A decade has passed since Jaime Bluma last pitched for the Anchorage Glacier Pilots, but serious spectators will notice time hasn't changed some things about the right-handed pitcher.
He still throws hard. And he still works fast. No landscaping of the mound with his cleats, no fiddling around with the ball, no nonsense of any kind. He gets the ball from his catcher and he throws.
Bluma, 31, returned to the Alaska Baseball League this summer as the Pilots pitching coach. But the Pilots have been short on arms as they await the arrival of all of their players, so Bluma has been a bullpen regular. In five games, he's made three appearances and has the only victory for the 1-4 Pilots.
"We're pretty thin on the pitching staff,'' Bluma said after throwing relief in the Pilots' season opener last week, "so if I've gotta suck it up for a few innings, so be it.''
Bluma's doing more than just sucking it up. He's shining. He has six strikeouts and no walks in 7 2/3 innings and sports a 1.17 earned run average. In an appearance last week, the opposing team clocked his pitches in the high 80s on a radar gun.
Bluma was an ace reliever while playing college baseball at Wichita State, where he set a school record for saves until his little brother Marc came along and broke it. Both spent time with the Pilots, Jaime in 1993 and Marc in 1997-98.
Jaime spent the 1996 season with the Kansas City Royals, collecting five saves in 17 appearances and putting up a 3.60 ERA.
That was his only season in the majors and soon after, he retired from pro ball. He stopped playing for a year or two, but last year, Bluma pitched for the Wichita Braves in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita. His claim to fame in that tournament: he pitched 22/3 innings and earned a save in a win over the Fairbanks Goldpanners, who went on to win the tournament by beating the Pilots in the championship game.
Injuries plagued Bluma for parts of his pro career, but the giant surgical scar that runs down one of his legs has nothing to do with baseball.
"I slipped and fell on a diving board and blew out my knee,'' he said.
On the ball
After a 2002 season of misadventures with the Baden brand of baseballs that players, coaches, umpires and team officials complained were a sorry lot, ABL teams have returned to using Diamond baseballs this season.
Complaints about the Baden balls ranged from how easily they became misshapen to inconsistent seams -- seams on some balls were higher than others -- to their general lack of durability.
"They would get whacked out of shape if they got hit hard, and they would cut easy,'' said Anchorage Bucs general manager Dennis Mattingly. "A ball that hit the backstop was done.''
The switch back to Diamond balls slightly raised the expense of balls for league teams. The Baden balls cost $32 per dozen last season, and the Diamond balls this season cost $32.50 per dozen. But Mattingly said that's money well spent because the Diamond balls will be more durable, and game-used Diamond balls will last longer for batting practice.
Mattingly said ABL teams purchased 790 cases of Diamond balls for this season. That's 9,480 balls at a cost of $25,675.
The runaround
One pitch at Mulcahy Stadium last Tuesday night prompted such a flurry of activity that no less than 12 players bolted into action at once.
The Beatrice Bruins of Nebraska had runners on first and third bases with one out in the top of second inning when Anchorage Glacier Pilots right-hander Mathew Jakubov threw his first pitch to No. 9 hitter Nathan Warrick to set things in motion.
Warrick put down a suicide squeeze bunt. Jakubov came off the mound and tried to quickly field the ball to make a play on base runner Drew Aguailar, who was headed home. But Jakubov fanned on the ball for an error, and Aguailar scored. Pilots third baseman Jonathan Oller fielded the ball and threw to first base, but too late to nab Warrick.
Meanwhile, Beatrice's John Day rounded second base and headed to third base, which was uncovered. Pilots shortstop Jose Ortega raced Day to third and, while on the run, caught the bold throw across the diamond from first baseman Jonathan Higashi in a scene that looked like baseball's version of a quarterback hitting a wide receiver in stride.
Ortega slapped a tag on Day for an out. While all this was happening, all nine Pilot position players were in motion, as were all three Beatrice base runners. And that one pitch resulted in a sacrifice bunt that doubled as a suicide squeeze, an error, an RBI and a rare 5-3-6 putout.
"That was just one of those things where you close your eyes and go, 'Holy smokes,' " said Pilots manager Kris Didion.
On Tuesday, the Pilots had another everybody-plays play.
With two outs and runners on first and second for the California Dons, Stuart Hyman hit a chopper over third base that scored Matt Guiliano, who beat the throw to the plate from left field. Hyman tried to advance from first to second on the throw, so the Pilots catcher threw to first base to start a rundown. Meanwhile, Chris Weems, California's other baserunner, advanced to third and was trying to score from third. That triggered another throw to the plate and another rundown, which ended when third baseman Jonathan Oller tagged out Weems.
The scoring on the play: 7-2-3-4-2-5.
And some folks think baseball is boring?
Food for thought
As the new chef at the Mulcahy Stadium concession stand, Annie Chavez has been on the receiving end of several culinary suggestions.
"You wouldn't believe what people have said we should get,'' she said. "Caesar salads, french fries ...''
French fries, of course, would require a fryer, and if you've ever stepped inside the small concessions area at Mulcahy, you notice two things: how cozy it is (in other words, how small it is and how quickly it fills up with just a handful of people inside) and how hot it can be. A fryer would turn the place into an oven.
So fans will have to content themselves with burgers, hot dogs, peanuts, nachos -- usual ballpark fare. If it's sushi you want, go to Safeco.
Sports editor Beth Bragg can be reached at bbragg@adn.com. Assistant sports editor Doyle Woody can be reached at dwoody@adn.com.
