At the suggestion (offline) of WPK superfan Palaaemon, I will be supplementing the Games of the Week feature with a weekly player spotlight feature as well to further expand coverage of the WPK beyond the Denver Brewers and add some texture to the WPK universe reporting.
This week we will look at El Paso Dawg's ace Dan Bottom, who is off to a 5-0 start in 1977 with a 1.99 ERA. The left-handed ground-ball specialist was the third player chosen overall in the 1969 draft out of Winston Academy High School in Louisville, Mississippi. Bottom won the 1974 SJL Pitcher of the Year award in 1974 while leading the league in ERA at 2.12 and putting up an 11-4 record with a Dawgs team that finished 6 games below .500 and in 6th place. After he saw his numbers slip a bit in 1975, he helped lead the Dawgs to their first winning season since 1965 last year by winning 18 games.
The biggest question mark always hanging over the 26-year old hurlers head (other than the sense that he isn't a good team player and tends to be quite selfish) is the perception that he is fragile and it is only a matter of time before he suffers a serious injury. But while he has suffered from a series of rather minor ailments over the years, he thus far has avoided any serious injuries to his pitching arm. For the El Paso Dawgs, who have won 9 of their last 10 and currently sit in 3rd place in the SJL, to hope to finally climb to the mountaintop and claim an SJL pennant, his continued good health will be key.