Claymores Roundtable #2: All Moya, All The Time

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Claymores Roundtable #2: All Moya, All The Time

#1 Post by Vic »

Claymores Roundtable

(Openng theme plays, then fades …)

Sophie MacRath: Good evening one and all, and welcome to tonight’s special playoff edition of Claymores Roundtable. And what an edition it promises to be!

Salvador Medrano: I’ll say. But if you’re related to Tomás Moya, you might want to change channels … or maybe leave the country.
Sophie MacRath


Sophie: Now, Sal.

Sal: Maybe the solar system?

Sophie: Shhh. If you didn’t recognize him, and most people from nice families wouldn’t, that was one of our guests this evening, Salvador “The Gambler” Medrano. Sal has his own show here on talkSPORT – PEBA UK! – and also happens to be a former player for the Scottish. He …

(Unknown voice): Wait for it …

Sophie: (with a touch of annoyance in her voice) holds the all-time franchise record for home runs.

Unknown Voice: Always gotta mention the homers,don’t you?

Sal: And what’s wrong with mentioning the homers?

Unknown Voice: Well, you hit 221 of them, which does lead the Scottish but that ain’t really saying much.

Sophie: That mysterious – and very rude – voice you hear is my other in-studio guest, Malcolm Wilkes, who writes the Imperial League column for PEBA Weekly.

Sal: Well, in terms of the PEBA record books 221 may not be much, but it’s 221 more than you hit, Mal.

Sophie: Burn! Ok now, we’ve got one more guest, who’s joining us via satellite from Havana where he’s waiting to catch a flight back to Scotland for games 3,4 and 5 of the IL Divisional Series: Hamish Campbell of the Edinburgh News. Hamish, what was the scene like in the Scottish clubhouse after that crushing ending to Game 2?

Hamish: As you can well imagine it was a little funereal …

Sal: Fun … what now?

Hamish: They were depressed, Sal. Like at a funeral.

Sal: They wouldn’t be depressed if it was Moya’s funeral.

Sal Medrano


Sophie: Sal …

Hamish: For the sake of any listeners out there who might be wondering why we’re all a little .. um … down on Tomás Moya, maybe I should give a quick recap?

Sophie: Oh yes, thank you, Hamish. See, you guys, this is how a proper guest behaves on the show.

Malcolm: Like a suck-up?

Sophie: Shhh. Go on, Hamish.

Hamish: OK, the situation was this: the Scottish took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th inning against Havana. Hayato Sasaki, the manager, brought in closer Ken Fisher to start the inning, and he walked left fielder Mike Hale on four pitches.

Malcolm: And then Sasaki panicked …

Hamish: (Undeterred) and then Sasaki decided he didn’t like what he saw out of Fisher, and he brought in Ángelo Gonzáles to face pinch hitter Emílio Díaz, who sacrificed Hale over to second. Then Colby Peña, the Leones’ second baseman, hit a little nubber back towards the pitcher, and Gonzales threw him out at first, but Hale moved up to third. That brought up the shortstop Ricardo Mateo

Malcolm: And set the stage for one of the most epic brain farts of all time.

Hamish: I don’t know if that’s fair, Malcolm.

Malcolm: If anything, it’s too fair.

Hamish: Ok, we’ll get into that in just a second, but to finish setting the scene, Sasaki then decided to bring in Moya to finish things off.

Sal: Oh, he did that all right …

Hamish: Well, Moya did work the count to 2-2 and the Leones were within one strike of being down in the series 2-0 …

Malcolm: When Moya threw one of the biggest lollipops I’ve ever seen.

Malcolm Wilkes



Hamish: Well, he did hang a slider out over the middle of the plate, and Mateo jacked it 407 feet to left …

Sal: Is that all it was? I could swear that ball is still flying.

Hamish: Yes, well, 407 feet is what it will say in the scorebooks.

Malcolm: Here’s a question for you …

Hamish: Yes, Mal?

Malcolm: Our boy Moya throws 100 mph heat, right? Serious heat. And he decides, nah, don’t throw my unhittable fastball. Let’s throw my piece of crap slider instead.

Hamish: Now, that really isn’t fair, Mal. His slider grades out as an 8 in the scouting reports – that’s bloody good.

Malcolm: It’s bloody good if it slides, but that one just hung in the air with a neon sign on it that said ‘hit me!’

Hamish: He’d thrown Mateo four fastballs previous to that, and I’m sure he thought he had him set up for the slider.

Malcolm: Turns out, he sure did!

Sophie: OK, I have a question. Why did Sasaki go to Moya there, anyway? I mean he struggled at Aurora with home run balls before the trade that brought him to Scotland, and he struggled here with home run balls. In fact, the Scottish put him on waivers at one point and sent him down to Aberdeen because he was doing so poorly.

Hamish: That’s all very true. But I’ll remind you all that Moya worked as the closer in Aberdeen for more than a month and did very well. And when he came back up in September, he pitched very well for the Claymores. In fact, those runs today were the first he'd allowed since he came back up.

Malcolm: Oh, I feel so much better.

Sophie: Do you really?

Malcolm: No. That move by Sasaki was ridiculous. I was thinking he might be manager of the year material, but I’m not thinking that now.

Sal: Oh, come on, Malcolm. I agree that bringing Moya in there was playing with fire, but that doesn’t negate everything that Sasaki did before then, does it?

I mean, first of all, did any of you really give the Scottish a prayer against Havana to begin with? And they’re still tied – if you had told me before tonight that Scotland would split the first two games and come back to Edinburgh with the home field advantage, I would have been ecstatic.

Malcolm: OK, Sal. Tell me the truth here. Does it feel to you like the Claymores are tied and have an advantage in this series?

Sal: Well, no.

Malcolm: And Hamish, I heard a bunch of those post-game interviews. The Scottish didn’t sound like a team that thought they had an advantage. They sounded to me like a team that knew they’d blown their best chance to put a dangerous opponent on the ropes. Do you think they win another game in this series now?

Hamish: Of course they can, and I think they will.

Malcolm: It’s possible you’ve had a small stroke, buddy.

Hamish: (laughs) Well, anything’s possible, Malcolm.

Sophie: So, Hamish, what is your sense of how the Scottish are feeling now?

Hamish: There’s no question they took a serious punch to the gut there, but to a man they were rallying around Moya and reassuring him …

Malcolm: Of what, that they wouldn’t push him out of the plane over the Atlantic?

Hamish: Geez, Malcolm. That’s a little harsh. No, I think the Claymores will rally back from this – no one expected them to get this far, and they had some tough times during the season, a lot of injuries, and they fought all of it off. I don’t see how this is different.

Malcolm: You don’t? Here’s how it’s different – they had a chance to kill the king, to put the Leones in a deep, serious hole and they didn’t get it done. They screwed the pooch, and Havana knows it. That’s a dangerous, veteran ballclub with serious players and they know they just cheated death, and they won’t let this chance get away.

Hamish: Well, I’m glad you got your crystal ball all dusted off and plugged in, but I don’t claim to know the future. The Scottish have very good and very serious ballplayers, too, and I think they’ll fight back and fight hard.

Hamish Campbell



Malcolm: You know, when you’ve had a stroke, you need to get treatment immediately …

Sophie: All right boys. Enough, enough. Before we go, let me poll the panel here – do the Scottish win any more games in this series?

Sal: Yes, but I don’t think they win the series.

Malcolm: Not only no, but hell no. They’re dead Moyas walking.

Hamish: Well, I think they can and will win more games in the series. I’m not going to predict a series winner because I’m covering it as the Scottish beat writer, but I can tell you that this team has plenty of fight left in it.

Sophie: And with that, let me thank my guests tonight, Malcolm, Hamish, and Sal. It was real, gentlemen.

Malcolm: Hey, before we go, could I just ask one more thing?

Sophie: Quickly, Malcolm, we’re almost out of time …

Malcolm: So, will Vic Caleca, the general manager, the boss of this thing, actually travel to Scotland to see any of these playoff games?

He hasn’t left Indiana yet, and we’re in the post season folks.

Sal: Maybe he comes over to push Moya in front of a lorry.

Hamish: I’ve not heard of any travel plans, Mal.

Malcolm: He is just weird as hell.

Sophie: OK, that’s a hard wrap everyone …

(Theme music starts)

Malcolm: (heard in the background) Is he allergic to plaid, or what?

Hamish: I don’t think he likes to fly …

Malcolm: Especially if there’s a Moya on the other end …

(Sound fades to silence)
Last edited by Vic on Thu Apr 25, 2019 11:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Vic Caleca
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Re: Claymores Roundtable #2: All Moya, All The Time

#2 Post by DrewV »

Loved it Vic! Very entertaining. Gut-wrenching game! Mercer almost had a double in that last-at bat of his, too. So close!
Drew Visscher (GM Ricky McCoy) | Duluth Warriors
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Re: Claymores Roundtable #2: All Moya, All The Time

#3 Post by Vic »

In case you were wondering, I benched Moya: I went into player strategy and sat him down for a minimum of 5 games. Fool me once ...
Vic Caleca
Scottish Claymores
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