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Piecing this game in detail is difficult, since the local newspaper here does such a sketchy job reporting away games. They're usually taken from sketchy AP reports. But the beautiful thing about a box score is that it's so efficacious. Some baseball fans can almost reconstruct a game from them, so the box score hides nothing. Just looking then from this box of July 5, 1998, you know you're sorry for missing this one, even if you had the excuse of being six hours away.

The visiting Stars were in the middle of a 3-game series at Hank Aaron Stadium and playing .500 ball early in the second half. Chris Enochs, who had gotten off to a promising start to the season, going 6-1 with a 2.74 ERA, was on his way to wearing his elbow out. The Bay Bears roared out of the gate, scoring seven runs and knocking him out after the next inning.

The Stars, hitting a healthy .286 to this point in the season, started fighting back. Two in the 2nd, three more in the 3rd, but after four innings, Mobile held a sizeable 12-5 lead.

The turning point for the Stars came in the 6th inning when Danny Ardoin belted a grand-slam HR off relief pitcher Al Drumheller, his 3rd grand-slam HR of the season, tying a record held by Jose Canseco. Mobile scored in the bottom of the inning, but their lead now slimmed down to 12-10.

Kevin Gunther's solid relief held the Bay Bears scoreless for two innings, but the Stars still found themselves behind by two runs in the top of the 9th and facing Jim Sak.

Earlier in the year, Jim Sak had the job of preserving a 6-3 lead for the Bay Bears, only to blow it by walking four straight hitters, then striking out a pair before giving up a fatal game-winning hit to Jose Ortiz for a 7-6 Stars victory. That made it to #17 on my list.

With two out and the bases loaded, T.R. Marcinczyk, batting .284, the Stars' leading home run hitter, was looking for a fastball. Sak left one up in his zone and T.R. got wood on it.

"The way the ball carries here, I wasn't really looking for a homer," Marcinczyk said after the game.

But out it went.

Marcinczyk's grand-slam and Danny Ardoin's 7 RBIs carried the Stars to an exciting, dramatic 15-12 win over Mobile to put the Stars a game over .500, and come within a game of 1st place Mobile.

Sad Sak finished the year 2-5 with a 5.14 ERA, a real reality check from a California League season in 1997 in which he saved 27 games for Rancho Cucamonga and earned an All-Star nod. He regained his form the next season and was promoted to Mobile, but his trail ends abruptly.

After a February trade to the Pirates that included John Vander Wal, an arm injury finished his career. A rehab session in the Gulf Coast League failed, and it was all over.

T.R. Marcincyzk picked up his career in the A's organization with Midland, their new AA affiliate, where he became an All-Star 1st baseman, hitting .279  with 23 HRs and 111 RBIs. He was traded to the Twins for catcher John Schaeffer, June 3, 2000. The Twins released him after a 2-for-16 start with Class AA-New Britain (East.) in 2001, but he continued his career with the independent Northern League, where he hit .258 for Fargo-Moorhead and that's the last we hear of Marcinczyk.

The Stars, of course, wound up battling the Bay Bears for the Western Division title in 1998, losing in three games. T.R. was 2-for-11. Sak did not appear in any of the three games.

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