CAPS' A-TYPICAL YEAR GRADES LOWER; MCDOWELL ENDS STRANGE SEASON AT 26-12

It was definitely not a typical Capahas season in more ways than one this summer.

For starters, Cape Girardeau's highest-level baseball team had a new sponsor -- McDowell Motors -- and by all accounts that transition went extremely well.

"I couldn't be happier about what all the people at McDowell did for us this year," said Capahas manager Jess Bolen. "They really gave us a lot of support."

On the field, things were definitely a bit unusual.

First, the Capahas had more than 10 games either rained out or canceled because of other reasons.

Then Bolen had a hard time getting the majority of his players at quite a few of the games.

"In summer baseball, that's usually a problem," he said. "People have families and jobs and it's just hard to get everybody there at the same time.

"It's not that much of a problem if we're playing our usual amount of games. But with that many cancellations, then it's a problem because it's hard to stay sharp."

Next, the annual National Baseball Congress Mid-South Regional Tournament played in Cape Girardeau featured an unusually weak field that the Capahas romped through.

"I don't think anybody likes to see games like that," said Bolen.

And finally, the Capahas had one of their earliest exits ever from the NBC World Series in Wichita, Kan.

The Capahas lost Friday (to Liberal, Kan., 4-1) and Saturday (to Orange County, Texas, 8-2) as they were eliminated from the prestigious event on the first weekend for the first time in more than a decade.

"I think it's been about 12 years since we haven't won at least a game out there," Bolen said. "We just didn't play well and when you don't play well that's what happens."

The Capahas were hurt at the NBC World Series by a lack of timely hitting and poor defense.

"The majority of the runs we allowed were unearned. We made too many errors and they came at bad times," said Bolen. "We also couldn't come up with any really big hits. We left so many runners on base. You can't win scoring three runs in two games."

So the Capahas finished their 32nd season under Bolen with a 26-12 record. That's still impressive, but Bolen is the first to admit that he does not consider 1998 to be a banner season for his team.

"We play during the season to try and build up to doing well in Wichita and we didn't do well out there this year," he said. "I'm not going to make any excuses. We got beat twice and came home.

"But 26-12 is still a good record and I still think we had a pretty good season. It just wasn't up to some of the seasons the Capahas have had in the past."

Bolen said one of the things that hurt his squad this year is it just wasn't able to face consistently tough competition, primarily because several teams the Capahas have played in the past folded.

"I think we played (St. Louis) O.B. Clark eight times last year. They didn't have a team this year. And some other teams that were always good also folded," he said. "We weren't able to consistently face the kind of competition we had been used to playing and that's what you need when you go out to Wichita."

Bolen now has a 1,045-356 record in 32 seasons as the Capahas' manager. And he'll continue to build on that glittering mark for at least the near future.

"I still love doing this so we'll crank it up again next year," he said with a laugh. "And hopefully, if we're fortunate enough to get to Wichita again, we'll play a lot better."