KOA Radio 850
Heywood: OK folks, enough Bronco talk here. Please, no more calls complaining about Eli’s interceptions. He’s just not his brother – never was, never will. Lets move to the big news of the day: The Borealis will be taking on the first-time playoff participant Yuma Bulldozers and here to give us the run down are the Aurora broadcast duo of Mark Gunter and George Crocker. How’s it hanging, guys?
Crocker: Hey, Woodie… I’ve got my Caterpillar Cap on and I’m ready to rock. If you like hitting, you’ve come to the right place! Runs, runs, and more runs in this series! Get your calculators out Borealis fans! It’s toilet time!
Gunter: Excuse George folks… I think he’s thinking of the Reno – Sandgnat series. The Aurora – ‘Dozer series may not see 10 runs total – in 5 games!
Crocker: C’mon Mark-O. Britt, Foster, Salinas. Burke, Moore, Roddie-J? The ball will fly, fly, FLY!
Heywood: Down, boy. You’ll get a chance, Georgie. Let’s start out looking at the season’s expectations. Coming into Opening Day 2019, nobody – save our own Ray D. Enzé, expected Aurora to be here. Steve Dallas, of the Laredo Midday Times, had the Borealis picked to finish 5th, saying, “(I’m) not sure this team has the chemistry any more, (looks like a team) full of paper tigers.”
Crocker: Paper Tigers? That seems more like that 1950 Detroit team I’ve been reading about!! The only paper on this team is the paper they’ve been raking in at the turnstiles, eh, ‘Money’?
Gunter: (glares at George Crocker) Well, Aurora did lead the PEBA in attendance this season, and will top 4,000,000 if they make the PEC. But Dallas wasn’t the only ‘Aurora hater’, as the kids say. Samuel Platt, of the Connecticut Post, slated Aurora for 4th, ahead of Tempe and Palm Springs…
Crocker: Man, he missed the boat on that one! Man, those Codgers played like teenage boys toting their Clearasil to the prom!
Heywood: (looks confused)
Gunter: (ignores Crocker) … though he had mostly positive comments, “A deep roster that can easily sneak into the postseason, one of the big questions for them is when to plug in each of their interchangeable parts. Is this the last chance for John Foster to become a star?”
Heywood: I think that last comment is really the biggest question for this team going forward – will ‘Gypsy’ become the star Aurora imagined all these years? His numbers over three seasons as a starter aren’t bad, but they don’t scream ‘Star’.
Gunter: And after making the All-Star team this year – and finding himself on the Royal Raker ballot – go figure, he lost playing time down the stretch to Richie Norman. Now the question is: Will Foster even start for Aurora v. Yuma. It may come down to Foster’s slight statistical edge – fewer K’s, better OPS, and better speed.
Heywood: Then there was Terrance Pines of The Daily Herald in Crystal Lake, who said, “Lots of good scouting reports, but the production hasn't quite been as expected the last couple seasons” in picking Aurora for 4th as well. I think those reports began to show up this year. No need to praise Michel Provost any further – he’s been more than ‘Hancockish’. But look at guys like Nick Giles, who finally got his chance out of spring training and rewarded the Borealis with a .325 average with 16 HR and 67 RBI. If he hadn’t missed 40 games with that oblique injury mid-season, we’d be talking possible Royal Raker. It’s a shame he’s not even getting All-Leather consideration with 5 errors at SS in 89 games.
Crocker: DUDE!! How about ‘The Ferrell Matt’? Solid season with a .296. Prowling the outfield with 1 error in 114 games! He looked shaky last year, but, Man, ‘The Memphis Bear Matt’ showed he’s here for the long run!
Gunter: Let’s not forget about Christian Murdoch and Junior Cook. Murdoch struggled down the stretch some, and he had a few games with questionable control, but, still, he had 221 K and a very respectable 3.75 ERA. Cook may have had the second highest BB in the PEBA, but he held teams to a .214 average on the season. They came to Aurora in very different ways, but they have blossomed at the same time.
Heywood: It was truly universal, the low expectations for the Borealis this year. Roberta Umor, of the Yuma Sun had Aurora 5th. Scott Vosper, Palm Springs Semaphore had Aurora 4th, saying, ironically, “Comparable to Yuma in overall quality, but Borealis' age makes them more injury-prone to me”. Aurora lost 215 days to the DL, while Yuma lost 275. Go Figure.
Crocker: Holy Tonka Truck, Batman! Speaking of z-z-z-zero, I say, Zero respect. How about the two national scouting agencies – OSA and StatsLab? OSA had Aurora dead last with only K-zoo and Canton worse. Ah… Kalamazoo… I remember when we won that championship! What a season. I was unanimous Royal Raker that year, Ya know, Pinochle?
Heywood: That’s Charmichael… At least StatsLab had Aurora 3rd and making the playoffs. So, You two watched this team every day. What’s your take? How did this edition of the Borealis defy the prognostications?
Gunter: Well, I’d say that, unlike the past two seasons, they beat the teams they are supposed to – as they did back in those dominant years of 2011, 12, 13, 14 and 15. They were 11-1 v. Canton, Omaha and, shockingly, Fargo. The perception of the Great Lakes being the weaker division – Aurora was 55-17 v. the GL, played out such that only Crystal Lake, at 5-7, had a winning mark against Aurora. The Borealis were 16-2 against Tempe, but the rest of the Desert Hills, which beat up each other throughout the season for the wild card, played Aurora to a flat-footed tie, 36-36.
Crocker: Yuppie, Marky-Mark, and the Yumans were 12-6 v. the Boys in Blue. But here’s a fact to get your John Deere’s all in a bunch, Yuma was 44-46 against the division as a whole.
Heywood: Go figure this one – Bakersfield, who finished a shocking 5th, was 46-44 in division. How did that team only go 37-35 against the Great Lakes?
Gunter: Secondly, I’d say that this team was led by their pitching…
Crocker: WOWZA-WOWZA! You ain’t kidding ‘Money’. Has Mike Provost been the best thing to hit the PEBA since the ‘Provo Hacker’? I mean, come on!!!
Heywood: Really George? Salvador Bernal?
Crocker: Oh, Yeah, Charmander!! Check those stat pages. Stud-o-rama!! He was like a regular soil mover all by him lonesome!
Gunter: (shakes his head) I don’t know what to say to that... Three of Aurora’s starters went 200-plus innings, and Murdoch likely would have made it 4 if he hadn’t a stint on the DL and had a start skipped at the seasons end. They are strong, tough and go deep in the game.
Heywood: Yuma did have 4-200 inning pitchers. None of whom even missed a start this year. MacGruder, Peterson, Ortega, and Rodríguez all were outstanding in their own right.
Gunter: True, yet Aurora starters managed a 2.97 ERA – half a run better than Yuma’s big guns, and Aurora’s bullpen, at 3.58 as 0.70 better than the ‘Dozer ‘pen. Aurora pitchers gave up fewer hits, fewer walks and struck out far more. And yet…
Crocker: Da ‘Dozers Bulled over the Borealis, that’s yet! Despite the season long dominance, Aurora pitching struggled keeping the Yumans off the board and in the park, thanks to an OPS 85 points higher than the Borealis posted.
Heywood: Yuma hit twice as many HRs as Aurora, contributing largely to Yuma averaging 1.25 runs per game more than Aurora in their head-to-head match-ups. So tell me Mark, who should we keep an eye on in this coming series?
Gunter: Well, Manuel, White, Ricks and Renteria were their big average guys against Aurora, with Manuel leading the way at .308. Ricks hit .306 with 5 HR and 10 RBI, and he wasn’t even his team leader.
Crocker: That would be The ‘Burkedozer’, who hit 7 HR with 19 RBI. Aurora hit 12 HR all together. The ‘Burkester’ hit 32 on the year, so he’s clearly a big threat – even if he hit only .254.
Gunter: Ricks is out after rupturing a tendon in a finger. Arthur McKenzie has mostly taken Ricks place, but his 9-42 against Aurora is a far cry from the .268 he posted this year. He was second on the team with 18 SB.
Crocker: Talking of be Bulldozed, Frederick and Moore combined for 41 HR and 131 RBI, hitting about .275, but they both hit .194 against Aurora, though Frederick had 4 HR and Moore 3.
Heywood: Moore has been on the DL and if Yuma activates him for the series, he’ll miss the opening games in Aurora. And let’s not forget Rob Murphy, called up when Ricks went down. He hit .322 in 24 games for Yuma and was 7-15 in four games against Aurora.
Gunter: Aurora will send Francisco, Provost and López to the mound in the first three games against Yuma. Should they use a fourth starter, Don James has named Junior Cook as that arm.
Crocker: Don James, Don Shames… He should go back to football. Did you see him start Provost on the last day of the season? He’s made some whack-o moves over his tenure with Aurora. I for one can’t wait to see that crackpot gone!
Heywood: Uh… Who are you calling a crackpot?
Gunter: That was unfortunate, but Provost will start game 2 on short rest. I have to believe that if ‘Sawmill’ and López had been more successful this year in their outings against Yuma, James wouldn’t be risking Provost on short rest. The good news is the bullpen has been solid – Holbrook, Martínez and Burris, in particular, have mostly shut Yuma down.
Heywood: I’ve just been handed todays line-up and it’s official – Foster will be starting at second, and hit 7th, with Britt at first and Rivera at third. Ferrell and Pope will join Pierce in the outfield against Gunner, and Hale will replace Pope when Peterson takes the mound tomorrow.
Crocker: So, what do you think, Dudes? Has a top-rated team like Aurora ever been an underdog… Underdog!!! Underdog!!! The experts are all going with Yuma. What’s your pick and who will be your Top Cat!
Gunter: I think we’re looking at a game 5 back here at Northern Lights. I like Provost winning two games with 20 K. Look for this to be a ‘home team’ series.
Crocker: Dude… Aurora sweep! Not close. I’m looking for Aurora’s hottest hand – Miguel Salinas, to take home the series MVP. A pair of HRs, 7-15, 6 RBI. 12 putouts. No steals.
Heywood: (rolls his eyes) 12 putouts from the DH position? I’m with you Mark. This series is going all the way. I like Nick Giles to be the big bat for Aurora. He hit .359 v. right-handers and he did hit .278 with 4-2B against Yuma this year – and he was 4-12 against both ‘Bump’ and ‘Javelin’. That’s it for now folks, we’re minutes from the first pitch of Aurora and Yuma from Northern Lights Park, here on The Front Range.
Crocker: Fer-rell Cat… Fer-rell Cat… Come on! He could be the Top Cat… He was 5-14, with 2 HR against Peterson…
Gunter: (heading to the broadcast booth) Good-bye George…
(Please note: Commentary from 2019 predictions included for entertainment purposes only. No offense taken, nor intended)
