Playing in the Sand (2040-1)

[Fat Nige]

2039 Season Wrap

The post season had come to an end with a bump in Cairo for the third straight year. I suppose the Chariot Archers fans should think themselves lucky that every year of the UMEBA since its inception they have reached the playoffs, but somehow it still seems rough that no-one owns a Championship Ring. Maybe this year will be the year, it could be doubtful though, with new GM’s in Bucharest & Jerusalem they will be pushing hard to maintain the BANC’s evil eye over the BURT league.

In the UMEBA’s inaugural year Cairo never got past the League Championship Series but Manama went on to win the World Series for the BURT league, that is so far BURT’s only success. In both the last two years Cairo have battled through to the World Series but in 2038 they folded and went down 4-1 to Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it was the same story last year, having edged out Manama 4-3 in the BURT Championship Series they once more had nothing left in the tank and allowed Mumbai to trample all over them as they lost the series 4-1 again.

And so Cairo will go again, last year they had their biggest payroll ever at over $33 million, but there are doubts whether that is sustainable with the team only making a profit of $7 million. While a lot of the position players will be back with the team in 2040, the rotation has been decimated of its best players. Ramon Garza was poached in the BBA’s Rule 6 draft and Abel Gibson will be pitching in Beirut this year after the Chariot Archers just didn’t have enough cash in the well to pay even his modest demands. At least the loss of those two, the release of a few fringe players and the generosity of owner Ryan Bond who has contributed a modest few shekels to the pot Cairo will have a small war chest with which to scour the released lists.

There was a bit of silverware for the franchise though. Stelio Kontos won the BURT league manager of the year award, Garza won the Pitcher of the year award for the BURT, Caleb Benavides picked up the Reliever of the year award while Elijah Curry and Aubrey Anderson finished second & third in the Best BURT League Player award. LF Curry and 1B Mauro Garcia picked up Top Gloves whilst Cairo almost picked up a clean sweep of the Platinum Stick awards, collecting 7 out of the 9, only missing out on the 1B & 2B awards. Finally Curry & Garza were voted second and third best BURT league rookies. The Cairo crowd though proved to be a tough sell after all that, 91 wins, third successive playoffs and a bucket of awards but the crowd was still virtually 500,000 down on the previous year.

In the minors Nairobi won 112 games, one more than 2038, but couldn’t pick up their second successive World Series title as they lost to Luanda in Game 7. Taipei was always on a hiding to nothing after it was decided to go with a complete youth policy, they started well but faded in the second half of the season. They eventually won just 59 games but the outfield duo of Brody Weston & Kevin Cutting will have a good chance of an invite to Spring Training with the Chariot Archers