A New Skip; A Familiar Face

[KenH]

In a move that has fans and pundits alike bowled over, the 2033 champs have promoted the pitching coach of the Port Sudan Tycoons all the way to the head coaching job of the Florida Featherheads. There is a lot to break down about this hiring, and we will try to hit all of it, but we here are still trying to wrap our heads around this move. To untangle it, we spoke with Hannahs and his cohort. We also spoke to several other managers who were privy to the interview process as well. One thing is for sure – even when they win a championship, Streets’ Farstriders are always ready to put on a show.

“Yeah, just like you, I kind of couldn’t believe it.” Coach Garza is no stranger to big stages. Over his nearly seventeen-year professional career, Garza appeared in fifteen post seasons and would have been a perfect 17 for 17 if it wasn’t for some injuries. Any Florida fan knows of Garza’s exploits. One of the top performing Featherhead-cum-Farstrider in history, Hoover is known as one of the stalwart members of the Florida rotation from ’19 to ’25.

After taking the position with Port Sudan in 2031, Garza was blunt that his foray into coaching may be a short term deal and it still may be, but for now he is going to be doing it from the skipper’s perch at The Launch Pad.

I suppose this means I’m lucky, but I’m still pretty nervous,” admitted a grinning Garza. At just 41, he will be the second-youngest manager in the league behind Tempe’s newcomer, Jason Campbell. “It’s an opportunity I wasn’t expecting at this point, but baseball’s all about taking advantage of your opportunities when they come around. And I’m going to do my best to make sure I take full advantage of my time here.”

GM Hannahs sat next to Garza at the press conference and spoke next. “Obviously, we wanted to honor Elliott Buckley’s decision, but he made it clear halfway through the season that he was weighing his options so we started doing some preliminary scouting inside and out of the organization.

“We went through rounds of interviews with our coaches, but Garza really stood out to us for any number of reasons. We loved his rapport with the players and his willingness to learn on the job. It’s definitely not something you get all the time.”

Garza’s hiring undoubtedly led to Tillmao Biolley’s firing, when asked, Hannahs was happy to discuss. “We wish Tillmao nothing but the best, but we found that, especially with a new direction for the club, it was time for us to part ways with Biolley and bring on some new blood. It’s clear that the most important thing we can do is build an amazing support structure and I think we’ve done that. Thomas and Garza had immediate rapport and we’re happy to bring in a new age of Farstriders coaching.”

The players seem to be heralding Hoover’s ascension as great news. “Honestly, to have him and Chris on the same staff -- being able to pick their brains day in and day out? I don’t know what else I could ask for,” Luppe van Dam said when reached for comment. “It kind of feels surreal. We have two of the best pitchers in Feartherhead/Farstrider history and we’re just a bunch of young guys who want to learn.”

Team leader Gordon Knopp was also effusive in praise. “He probably doesn’t want to hear this, but when I was a kid, I loved watching Hoover play for the Featherheads,” chuckled Knopp. “To be able to play for him is one of those moments through all this that makes me sit back and realize that this is all actually real.”

Others note that, due to Garza’s greenness, there was more opportunity for Hannahs and the rest of the front office to make demands and “coach from the owner’s box” more than they could with a more established product. An obvious slight to this hiring process is Chesapeake Oysters manager Dave Robertson who boasts a much longer list of bona fides. Robertson did not respond with comment by the time of publishing this story.