Bjork Sweep Series, Hold First Place April 9, 1998
April fools day was over a week ago so no need to worry of any
pranks here, the Bjork are actually undefeated and stand alone atop the
Picard division, .5 games over defending champ Vero Beach. Now I know
the arguement, "yeah yeah 3 games into the year big deal, 152
to go", but wait, Duluth actually has something that kind of resembles a
pitching staff this year, kind of. Jeff Hallony was a steal of a trade
and has stepped up into the role of "staff ace" in his short stay in
Duluth thus far. The rotation rounds out again with the familiar faces of
Sterling "Psycho" Hitchcock, Jason "Izzy" Isringhausen, "El"Sid Fernandez
and newcomer Chris "The Goods" Gott. Izzy and Sterling have improved from
last season much due to Coach Puckett's "Power Protein Pack" diet and
workout regiment he purchased off of an infomercial. "It's worked wonders
for me and those two, they both pitched decently enough, I'm thinking of
buying some for the whole team." "Da Pen" looks to be less sloppy this
season with the lone bright spot Dino "Bedrock" Rigopolous returning as
the backbone of relief. Also Derek "Biggie" Wallace has inproved and
looks to be consistent relief help along with Jim "Ritchie" Cunningham and
Geronimo "Chief" Bogle. Mark "Juan" Valdez is a serious question at
closer and hopefully will overachieve this year along with Carmen
Brantley. On offense Belle, Jaha and A-Rod return with Alex having
tremendous power this time around. Rookie Mike Metcalfe should make his
debut in left tomorrow and looks to be more of an impact than his #9 spot
in the order would appear. All in all, Duluth looks to be somewhat
competitive this season, possibly having it's first winning season. Much
of this rests on very young and willing shoulders however. So even though
you shouldn't expect the Bjork's stay at the top to be a long one, expect
this season to be quite exciting as the new look Bjork are, well new....
Alex Rodriguez, who has been topic of many trade rumors as of late, had
this parting comment to say, ".. Lund has told me that I'm going to stay
in Duluth and remain the franchise guy, which is very relieving. I've
been preoccupied with the situation this series and my performance is
evident of this, but I look to bust out of my shell soon enough. Oh yeah,
for those of you who don't know what exactly Bjork is, it's Icelandic for
Birch Tree.... duh".
