This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In his own way, Jeff Baisley may have saved the Triple-A All-Star Game.
If not for the Salt Lake Bees third baseman's error that eventually extended the second inning Wednesday night, everybody might still be playing in a scoreless game at Spring Mobile Ballpark.
Russ Canzler's three-run homer and nice work from nine pitchers carried the International League to a 3-0 victory over the Pacific Coast League. The low-scoring contest continued the theme of Triple-A All-Star Games in Salt Lake City — if that's possible, for an event that comes to town every 15 years.
PCL ballparks are known for producing offense, except for occasional Wednesdays in mid-July, apparently. This is almost eerie: In 1996, the teams combined for three runs and nine hits. The latest totals were three runs and nine hits.
International League starter Zach McAllister allowed one hit with a walk and two strikeouts in two innings, and his performance was contagious. The PCL produced only three singles all night. Noting the absence of scouting reports, McAllister said pitching aggressively — and not trying to be too cute — worked well for the IL staff.
To illustrate the PCL's struggles, the two Bees players who shared third base and the No. 7 spot in the batting order delivered exactly the same results. Baisley and Gil Velazquez each grounded out to second and struck out, in that order.
They could not match the hometown tradition established by Salt Lake infielder Todd Walker, who homered in '96. Then again, that was his team's only run in a 2-1 loss.
This time, the home team was shut out. The PCL's biggest threat came in the seventh inning, with three walks loading the bases, only to have Rochester's Chuck James strike out Reno's Tony Abreu.
That was pretty much that.
Other than having Las Vegas' Brad Mills allowing that three-homer to Canzler with two outs in the second — the runs were unearned, thanks to Baisley's error that opened the inning — the PCL pitching staff was just as effective. The home team retired 15 straight batters in the middle of the game.
Cyprus High School product Willie Eyre of the PCL entered the game with two outs in the top of the ninth. Eyre struck out the only batter he faced, so he stood to become the winning pitcher as the PCL came to bat in the bottom of the inning.
Yeah, right.
No offense was forthcoming from the hosts, who went down meekly with Velazquez's strikeout and two routine groundouts.
So Eyre's effort was the only hometown achievement that showed up in the boxscore of this game. But the reviews should be very good, overall.
Maybe some of the novelty of the ballpark (named Franklin Covey Field in those days) and the Buzz (then the franchise's nickname) has worn off since '96, when what was described as an "overflow" crowd of 15,500 attended the Triple-A All-Star Game. Wednesday's attendance was 12,439, representing about a 20 percent decline in 15 years.
Yet if the quantity of fans was down, the quality of the show remained high. From the bald eagle's appearance at home plate during the national anthem to Frank Layden's leading "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from atop the third-base dugout during the seventh-inning stretch, the Bees administration had everything scripted nicely.
As it turned out, the elaborate postgame fireworks display became even more vital than anyone knew. Baisley, Velazquez and their PCL teammates may have failed to produce anything spectacular, but the front office had them covered.
Twitter: @tribkurt