Hold My Log - 53.04 - Ma, Where's the Meatloaf

[7teen]

I have to give credit where credit is due. Recte spouted off that line during the live Landis sim in 2051. Clearly from the movie "Wedding Crashers" but I had never put two and two together since the rest of Ma's name is Jiao-long and it never struck me to say Jiao-long Ma... where's the meatloaf. Though it does have me thinking I should spend a few PPs and make his name "Jiao-long "Where's the Meatloff" Ma.

But back to the task at hand, Ma is our top hitter for the 2052 season. In more honesty, I never saw Ma being the player he is but damn, he's came out of nowhere. If I had time to write more, I'd probably be flooding the TNs with Ma stories. Last season, Ma hit .308/.393/.581 with 33 homeruns and 89 RBI. Combined with great defensive play in the outfield, and it added up to an impressive career best WAR of 7.0 for the season (or 6.8 if you go off the team history page as 6.8 is the 3rd best in team history but 7.0 would have ranked 2nd best behind some guy named McBride). After a rookie season that saw Ma play in 108 games and post just a 0.2 WAR, he has had back to back seasons of 5.4 and 7.0 WARs and has now claimed his first ever top hitter award.

Ma also earned some other significant League Awards in 2052 as well. Ma was named the Frick League's top hitter and defensive player in LF for the 2052 season. It was both his first Puckett Silver Slugger Award and Zimmer Diamond Glove Award. He finished 3rd in the final Silk Award voting in the Frick League last season.

I'd be slacking if I didn't also give some credit to the guy who was next in line for the team hitter award. Carlomaria Donadoni stepped into the spot vacated by Ernest McBride and did a pretty good job. No one noticed it much because I dropped the ball on my TNs last season, but Donadoni hit .261/.323/.546 with a team high 50 homeruns and 134 RBI. The 50 homeruns were a career best for the 32 year old first baseman the the RBI were 7 shy of his career mark set back in 2045 when Donadoni was a member of the Jackrabbits in Edmonton.

[Dington]

Definitely worthy of a nickname. Love it