Omer's Odyssey
07/07/2053
Brianna Robles, Starscreams contributor
A native of Lingewaard, Netherlands, Dijkstra enjoyed the game known as honkbal in his homeland, where he played as a pitcher and outfielder for youth teams before being signed as an international amateur by the Jacksonville Hurricanes. Omer was sixteen at the time. “I was a teenager and had never been to America before,” he said in a recent interview, “I just remember Jacksonville was so warm in February. I thought, 'what am I going to do in the summer? This place is going to kill me!'”
He spent a year fine-tuning his game in the Hurricanes' international complex before joining Jacksonville's rookie league team, appearing in just seven games before being promoted to the short season a squad. Dijkstra would spend another three and a half seasons in the minors before earning promotion to the big league club.
Omer debuted for the Hurricanes in 2042 as a late season call-up, slashing .351/.367/.649 in sixteen games, one of the more productive stretches of his career. “I thought, 'surely it can't be this easy,'” said Dijkstra, reminiscing about his first few weeks in the BBA, “and sure enough, it wasn't.”
Jacksonville tapped Dijkstra to be their a full-time center fielder the following year. The grind of the BBA season, and the Florida climate, took their toll on Omer, who slashed just .251/.284/.381 in 2043.
In his second full year of play, Dijkstra completed the adjustment to life in the BBA. In what probably should have been his first all-star season, Dijkstra hit .291/.328/.571, and tallied a 5.6 WAR. He earned three player of the week awards during the course of the season, and a player of the month award that September, playing for a not very good Jacksonville team that went 74-88.
Omer would play four more seasons for the Hurricanes before becoming a free agent. He signed a large, multi-year contract to play for division rival Charlotte in 2049. It would not work out. Dikstra scuffled to an 84 OPS+ while playing for the Cougars in 61 games. Charlotte tried to trade him, but Omer used his no-trade clause to nix a deal that would send him to San Fernando. Apparently anxious to dump their new outfielder, and his contract, Charlotte designated him for assignment and put Dijkstra on waivers, where he was claimed by San Fernando, the team he had refused to play for a few weeks before.
This pairing seemed doomed from the start. It was two and a half seasons that both parties would just as soon forget, capped by a season-ending back injury that cut short Omer's last season in San Fernando.
Dijkstra became a free agent again in 2051, and as it turned out, he wouldn't even need to move to a new house, as he signed a new free agent contract with the team just up the road in Valencia. His two seasons in Valencia have, thus far, proven to be a restorative for Omer the all star.
