Manager John Yates
The 2051 Talons won 96 games, the highest mark in the history of the franchise. And John Yates has been there for all of it, since 2029.
Yates announced his retirement from baseball this week, leaving the BBA team that he had led since September of 2033, and the franchise he had been with since its inception. Yates spent his first two seasons with the Toledo Liberty, naturally leading them to the playoffs. Then in 2031 he was moved to AA Medicine Hat, where he made the playoffs that year and just missed the following season. In 2033 he began the season at AAA Ashland, where his team was in 2nd place when the Talons fired their major league manager and named Yates to the big club, where he led the team to a 12-15 record in that final month.
In 2034, his first full season, the Talons finished above .500 for the first time ever. Then in 2035, the Talons began a run where they made the playoffs 4 times in 5 seasons, winning the division twice, and followed by a 2040 campaign that saw the team win 90 games and get shut out from postseason play. Thereafter came the inevitable decline, but by 2044 the team was back in contention. The '44 season was merely .500, but it began an ignominious streak of 5 consecutive seasons wherein the Talons were eliminated from the playoffs in the final week (or even the final weekend) of the season, like clockwork, and frustrating Yates and the fans to no end.
Yates and the boys had finally broken through in 2051, going 96-66 and advancing to the second round of the BBA playoffs, narrowly losing in 7 games to eventual champion New Orleans. John Yates finishes his nearly 19 season BBA career with a record of 1499-1444 for a .509 percentage.
No word as of yet to his replacement. Happy trails, Johnny!
