Friday's rainout is a black eye for Eastern League

With the steady rain that followed thunderstorms of Friday night and Saturday afternoon, lakes popped up around New Britain Stadium like dandelions on a spring morning.

The doubleheader between the Rock Cats and New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the product of questionable judgment by Eastern League umpire Scott Barry when Friday night's washout was eminently playable, was postponed.

With only today's date (1:35 p.m. doubleheader) remaining for the teams to play, one game gets wiped off the schedule. If Sunday's weather should defy the forecasters and dump some more rain on New Britain, two games will be lost.

The general opinion around the stadium among Rock Cats administrators, players, coaches and fans was that the game should have been played. The infield was fine. The outfield was wet, but was draining noticeably as the public relations nightmare in the form of squabbling umpires and disenchanted administrators played out in front of 6,000 fans to see.

The Eastern League woke up Saturday morning with a black eye. The Rock Cats, who have worked so hard to jack up interest and attendance, have some damage control to do. Their vaunted attendance milestone of 300,000 was within easy grasp. Now, with just over 18,000 to go and just five dates on tap, the goal becomes a bit more elusive.

The time has come for either the EL or Minor League Baseball to establish rigid rainout guidelines for wayward arbiters to follow. After all, it's been a long season. Everybody's a bit spent. A night off can be a mighty enticing temptation.

Minor league baseball, unlike the neighborhood grocery store, is a local business that gets just 71 days per year to open its doors. Shooing away more than 6,000 patrons waiting to spend their cash on food, souvenirs and a ballgame is no small sin.

Minor league dollars don't flow like the new rivers that gushed muddy water into Willow Brook Saturday. It's time to live up to the "professional" label.

CAT-A-LOG: First baseman Garrett Jones continues to sizzle.

Going into today against New Hampshire, Jones had a 12-game hitting streak. During the streak, he's hitting at a .435 clip with five homers and 16 RBI.

Since July 1, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound lefty swinger has batted .356 with 15 homers and 47 RBI.

James Tomlin and Gabby Torres each hit their first home runs of the season in the 8-6 win over the Portland Sea Dogs Wednesday night. Tomlin's came in his 417th at-bat of the season.

Torres' season has been interrupted by injury and personnel movement so he's only had 131 Double-A at-bats this year.

B.J. Garbe, the Twins' first-round draft choice in 1999, continues to struggle at the plate. Prior to Friday's game, Garbe had three hits in his last 51 at-bats (.073). His double Wednesday against Portland was his first extra-base hit in 18 games.

In 173 games with New Britain over two seasons, Garbe is now hitting .193 with six homers and 54 RBI.

Jake Mauer is hitting .333 over his last 16 games. He has hit safely in eight of his last 10 games.

After going through his worst three-game stretch in two seasons with the Rock Cats, Henry Bonilla has turned it around with two straight victorious outings. Bonilla has yielded just four runs in his last 14 innings in posting wins over Trenton and Portland.

Boof Bonser won his fifth consecutive game with 5 1/3 quality innings against the Sea Dogs Wednesday. Over his last six games, Bonser is 5-0 with a 2.68 ERA. Bonser continues to lead the EL in strikeouts with 138.

Bobby Korecky notched his league-best 24th save Wednesday. In his last 13 games since coming off the disabled list, Korecky has allowed just six hits in 17 innings while walking four and striking out 11.

Korecky's 24 saves in a season rank third in franchise history. Juan Padilla chalked up 29 in 2002 and Brent Stentz set a league record with 43 in 1998. Ken Ryan had 22 for the New Britain Red Sox in 1992.