The PEBA’s Best of 2016 Writing Awards
The Best of 2016 Writing Awards recognize the best writing from those who cover the PEBA and LRS on a daily basis. Writers provide fans of the game an invaluable service, yet their efforts taken for granted far too often. The Writing Awards are a chance to stop and thank those who cover our national pasttime for their amazing work. Through these pieces, fans of the PEBA are informed about their favorite teams, made to laugh or cry, and ultimately come away with a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the game of baseball. Let’s look at last season’s standout efforts:
2016 “Best Of” Writing Awards
Season Preview: London’s First 2016 Press Conference (London). Just two weeks removed from his arrival from Kuwana, Japan, where he acted as the GM of the Kuwana Steel Dragons, Nigel Laverick holds his first press conference as the man in charge of running the London Underground. Mr. Laverick breaks down how the 25-man roster will shape up for the upcoming season. Honorable Mentions: Calzones Corner: 2016 Spring Preview – Part 1 / Part 2 (San Antonio); It All Starts with Pitching (Reno).
Season Recap: The “Ehlers on the Hot Seat” series – Ultimatum / Rekindling the Fire (Tempe). Four years ago, Chris Van Hauter pulled off what seemed impossible: he made the Tempe Knights, a team that went a league-worst 45-117 in the PEBA’s inaugural season, Planetary Extreme Champions. One negative from that improbably rags-to-riches story is that Van Hauter, now ascended to team owner, expects his predecessors to do the same. This places enormous pressure on current GM Alan Ehlers that not ever fresh 7-Eleven donuts can remedy… or can they? Honorable Mentions: Naha Shisa’s Season Ends with a Flurp! (Naha); 2015 Hitmen: Success/Failure? (New Jersey).
Season News/Update: West Virginia Comes Up Empty in Naming Rights Sale (West Virginia). Jacob Martin’s Wall Street Journal piece about West Virginia owner Lan-quing Li’s failed attempt to sell naming rights to the ballpark now known as Watt Powell Field not only provides us with history of the Allegheny region, but it delves into the business side of sports, an area that deserves more attention than it receives. Honorable Mention: The “Kalamazoo Front Office Shake-up” series – New GM / Assistant GM / Welcome to the Zoo (Kalamazoo); Has Aurora’s Time Come and Gone? (Aurora).
Game Preview/Recap: Carmona Turns “The Zoo” Into a Baseball Circus(Kalamazoo). April 8 was a big day in Kalamazoo for a number of reasons. It was the home opener. It was Badgers’ fans first opportunity to see “Whitey” Carmona, Reno’s new $216M man. But it was also Badgers Asst. GM Trent Nichols’ first chance to deliver a pre-game message to his new team. Honorable Mentions:London’s 2016 Home Opener(London); Victims of Soicumstance!(Edo).
Minors: Assessing the Mothra (London). Kuwana Steel Dragons GM Nigel Laverick can barely hide his disgust at the state of the Ibaraki Motha, Kuwana’s AAA farm club. Fortune is soon to shine on Mr. Laverick. In just over a month, he will no longer have to deal with his Kuwana mess, as he will be boarding a plane to London to assume the role of Underground GM Honorable Mention: Who Exactly is “Streamline”? (Shin Seiki); Bankers Deposit First Ever Championship (Palm Springs).
College/High School: Kaisers Rising, Part I (Crystal Lake). Ed Balls’s fine work has dominated this category for years, so it’s fitting that, in a year in which he is finally dethroned for top honors, Mr. Balls still contributes to the winning entry. It was Mr. Balls who tipped off St. John’s Kaisers hitting coach Francisco Rivera to a blossoming young slugger named Ryan Lambert. Lambert is just one of three Kaiser hitters profiled in this piece by BaseballObservers.com. Honorable Mention: Ed’s College Balls – 2015 review (London).
Trade Analysis: Badgers Shake Up Roster with Two Big Trades (Kalamazoo). One player has been a fixture in Kalamazoo for years. The other was thought to be a part of the team’s future. Both joined new organizations as centerpieces of two mammoth trades that Badgers GM Cole Hobson hopes will lead to a bright new future for the team. Honorable Mention: Aurora Goes For Broke in Retool? (Aurora); A Burden Gone; a Lot of Talent, Too (Charleston).
Draft Analysis: 2016 Tribe Nation Draft Coverage (Florida). The only thing more fun that draft day is draft day hosted by A.K. and Nelly, Florida’s dynamic broadcast team! As you might expect, A.K. is far more upbeat about Featherheads GM Kevin Lewis’s selections than the ever-dour Nelly. Honorable Mention: Meet Aurora’s 2016 Draft Class (Aurora); Longshoremen Draftapalooza (Canton).
Statistical Analysis: The Age Curve – Part 1 / Part 2 (Fargo). GMs have a tendency to overlook veteran free agents, but is that wise? Steve Youngblood explores this interesting question by examining age/performance curves for hitters and pitchers. Honorable Mention: The Thieving Game (Niihama-shi); The World’s Best Baseball Players – 2016 (Crystal Lake).
Historical Analysis: Aurora 10th Anniversary Team – Hitters / Pitchers (Aurora). The PEBA’s winningest team has borne witness to some of the league’s finest players. Northern Lights News baseball blogger Ray D. Enze has the difficult task of picking out the cream of the crop from the team’s first 10 years of existence. Honorable Mention: The Brief History of the Juuki (Lupin); Five Hitters Headed for the PEBA Hall of Fame (Kalamazoo).
Interview: A Crock of Gunt: Francisco Chávez (Aurora). You can always count on George Crocker and Mark Gunter for a hilariously off-beat interview. Cuban defector Francisco Chávez is the subject (victim?) of the radio duo this time around. Amongst the tidbits you’ll learn is that Chávez was given HGH when he was playing in the Cuban Little League in an effort to stimulate his growth. Honorable Mention: Jerky Juuki Jam Job (Lupin); Talking Shop with Matsusuke Hamada (Kure).
Player Profile: Almost Mr. Irrelevant (Naha). 2010 was a whirlwind for Naha Shisa GM Tom Fees. The LRS had just been bought by the PEBA, and Fees was a hasty last-minute replacement for the man expected to run this Shisa. Mistakes were made in the inevitable confusion, but Mr. Fees knocked in out of the park when it came time to make the team’s final selection in the draft. Six years later, Takahiro Ito is proving that there’s no such thing as “Mr. Irrelevant” – draft gold can be found in any round. Honorable Mention: The Morimoto Story (Florida); Matos Leaving Loudly into the Night (Charleston).
Different Team: Battered Battousai? (Lupin). Edo has been Bright Blade Group royalty pretty much from the moment of the PEBA’s LRS takeover. But the Battousai fell to the Kure Arsenal in this year’s Neo-Tokyo Cup, ending their quest for three straight league championships. Katsumi Nakamura of the Toyama Times wonders if this heralds an end to the team’s BBG dominance. Honorable Mention: The Parity Party (Niihama-shi).
Drama: A Way of Life (West Virginia). In 2009, a gruesome ankle injury cut Rintaro Kokawa’s LRS career short. The experience left him bitter and in constant pain. It also made him just the right person for Stanley Miller, a PEBA refugee trying to prolong his career in Japan, to run into. Kokawa’s words of wisdom will alter the course of both men’s lives several years after they were spoken. Honorable Mention: The Out of Nowhere Man (Naha); Cup of Coffee, Sir? Sorry, We’re Sold Out (London).
Humor: PEBA/NASCAR Join Fight Against Cancer (Connecticut). On its surface, Samuel Platt’s piece on the PEBA and NASCAR teaming up for a charity event seems like a typical sports feel-good story, but the ridiculousness of some of the PEBA’s representatives and their rides lead to lots of laughs. Honorable Mentions: Bears Send Eight to All-Star Game (Bakersfield); Crowds Pour In for Codgers’ “September to Remember”™ (Palm Springs).
Special Achievement in Art/Video: Collectible Card Games – PEBA / LRS (Niihama-shi). When you desperately want to play the card games being announced in these press releases, you know you’ve got something special on your hands. Combining geeky Magic: The Gathering-style gaming with jock sensibilities should prove an instant hit for Wizards of the Coast. Honorable Mention: Video Game Humor? (Tempe); Ghosts Welcome Hasegawa Back with Bobblehead Giveaway (Niihama-shi).
Special Achievement in Writing: The “Great Scott” series – Beginning / Trap / Floatsm / Isabella (New Orleans). Earlier this month, we ran a “First Line Contest” where eight league members took their best cracks at creating the kind of first line that would compel a reader to keep reading. While Patrick of Edo received an award for his winning entry, I announced that any member who used one of the eight submissions in a PEBAverse-related story would receive a little prize, as well. New Orleans’ Paul Tanner took up this challenge. He created four interconnected stories, each headlined by a contest submission. The storyline hasn’t reached its conclusion, but the progression is promising. From a bomb on a submarine to a mysterious little girl who takes down a collection of gun-toting baddies with ease, this action thriller has a little bit of everything. Stay tuned; we’ve been promised a conclusion, and from what Paul has shown so far, it’s going to be worth the wait.