Borders recalls the time he was ‘caught’ in a lie in minors
Pat Borders was wise beyond his years as a low-level corner infielder/ outfielder in the Toronto Blue Jays minor league system.
He assessed his projected path based on others at those positions in the organization and realized a change was needed.
“In spring training [1986], I asked to catch,” Borders recalled. “I never caught before. I never even tried on the glove before.
“They asked if I caught before. Of course, I lied and told them I did in the past.”
That lie was exposed a day or two later when Borders was put in a game.
“I put on the shin guards wrong,” he said. “It was pretty obvious. The worst thing for them, though, was I threw out a runner trying to steal. It was complete luck.
“They said I could continue.” Borders survived the 1986 season despite 10 errors and 12 passed balls in 45 games between Class A and Double-A.
door to a run in the fifth.
Meanwhile, Polaha was pleased with his two pitchers, Warmkessel, who is headed to East Stroudsburg University, and Mike Yates, a Pocono Mountain East product, who was a redshirt sophomore at ESU this past spring. They combined to hold the Orioles to five hits.
“Quinn was great and gave us everything we thought he would,” Polaha said. “He was cruising with a 4-0 lead and he had [Zach] Merkle 0-2 and lost him to start the fifth and gave up another walk and they both ended up scoring to make it 4-2.”
Warmkessel stranded two in the fifth and got the first out in the sixth before a hit batter and walk ended his night. Yates came on to get the last five outs, giving up just one hit.
“Yates did a real nice job,” Polaha said. “I couldn’t be happier with him because he was playing in a college league and came back to the area and we needed to get him qualified for the playoffs. We had 10 games left and he had to play in nine and he came down and we found a way to get him in enough games, sometimes as a courtesy runner. He was amped up and came in and did a great job closing this one out.”
The No. 2 seeded Orioles (20-7-1) are confident they can come back and win the series.
“The Yankees are a good team and we had some good battles with them during the regular season and tonight they just had some timely hits while we hit the ball hard and just didn’t have enough luck with them,” said player-coach Jake Meyers. “It was a hard-fought game that just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Meyers said his team won’t lose confidence even as it faces a near must-win situation on Thursday.
“I think every guy on our team feels we’re still the best team in the league,” Meyers said. “There’s no need to panic. We think it’s going to be a long series and we have to take it one game a time and hopefully get a win on Thursday.”
Meanwhile, the third-seeded Yankees (20-10) are looking for another great weather night and a great crowd to go along with another clutch performance when the series resumes.
“It was great to jump out on top and win Game 1 and we need to keep swinging the bats,” said veteran Allen Umbenhauer, a Whitehall High grad who had three hits and a key two-run double in the first inning. “We knew this is going to be a tough series. We just have to keep rolling. I’ve been in this league for roughly a decade and this is fantastic. You can’t beat the competition and a playoff atmosphere like this is so much fun. I’ve spent many hours in this park growing up and it’s always great to come back here.”
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