That's a Wrap

The Mississauga Twins were swept out of the playoffs tonight, losing by a decisive count of 14-1 in a game that they were never really in. Coach Held put it succinctly after the game – and this quote might go in my game story, as a point of full disclosure – when he said that “we were in it right up until the umpire said ‘play ball.’”

It’s true – the Twins never really were in this one, trailing 4-0 after one, 8-0 after two and 11-0 after three. It’s very much worth noting, I would think, that all four of the Red Sox’ runs in the first came with two out. Not good – but also a testament to the Brantford hitters.
The game’s biggest story was Brantford starter Brad Hogeterp’s no hitter, which he carried into, I believe it was, the sixth.

So, that’s a wrap. I could go into further detail about tonight’s game, how the big innings came together and so on, but I don’t think I will. I’m planning on (eventually) writing a game story for the Twins’ website, and anyone dying to know the nitty gritty can get their fix from that. Instead, I think I’ll talk a bit about the Twins’ season overall and where things are going to go from here.

Inaugural seasons are often tough, and I think the reason that this one seemed as tough as it did is because of the lofty expectations that a lot of people – myself included – had going in. The prevailing wisdom was that these guys would fight for a spot in the middle of the standings – and up until the last 3 weeks or so of the regular season, they were within a couple games of fifth place – and obviously it was tough for everyone to take when the fight wound up being over the eighth and final playoff spot.

There’s absolutely a core in place – Banski, Dickson, Joseph, Duke, Macleod and Pui are the ones that jump at me off the top of my head, but there are others who can contribute to a winning team in the future, I think. A lot of the Twins’ future success will depend on how GM Doug Kelcher goes about adjusting the roster in the off-season. I very much liked his mid-season pick ups (Banski and Macleod); they suggested to me that he had learned a feel for what kinds of players it takes to compete in this league, and I’m sure that will guide his off-season acquisitions.

Everyone I spoke to after the game was very non-committal as far as their future with the Twins goes – everyone seemed to want to come back, but at the same time went out of their way to defer to ownership/management’s decisions and their own personal situations. Ian Held never shed the ‘interim’ label on his managerial tenure, and I’m very interested to see what the Twins’ do about their coaching staff heading into next year.

It’ll also be interesting to see what happens from an off-field standpoint. Landmark Sports, I think, are going to spend a lot of time thinking things through from point A – attendance is a major, massive concern. Their expectations were 500 fans a game at the beginning of the season; obviously, on some nights it was a struggle to get to 100, and that will need to be addressed. I suspect that full-time staff will be devoted to marketing the Twins’ brand headed into next year, and it’ll be interesting to see what avenues they pursue. Social media – Facebook and Twitter – were only used much later in the season, and I think they made a big difference, so it’ll be neat to see what happens after the Twins’ personnel have a full winter to work on things and become more comfortable with the whole sports marketing gig.

On a personal level, I’d like to thank Scott Rogers for giving me the chance to be the Twins’ first ever beat writer – it was awesome having my own beat to work and I really did have a blast doing it. I’d like to thank Doug Kelcher for his helpfulness as far as keeping me up to date on roster moves and for always getting back to me quickly; I’d like to thank Ian Held and Adeo Calcagni for their co-operation and availability during each of their respective managerial tenures; I’d also like to thank all of the players – especially captain Henry Duke, who was always willing to talk and always had something intelligent to say – for their friendliness and availability. Most importantly, I’d like to thank everyone who read this blog and followed my coverage on MississaugaTwins.ca – despite your refusal to comment, my new hit counter proves that you do indeed exist!

I’m not quite sure just yet what the future of this blog is – I’m more than happy to remain on board with the Twins and write articles for their site as things come into focus for next year; obviously, if I do that, that content will also go up on the blog alongside my own analysis. I’m also considering blogging a bit about the rest of the IBL playoffs – and going out to a few Toronto games if they’re still in it after I get back from the cottage.

Check back within a week to ten days and there will definitely be some sort of update on what’s going on!