By Tomasz Kamien / NewJerseyHitmen.blogspot.com

December 12^th, 2012: Elmwood Park, NJ – Just hours away from the beginning of the Winter Meetings, New Jersey’s manager Tracy Evans finds himself back at square one with rival Cooper Scott.  They might have been avoiding each other since the first series back in April, but today they will be forced to see each other face to face whether they like it or not.  That is, of course, if both of them decide to show up for the ever-important PEBA Winter Meetings.

In April, insults were thrown (as well as popcorn) and arguments of whether a team existed were made.  Before the follow-up series in May, I made comments that Evans was actually excited and happy to be hosting the Trendsetters in Mercer County and that he had a surprise waiting for Scott – possibly like the one that they had waiting for them at the start of the season.  When Scott decided to go fishing with friend Jack Cobb instead of showing up, Evans was distraught.  He let this insider know that he had decided to give Scott gifts in hopes of mending fences between the two – those gifts being an old time looking popcorn popping cart and some boxes of limited edition popcorn manufactured by popcorn giant Orville Redenbacher.

With Scott not showing up, Evans was not able to give him the gift and instead just became depressed.  New Orleans took advantage of the situation and evened the season series in May.  The teams met again in June and July and the series ended in a somber 6-6 tie between the two former champions.  Scott went on acting goofy and hanging out with the ego that is Jack Cobb, and Evans crawled back into his meek shell and rode out the rest of the Hitmen’s season quietly.  As a fan, you have to wonder whether these two former champions are both crazy or just masters at drawing attention away from their poorly performing teams in hopes to relieve some of the stress of a long losing season.

Did their acting help?  Looking at the numbers, New Jersey’s attendance was actually up by 425,655 from 2011 despite only improving their record by six games.  New Orleans was down by 895,778 from 2011 while losing 15 more games than the previous year.  Both teams are in rebuilding phases, so you can only expect a lack of interest as bandwagon fans move on to other teams and only the die-hard fans are left behind.  As for animosity between the teams, that can be questioned, as they did manage to put together a trade at the end of July.

I called Evans this morning to try to get him to meet me at the Royal Warsaw Restaurant for some breakfast before the Meetings but he said he was busy preparing and could not make it.  He did mention that he would not bring along any popcorn this time, but failed to comment if this had anything to do with Scott.  It should be an interesting meeting, regardless, and I can’t wait to sit in and watch, but first I am going to have some nalesniki with cheese – KFP tells me they are amazing.