Double Elvis Sighting Shakes Up The Rockies

Elvis has been spotted in Portland.

Hold it. Make that a double sighting.

Hound dog! The Portland Rockies lead the Northwest League in attendance, earned run average and Elvises.

Cosmic forces may be at work, too. During a game against Bellingham last week, Portland second basemen had a hunk-a-hunk of burning injuries. David Groseclose jammed his shoulder on a stolen-base attempt. His replacement, Glen Mayber, broke a bone in his hand when he was hit by a pitch. Both are expected to miss 2-3 weeks.

To help out Portland at second base, the Colorado Rockies demoted Elvis Pena from Asheville (N.C.) of the South Atlantic League.

Pena was inserted in Portland’s No. 9 spot, one batter after outfielder Elvis Jimenez. Yes, back-toback Elvises.

As the King himself might have intoned: “One for the money/Two for the show.”

Embarrassed visitors

The Atlanta Braves, in their first year in the NWL, have sent the big brass to check out the new acquisition in Eugene, Ore.

Among those attending Emeralds games this year are Braves president Stan Kasten, general manager John Schuerholz, minor-league assistant GM Chuck LaMar and minor-league assistant director of player development Rod Gilbreath.

What the top dogs have discovered is a team with the worst record (4-11, tied with Everett) and worst team batting average (.205) in the eight-team NWL.

Eugene is sixth in pitching (4.20 team ERA) and has committed 38 errors, secondworst behind Southern Oregon’s 41. The Emeralds also whiffed 120 times in their first 14 games.

Such statistics are not the mark of teams in the Atlanta organization.

“We’re committed to winning games (in Eugene) and we’ll keep moving guys around until we do,” Gilbreath promised.

Taking his hacks

Eugene may be loaded with hackers, but first baseman Steven Hacker isn’t one of them.

Hacker, whose 37 careers homers are third alltime in NCAA Division I, has already produced two prodigious blasts in the NWL.

One was Thursday, a 400-plus-foot shot at Yakima. The other, at the Ems’ home field, was an estimated 410 feet to dead center. The other person to accomplish that at Eugene was Bob Hamelin, last year’s American League rookie of the year for Kansas City.

Yak attack

Yakima has occupied first place in the league’s Northern Division for 91 consecutive games.

Last year the Bears had a two-pronged arsenal, with stingy starting pitchers and a league-best .269 batting average.

The new group can still hit (an NWL-tops .276, with eight players better than .300), but speed is the Bears’ hallmark. Yakima leads the league with 33 stolen bases (in 41 attempts), or 29 more than Spokane.

Tough talk

Everett may trail the Northern Division with a limp 4-11 record, but that hasn’t stopped the AquaSox from delusions of grandeur.

“We’ve played like a bunch of losers,” said Everett shortstop Chad Sheffer. “We have the best talent in the league, but some way and somehow we keep finding ways to lose games.”

Around the league

Everett has seven right-handed and eight left-handed pitchers on its rosters. The righties have allowed 17 homers, the lefties zero… . Portland’s Matt Whitley doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify for league statistics, but the shortstop is hitting .536 (15 of 28)… . Bellingham outfielder Greg Keifer is the grandson of former NFL star George Sauer Sr., whose son, George Jr., was a New York Jets receiver.

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