Duluth, MN--If you haven't already heard, the Bjork have quietly become one of
the PVFL's younger and more dangerous teams. With some early moves
shipping the aging outfield out to all over the league, including such
cities as Medina and Punxatawney, for younger talent. New faces such as
Jeff Hallony, Hugh Coleman and Marc Newfield have graced the franchise as
of late. GM Lund had this to comment, "... yeah, I'm very pleased with the
young bunch of overachievers we've landed. One of my concerns was dumping
the negative attitude of Albert Belle, which we successfully did, but
unfortunately I'm back to square one with Gonzalez... what a bad ass..".
The Bjork have posted a 13-5 record so far in the season for a win % of
.722 and within striking distance of divisional rival Vero Beach sitting
.5 games back. To make the rivalry all the more heated, Duluth continued
it's good play against the Bums, winning the home series 2-1, wrapping up
with a 3-0 shutout by the hands of "El" Sid Fernandez. "... go figure, I
mean even last year when we were horrible and Vero was walking away with
the division, we could still go into a series against them and come away
with a win or two. We can beat the great teams, but not the mediocre...
anyways, coach Puckett designated me a starting spot in hopes I could
bring along the young hurlers (Hallony and Gott) like I did with Izzy and
Hitch last season, needless to say, I'm impressed." , is all Fernandez
had to say about the situation. And what a job Sid has done with the two
21 year olds going a combined 5-1 with an era of 2.31 over 50+ innings.
One setback has been Jason Isringhausen's sudden injury, a pinched vulnar
nerve that team doctors have estimated will keep him out of action for 4-6
weeks. Also young closer Joshua Ludolph, recently acquired from the
'Hogs is tied for the league lead in saves with 4 and has yet to give up a
run in 7 appearances. Offensively first bagger John Jaha leads the way
with a .333 average, 4 HR and 13 RBI, the rest of the offense is evenly
dispersed throughout the team with no real standouts. One dissappointment
has been Alex Rodriguez's slow start being homerless and driving home only
9 runners. Rookie leftfielder Mike Metcalfe has held his own being
errorless and hitting a respectful .256 in the leadoff spot, he had this
to say about his rookie experience thus far, " I was really surprised when
I got the call to come up from the Rochester Baron's (AAA) to play in the
bigs. With A-rod being in short I had nowhere to go and thought for sure
I'd be traded, but Puck told me I'd play third which was fine by me. With
the trade of Dave Martinez I figured I'd get the #1 spot in the order, but
then Lund grabbed Seitzer and I again was without a spot. One day I was
just out clowning around with Gonzo and Bill shagging flies and playing
catch in the outfield when coach asked if I ever thought of playing left.
I said no, but I'll go wherever I fit and the rest is history." Lund has
dumped the offensive power he had in the outfield for younger, defensive
guys to compliment Duluth's new found pitching. Lund summarized by
saying, "We won't be winning or losing many more 21-18 games, it's a new
look for us and it seems to be working."
