Through the first four months of this Atlantic League season, the Long Island Ducks had only one game postponed because of rain. The last week and a half has surely made up for this as the team was forced to cancel four games, including three straight early last week, due to persistent bad weather in the area. Ducks officials were left scrambling to immediately reschedule these games as well as the many special events which were planned for the holiday weekend. The decision was to play a doubleheader, the Ducks first of the season, last Thursday and to also play on Labor Day, which the team was originally scheduled to have off.

In the late stages of a season, many teams would have welcomed the extra days off in order to give some players a rest and the chance to recuperate injuries. However, this is not the case for Ducks manager Don McCormack, who believes that the schedule changes have affected his team's usual intensity and made it hard for them to build any momentum.

"In my mind, it has been a negative thing for us. For some reason we are not a team that comes back very good after a break in our regular routine. If it is a scheduled offday so be it, but we are better off going out there to play everyday regularly," McCormack said. "Unfortunately I don't think our record is very good after off-days and I know it is not very good after rainouts."

Initially, the cancellations did not seem to impact the Ducks in a bad way as the team went out and won a 1-0 pitcher's duel in the first game back after three rainouts in a row. The story of the game was Pat Ahearne throwing yet another gem for his 11th win of the season, which ties Lance Davis' team record set last year. In his last two starts, Ahearne has not allowed a single run over a combined 17 innings, and the right-hander continues to quickly move up the chart for league leaders in ERA. The Ducks pitching was just as good the next day as the team shutout Newark in both games of the doubleheader to sweep the series from the Bears by a combined score of 20-0.

Long Island got another solid pitching performance from Kevin Mannix the next night to begin their series with Somerset but ultimately lost by a run in extra innings. Then the rain returned to wash out Saturday night's scheduled game and this time the Ducks did seem to be adversely affected by the unplanned day off as they dropped their second game in a row on Sunday night.

However, on this particular evening, the big story was not the game itself, as the three millionth fan finally walked through the gates of Citibank Park.

"We are extremely proud that we have reached the three millionth fan mark in our seventh season," Ducks

owner Frank Boulton said, "This milestone is a testament to our organization and how the community has embraced us. We have the best fans in all of baseball and we look forward to making sure that everyone has a great experience every time that they come out to the ballpark."

The lucky person was 36-year-old Christine Seery of Wantagh who attended the game with her husband John and their three children Kevin, Allison, and Brian. Seery was presented with an official Ducks jersey, as well as a $5,000 check during the special ceremony, which was expected to take place two days earlier but kept being pushed back as a result of the rain.

"I was completely floored and excited," Christine Seery said, "We've come to a handful of games and decided to end our summer at a Ducks game. This is a great place to bring your family. It's easy to get in and easy to get out and it's kid friendly. We never expected to become the three millionth fan; this is a real exciting way to close out a great summer."

The next night it was back to work for the Ducks players as they looked to avoid the sweep in the Labor Day makeup game. Long Island took the field looking more like flamingos than ducks as the team, along with a large portion of the crowd, wore pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Night. For most of the game it looked like everything was going right for the Ducks and the team held a one run lead going into the eighth inning. Then a string of mistakes along with a poor performance by the Ducks usually reliable closer, Kevin Tolar, cost the team the lead and then the game. First, Juan Gonzalez showed little effort running the bases on a single by Dominick Ambrosini in the eighth inning. Gonzalez could have easily made it from first base to third but instead jogged slowly to second. He then proceeded to be picked off for the second out of the inning after the next batter came to the plate. Then in the ninth inning, an error by Ducks third baseman Erick Almonte led to Somerset scoring the eventual winning run.

"We made mistakes, it cost us runs, gave them runs, and we ended up losing the game," said manager Don McCormack, "These guys are human and they are going to make mistakes, but the real problem here is that we just keep sitting back and our intensity level is non existent right now. Hopefully these guys, with all of their experience, will snap out of it."

The late-inning collapse spoiled a solid effort by starting pitcher Byron Batson who was making his Ducks debut after just signing with the team two days earlier. After allowing a run on two hits in the opening inning, Batson settled in and allowed only one run and three hits through the next five innings, leaving the game with a lead that would not hold up. "I am sure he was a little nervous at first, but he has been in the league before and started to challenge hitters and throw strikes, he pitched pretty well tonight," said manager Don McCormack about Batson, who spent some time with the Bridgeport Bluefish over the last two seasons but had been pitching in the United League this year.

Despite the disappointing loss, the night was still for a good cause. The pink jerseys worn by the Ducks as well as the pink bats which many of the players used will all be auctioned off to benefit the 14 organizations that participated in the evening's breast cancer awareness program. As for the team itself, a week on the road awaits them after spending most of the last three weeks at home. The Ducks will play three games in both Newark and Somerset this week before returning to Citibank Park next Tuesday. "Right now the only thing that matters is playing consistently for the next twenty games, that is what it is all about," says Don McCormack, who admitted to being a little frustrated with the way his team has been performing, " R e gardless of who we are playing or whether we are at home or on the road, we have to play a whole lot better than we are right now."

Readers can write to Jason Eisenberg, c/o Fowl Ball, at 85 Broadway,Amityville NY 11701 or at acjnews@rcn.com