9-News: 37-011 – Pall Hangs Over Nine as Spring Baseball Starts

[RonCo]

One at a time, the guys are gathering at the Yellow Springs Nine spring training complex. The sun is shining, as it basically always does in Arizona. The wind breezes out to left. Voices of players chiding each other echo over the fields, the moans of muscles being used again, the creak and slam of locker doors slamming, and the smell of analgesic balm being applied to tender shoulders. So much is the same, it seems. And yet, under it all there’s a new vibe here that no one wants to voice out loud. There are faces missing up and down the roster, as well as in the coaching boxes.

Gone are Crash and Dynamite. Gone is the whippet lefty that was Jose Souza. Carlos Garcia isn’t making scowling faces in the corner of the room. Victor Guerra isn’t booming batting practice homers like he was a strongman in the freak show. Gone, too, are pitching coach Robert LaLoosh and hitting coach William Campbell. Gone is bench coach “Space Ninja” Wright.

And, while Lucas McNeill still arrives in his shiny sports car, things are different in 40 million ways with him. While manager Bret Richards still holds his jovial storyboard press conferences to talk about players, it’s more obvious every day that he’s an old dog trying to avoid learning new tricks.

Sitting in the hotel lobby as the team files in for breakfast buffets, and sitting in the rickety stands as they go through their early workouts, you feel the questions in the air.

Is it over? Are the Yellow Springs Nine poised to make a big fall?

The Nine’s Heartland division rivals have all made moves to get better, and the Nine have been…well, sitting ducks, really. It’s fans have been vocal about the front office’s stoicism, some saying GM Ron Collins is walking around with a deer-in-the-headlights stare that is hard to miss.

As is the team’s usual approach, seventy players have been brought to Spring Training, but this time it feels different. There are competitions. And, to be clear, there are kids here who think they can play in the big leagues. For them it’s an exciting time. The old guard is shifting, long live the new guard.

But fans of the team don’t want to hear that.

Fans want pennants.

And, for now, the pall that lies over the team is that of a battalion standing in formation at the beginning of a war. Will they win? Will they lose? Who will survive, who will fall by the wayside?

Time to find out.

[indiansfan]

With the decimation that occurred I don’t think you are the 9 anymore. Maybe the 5 or 6, but nowhere near 9.

[ae37jr]

I'd say that the Heartland is no longer anywhere near the best division in the BBA anymore... but Des Moines got some players this year. The could be tough.

[agrudez]

If the draft is anything like last year's class, you might look back on it as a watershed moment for the franchise with all of your comp picks. If it's as crappy as it was the year prior I'm sure that'll be a gut punch. You still have a lot to like on the roster, though, so I wouldn't predict too precipitous a fall this year either way.