[Westheim]

Even with the Mexican Prick dead, the world somehow kept spinning, and Portland with it. The ABL had provisions that teams were supposed to continue business as usual – as far as possible – when a singular owner of a team died and the succession was not clear, as had happened here.

Then again, it was the calm time of the offseason already, and of life in general, at the tail end of the holidays. We made it to 2028 alright.

Who would be the first new Raccoon of the post-prick era? The Raccoons still had an outfielder job to give out. There was no point in having both Juan Magallanes (.559 career OPS) and Greg Borg (.576 career OPS) on the roster when we could still bring in an actual batter. This was probably a backup job, with Raccoons players to move and shift around in a way that would keep leftfield occupied by either Jarod Spencer or Rich Hereford for the foreseeable future (in fact, Spencer and Nunley might form the weirdest platoon of all, either one starting against opposite-handed pitching while Hereford was flickering back and forth between third base and leftfield). I can say that confidently, given that no outfield prospects of any sort were expected to arrive at the major league level … ever? Thus we'd make do with Mora and Gomez as starters.

And I might want to congratulate myself on a very balanced roster as of now, given that the Raccoons currently had five left-handed, five right-handed, and four switch-hitting batters on the major league roster. This included Butch Gerster, a September leftover that was batting righty and that was as unlikely as a snowflake in Arizona to make it into April.

In theory we could also add an infielder rather than an outfielder, but it was a crunch already…

Matt Jamieson remained the one that got away, and the Indians weren't giving him back, even though they also weren't keen on playing him.

Meanwhile we still had 78 pitchers on the 40-man roster, although everbody knew who would and wouldn't make the Opening Day roster – except for Mark Roberts' spot in the rotation, which he might or might not be able to take in April. The Druid was giving his best with massages and ointments to treat his ruptured disc.

The greatness of Mark Roberts is probably underappreciated as a whole in the league, partly because he was a slow debutee, not nailing down a starting role until age 25, and then he also missed time with injury here and there. At age 33, he had made it into 256 major league games, 239 of those starts, with a 100-71 record and a 2.99 ERA. Plus, that Pitcher of the Year button and a Triple Crown. And yes, there had been four pitching triple crowns in the last decade, but before that it had rarely ever happened.

All the triple crowns in ABL history:

1977 – SFB Juan Correa (1) – 34 W, 1.27 ERA, 297 K
1980 – SAC Juan Correa (2) – 28 W, 2.11 ERA, 200 K
1981 – LAP David Burke – 25 W, 2.61 ERA, 183 K
1982 – CHA Juan Correa (3) – 29 W, 1.64 ERA, 201 K
1984 – CHA Juan Correa (4) – 20 W, 2.20 ERA, 202 K
1986 – POR Tetsu Osanai - .341, 31 HR, 121 RBI
1999 – MIL Martin Garcia (1) – 22 W, 2.03 ERA, 288 K
2000 – MIL Martin Garcia (2) – 23 W, 2.28 ERA, 255 K
2002 – DEN Carlos Castro – 21 W, 2.38 ERA, 263 K
2002 – SFB Tony Hamlyn (1) – 21 W, 2.16 ERA, 277 K
2010 – CIN Tony Hamlyn (2) – 23 W, 2.00 ERA, 270 K
2016 – DAL Hugo Mendoza - .350, 37 HR, 134 RBI
2018 – POR Jonathan Toner (1) – 23 W, 2.21 ERA, 293 K
2020 – POR Jonathan Toner (2) – 22 W, 2.32 ERA, 276 K
2023 – TOP Jose Lerma – 20 W, 2.36 ERA, 204 K
2025 – POR Mark Roberts – 21 W, 2.29 ERA, 238 K

Correa wasn't named the Mauler for nothing, heh?

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2028 HALL OF FAME VOTING

And here are the voting results for the Hall of Fame. Players are listed with their declared plaque team, their number of times on the ballot, and their vote share.

LAP SP Brad Smith – 1st – 95.6 – INDUCTED
POR CL Angel Casas – 1st – 87.1 – INDUCTED
LAP CF Jimmy Roberts – 1st – 76.0 – INDUCTED
NYC SP Jaylen Martin – 2nd – 75.1 – INDUCTED
??? CL Arturo Lopez – 1st – 72.9
IND C Jose Paraz – 4th – 69.7
LAP 3B Jens Carroll – 3rd – 43.5
ATL LF Gil Rockwell – 1st – 31.5
??? SP Chris York – 10th – 29.7 – DROPPED
TIJ SP Kelvin Yates – 9th – 28.7
VAN 1B Ray Gilbert – 3rd – 10.4
??? SP Bob King – 2nd – 8.5
SAC SP Jorge Gine – 1st – 5.7
POR SP Hector Santos – 1st – 4.7 – DROPPED
BOS CL Matt Collins – 1st – 4.4 – DROPPED
IND SP Tom Weise – 1st – 4.1 – DROPPED
SAC 2B Dave McCormick – 1st – 3.5 – DROPPED
??? SS Gary Rice – 1st – 3.5 – DROPPED
CHA CL Luis Hernandez – 6th – 2.8 – DROPPED
??? RF Winston Jones – 1st – 1.9 – DROPPED
WAS C Jose Flores – 2nd – 1.6 – DROPPED
IND MR Helio Maggessi – 1st – 0.6 – DROPPED

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Four players were elected to the Hall of Fame, including a pair of Pacifics players in Brad Smith and Jimmy Roberts. Smith was the dominant pitcher in the Federal League during his time in the majors, winning the Pitcher of the Year award a stunning six times along with four ERA titles, four strikeout titles, and one season he led the league in wins. He also took home three World Series rings with the Pacifics (2011, 2012, 2016) and was the FLCS MVP in the 2012 playoffs. A strikeout guy with precise control, Smith rung up 3,411 batters against only 1,239 walks, and finished with 254 career wins against 146 losses and a 3.15 ERA. He spent 17 of his 19 major league seasons with the Pacifics before ending his career with the Bayhawks.

Jimmy Roberts was a teammate of Smith during the three World Series titles the Pacifics won in the 2010s, but was always more modest and less flashy, and also attracted less spotlight. While he was a sterling power hitter that piled up 280 dingers in his career, along with 1,151 RBI, he always seemed to shy away from too much attention, but got it anyway with seven All Star nods and the 2011 Player of the Year decoration. A .304 batter for his career, he led the FL in home runs and RBIs once each, and spent his entire career in the Federal League, 14 seasons with the Pacifics followed by stints with the Cyclones and Gold Sox.

Jaylen "Midnight" Martin didn't have his nickname for nothing. While his peak was relatively brief, it was nevertheless intense, and he was an All Star six times in the 2010s. Although he never led the Continental League, in which he spent his whole career, in strikeouts or ERA, he won the 2014 Pitcher of the Year award when he went 22-6 in his first full season with the Crusaders, who had picked him up in a trade with the Condors in 2013. With them, he collected three rings as part of their second, 2013-15 three-peat. For much of the 2010s, there was scarcely a better pitcher in the Continental League, but he lost his touch rather early and did not make a start past age 36, retiring after a 15-year career with marks of 187-129, a 3.17 ERA, and 2,319 K.

The greatness of Angel Casas will forever remain undisputed, not so much for his career ERA of 2.28 manufactured over 977 outings, all in relief, but for his 641 career saves, the second-most in ABL history. Casas was an All Star nine times and won the 2007 Reliever of the Year award when he saved 48 games for the Raccoons, the first of his four times leading the CL in saves, all with Portland. He spent the first 12 of his 19 seasons with the Raccoons before making stops with five different teams in the Federal League, and pitched until he was 40 years old. In his 19 seasons, he regularly topped 10 K/9, and tipped below that mark only four times, as a sophomore in 2005, again in 2015, and in the last two seasons of his career with the 2021 Scorpions and 2022 Capitals. Despite his elite stuff and vicious precision, Casas never found himself on a championship team, and is the only inductee this year without a ring.

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Say, we haven't had a number retiring ceremony in a while in Portland, have we? Angel wore #28 during his Raccoons days, which is currently held by Ricky Ohl, but I am confident we can figure something out there…