino, and for the great pitching by Michael Madsen, Jeremy Blevins and Brad Ziegler. Madsen really cut the ears off the Zephyrs hitters for 6 strong innings! (Sorry.)

The Cats are now up 2 games over the Zephyrs in this PCL championship series. Stay tuned to River Chat for all your River Cats blogging needs.

Beloved River Cat Kurt Suzuki is getting a permanent spot in the bigs as a result of yesterday’s trade sending Jason Kendall to the Cubbies. He’ll be behind the plate for Oakland, with Mike Piazza as his backup. Piazza will also resuming his DH duties when he is through with his stint in Sacramento.

Having had a recent pet emergency (lilies are toxic to kitties, as are many other plants and flowers, so get your fluffball urgent care, and keep flowers out of the house — out of reach is not enough, I learned), I thought I’d give a run-down on my experience with some of the region’s veterinarians.

Our beloved feline is fine, thanks to the fine folks at VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center. We were referred to VCA from another VCA clinic (on Manzanita, south of Madison), and we were referred to them by the Banfield inside of Petsmart on Watt Avenue.

Here’s my take on some of the vet clinics I’ve encountered over the years:

Continue reading “Support Your Vets” »

When you’re CoolDMZ, you frequently don’t have to create the snark, the snark just finds you. In order to be seated last night at Raley Field, we had to displace none other than CBS13’s Arran Andersen, who was perched in our spot for his 10 p.m. segment on the game. Why he wasn’t in the press box is anyone’s guess–even a blogger can get a press pass these days. Also we sat near the family of last-minute A’s starter Dallas Braden. That was a real treat, his grandma was there and everything. They were a bit too enthusiastic for me (”awwwing” real loud for every foul ball with 2 strikes, etc.) but what a great Sacramento night.

The action was good. Those A’s look pretty strong, and obviously the River Cats needed to get the starters out of the game to mount a comeback, but you still have to put the bat on the ball to score those runs. Here’s to a good season for both teams!

I’m looking forward to another exciting River Cats season, full of thrills and spills and inappropriate sponsorship. In preparation I made myself a Google calendar of all the home games (I’m the proud and lucky beneficiary of season tickets again) and I thought this might be of use to others so here it is:

Sacramento River Cats 2007 Home Games (Google Calendar)

  

Perfect summer evening for baseball, and so on impulse I rounded up some friends last night and headed for Raley Field to watch the RiverCats play the Salt Lake City Bees. Maybe it’s me, but … where did the fun go?

To be sure, you couldn’t fault the weather, Sacramento’s best: just a hint of summer warmth with an overlay of classic Delta breeze. Raley Field still looks as adorable as ever, with its center field neon and center-right view of the Tower Bridge lit artfully by both nature and SMUD power. The field itself is crisp and clean, with sharp white chalk lines as always striking against the dark valley loam. The food was great (no sense complaining about ballpark prices — they are what they are), the play was good and the ‘Cats beat the Bees, thanks to a lovely grandslam midway through.

So what was the problem?
Continue reading “Going, going, gone …” »