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2079 Playoffs
When Golden State & Phoenix were both ousted during the 2nd round of the playoffs, it looked like Pittsburgh would have most of the remaining routes to victory. They were, as the baseball pundits put it, the best of what was left. The Cinderella story belonged to San Diego who swept the Kings and dispatched the Suns in 7 hard-fought games… the consensus was that they had crashed the party and would be thrown out by the Steelers soon enough. Portland managed to get some ink – they were given the label of dark horse because, with Heathcote Kinton in the lineup, anything was possible. And, Chicago, was sort of forgotten – there was nothing sexy about the Fire… solid everywhere, persistent, and dependable – they’d been a top club during the regular season, their level of consistency almost boring. When they shutout the Timbers in the first game of the ALCS, behind a complete-game shutout from Theodore Junkersfeld, it wasn’t enough to stir the imagination of the press corps. After losing the second game, at home, to the Timbers there was a pivot… suddenly the baseball prognosticators were all-in on the Timbers – and when Chicago survived a 3 for 5, 2 HR, 3 RBI performance from Heathcote Kinton in the 3rd game to go up in the series, 2-1, it was treated as a blip on the radar. The press, it turned out, was right as the Portland Timbers, seemingly peaking at the right time, won the next three games to secure their spot on the homecoming court. They’d face the San Diego Chargers – Cinderella in the flesh – in the 2079 Fall Classic – an 89-win club (PDX) facing an 87-win club (SDC) for all the marbles. Stranger things have happened in Strangeverse, sure, but not many.
The series was a flop – it failed to draw eyeballs, Heathcote failed in his pursuit of, what would have been his 1st WS Ring, and Boogie Barnett had his coming out party, on our biggest stage, probably 1-2 years too early. San Diego, that also ran from paradise, came out of nowhere and took down the whole enchilada. SP Peter Garcia, a so-so guy in a league full of them, took home MVP honors and the bikini-clad, roller-skate wearing, sushi-loving citizenry of San Diego took to the Mission Beach Boardwalk to celebrate the World Series victory of a club they barely care about over designer cocktails and ceviche nachos. It was a scene that I can only describe as… well, surreal.
Elsewhere: Beaumont won the Bush League Title over the Naperville Nibblers in 7 games, and the COMPTON RAIDERS lost the IL Series to the Huntington Beach Bombers after going up 3-0… that’s right, they lost four straight – yikes!
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