Who is Harry Ritchie?
A look at Harry Ritchie who made his PEBA hitting debut in the 12th inning of Game 7 and started a chain of events that led to him scoring the winning run as San Juan captured the 2031 championship.
The right-handed hitting Ritchie was signed out of Canada as a 16-year old in 2024, spending four years at the international complex before getting a debut in SA ball in 2028. He began being noticed the next season when he garnered a .405 OBP and was named to the all-star game. He then went on to bat .266, .360 at the A level and .280, .338 in AA, making the all-star team and earning the Platinum Stick Award as a centerfielder at the latter.
He has excellent speed but is not the base stealer the Coqui generally covet, particularly for a guy without much power. He could be a faster version of Michael Drew, a singles hitter who batted .260, .316 over eight seasons with the franchise. Both numbers rank in the team’s all-time top ten for players with 2000 plate appearances but the real key to Drew staying in the big leagues was that he was willing to play for hot dogs and peanuts.
For the moment, however, Ritchie is a guy who on the cusp of his 24th birthday has a career playoff batting average of 1.000 and slugging percentage of 2.000. Regardless of whether he ever gets to there again or what those numbers fall to, that the debut was legendary will never change.
Ritchie's double to the right field corner.