December 19th, 2034: On the road..

The favorite going into the playoffs, New Jersey had nothing to lose. A 99-63 record, to lead the league by 9 games and a much deserved first-round bye. But let’s not get too excited yet! A season low 9-13 record in September and a 4-6 record in their final 10 games, New Jersey went in anything but fired up and ready. In fact, you can say they were iced while waiting for the first round to end.

Nothing can be more evident than the lack of passion and care on the players when the team was eliminated 4-2 by the eight seed, Portland Chinook, who entered 26 games back.

But is that the real story? The team just gave up and instead was looking ahead to their big transition to the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance?

Chris ‘Liver’ Pate was still lights out in two starts; in fact all of the starting pitching was electric, out pitching the Chinook and only giving up 16 runs in the series to Chinook’s 23. Even outhitting them as well! But that was just not enough…

• Game 2; lost 2-1
• Game 3; lost 2-1
• Game 5; lost 6-4 in an extra inning blunder and 4 run bottom of the 10th
• Game 6; lost 4-3

The pain of losing by one-run, felt throughout the season. The Hitmen were 8-11 in extra innings and 27-31 in one-run games. Cleary, the team had a weakness, and that was their bullpen. And the final scapegoat? Fireball throwing sidearm, Joshua Hall. After an outstanding season as the team closer before the late addition of Yoshifumi ‘Snuffy’ Ohara, Hall was a lock on the mound. But when the biggest moments came to the front in the playoffs; Hall broke down going 0-2 in three critical games, a 11.25 ERA, giving up 5 of the 16 total runs to the Chinook.

“I was devastated. I let the team down. Us.. THE Hitmen… gone because I couldn’t keep my nerves. I can’t apologize enough… please, I have no more comments..”

Should we pile on Hall for the poor performance? All of the Instagram and Youtube videos of fans burning jerseys making the pain worse for the 34-year-old righty out of Denver, CO. He will be back on the mound in 2035 as New Jersey makes their long-awaited return to the big show. What will fans do when he first steps on the mound? Forgive him and rejoice to see the Hitmen playing rivals like Arlington or Manchester again? Or will they take out their frustration instead and hurl more insults? We will have to wait and see. This analyst though thinks that the looming Winter Meetings have big things in store for our Hitmen. We will find out if they decided to lay down and let their loss drive them forward into a lengthy rebuild, or perhaps they come into PEBA with a chip on their shoulder and try to prove why they were the WIL’s best.

Don’t worry though, this coming year I will be there to tell you, all of our fans, up front and center! New Jersey has signed me on as a permanent analyst as we return to PEBA! So no more watching tv and posting all my knowledge in twitter form, now I can truly be All Leather again!

– @alleatherKohler