Sun sets on summer for T'birds

On his first free Sunday away from the ballpark in over two months, Phil Swimley was watching his granddaughter play in a softball tournament.

Such is the life of a baseball lifer.

The Solano Thunderbirds manager completed his fourth season coaching the wooden-bat college players at Travis Credit Union Park, guiding the T'birds to a 30-20 record. The Thunderbirds won 10 of 12 games to close the season - including seven straight to start the surge.

"I was pleased with the way we finished," Swimley said on Sunday afternoon. "Toward the end, guys made their move. (Pat) Cummins had a three-hit game toward the end. There were other times where he didn't get three hits in a week.

"If we could start these guys where we are now, it would be a lot of fun. We should make this the preseason and then continue playing. Of course, there's no way to do that. They have to go back to school."

But this year's version of the T'birds still struggled on occasion.

"At times they showed greatness, but the next day they'd be horrible," T'birds assistant coach Conley Gibson said. "They were a pretty good group of guys. They weren't naturally as good as last year's team (that went 41-9). For this club, I would've been satisfied with 25-25. Winning 30 games was a bonus."

Several T'birds made considerable strides, including former Vacaville High School standout Domonique Rodgers.

"Domonique Rodgers ended up batting .250," Gibson said. "At the beginning of the year, he was hitting less than .200. Then he started creeping out of it. Later on, he started making good contact and started hitting doubles and triples. He had a good second half."

Eli Rimes and Jake Jeffries made some of the biggest improvements among hitters, according to Swimley. Jeffries saw his average climb from .273 at the halfway point before finishing at .336. He went 5-for-5 on Friday with two RBI on Friday. Rimes was batting .307 heading into the last week.

Mike Hernandez started strong before struggling in the final weeks. He started the year batting .395 after the first 15 days. Most of the season, he hovered between .388 and .364, according to Gibson. In the the span of a week, Hernandez's team-leading .355 batting average fell to .321.

Also, Ryan Parker's batting average improved from .137 at the halfway point to a more respectable .226.

Justin Parker led Solano in hitting with a .363 batting average. But the everyday third baseman had 19 errors in 118 chances.

"He had great fielding all year. But on his throws, he had a tendency to make the ball go right," Gibson said. "We tried to correct his motion, but we didn't want him to think too much and start kicking the ball around."

The hitters would watch film of themselves and then watch at bats of major leaguers, where Swimley and the other coaches would point out the differences and suggest adjustments for the T'birds.

"Film brings points home a lot better than trying to verbalize it," the former UC Davis skipper said.

Matt Long proved to be the ace on the mound. He went 5-1 with 88 strikeouts and 26 walks. His only loss was in the 2-0 season-finale to the San Jose Seals on Saturday.

Jason Zinser went 5-2 with 57 strikeouts and 30 walks.

"Jason Zinser, he's like an atom bomb. There's a lot of energy there and he began to control it more and more," Swimley said. "He may have as much upside as any of the guys we've had here."

Mitch Lively had a 2-1 record with a 2.00 ERA on 54 strikeouts and 18 walks before going back to Sacramento State for football practice. Lively is a punter.

Swimley was also pleased with the improvement of Andy Boas (2-1 record, 36 strikeouts, 13 walks, ERA under 2.30).

"At the end, he was throwing strikes and was really competitive," Swimley said. "He made some changes that helped him a lot. We worked on his balance.

"The word coming in on him was that he was always off-balance and he couldn't throw strikes. He had a good arm but he couldn't get the ball where he wanted it to go. There were a couple things we did with his motion that maybe helped. He ended up being real competitive. He can be a real competitive college pitcher."

For all of this team's struggles, Swimley and his staff accomplished what they wanted to do - improve another group of college players. After all, 19 T'birds have been drafted in the past four years, an impressive number that speaks to the quality of players who pass through Travis Credit Union Park. Teaching a new group of players every summer has been most rewarding for Swimley.

"That's the fun part of it. You get one shot at them for a short period of time," the manager said.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.