Riyadh breaks the Opening Day drought
Well, it isn’t a winning week, but for once it’s not a losing week either which is probably good after 2047’s 1-3 opening record.
For the third year running the Red Crescents opened the season at home to Manama, it wasn’t looking promising as we are 0-2 so far in this Opening Day fixture. “Bancroft Boy” Jose Lima was handed the ball and by the middle of the fourth innings it was looking a damn sight worse as Lima had coughed up six hits, five unanswered runs and been taken out the game. Thankfully the offence started firing and seven doubles helped the Red Crescents to plate eight unanswered runs to turn the game around as the bullpen used a quartet of relievers to keep the Pearls from adding to their five runs. Masaki Sato failed to homer but hit two doubles while Rule 5 DH Umar Mutemi scored three times and drove another in. Old man Jamie Ramirez was in the lead-off spot and went 3-5 to mark the start of his 17th big league season. The game was watched by 27,753, just 181 short of the Red Crescents highest ever attendance set on Opening Day last year in this fixture. We have currently sold 9,139 season tickets, 837 shy of last year’s best ever total despite adding a couple of dollars and small change to the cost of each game. Our money men tell me if the fans stick with us we should over double our revenue per game and push our average attendance through the stratosphere.
Unfortunately, the rest of the week wasn’t all honey & roses, but we managed to split two game jaunts to Baghdad and Tripoli, although we will open the next period with the rubber game of the Tripoli series. We even managed our first shut-out of 2048 with the final game as Lima redeemed himself, pitching into the sixth innings, giving up six hits and two walks, but nothing else. Sato failed to get an opening week homer but Diesel “All-Star” Dave made up for him, sending three into the stands and increasing his BBA & UMEBA home run total to 247. The league honoured him with the first BURT Player of the Week Award of 2048 for that and his .350 batting average. A few of our players need to wake their ideas up in the field, five have been charged with an error already while Jose Montano has our only stolen base so far.
Bert Hackworth will be activated off the IL and will replace Raymond Ortiz in the rotation, Ortiz is 0-1 already and has given up four runs and six walks in just four innings. Thanks to the “Bancroft Fix” release of the very disappointing Juan Rodriguez we were able to bring in 28-yr-old lefty Jake Garcia on a $7.4m two-year deal. He has seven years’ experience in the BBA with Omaha making 208 appearances, all but 25 out of the ‘pen. He will be replacing 33-yr-old Sean Gardner as the long man, proving there is no loyalty in Riyadh, Gardner is the Red Crescents all time win leader (just 15 wins) and strikeout leader with 161.
2048 Riyadh Results against the UMEBA
Vs BURT
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baghdad | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 12 | 1-1 |
| Beirut | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Jerusalem | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Manama | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 1-1 |
| Team | HW | HL | AW | AL | RF | RA | Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athens | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Bucharest | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Cairo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Mumbai | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Tripoli | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | 1-1 |
