Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 22, 1993 TAG: 9308220033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Utility player Joe Ronca of the Salem Buccaneers is a nice enough guy, but somebody must have laid the heavy hoodoo on him. This is how interesting his times have been lately:
He's been punched.
He's had his pocket picked - legally.
He's had a baseball thrown at his noggin.
He's been temporarily thrown out of work on his ear.
He's had his personal life exposed on national television.
It's almost enough to make a fellow throw up.
Come to think of it, if he had known all this was going to happen, Ronca might have called in sick the night of Aug. 4 when the Bucs visited Frederick, Md.
Instead, there he was at the plate, staring at Keys pitcher Vaughn Eshelman, who clearly was about to do something he really didn't want to do. Ronca knew that because Eshelman kept shaking off the catcher's signs and cussing. Eventually, though, the pitcher gave in. That's when he whizzed one right at Ronca's kisser.
Ronca figured somebody had put the reluctant beanballer up to it. The closest possible conspirator was the catcher, Kris Gresham, so Ronca went after him.
"I didn't want to run all the way out to the mound anyway," Ronca said. "It was too far."
There had been some ill will between the teams during a previous engagement in Salem. Bucs pitcher Dan Jones had bonked the Keys' Basilio Ortiz on the head, knocking him out of action for several games. Jones claimed no malice, but many Keys did not believe him.
When the Ronca-Gresham fracas commenced, others joined in, including Ortiz, who sought out Jones with mayhem on his mind. Quite a little dust-raiser ensued.
Ortiz and Ronca subsequently were suspended for two games each. Each also was fined an undisclosed sum, which probably hurt these lightly paid Class A baseball laborers more than any punches that were thrown.
Then, Ronca - probably Gresham, too - was left red-faced when the syndicated sports show, "George Michael's Sports Machine," showed clips of the fisticuffs and suggested the real reason for the hostilities was that Gresham had swiped Ronca's sweetheart. Michael was even so helpful as to highlight the young lady in question as she sat in the stands that night.
Ronca debunked the love-triangle premise.
"What he did with the girl didn't matter to me at all," he said. "I'm going out with another girl now who I like very much. Why should I worry about somebody else?"
A more legitimate cause for concern was what would happen to Ronca's swing when he went on the shelf for two games. Ronca, whose best previous season in four years of pro baseball included a .234 batting average, one home run and 49 runs batted in, was on a 9-for-19 (.473) tear when he was suspended.
Not to worry. Since coming back, he has not cooled substantially. He's up to a .283 average with a .350 on-base percentage, 43 RBI and 11 home runs. His slugging percentage is .475.
On Thursday, he blasted a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to snap a tie and carry the Bucs to a 4-2 victory over the Winston-Salem Spirits.
Coming into the season, Ronca had seven homers. Where has this jolt come from?
"It's just as surprising to me as anybody," Ronca said. "The main thing is waiting for good pitches. When you get one, you have to hit it. I have."
\ MY LEAST FAVORITE YEAR: Paul Noce had been in and out of Salem frequently all year in his capacity as the base-running coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization. Then somebody recognized him.
"Hey, didn't you used to play here?"
Noce looked at the questioner with a frown, hesitated, then allowed that he did.
"And didn't you play on one of those really bad Salem Redbirds teams that lost a lot of games? Maybe the one in 1982 that lost 100?"
Noce was indignant.
"Our team lost 101 games!" he said.
Apologies for this oversight were offered.
"That was an awful year," Noce said. "We didn't have any players at all. It was so bad that I've forgotten most of it. I do remember that Jim Zerilla was the manager.
"That year was so terrible that I've just put most of it out of my mind. Salem is the only place that I ever played - and I played in 11 places - where I can't even remember where the apartment was."
Forget the team, Noce was asked how he did?
"I played some nice defense," he said.
\ THROWING THE BOOK AT THEM: The Prince William Cannons are doing their part to spread the gospel of bush-league ball by donating the first edition of the newly released "Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball" to three high school, three college and three public libraries in Northern Virginia.
As Casey Stengel was wont to say, "You could look it up." In Northern Virginia, that task will be easier.
\ OH, ATLANTA: The Commonwealth Games of Virginia is in need of a baseball coordinator. Brian Schwartz, who has served ably in that post the past three years, is leaving to take a job in Atlanta. He will be difficult to replace.
\ ONE FOR THE BOOKS: In the "Service Directory" section of Baseball America's 1993 Directory (subtitled "The Complete Pocket Baseball Guide") is a listing for Morganna The Kissing Bandit - complete with address and phone number - under the "Entertainment" heading.
Just goes to show that one man's burlesque is another man's family entertainment. Questions of taste aside, Morganna certainly is less threatening (and noisy) than The Dynamite Lady.
\ LOW DRAMA: Phil Leftwich, the former Radford University right-hander now pitching for the California Angels, won his first big-league game recently when the Angels thrashed the Seattle Mariners 14-2.
Some thoughts Leftwich shared with the Los Angeles Times: "I don't want to make it sound like I'm disappointed; it's just that there wasn't a whole lot of drama. Once I was given a couple of touchdowns, it kind of changed the whole face of the game."
Said impressed teammate Chili Davis: "He's not one of those guys who seems in awe to be in the big leagues. He acts like he belongs."
by CNB