Borealis Back-To-Back Champs
by Francis Ferry, NLN baseball beat writer

November 6, 2022: Aurora, Colorado – The recent merger with the LRS brought a variety of changes to the PEBA landscape, and one of those changes was the expanded playoff format that insured PEC baseball in November – which on The Front Range means the great potential for cold weather.

And on this day, Game 6 of the Planetary Extreme Championship v. the Arlington Bureaucrats, the players were treated to a crystal clear, gorgeous day in Aurora – if 38 degrees constitutes gorgeous in your book.

Frigid temperatures aside, the fans filed into Northern Lights Park bundled up as they if they were attending a Bronco’s game in January, excited with the prospects of witnessing a piece of PEBA history – a league–second, back-to-back championship team and a first-time, 4-time championship club; and third-in-four years.

A sell-out crowd (actually, 54,840 – I guess 160 people found the evening’s Bronco-LA Charger game more significant) cheered boisterously as the team took the field with last-postseason MVP, ‘Tugboat’ Smith taking the mound. Smith had posted a 4-0 record and 0.66 ERA through his four playoff starts v. Arlington (1), Shin Seiki (2) and Tempe (1), and the crowd anticipated nothing but the same from the 2022 PEBA ERA Champ.

Smith found himself in trouble early as Ángel Cortéz singled to lead the game off and, after a wild pitch let Cortéz move to second, he proceeded to third on a slow roller to third. The small Bureaucrat contingent was hopeful with Rob Raines coming to the plate, but ‘Tugboat’ struck him out on a full-count pitch, then after semi-intentially walking Johnny Exley – whose postseason stats don’t look sharp, but had already been a pain in the Aurora a–, Pat Barry – heavy odds-on favorite for IL Royal Raker, grounded out to end the early Arlington threat.

Luis Medina was on the mound for Arlington, and in two postseason starts, was 1-1 with his own, tasty 0.59 ERA – including a tough Game 2 loss to ‘Tugboat’ that went 7.1 IP, 5 H and 0 ER – a Cortéz dropped throw at first allowing the 7^th inning to be extended, followed by a 2-out Jesús Negrete 2-run HR. Today, he started off strong, retiring the Borealis easily – with a pitch that ran up and hit ‘Gypsy’ John Foster, the only blemish in the inning.

Arlington jumped ahead first, with Lyndon King hitting a long solo-homer to right, out into Cherry Creek Lake – an amazing feat for a right-handed hitter and the first HR allowed by Randy Smith since September 2. The lead was short lived, as Nick Giles crushed one up onto the walkway in deep right-center – a mammoth 433-foot shot, his third of the postseason. Both pitchers would remain calm, though, and take the game into the 4^th without allowing another baserunner.

Arlington would take the lead again, in the fourth, as Exley would single to lead the inning off, and move around to third on Pat Barry’s follow-up single – the Bureaucrats were in business. But ‘Tugboat’ would bear down, striking out Tolbert, and getting King to hit a fly ball to the wall deep center – easily bringing Exley in from third for the RBI sac fly. Garza would hit a tricky liner to right, Mike Hale would play it smoothly, to hold Arlington to just one run.

Medina would not be as lucky in the bottom of the 4^th, and walking Foster on four, not-even-close pitches to start the inning was an indicator. The wildness continued against Aurora’s top slugger, Mike Britt, but Britt helped Medina out as he swung at a poor pitch, popping one up to left. Nick Giles would waste no time in picking up Britt, jumping on the first pitch from Medina – again, not the best pitch, but it was effective. Giles popped it up down the left-field line, falling between infront of Cedric Hunt for a double, with Foster hustling to third. Medina’s first pitch to José Rivera was a wild one and Foster trotted home with the tying run. Two pitches later, Rivera hit one deep in the left-center gap – just out of Hunt’s reach (again) that would fall for a double, driving home Giles with the go-ahead run – giving Aurora a 3-2 lead.

This time it was Aurora’s turn to see their lead be short lived, as ‘Tugboat’ would hit Cortéz after striking out Xavier Hernández to start the inning, then after another slow roller to third allowed Cortéz to reach second, Rob Raines would single him home with the tying run. Medina would regain some composure and dispatch Aurora quickly in the bottom of the 5^th – finding the strike zone this time around, and ‘Tugboat’ would overcome a lead-off Barry single in the 6^th, setting up the fateful, historic bottom of the 6^th inning for the Borealis.

‘Gypsy’ – the long-ago, first draft choice by GM-turned-manager Will Topham – way back in 2011, would line a 1-1 pitch for a lead-off double. Arlington manager José Colón wasted no time in walking Mike Britt intentially in favor of facing Giles – but Giles would, in turn, work a full-count walk, loading the bases with no-outs, and José Rivera coming to the plate.

Rivera was the 2021 Batting Champ, but 2022 was a struggle for the soon-to-be 37-year old, long-time Auroran, but on this day – maybe his last in an Aurora uniform, he, too worked the count full, before hitting a long fly ball down the right-field line. With Barry playing over towards center, Rivera’s ball would fall for another double – driving in Foster and Britt to give Aurora a 5-3 lead. That would be the end of Medina’s night. Lefty Marvin Duffy would come in to face left-handed Matt Ferrell, who would slap a 1-1 pitch past Hernández, down the line, driving in Giles and Rivera and upping the lead to 7-3. Duffy and Travis Hanson would limit the damage to that, but a huge 4-run rally – and the prospect of facing Aurora’s watertight bullpen, seemed to be the last straw for Arlington’s hopes.

Ryan Holbrook, the ‘Stork’ would come into the game to start the 7^th. Holbrook has struggled during the second half after his return from a 4-month stay on the DL for a forearm strain and was one of just a couple of guys to give up postseason runs this year. And today would be no different. After striking out Hernández, he’d walk Cortéz and then give up a Cedric Hunt single. Complicating matters, Nick Giles dropped an easy, inning-ending, double-play throw at second, allowing Hunt and Raines to reach safely, and loading the bases with one out. Exley would single home one, and Barry would beat-out a potential DP relay at first to allow a second run to score. Félix Peña would then come on to face the right-handed Tolbert, only to walk him, before getting PH Jaime García to pop-up and end the threat. Suddenly Aurora’s 7-3 lead was cut to 7-5.

As the game moved to the late innings, the crowd grew vocal and nervous – all at the same time. Hanson would shut Aurora down in the 7^th and 8^th, and Peña did likewise to Arlington in the 8^th.

The game moved to the top of the 9^th, a time that would normally be the domain of Bryant Burris, but an earlier injury to the long-time Borealis closer put the young John Gray into the role of closer – and with each strike, the crowd grew loader and loader, anticipating the final out. Hunt would ground out to Giles. Likewise Raines to Foster. That left it up to Exley, but he would tap one to Britt, whose throw to first would extinguish the Bureaucrat flame and ignite the crowd into pandemonium.

In winning their second Rodriguez Cup in a row – and third in four years, the Borealis did it in improbable fashion. During the offseason, an impasse between title-winning, first-year manager Koki Kojima and GM Will Topham led to the release of the popular Kojima and the GM taking on the role – seemingly to spite the manager. By mid-June, they were struggling and not even in the postseason picture, and not just a few fans and media-types suggesting that the front office bickering had hurt this hugely talented team.

But something happened. Something clicked. From the 20^th of June on, Aurora finished the year with a 72-22 mark – a full 10-games better than the second best team in the League (Florida, as 62-32). The Borealis put together win streaks of 7-, 8-, 12-, and 13-games. Leading the way was a pitching staff that was tops in the SL in all but two categories – 2^nd in walks allowed and 2^nd in HR allowed. Led by 20-game winner Michel Provost, PEC MVP ‘Tugboat’ Smith and a bullpen with a SL best 2.98 ERA, this year’s version of Borealis steamrolled to the title on the shoulders of a pitching staff that allowed only 287 runs in those 94 games – a stingy 3 R/G, while the offense chimed in with nearly 2 R/G more.

Will Topham was asked about that run, after the game, dripping in champagne he was way to young to drink when he first took on the responsibility of GM back in 2011. “We always believed in ourselves. We were the same team that won last year (a team that won 102 games and dispatch the Featherheads in 6 games). It just took us a little longer to rid us of the hangover.”

Randy Smith was asked about his second-straight postseason MVP, and he replied, “I felt I had a lot to prove. After Yuma showed no faith, and years of losing in San Antonio – that one playoff year notwithstanding (and a poor performance, to boot). Aurora gave me a chance to shine and show what I’m made of, and I wasn’t going to disappoint this great group of guys.”

The longest-tenured member of the club, José Rivera, put the win into perspective. “We were just kinda going through the motions – guys just trying to find themselves. Then our owner dies – our manager’s; our GM’s father, and I think we all struggled there for a bit. He was, in a sense, all of our father. He oversaw the transition from the Rodriguez’. Look at this club – so many of us drafted and raised in the organization – one that held the concept of family from top to bottom…”

One had to excuse Rivera as he walked off with tears welling in his eyes. It’s widely expected that he won’t be back for a 14^th season with the Borealis. A compensation-eligible free-agent, one look at the Aurora salary distribution and future needs, the $15.1M compensation deal is too pricy a luxary to bring back one of the PEBA’s all-time greats. As the team walked off the field, fans chanted ‘José, José’ as he stopped at the top of the dugout steps and raised his cap to the fans, turning a full 360-degrees in salute, as they rained cheers upon him. “These are the greatest fans,” he had said before departing the clubhouse in the wee hours of the night, “I understand the economics of the game, and I’m so thankful for the club’s faith in me all these years, but it’s the fans – they are what makes this game so great!”

Fan’s who now will demand more PEBA-an history: the League’s first three-peat. With virtually the entire team returning for the 2023 season… why not?