As the Stars finished their sweep of the Long Beach Surfers, the Valencia faithful took to the gates outside of Dunn Field with signs of 63 or bust. As the Stars are now sitting at 58-88, the possibility of having less than 100 losses are growing as the team would need to finish the season 5-11 to pull off the feat.
Unfortunately, the police had to be called when a segment of Shoeless fanatics barged into the crowd with signs saying “Only pansies set goals less than 81.” Evidently these fanatics refused to make the move to Cobble Hill and arrived four days early for the series between Valencia and Sacramento.
While needing a 5-11 finish doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch, the first four games are against the Pacific Division co-leader Hawaii Tropics. Although Valencia took three of four games from Hawaii the last time that the Tropics were in town, this series is in Hawaii. Also with Hawaii being tied with Portland and one game ahead of Bikini, one would think that the Tropics would be ready to heat things up.
For the next four games, things do not seem to be much better as Sacramento comes to town. Valencia is 1-9 against the Mad Popes so far this season.
The final eight games are against San Fernando and Vancouver. Valencia is a combined 10-10 against these two squads.
Doing the math, if the Stars can pull one out against either Hawaii or Sacramento and then split the final two series with San Fernando and Vancouver, then 63 wins can be had for the taking. Not lofty goals by any means, but sometimes you have to take what you can – or can’t – get.