That's What Cheesehead - 01.01 - Puckett wins Silk Award

[7teen]

2000 was a major disappointment all around the Wolves organization. The club lost in the 2nd round of the JL playoffs. Numerous individual players wound up on the short end of individual award honors. And overall, not winning the Championship was a major failure in the eyes of many around the organization. Nonetheless, there was one bright spot to the 2000 season. For the second straight season, a Wolves player won the Sawyer Silk Award, given to the Johnson League's top hitter. Last year, Bopper Kengos captured the award. This year, the award went to Wolves second baseman Charles "Crickett" Puckett.

Puckett hit .333/418/.569 on the season with 31 homeruns and 104 RBI. While his power numbers were overshadowed by some of the bigger sluggers in the league, his overall stat line was virtually unmatched by most in the league. He ranked first in each of the following categories in the JL: Games Started, OPS, VORP, Intentional Walks, and Runs Created. He ranked in the top 10 in each of the following categories: Hits, Total Bases, Triples, Homeruns, Stolen Bases, RBI, Runs, Walks, Average, On-Base Percentage, and Slugging.

"Overall, he is the best second baseman in the league" said General Manager Chris Wilson. "I don't want to hear about any others. He's the best. Period!"

Puckett received 9 of the 22 first place votes cast by the owners. Those 9 were the most among the candidates, barely edging out Sirius Black. Puckett received 9 first place votes, 3 second place votes, 3 third place votes, and 4 fourth place votes. Thus, if you can do the math, 3 owners in the league managed to leave Puckett completely off of the ballot!

[recte44]

Some guys like "counting numbers", I suppose, in which case Puckett's overall greatness didn't stand up as well.