Centerfield

Written the week of May 11-17, 2026

Rehab assignments galore!

An early 1^st game of the series between the Corpus Christi Hooks and the 2^nd place Amarillo Sod Poodles will feature a bevy of Astros players. Josh Hader, closer, Jeremy Peña, shortstop, and Jake Meyers, center fielder, are all in town this week. I’m excited to see those players here, but midweek games will have bigger crowds, and I may not get to sit in my favorite rocker in left field’s Goodwill Zone.

I did sit in my favorite rocker for game 1, but the game turned out to be another exciting disappointment. Ah, but I’ve given you the ending before I’ve given you any account of the game. Shame on me.

Let me make some observations from game 1. Jake Meyers played center field for the Hooks. He is the rehabbing Astros center fielder, and he exemplified what it was to play center field. Twice he caught fly balls for outs. Nothing new or different about that.

It’s what he did before he caught the balls that set him apart from other outfielders. When he yelled, “I got it. I got it. I got it!” everyone in the ballpark knew he would get it. He was loud, clear, and decisive.

In recent games, balls dropped between players resulted in hits simply because no one took charge of the situation. Meyers took charge quickly and firmly.

Astro Jeremy Peña played shortstop in this game as expected. He’s in Corpus Christi for the first time due to an injury suffered in early April. Hopefully yesterday’s game didn’t set him back, because he had the worst luck on the field that I’ve seen here.

In the 6^th inning, Amarillo’s Angel Ortiz hit a double into right center. Yamal Encarnacion scooped up the ball and fired it to 2^nd base, where Jeremy Peña tried to catch it. In the effort, he and Ortiz collided, flipping Peña. It looked awful, but he seemed to be fine.

In the bottom of the 6^th, Peña got hit by a pitch. He was replaced by a pinch runner and done for the day. As of this writing, I don’t know how done for the day he is.

John Garcia, our catcher, made two great throws during the game. In the 6^th, Angel Ortiz got a good jump in an attempt to steal third. Garcia snapped a throw to 3^rd baseman Trevor Austin, who applied the tag for an out.

In the 7^th, Garcia made a quick throw to 3^rd to catch Danny Serretti napping for out number 2 in the inning.

The pitching throughout the whole game was splendid until the 8^th inning. The bats were less than splendid. Ellen, following the game at home, commented that 0-3 was the most common description of a Hooks player as he came up to bat.

In the top of the 8^th, this was the sequence of Sod Poodle at bats: Walk. Hit. Sacrifice bunt. Sacrifice fly. Score. Hit to 3^rd, throwing error. Score. Ground out.

In the bottom of the 8^th, our batting sequence: Pop foul out. Strikeout swinging. Strikeout looking.

In the 9^th inning, I asked, “Why do new pitchers have a hard time throwing strikes?”

The reason for that question happened after newly arrived Jose Guedez walked the bases loaded after getting two outs. He finished his first Double A relief appearance with a strikeout. My actual note from the game: K…Yayyyy!

In the bottom of the 9^th, the atmosphere became charged with possibility. Meyers lined out. Bush singled. Sullivan singled. Max Holy walked. Bases loaded, one out, let’s go Hooks!

The final score was 2-0, and without giving the final two at bats, you now understand “another exciting disappointment.”

Would the next day be another exciting disappointment? This time I’ll let you decide at the end.

Wednesday was Education Day at Whataburger Field, and the atmosphere resounded with the cheers and chatter of a few thousand schoolchildren. They owned the lower confines of the ballpark, so I was banished to the Cotton Club seats along with other season ticket holders. Banishment actually saves me from my tendency to sit in the sun and bake. Not that I’m trying to get a tan. I just like those rockers in left field so much.

When you go to a midday game in the spring, you will join schoolchildren, loads of them, and you’ll hear from Spongebob Squarepants often. My first experience of this was in Davenport, Iowa, at Modern Woodmen Park, current home of the Quad City River Bandits.

You are also guaranteed loud, high-pitched screams and constant movement in the stands. I’ve attended Education Day games in Frisco, Texas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Springfield, Missouri; possibly San Antonio; and, of course, Corpus Christi. The team mascot dancing on the dugout will draw more attention than the players in the dugout and on the field.

As for me, having my social butterfly movements restricted made me grumpy before the game. I got there early. The music was too loud for me to hear my audiobook. I couldn’t get my ticket signed by a player. I couldn’t sit in my rocker. I couldn’t talk to the left fielder. Gripe. Gripe. Gripe.

Then the game started, and I was anxious, dying on every Hooks mistake, and blissfully happy.

Bryce Mayer was our starting pitcher. He walked the leadoff batter after getting ahead in the count 1 ball to 2 strikes. I felt like that was an ominous start to the game, but Will Bush fired to second to catch the runner stealing, and Mayer retired the next two batters for a 1-2-3 inning. Things were looking up.

Our bottom half of the inning went strikeout, single, strikeout, steal, strikeout. The strikeouts were a troubling sign of things to come.

Things got worse in the top of the 2^nd. The leadoff batter, Angel Ortiz, walked then stole second. Jansel Luis struck out. Druw Jones walked. Gavin Conticello grounded out, advancing the two baserunners. Gavin Logan was hit by a pitch. Bases loaded. Two outs!

Junior Franco walked, and a run scored. Mayer had his tough inning early and was done for the day. Michael Cuevas entered in relief.

A hit in the gap between 1^st and 2^nd was knocked down by Yamal Encarnacion, but his throw to first from the ground went wild, and two more runs scored. A fly to right field ended Amarillo’s half of the inning.

The Hooks responded with groundout, strikeout, groundout, the 1-2-3 inning I dread.

A walk, stolen base, wild pitch, and sacrifice fly account for another run and a 4-0 lead for Amarillo. The Hooks responded with fly out, line out, strikeout, and another dreaded 1-2-3 inning.

Things changed in the 4^th inning, and the change was noticeable. This time the 1-2-3 inning belonged to the Hooks’ defense. The 3^rd out came when our relief pitcher Julio Rodriguez zipped a strike to 3^rd baseman Trevor Austin to catch baserunner Junior Franco stealing.

Our half of the inning started with a groundout and a fly out, but things got exciting after that. A double by Joseph Sullivan followed by a walk to Yamal Encarnacion set things up for Trevor Austin, who hit a double down the third-base line.

That double was the first quirky bounce that went the Hooks’ way this month. It was headed to the ready-and-waiting 3^rd baseman when it hit the bag and bounced over his head.

Tyler Whitaker grounded to the 3rd baseman for the 3^rd out. The noticeable thing about the inning? No strikeouts!

We closed the gap to 4-3 in the 4^th, again recording no strikeouts by the Hooks batters.

In the 7^th, Amarillo would get a triple and a 2-run homer to go up 6-3. Corpus Christi would get one back when Jeron Williams doubled down the right-field line and scored on a Will Bush single. Again, the noticeable thing showed up, no strikeouts, and that would remain true until the 1^st out of the 9^th. At that point, the score was 6-4 in favor of Amarillo.

Here is the sequence of at bats in the bottom of the 9^th. Walk. Steal. Walk. Strikeout. Single, Whitaker scores. 6-5. Things are getting exciting.

Walk. Bases loaded. Very hot now. Walk. Guillemette scores. 6-6. At least we wouldn’t lose the game in the 9^th. Strikeout. Two outs, but we weren’t going to lose just yet.

Yamal Encarnacion walked. Will Bush scored. Game over. Hooks win, 7-6.

Not another exciting disappointment, and, oh, the joy of a Hooks’ winning celebration.

The next day, I arrived 90 minutes before game time and connected with Bobby Bell, the hitting coach. We had a 15-minute conversation while he prepared for the team’s batting practice in the indoor facility. He confirmed a lot of the observations I’ve shared in previous articles.

Game 3 of the series didn’t go well for the Hooks, and they lost 6-1. At this point, I have a hard time seeing how they’ll continue the upward movement of getting more hits and improving the team batting average, but they showed me a lot of promise in their game 2 win.

For me, I engaged in a lot more conversations while the game went on, as I sat in the first row near the on-deck circle. My fellow fans and I talked about eating a McDonald’s burger across the street from the Vatican, traveling to distant lands, the just released NFL schedule, the Raiders, and Selena.

Concerning the Queen of Tejano music, a Selena tribute band played after the game, and knowing that prompted me to ask if anyone had seen the movie starring Jennifer Lopez. Fred, a good friend, pointed to the guy to my right, and said, “He was the band’s sound guy.”

I asked the guy, “Was the movie fairly accurate?”

“Not really.” He mentioned the part in the story where someone got fired. He commented that it wasn’t just the one guy, but everyone got fired when Selena’s dad found out she’d eloped and the band hadn’t warned him.

Jeremy Peña returned to the lineup on Friday night and played well but hit like a Hook. In other words, he joined the troubling trend of striking out. The team totaled 16 strikeouts, which I believe is a season high. How they’ll overcome bad swings to raise their team batting average mystifies me, yet I believe they will.

By the middle of the 7^th inning, when the final notes of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” had died, I was ready to go home. A 3-run homerun in the top of the 7^th deflated me. The Hooks trailed 6-2 and didn’t show signs of improving. Yamal Encarnacion had 2 of the 3 hits, Trevor Austin getting the other as the leadoff batter in the 2^nd. That would be all the hits for Corpus Christi through 7 complete innings.

In the 8^th, Yamal Encarnacion could not be ignored. At the top of the inning, Peña fielded a grounder and flipped to Encarnacion, who relayed the throw to Guillemette at 1st for a double play. Encarnacion’s catch and throw were baseball artistry on display in one fluid motion.

In the bottom of the 8th, Yamal doubled. Yamal stole 3rd. Yamal scored on a Max Holy single. 6-3.

Max stole 2nd. Max went to 3rd on a throwing error. Max scored on a double by Trevor Austin. 6-4.

In the 9th, Amarillo lined out, struck out, and grounded out. Ahh! A 1-2-3 inning that I could live with. The score remained 6-4.

The Hooks struck out, struck out, and, with two outs, Yamal happened. He walked and raced home on Max Holy’s double. 6-5, and Joseph Sullivan stepped to the plate.

I was in left field, exactly where I said prior to the game that I would be. Joseph and I had talked outside the Hooks’ batting facility about him hitting a home run. My last words to him were, “Then I’d have to start calling you the Babe.”

That conversation returned to me at the end of the 8th, because, as unlikely as it appeared, he could get an at bat in the 9th. Spoiler alert: He did not earn the Babe that night, and we lost 6-5.

Here’s the thing, though. I don’t recall ever leaving a game so energized by a loss. The team is exciting to watch, and someday I will be calling Sullivan the Babe. You keep with me and the team, and we’ll all find out when that happens.

The energy carried over to the next night, but not at first. In the 4^th inning, Amarillo had a 2-run homer to take the lead, but Corpus Christi responded when Lucas Spence scored on a Max Holy sacrifice fly.

In the fifth, the Hooks had a fielding error that eventually cost them another run and made it 3-1 Amarillo. The same player would make another more costly error the next day.

On Wednesday the quirky ball had bounced our way. On Saturday, the errors ended up in our favor as well. Amarillo made a costly one that opened the door to an inning that began with Yamal Encarnacion hitting a double to left field and ended with him bunting into the 3^rd out. Between his two at bats, the Hooks scored seven runs, including a home run blast by Trevor Austin.

In the 7^th inning, Trevor would make, to me, the play of the game. It’s difficult to describe the magnificence of his fielding. The box score reads: Cristofer Torin grounds out, third baseman Trevor Austin to first baseman Will Bush.

On that play, Torin blistered a grounder down the 3^rd base line. Trevor lunged to his right, snagging the ball while doing a full body layout. From the ground, he quick-fired toward first just in time for the force out.

In the 8^th, Will Bush caught a grounder and stepped on first for an unassisted out. Later I commented to Ellen that Will was fielding his position well. With runners on 1^st and 2^nd, he snared a line drive then stepped on first for an unassisted double play. My comment to Ellen, with a nod toward first, “Just like that!”

The Hooks rolled to a 9-4 win.

The final game of the series went quickly, with both teams pitching well and giving up only 5 hits each. The Hooks played excellent defense and led 3-1 going into the 9^th. It looked like we’d be going home before seven.

Then the “more costly error” happened, turning a possible double play into runners at 1^st and 2^nd, no outs. A sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position followed by a wild throw to first ended up scoring a twice-baked unearned run.

What do I mean by twice baked? Two errors in a row turned three probable outs into a run. Those two errors also meant the 2-run lead was about to evaporate. It did, resulting in a 2-run deficit going into the bottom half of the 9th. A strikeout, ground out, fly out later, game over, Amarillo 5-Hooks 3.

I wondered earlier how the team batting average would improve this week. It didn’t. The Hooks dropped from .231 to .226 and fell back into the #9 slot in the Texas League rankings.

The pitching that had the most strikeouts two weeks ago dropped another rung as well, from #2 to #3. Who moved up?

Amarillo! Now Springfield, who played us in the previous series, and Amarillo, who played us this past week, have both moved up courtesy of our own bats.

I say “we” and “our” as if I were on the team roster, but that is the nature of being a fan of any team. You have a sense of ownership. I am on the field with every pitch of the ball and swing of the bat.

Oh, put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Put me in, coach
I’m ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield

                                        —John Fogerty

Amarillo Sod Poodles 2-Corpus Christi Hooks 0                         L

Amarillo Sod Poodles 6-Corpus Christi Hooks 7                         W

Amarillo Sod Poodles 6-Corpus Christi Hooks 1                         L

Amarillo Sod Poodles 6-Corpus Christi Hooks 5                         L

Amarillo Sod Poodles 4-Corpus Christi Hooks 9                         W

Amarillo Sod Poodles 5-Corpus Christi Hooks 3                         L

Texas League South standings

Midland                           22-17

Amarillo                          20-18

Frisco                              20-18

Corpus Christi                  17-22

San Antonio                     14-25