Bobby Beat 2003 v5: Season Wrapup: The Good

[jiminyhopkins]

Well, can anything be considered "good" for a team that, once again, finished in third place? Of course. There are always good aspects to a season, no matter how hopeless things may have become. There were more than a few good aspects to the Bobs' 71-91 season, but these three stand out:

Attendance
Washington drew over 2.5 million fans to the ballpark this past season. No, it's not very impressive compared to the heavy hitters, but it's the best figure since the 2000 season, and a 15% improvement over last year. This shows that, while the record is not much to be proud of, the club made the most of the situation with clever marketing and several exciting young players at or close to the major league level. An amazing (for a team 20 games under .500) home record of 43-38 definitely helped matters.

Jim Wilson
Much has been written about the likely 2003 JL Newcomer of the Year award winner. Jim Wilson is a personable, outgoing young player whose penchant for mammoth home runs and good-natured fun has endeared himself to DC area fans. Big swings abound when Wilson is at the plate and, despite his 161 strikeouts (4th most in the JL), the 24 year old slugger was ranked 4th in the league with 43 home runs and 6th with 121 RBI.

Ed Widdicombe
Widdicombe's story has already received a lot of press (including in the last issue of Bobby Beat). The one time failed starter was running out of chances, but a change to full time relief work saved his career and even earned him a 2 year contract extension. Only a couple of shaky September outings caused his ERA to swell into the upper 3's. Ed was one of the few bullpen options that could be counted on the whole season.

See? Plenty to cheer about, Bobwhite fans. That is, until you read the next two articles.

[recte44]

With a home record that good, you had an obscenely bad season on the road.
Yikes.