Off Topic
Rookie Outfielder Makes His Case to Stick
April 19, 2061: Forever Land – After Yodo Sato gave the visiting Hawaii Tropics a first inning, 1-zip lead by depositing a Brody Picot changeup into the left-center field bleachers, the Krill were already facing an uphill battle before they ever picked up a bat. It’s been that way this season, it seems. Two steps backward, one step ahead. With the team sitting at a tepid 7-8, even rah-rah manger Kate Fiscus was having problems getting the Krill’s spirits up.
Tony Munyiga leading off with a flyball to center off Tropic ace Semih Gurani didn’t help.
When Gurânî is on, the night can get pretty long for the opposing team.
But Napoleon Mellott took a strike, then managed to coax a full-count walk, and Pedro Jimenez drilled a grounder into the hole between first and second hot enough to get through for a base hit, and things were looking up.
No One Expected
Much of SchmidtThat’s the thing about baseball. Emotions rise and fall on a dime, right? Hope springs eternal, only to be dashed by a heartless reality that simply does not care about what could have been. That dashing came as switch—hitting Mike McClure struck out swinging on four pitches, bringing up the rookie Stephen Schmidt (4CON, 4BABIP, 4GAP, 8POW, 5EYE, 4AvK), who was tasked carrying the hope of Earth’s teams fans while facing a now-warmed-up Gurani in his first major league at bat. It was a Herculean task, really. Schmidt was hitting .156 in AAA Pasco when the club called him up. His OBP was just .217. If you like fancy numbers, try a 27 WRC+.
With one of the world’s best pitchers on the mound.
“I decided to muscle him up with a big league fastball,” chuckled the pitcher afterward, speaking of the 101 MPH heater he can throw. “And he responded with a major league homer. You’ve got to tip your cap to him.”
That’s right.
First pitch. First swing. First homer.
Left-handed hitting Stephen Schmidt hit a 375-foot, opposite field blast that landed in the same section that Sato’s did, but his counted for three runs to Sato’s only one.
As he rounded the bases at Forever Park, the fans cheered. 3-1! Schmidt had done it! 3-1! It was a lead the team would not relinquish all night because the rest of the team seemed to settle, then. Picot became a lock-down starter, going six and a third for his first win of the season. Enrique Villarreal also made his debut, throwing almost two innings of scoreless relief, and Felix Vidaca stepped in at the end to shut down a small Tropic uprising in the ninth. Schmidt would go 2-for-4 on the night, and add a fourth RBI with a sac fly.
“It was a good night,” he said after being names the Player of the Game, and given the traditional crème pie to the face during the post-game interview.
And that was true.
Who knows, of course, what the future will bring. This is baseball, of course. It’s a game of excruciating inches and exhilarating moments. It’s early in the season. There is a lot of baseball to be played, and the victory simply evened the team’s record. But if a streak follows…if the team catches fire…if the season progresses on the positive side and the team manages to surprise folks with another postseason shot at the Monty, there might be people who point to this moment in late April, with a rookie at the plate, and say that yes, verily, that was the turning point.
April 19, 2061: Forever Land – After Yodo Sato gave the visiting Hawaii Tropics a first inning, 1-zip lead by depositing a Brody Picot changeup into the left-center field bleachers, the Krill were already facing an uphill battle before they ever picked up a bat. It’s been that way this season, it seems. Two steps backward, one step ahead. With the team sitting at a tepid 7-8, even rah-rah manger Kate Fiscus was having problems getting the Krill’s spirits up.
Tony Munyiga leading off with a flyball to center off Tropic ace Semih Gurani didn’t help.
When Gurânî is on, the night can get pretty long for the opposing team.
But Napoleon Mellott took a strike, then managed to coax a full-count walk, and Pedro Jimenez drilled a grounder into the hole between first and second hot enough to get through for a base hit, and things were looking up.
No One Expected
Much of Schmidt
With one of the world’s best pitchers on the mound.
“I decided to muscle him up with a big league fastball,” chuckled the pitcher afterward, speaking of the 101 MPH heater he can throw. “And he responded with a major league homer. You’ve got to tip your cap to him.”
That’s right.
First pitch. First swing. First homer.
Left-handed hitting Stephen Schmidt hit a 375-foot, opposite field blast that landed in the same section that Sato’s did, but his counted for three runs to Sato’s only one.
As he rounded the bases at Forever Park, the fans cheered. 3-1! Schmidt had done it! 3-1! It was a lead the team would not relinquish all night because the rest of the team seemed to settle, then. Picot became a lock-down starter, going six and a third for his first win of the season. Enrique Villarreal also made his debut, throwing almost two innings of scoreless relief, and Felix Vidaca stepped in at the end to shut down a small Tropic uprising in the ninth. Schmidt would go 2-for-4 on the night, and add a fourth RBI with a sac fly.
“It was a good night,” he said after being names the Player of the Game, and given the traditional crème pie to the face during the post-game interview.
And that was true.
Who knows, of course, what the future will bring. This is baseball, of course. It’s a game of excruciating inches and exhilarating moments. It’s early in the season. There is a lot of baseball to be played, and the victory simply evened the team’s record. But if a streak follows…if the team catches fire…if the season progresses on the positive side and the team manages to surprise folks with another postseason shot at the Monty, there might be people who point to this moment in late April, with a rookie at the plate, and say that yes, verily, that was the turning point.
