Rodgers Returns to Bench; Vigilantes Lose Again

Buck Rodgers, the manager of the Vigilantes, stood on the field at Saddleback College signing autographs and giving lessons in manners.

Rodgers, who rejoined the team Sunday after missing a little more than a month after the death of his mother in an automobile accident in Ohio, made sure each child that approached him said “please” and “thank you.”

“Those are magic words you know,” he said over and over.

Rodgers hopes to teach the Vigilantes, who are in a bit of a funk, some basic baseball lessons in the second half of the season.

Salinas scored three unearned runs in the sixth inning and went on to win, 7-3, in a Western League baseball game.

The game, which started the second half of the season, also produced the Vigilantes’ fourth consecutive loss to Salinas.

Still, just to be on a baseball field was a good feeling for Rodgers, who had been helping his father, injured in the accident, back to health.

“Sure I’m glad to be back,” Rodgers said. “I’m happy to be any place after where I’ve been. After my father started to get better I talked with [interim manager] Brad [Lesley] a few times. But before that, I could care less about anything except my father.”

The Vigilantes (18-28) made several moves in Rodgers’ absence, but the team still is not doing too much right. The Vigilantes hit .269, seventh best among the league’s eight teams, and had a 4.79 earned-run average (fifth best) and made 54 errors in the first half.

Left fielder Alan Burke was the only player among the offensive leaders in the first half, which ended Saturday. He hit .348 (sixth best) in 45 games and tied for fourth with 44 runs batted in.

“We really just need to win a few ball games,” Rodgers said. “We need to get our infield and outfield set and we’re having some tryouts and we’re looking at some guys to see if they are better than what we have.”

Sean Drinkwater, who has played third base, second and now shortstop, was struggling early on. He took a week off last month and worked with Assistant General Manager Bobby Grich. Since then, Drinkwater has shown some of the skills that helped him reach triple-A last season.

Drinkwater had a home run and single in four at-bats Sunday and is 17 for his last 54 (.315) and has raised his average to .231. He had been hitting .191 before that.

On the down side, Drinkwater’s throwing error led to three unearned runs that gave Salinas a 5-0 lead in the sixth inning.

Sam Taylor, who had driven in 10 runs in his last 10 games before Sunday, followed Drinkwater’s homer with a double in the sixth and later scored on Bret Barberie’s sacrifice fly.

Things looked promising in the eighth when Drinkwater singled and Taylor pulled a ball down the right-field line. Although Drinkwater reached third, Taylor was thrown out trying for second.

Burke struck out and Barberie popped up to end the inning. Corey Parker had two hits, including a double, and scored a run for the Vigilantes.

“We’re constantly trying to improve,” Rodgers said, “We’re a line-drive hitting team. We’ve just got a few guys trying to do too much.”

Notes

Sunday’s game, which was supposed to start at 1:05 p.m., began at 5:35 because Salinas’ bus broke down. The team didn’t arrive in Mission Viejo until 3:15 p.m. Sunday. The Vigilantes have announced that fans who had tickets but couldn’t attend at the later time can use their tickets for any of the next three games, all 7:05 p.m. starts. . . . Reuben Smiley, who refused to be traded to Salinas, was released. Smiley, a center fielder, was hitting .254 with 24 runs scored and eight stolen bases. Catcher Carl Nichols was activated as was catcher Chris Briones, who played at Brea Olinda High and Chapman University.