Crusaders News! 2035.33 - Playoff Baseball!!

[Ted]

Let's Go Crusaders!
Octover 10th, 2035
Offen Sichtlich der Kunstgriff

(Author's note: Dear fans. Please excuse my long absence. Mother has been very ill and in the hospital again. She also had a prolonged recover at home. She is doing better now, but there simply wasn't time for blogging until recently. Also, I have to tell you, I'm quite put out. GM Ted Schmidt ASSURED me someone would take over in my absence and keep you all informed. This seems to not have happened. I would never have abandoned my post of bringing you all things Crusaders newsy .. or .. at least I would have felt a lot worse about it. Worse than I already did anyway. Anyway, I may just be a lowly blogger in the PR department but there will be consequences for this! Repercussions! Ramifications! Blowback! Eh ... Ahem, anyway, I'm back.)

So our Crusaders are in the playoffs again! Fourth year in a row! This time, we're a division winner, so we got a bye in the first round. Now the real playoffs begin! Well ... I mean .. the Gehegan round .. um .. Geghan .. no ... Geoghegen ... Geoghegan? Yes, that's it! Geoghegan. Geez! What a poorly named round. Wait .. all the rounds are named after someone. (So I just looked this up and it turns out that the round is named after Joe Geoghegan, who recently returned to the league as GM of the Vancouver Mounties!) Umm ... well. Sorry Mr. Geoghegan. Your name is hard to remember and type. I bet teachers never said it right in grade school. Now one ever said mine right either. der Kunstgriff isn't that hard! I mean, who many ways are there to pronounce "der" and "griff". It's really just the question of whether the other part is a long "U" or short one. Sometimes I think people just see a lot of letters and give up. Wow. Now I feel really badly. My apologies Mr. Geoghegan. I'll never get your name wrong again.

Ummmmmmm ... Oh yeah. The Geoghegan round. Well. It's just always seemed kind of chincy you know? Bunch of wild cards playing second tier division winners. The best teams sitting on their hands for a week. Booooooriiiiing. Of course. Our Crusaders were a wild card last year, and my lvoe for them made the round okay I suppose. Still. I stand by it. Wild cards are stupid!!! Win your division!

Well, now we have to play one of those wild cards. San Fernando. They won the whole thing last year. Sort of. When they were still the Havana Sugar Kings. Pretty good team. Lots of offense. It's actually really good. I'd list the names, but you know them anyway. Frankly it gets me a little nervous. My hands are already kind of sweaty. At least their pitching is terrible! I mean, Feliciano Rafael is pretty darn good. He seems to have a bad year. Boy Ernie Kinney didn't though! Good to see a former Crusader doing so well, especially after coming back from Tommy John. Jon Reed is well, Jon Reed. If he doesn't strike you out, you'll either walk or hit a homer. He should change his nickname. I mean, "Hoodoo?" What on earth does that have to do with anything? What's so "Hoodoo-ey" about a guy who just randomly picks grip, closes his eyes, and throws it at the middle of the strike zone as hard as he can?" How about John "Three True Outcomes" Reed. It's doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it's certainly more apt. Leon Ramirez is okay, but I'll take Luis Gracia, Miguel Ramos, Cisco Morales, and Jaime Mercado over those guys any day.

There might not be a bigger difference between these two teams than their bullpen quality. Our Crusaders were, of course, first. San Fernando? Umm. Not so first. Actually, last. Sam Romero, Mario Mendez and Wilmott Schlondorff were acquired mid-season. while the first two were starters, they've seen some 'pen time in the first round and frankly didn't do too well. You know, as I look, the Bears seem to have jettisoned a good number of the relievers who compiled that awful era, and replaced them with their own and other team's underachieving starters. Hmm. I don't know if I like this. Could get rough.

Ah well. That's okay. This is our year. We're the best team in the Frick (via tiebreaker over Yellow Springs, but let's not talk about how we backed into the playoffs because that make me an overwrought Offie. Well, more overwrought than usual, anyway). It's been 11 years since a young Ricardo Diaz, Mark Stuart, and Cris Vazquez lead our Crusaders to a Landis championship. Stuart will retire after the season. Diaz and Vazquez won't likely be around much longer. This our year! Go team of destiny!

[Ted]

For clarification, because it's happened before. My mom was never sick. She's doing great. Any events that happen to Offie are completely unrelated to my life. I figure you all know this, but wanted to make sure no one was concerned.