Jose Hernandez stared out blankly from the bullpen at Pearson Metropolitan Park. A record breaking season, quite literally London’s best ever, had just come to a shocking end in game 5 of the Wildcard round. Normally the start should have been his – he was the ace on the staff at just 23 years old and it was his job to be out there for an elimination game. Unfortunately the shoulder subluxation he went down with in game 1 of the series had not quite healed (doctors would fully clear him the next day) and the team could not risk his performance or future health by playing him hurt. For the young pitcher having just seen his second PEBA season come to an end, it was a bitter pill to swallow. Everyone felt it, that ache of disappointment and creeping crawling feeling of failure. But none more so than Jose. Not now, at least.

But how did he – how did we all – get here? Well, that is a far happier tale.

No Wunderkind Hangover for Osmond

It seems any time a player wins a prestigious award the entire league focuses in on them the next year to see if they can follow it up or if they were just a passing fad. That is never more true than with rookie of the year awards such as PEBA’s Wunderkind which has seen no shortage of sophomore slumps or career flameouts. Last year’s Wunderkind winner Zak Osmond went the other direction however – improving his batting stats across the board, his baserunning, and his fielding all this year. Offensively Osmond batted .318 for the year, hit 30 home runs, and batted in 101 for the year. Osmond led the IL in triples with 11. Much was made of his propensity to be caught stealing during his rookie campaign – 27 times for just 38 successful steals. This season Osmond improved the good and reduced the bad, swiping 41 bags while being caught just 15 times. Defensively he spent the majority of his season in left field where he improved his range, zone rating, and defensive efficiency over last year’s numbers, which won him an all leather award. While award voting is in progress for the 2038 season, Osmond did earn one additional honor already this year in the form of an All Star nod. He even hit a home run in the All Star Game! Osmond will return next year on the final year of his league minimum rookie contract.

CLOGGER Chases History

When London signed Giampaolo Eremitani to a monster 5 year, $146,500,000 contract back in 2035 they did so with the expectation that being a left handed power bat he’d hit a lot of home runs, particularly in their new ballpark which favored left handed power. Prior to the 2038 season Eremitani, commonly referred to by his infamous incident related nickname CLOGGER, did not exactly disappoint on that metric. He hit 25, 37, and 34 home runs respectively in each of his first three years with the team, sufficient to lead the team in that category for two of the three. His 123 RBI effort in 2036 even earned him an All Star nod. But nevertheless, there was always a lingering question of whether the nearly 30 million a season was worth it to not even see 40 home runs a year. 2038 was always going to be a pivotal year for both CLOGGER and the Underground as it is the final guaranteed year of his deal – CLOGGER holds a player option for the 5th and final year next season. It seems as though CLOGGER wanted to make a statement then and decided he really, truly, hates baseballs and he began to hit them really hard. It was early September when he surpassed Decheng Wen’s Underground record for home runs in a single season (47). About a week later he passed Dennis Carter to become 4th overall on the London home run hitter list and shortly thereafter landed himself at 53. Just one shy of tying the all-time PEBA record and two shy of having to share the honor with no one else, CLOGGER had two full weeks of baseball to become immortal. What happened next might, in retrospect, come to be recognized as a sign of things to come for the 2038 Underground season. Despite hitting for a reasonable average and knocking in 8 runs over those penultimate 13 games the power went out on CLOGGER’s dream. The season ended. Fifty three home runs.

The positive spin is obvious –  a .263 average combined with 53 home runs and 132 RBI is by any metric a fantastic season well worth the 29.3 million dollars paid. Those numbers were a big reason the team was 1st in the IL in home runs and second in runs scored. And yet there is something nagging and frustrating about that failure. An opportunity lost to time. Questions abound about CLOGGER’s future with the team in light of his contract situation and word from the front office is no one has any clue what CLOGGER may do.

Vargas wins 20

At the 2037 PEBA Winter Meetings the Underground did something quite unexpected – they made a baseball trade with the hated Scottish Claymores. Intra-divisional trades are always a bit less common, but particularly so for the Underground and the Claymores who have hundreds of years of political and social animosity stored up behind their baseball. Nevertheless, the deal sent Jose Cruz north in exchange for then 25 year old starting pitcher Juan Vargas. Less than four months later he’d make his regular season debut for the team and it was a preview of what the team came to expect – Vargas pitched 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball surrendering just 4 hits and striking out 7 to earn his first win. By mid-May he would be up to just 5 wins, but his May 18th start against Amsterdam started a streak of 4 consecutive winning starts which eventually spiraled into a run of 11 wins over his next 15 starts. A rough August saw him win just 2 games – and lose twice that, and so he entered into September with 16 wins. His first September start was a strong one, 6.2 IP and just a single run allowed but he earned a no decision. At that point any hope of hitting 20 looked quite faint but with the team still jostling to secure 1st in the division there were still important games to play and on September 12th he earned win 17. Followed a week later by 18, and six days after that 19. By this point London had begun to rest their starters for what was now a confirmed playoff run but made one exception, allowing Juan Vargas to pitch one final time in the penultimate game of the season against the Scottish Claymores. Who else could it have been?

As of October 1st 2038, London had never had a 20 game winner in their history dating back to the PEBA’s opening days. On October 2nd, Juan Vargas pitched 6.2 innings against his former team. It wasn’t his best work, he gave up 4 runs in 6.2 innings and only managed 2 strikeouts, but it was enough. Win number 20 on the season and his name etched atop the London record books as their first ever.

Best Season Ever (Just don’t ask how it ends)

The 2038 London Underground won the Trans Atlantic Division, beating out the Scottish Claymores by a full 7 games. It was their 6th divisional crown, but first since 2021. More notably however the team finished with a 100-62 record, their first ever 100 win season in over three decades of baseball. While a 100 win season is not much to some – Kentucky was a wild card team and won 108 this year – it is nonetheless a big success for the team and shows they are continuing to head in the right direction. The fans have started to notice too, as attendance increased by 15.3% this year and gate revenue increased by 6 million dollars over 2037. Generally speaking this is still a young team with just two position players and six total players over 30 and one that still believes the best is yet to come. Unfortunately it will have to come in 2039, but damn what a ride 2038 was!