"I need to be out there with my team," explained 23 year old Lance Harrison when asked if he was ready to take the mound after missing the first week of Montreal Blazers' games. "I won't pitch until the trainers say I'm ok, but I know they need me out there." Harrison is not wrong. The Blazers opened up their new stadium with a 7-6, 14 inning thriller against Atlantic City Gamblers then proceeded to drop their next five games and sit dead last in the BBA power rankings after the first week of action. The team ERA after six games is middle of the Johnson League pack but the hitting, which the front office spent a lot of time and resources to improve, has underperformed to the tune of just 2.4 runs per game after opening day despite hitting nine homers. On top of that they've committed a BBA high nine errors in six games, three more than the next highest total. "We are struggling in a lot of areas," GM Herb DeSpain noted at his weekly press conference. "BUT keep in mind we have a lot of new pieces in our particular puzzle and sometimes it takes a while for those pieces to go together. On top of the new players we've brought in from trades and free agency we also have seven rookies on the roster."
Harrison finished 13-14 for the second consecutive season in 2043, just his second season in the bigs. He is expected to start the second game of a three game set when the Blazers host the Brooklyn Robbins on April 13. To make room on the major league roster for Harrison the Blazers placed veteran pitcher Yoshitoshi Ota on the 60 day DL with a torn meniscus.
