Welcome to Aurora’s New Reality
Northern Lights News Op-Ed
Bruce Schist, NLN Editor
Monday, May 2, 2016
What happened to our team? For nine years, our Aurora Borealis have been the team in all of the PEBA. Sure, we’ve won a single title, but year in and year out, this team was head and shoulders above the rest. You could go to Northern Lights Park and know that the Borealis would pitch well and score a ton of runs. The last couple of years showed some cracks in the armor, and now this: a team with an abysmal 11-14 record after one month. A team that has lost four of six already to Bakersfield. A team swept by the Codgers. A team that is 9th in hitting, dead last in slugging, 9th in HR and K, and 8th in stolen bases. What happened to the team that would lead the league in virtually every offensive category? And the ugly doesn’t stop there, Aurora faithful, oh no, no! 7th in ERA, 6th-most runs allowed… not good when you are last in runs scored! Second-most HR allowed. Are you getting the picture? What happened to our team?
Greed. That’s what happened, folks, plain and simple. The same thing that killed our Colorado Rockies is killing our Borealis. For that, look no farther than the ownership group. For the Rodriguezes, the ballclub was their business. For the Tophams, we are just another cog in the Golden Entertainment money wheel. Where’s the money going, Mikey Topham? Another theater? Your floundering casino project in Vegas? Another amusement park? It certainly isn’t going back into the team. John Knight too pricy for your money-flush team? Look how he’s ripping it up in Duluth, or did you fail to notice he’s got 8 HR and 25 RBI a month into the season? You ship En-guo off because of his purported greed, yet you are the one saving $13.5M while he hits .365 for Manchester! I guess we can all consider ourselves lucky that Steve McDonald is still around. Has Aurora even signed a big-name free agent? Hmmmm… they say they’ve made active bids, but their failure to sign anyone sure makes one wonder…
Instead, we have an outfield of Cory Pierce (thank God for small favors!) and two nobodies hitting at the Mendoza line. We have a starting pitcher who is coming off arm issues and has been so bad lately that you’re holding him back in hopes he doesn’t blow his arm out, and another who is getting lit-up after finally making his big league debut this year. We’re told to be patient, that the young talent on the way is dynamite. Well, Rod Johnson is a total dud and John Foster was thoroughly unimpressive last September and this spring. I suspect that Mike Britt may also be far less than we have all hoped for. Our immediate present and future has been mortgaged on the hopes of new, young, cheap players, and the likes of Ricardo Cruz, Brad Cain, Nathan O’Reilly, and Luis Reyes have shown nothing this year. Foster is back from Thornton and he better step it up right now and perform. It’s time the whole team steps up and performs.
The Tophams greed has let top-notch players go with the promise that the youngsters have so much talent that we’ll never miss them. Well, if that’s true, they better step up to the plate right here, right now. If not, welcome to the new reality, Aurora fans, and kiss any chance of another Rodriguez Cup bye-bye. This exceptionally proud franchise is on the precipice, as if it were driving up Pike’s Peak on a soggy spring day. This team, the flagship of the PEBA, is about to plunge to the levels of the Calzones and Bulldozers, Trendsetters and Zephyrs. Aurora pinned their hopes on the youth, and if they fail us, it’s going to be a long journey, I’m afraid.