Independent Baseball Insider – by Bob Wirz
In trying to sum up a season in which two teams were extraordinary for virtually all of the 100-game sprint, onetime elite home run slugger Pete Incaviglia probably said it best: “Once you get to the championships, you hate to see a loser because both teams deserve some compliments.’’
He may have been talking about the Championship Series when he spoke to The Sioux City Journal because the Laredo Lemurs he manages had just overpowered the American Association’s new all-time wins champions from Sioux City for the postseason title, but it might as well have been emphasized in relationship to the entire four-team playoffs since St. Paul and defending champion Wichita also had exemplary summers.
“No one will be able to take away what these guys (Sioux City) have accomplished,’’ Explorers manager Steve Montgomery told the hometown newspaper shortly after Laredo had registered a three-game blitz in Games 2-3-4 of the best-of-five set, marking the first time all year that Sioux City had lost three consecutive games.
Remember, the Explorers had broken the regular-season record by posting a 75-25 mark.
Laredo became a remarkable ninth franchise to capture the American Association title in the last nine seasons, doing so when the Lemurs accomplished a last-month makeover by bringing in multiple new everyday players.
Previously the chief spokesman for Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth, Bob Wirz has been writing extensively about Independent Baseball since 2003. He is a frequent contributor to this site as well as writing his blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com.
