JETHAWK REPORT : JetHawks Bombed Out Anyway

With no blowup, Tuesday night’s JetHawk game was completed Wednesday as just another blowout.

Prior to Wednesday’s regularly scheduled game, the JetHawks and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes finished off the Quakes’ 16-6 victory, which had been halted in the ninth inning Tuesday night because of a bomb threat.

After the threat was received at a pay telephone outside the Hangar, the stadium was evacuated and a crew of security guards searched the stadium for suspicious-looking packages. None were found.

Mike Ellis, the JetHawks’ owner, said he did not regret the decision to evacuate, no matter how unlikely it seemed that there was an actual bomb.

“Obviously your awareness is heightened by what happened at the Olympics,” Ellis said.

Said JetHawk relief pitcher John Thompson: “We were all pretty nervous because of what happened on the TWA flight and at the Olympics. In the back of your mind you think it’s a joke, but you still want to get the hell out.”

JetHawk Manager Dave Brundage, who figured he had seen just about everything in 11 minor league seasons, admitted a bomb threat was something new.

“It just leaves you numb at first,” he said. “You don’t know what to think. You think this only happens to other people. . . . My first thought was that it was just some disgruntled fan, but then it dawned on me that this might be real.”

On the bright side, Brundage said it made the game seem better.

“It kind of put everything in perspective,” Brundage said. “It was probably our worst performance of the year, but I don’t think it warranted a bomb threat.”

Saul Soltero, the Quakes’ pitching coach, was able to take a humorous look back at the threat: “What do you expect from a place where the mascot is named KaBoom?”

To discourage future bomb threats, the JetHawks have ordered all stadium pay phones be blocked from receiving calls and all the team’s office phones will have caller ID installed.

*

The JetHawks are off today, before beginning the final three games of the homestand Friday against the Lake Elsinore Storm.