[illeracula]

When I started this league it started with the inaugural draft, and in the 5th round I took a kid from Illinois named Mauro Candelaria. He became one of my favorite players for the Cavaliers over my tenure here. He made the team out of camp as our starting short-stop and he did so well he was voted onto his first (and only) All-Star team.

Mauro was a team leader, more by example than by words, he never complained and he always did what was asked of him. Unfair to him he was a man without a position and I moved all over the field. He ended up playing over 200 games at each of the infield positions and another 36 in RF. Over his career, an injury plagued one, he enjoyed position stability only 3 seasons, playing 100 games at SS in 2013, 158 at 1B in 2017 and 142 at 2B in 2019. As he got older, he didn't bounce back from injury and regulated to playing 1B over the final seasons of his career.

Candy, as he was known around the clubhouse, was a mainstay on the Cavaliers for 10 seasons 2013-2023. During his career he played in 155+ games 5 seasons, including every game of the 2017 season. Making the 40-man roster this season, allowed him to be part of his 6th Championship team, he is currently the only player in the DBL to be able to wear 6 rings.

He isn't a Hall-of-Famer, but his number 50 will be retired in Norfolk. A patient batter, which man Cavaliers could learn from. Not only was he patient and knew how to draw a walk he was tough to strike out. His 2017 season is considered the best of his career. During that season, Candy played in 162 games, scored 97 runs and drove in 75. He walked 97 times, and struck out an amazing 33 times over 723 PA's. He finished the season with a career high 4.9 WAR. To top that season he off, he put together a great post season. Collecting 16 hits for an average of .421 in 9 games, He drove in 9, walked 2 times and did not strike out.

In 2023, Candelaria became a free-agent, and with falling ratings, I was instructed by my scout it was time to let him go. This was a hard decision for me, but it was the right one. Later that year I was able to come to terms with Mauro on a minor league deal. He would play all of 2024 in the minors, splitting time between AAA, AA and the disables list. In 2025, he was sent to AAA and played 139 games, hitting .279-3-62 and walking 125 times.

At the end of the season with space on the 40-man roster I decided to give him the call in hopes he would finish his fading career on a high note, as I did a few seasons earlier with Don Sweetapple. He would play 2 games with the Cavaliers and in what would turn out to be his last game of his career, Candelaria started at 1B, and he would turn in show for the home crowd, going 1-3 with a HR and 3 RBI's. This game would turn out to be the division clinching game.

At the end of the 2025 season, Mauro Candelaria announced he was going to retire from the DBL. He retires as the leader in games played (1268), At-Bats (4470), and Walks (537). Candelaria is one of three players who have collected 1000-plus hits for the Cavaliers with 1265, which is 3rd most in Cav's history. If it wasn't for a string of injuries that cost him many games, he would probably be on the top of many other Career Cavaliers categories.

He may not be a Hall-of-Fame player in the DBL, but he will forever be remembered in Norfolk... Mauro is the only player, that was active on the 2013 Norfolk Cavaliers that is still in the Norfolk Organization.

He will be missed.