Byline: Max Offen Sichtlich
Off Topic
Longtime Presence Hearing Rumbles
July 14, 2055
Gabriel Campos was a first-round draft pick of the then-California Crusaders back in 2009. He made his debut with the team two seasons later, pitching with the team for a decade before moving through Louisville and Atlantic City to complete what turned into a 211-win career. When it was over, though, he returned to the place that brung him, becoming a pitching coach with the organization’s AAA—a position he held for nearly a decade before getting the call again, this time to take over the big league staff.
Since that time, Gabriel Campos has been the most steadying of figures, a pillar of the baseball community here, serving as Sacramento’s pitching coach for the past 13 seasons and seeing some of the most scintillating baseball on the planet. In that span of excellence, only three teams he coached ever had losing seasons.
And yet, time moves on.
And now Campos, who fans mischievously called “Full Pack,” is 64 years old.
Don’t get me wrong. The guy can still pick ’em up and put ’em down with the kids, though at 230 pounds he’s maybe a bit chunkier than the kid he once was.
His team is still winning.
His pitchers are still standing atop the scorecards, and he’s still finding ways to squeeze the last drops of rocket fuel form old arms like Ruben Vasquez and Carlos Flores.
But rumors are swirling. Campos is in the last year of his contract. Rumors say he’s still got the fire. That he’s like to re-up for maybe a few dollars more. Sixty-four is not that old for a baseball savant. He seems to think he can still bring it. But some also say the team would like to go with that other guy they have in his old AAA slot. Guy named Ricardo Diaz. Maybe you’ve heard of him? Dunno. I hear he used to pitch good, too, though.
So yeah, you talk to the Campos’s and you get a bit of a wall of confusion. His is the only seat left in the organization’s coaching phalanx that’s not yet signed to a deal for next year.
Is he out?
I guess we’ll all just have to wait for time and a few Holy Camacho’s to tell.