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Saturday's Daily Menu: Happy and safe Labor Day weekend to all!

All times Central; pitchers subject to change --

Nashville: LHP Dana Eveland at home vs. Round Rock (Astros), 5:40 PM pre-game; 6:00 gametime

Audio link:
www.nashvillesounds.com/listenlive/

Huntsville: TBD (times two) in a doubleheader at Birmingham (White Sox), 4:50 PM pre-game, 5:05 gametime; how will this 12-man staff staff be guided over 14 innings today, games Sunday and Monday, and then properly set up for the Chattanooga playoff series -- we'll see...

Audio link:
www.espn1450radio.com/

Brevard County: TBD (times two) at home in a double-dip vs. Daytona (Cubs), 5:00 PM -- TBD is busy today...

Audio link (opponent's) --
www.daytonacubs.com/

West Virginia: LHP Brandon Parillo at Hickory (Pirates), 5:50 PM pre-game, 6:00 gametime

Audio link:
www.sportsjuice.com/provi...e=wvpower.

Helena: RHP Roque Mercedes at Billings (Reds), 7:50 PM pre-game; 8:05 gametime

Audio (click on "Listen Live"):
www.helenabrewers.net/html2/index.php

Arizona: Season completed

This link will be included in each daily report when the Nashville Sounds and/or Huntsville Stars are scheduled to play. Normally it is updated an hour or two prior to gametime:

Nashville Media Notes (Adobe .pdf format):

www.nashvillesounds.com/pdf/notes.pdf

Following Nashville's lead, Huntsville now makes its media notes available as well, nice:

www.huntsvillestars.com/i...eNotes.pdf

NOTE: Huntsville notes haven't been updated as of this post since 8/24...

What a mess for Manatees' management -- the promised fireworks were to be "spectacular"...

Brevard County Site:

The Brevard County Manatees scheduled 6:00 PM doubleheader on Saturday, September 2nd was postponed due to downpours and flooding of the outfield. The game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday, September 3rd beginning at 12:00 PM (11:00 AM Central).

The fireworks will not be made up due to the final game being in the afternoon. Fans can still enjoy baseball though, because anyone holding a ticket for the Saturday night game can use that ticket for admission to the noon doubleheader on Sunday. September 3rd is the final game of the 2006 Manatees season and this is the last chance for fans to use any rain-out stamped tickets or tickets which were dated for a rain-out game during the season.

David Weiser's

www.starsboxscore.com/

WORST TO FIRST
STARS CAP OFF GREATEST COMEBACK IN HISTORY

It's the 1951 Giants, the 1967 Red Sox, the 1969 Mets and the 1973 Mets. It's all the miracles in baseball on a smaller stage.

I hope this time, this moment, this season, will forever be remembered by the impassive community that is Huntsville toward their team as the year of the Stars' miracle comeback....... Certainly, their most ardent fans can never forget this 2006 season........ Ask anyone who comes to the ballpark and they'll tell you what it was like the first half -- the erstwhile feeling of doom even before the first pitch is thrown, and the constant stream of opportunities blown on the field when the bases were loaded or runners in scoring position, and the chances to take a lead that were never realized.......
Fans will tell you of a team, rarely battered in games, that simply couldn't produce hits (the middle of the order could manage only a .211 average after 40 games) or score runs (2.73 per game in May).......

On June 22, Ryan Braun joind the team shortly after the 2nd half starts, but the Stars lose in 10 that night to Mobile, 8-7 in 10 innings. Three days later, Steve Hammond makes his debut with the Stars with a six-inning, three-hit effort won in the 9th inning, 1-0, on Lou Palmisano's two-out single to score Ron Acuna....... The next day, Yovani Gallardo makes his debut on the mound with seven scoreless innings, although the Stars lose 4-2. The Stars wake up in 5th place with a 3-5 record, but the three figures I've pointed to all along as being instrumental in this 2nd half success story are there.

The Stars leave Birmingham on July 8th with an 8-12 record after Jorge de la Rosa beats the Barons, 8-1 for his first win in the third of six rehab starts, but Huntsville climbs now into 3rd for the first time.........Then they lose six of their next 10 games, and after an 8-2 loss at Five County Stadium on July 22nd, they're 11-18 and back into 5th place........ The pivotal game, I'd say, came there the next day when they beat the Mudcats, 3-2 in 10 innings. Travis Phelps survives a bases-loaded, none-out situation by striking out Patrick Arlis before Jon Acevas hits into a 4-6-3 double play, Callix Crabbe-to Guilder Rodriguez-to Jeff Eure, to end the game........ After that, the Stars were 28-7...... Phelps, who came in with a 4.26 ERA, registers his first save. (Since that time, Phelps has given up just three earned runs in 20 2/3 innings, a 1.31 ERA)

On the emotional front though, it's a pair of 9-8 victories over the Chattanooga Lookouts on August 1-2, that mark the point, for me at least, where I thought, we can beat anyone now........ Corey Thurman, in a post-game interview, told Brett Pollock that one big reason for the 2nd half turnaround was the change in confidence level....... In both games, the Stars lost leads and had to come back in the 9th to win. That never happened in the first half. And at that moment, as you can see, the Stars found the confidence to win, and win they did indeed, going a record 22-5 in August......... After Friday night's division-clinching 6-5 victory, the Stars have won nine straight, their best winning streak since May 1992.

About a dozen Huntsville fans, mostly Boosters, and members of the Stars office staff were in attendance at Hoover Met to witness the occasion......... The Birmingham Barons came in as a pretty battered team....... Thomas Collaro (11, 51, .213) and Ricardo Nanita (8, 42, .286) were both injured. Nanita was placed on the DL August 24. As a result, the Barons' outfield consisted of a catcher, Wally Roaa, playing out there for the first time and Stefan Gartrell skipping two levels of A ball to fill in after hitting .308 at Bristol (Appa.).

Ryan Braun wasted no time getting the Stars in front after Steve Moss's leadoff single in the 1st inning. Braun blasted an 0-1 change-up high in the air to centerfield and over the 405' mark for a 2-0 lead. The Stars had a chance to pile on the damage after Brendan Katin singled, Brad Nelson walked, and Ron Acuna singled to load the bases, but Jeff Eure hit into a double play.

The game became a see-saw affair after that...... Micah Schurstein's RBI single in the 4th made it 2-1 and in the 5th, the Barons went ahead, 4-2 with a three-run rally that was started when light-hitting Wally Rosa hit a 1-2 pitch for a double that went all the way to the warning track in left-center, scoring Stefan Gartrell, who had led off the inning with a single....... After Eric Hollis moved Rosa to third on a grounder, Corey Thurman tried to pick up Chris Getz's sacrifice bunt on the bare hand in front of the mound but could not, and it scored Rosa, putting the Barons in front, 3-2....... Getz stole second. Then with two out, Michael Myers, a 4-for-8 hitter against Thurman, grounded a single up the middle to score Getz to make it 4-2.

But the Stars came back in the top of the inning to tie it back up, 4-4..... Brad Nelson drove Whisler's first pitch down the right field line toward the corner for a single. Ron Acuna sent him to third with a double to right on the first pitch he saw. Gartrell tried to make a diving catch, but in stretching out to make what nearly was a great catch, the ball got out of his glove and made its way to the wall....... After Jeff Eure struck out on a change, Lou Palmisano bounced a 1-0 pitch to the hole on the left side for a single, extending his hitting streak to a season-high six, and scoring Nelson........ Then with two out, Steve Moss knotted up the score with a double on a 2-1 pitch to Wally Rosa who made a long run for it in left, but the ball landed in front of him..... Callix Crabbe walked to load the bases, but Ryan Braun flied out on a long drive to right to end the inning....... At this point, the Stars had stranded eight runners.

Gerrit Simpson came on in relief of Thurman in the 6th and quieted the Barons down, giving the Stars a chance to take the lead in the 7th with Dwayne Pollok now in relief for Birmingham....... Singles by Katin and Acuna set Jeff Eure up to make amends for hitting into a double play and striking out twice........ On a 1-for-20 slump, Eure bounced a timely double past a diving Myers at short, giving the Stars a 5-4 lead, his team-leading 54th RBI, but the Stars once more couldn't take advantage of the situation with Eure at 2nd and Acuna on 3rd. Palmisano and Chavez both grounded out to end the inning.

Birmingham, of course, came back to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th........ With the bases loaded and one out, Chris Getz hit a ball to Ozzie Chavez that he could have caught on the fly, but Chavez risked everything on the double play by taking the ball on the hop, hoping he could get the double play, and retire Getz that way........ He didn't....... Getz, the team leader in stolen bases with 19, beat the relay to first and Stefan Gartrell scored to tie the game and eventually send it into extra innings, but all's well that ends' well.

The Stars didn't rest on Saturday....... They went after the Barons, 11-1, in the first game of a double-header to make up for a July 28 rain-out, but lost the second game, 5-1, ending a 10-game winning streak --- the longest since July 1989. The record of 12, set in 1988, was also broken up by the Barons in a game that was televised. I still have the tape....... The game was not broadcast on ESPN-1450. I couldn't get it on Eyecentric, the Stars other internet link, nor could I pick the game up from the Barons' web site, so I can't tell you anymore about the game than you already know, unless you were there. But catcher Carlos Corporan made his Stars debut in the first game, hitting into a 2nd inning double play in his first at-bat in his new uniform. He did drive in a run in his next at-bat in a four-run 4th inning.......

Corporan and pitcher Mike Jones joined the Stars on Friday after a chain reaction of events that started when the Brewers called up Dennis Sarfate and purchased the contract of Vinny Rottino from Nashville. In turn, the Stars sent Luther Hackman and J.C. Boscan to Nashville....... Rottino made his major league debut Friday, becoming the 162nd former Star to graduate to the majors. He appeared in the 9th inning, striking out as a pinch-hitter for Francisco Cordero....... Rottino appeared as a pinch-hitter Saturday night as well, hitting into a force to end the game, a 9-6 loss -- the 9th straight for the Brewers.

Scott Martens, Business Manager for the Brewers' Minor League Operations and Development sent our Booster Club president Bill Billingsley his congratulations and gratitude for all the Boosters have done for the minor leaguers who have come through the system in the last seven years, and let him know in an e-mail message that the Brewers were extending their PDC with Huntsville........ The Brewers have also extended their relationship with Nashville, Brevard County, and Helena. Brevard got a four-year extension.

At 9:00 AM on Tuesday, the Stars office will open for full season ticket holders to pick up their tickets to the playoffs. That's a part of the benefits season-ticket holders have. If they want additional tickets, they'll have to pay, but they get first crack....... The series against Chattanooga opens on Thursday at BellSouth Park. Game 2 is Friday, Game 3 is at the Joe on Saturday, with 4 and 5 if necessary at the Joe, Sunday and Monday....... Should the Stars advance to the Championship series, Games 1 and 2 would be at the Joe with dates and times yet to be determined..

If you haven't seen it, go to the standings page and see, in numbers, how the Stars made their miracle climb to the top in the Southern League:

www.starsboxscore.com/standing.htm