[Westheim]

2037 WORLD SERIES
Portland Raccoons (93-69) vs. Nashville Blue Sox (100-62)

Music is playing, fans are excited and dressed in woolen apparel, and there’s a big trophy showcased and surrounded by league brass in front of the mound – must be the World Series!

The Raccoons and Blue Sox had never faced each other in the World Series, and hadn’t played another during the regular season, either. Raccoons with Blue Sox creds on their career stat tables were limited to Derek Barker (2035) and Josh Weeks (2030). On the other side, former Coons on the Blue Sox roster were Casey Moore (2036) and Matt Stonecipher (2029-2032). No position player had ever swung a bat for the other team.

The Critters had their work cut out for them – both teams had allowed almost the same amount of runs, but the Blue Sox had scored about 50 more than the Critters. Both teams had led the league in stolen bases; but the Sox were not hitting homers much at all. They had the best pen and a great defense, and had won a hundred for a reason.

A few roster moves were made by Portland – the Critters lucked into a speedy recovery by both Tony Morales and Cosmo Trevino, and were able to add both of those guys to the roster again. Jeff Kilmer and Jose Brito, who had amounted to a grand total of seven appearances and hitting 2-for-7 during the CLCS, were removed from the roster. Steve Nickas was arguably more useless than Brito, but the Raccoons needed a defensive replacement for Berto and Jesus Maldonado could ill replace both him and Fowler.

Injury-wise, the Raccoons thus only missed Dave Myers at this point. The Blue Sox were without SP Josh Irwin (bone chips in elbow) and outfielder Cesar Talabera (smushed ankle), the latter having been felled in the FLCS.