You can probably debate it. But it's a debate. you will likely lose. Alaric Wullenweber is the second greatest pitcher in Brewster Baseball History. He's the greatest not named Steve Nebraska. The WAR pundits might argue John Ross Riles, Jr. was better. While he was good, he was no Wullenweber.
And now that second greatest pitcher of all-time has decided to hang up his cleats for good and call it a career. At the "young" age of 42, Alaric Wullenweber has retired from baseball. The announcement came just after the conclusion of the 2062 Brewster Championship Series.
He calls it a career after tallying a career 310-201 overall record with a 3.58 earned run average. He'll retire as the all-time leader in career starts with 713. He'll finish 2nd in several other categories including those 310 wins, innings pitched with 4581.2 total, and strikeouts with 4,545. All of which rank behind Nebraska. His 6 Nebraska Awards also come in 2nd overall. The final one, captured with Portland during that magical 2059 campaign, put him above several arms one could argue were better than Alaric. Again, they'd be wrong.
Perhaps what makes Wullenweber's career so great as well is the fact he never missed a start. And that isn't much of an exaggeration. The guy was rarely hurt. He did have a knee injury back in 2050 that sidelined him for 2 weeks. But other than that, maybe a minor injury here or there was it. "You could always count on Alaric to make his start" stated Portland manager Mons Raider at Wullenweber's retirement announcement. "Even by the time he came to us and his age was rising, we knew Alaric would be out there every 5th day. We knew he would be durable and make it to the mound. People underestimate how valuable it is to be able to count on a guy to do his job day in and day out." Wullenweber started at least 30 games in all of his 22 seasons except for one. That one being his rookie season back in 2041 when he started 28.
"It's time for me to say goodbye to the game that's been very good to me over the years" said Alaric at the press-conference. "I've loved this game and I think it's loved me back. As for what my future holds, I'm not really sure. I need time to process being away from the game for a bit and spend time with my family. Will I come back and coach? I don't know yet. No one has really reached out to me but at the same time, this decision wasn't one I really made known. Sure, I could have hung on for one more year perhaps, announced it to the league, received a bunch of free gifts as we traveled from stadium to stadium, but that's not me. I think I have enough baseball memorabilia back at home" Wullenweber concluded with a grin and a wink.
"We'll always have that 2059 season" General Manager Chris Wilson stated at the press conference. "This guy is a sure fire, unanimous first ballot hall of famer. We wish him the best of wishes in whatever he decides to endeavor for the rest of his life. He's earned it!"
As Alaric stated, the announcement was a sudden one. Portland did control a team option for the 2063 season in which they could have brought Alaric back for $13 million. There was some speculation that the team's lack of success in 2062 may have been forcing the team to decline that option which would have made Wullenweber a free agent. Despite posting a 2.0 WAR in '62, Alaric didn't have his best campaign, going 8-12 with a 5.07 ERA. Perhaps spending the off-season looking for work didn't appeal to Wullenweber. The uncertainty of not knowing whether he'd pitch for a contender (who likely wouldn't pony up a big salary for an aged veteran) or pitching for a bad team looking to sell tickets (who'd maybe have the space to pony up for a Hall of Famer to tip his cap to the crowd every 5th game) likely didn't appeal to Alaric either.
Whatever the reason be, the second greatest pitcher in league history has retired!
