The 2000 Rookie Game

We wasted a lot of time on this graphic.

When you're looking through the archive of the league, and you see that our Rookie of the Year Winner for the 2000 season had only 40 ABs, you can rest easy assuming the Rookie Game of that same season was nothing but a total wash. What we found ourselves with that season during what was supposed to be a celebration of talent was an absolute travesty of a game.

All kinds of drama ensued during the weeks leading up to the All-Star Weekend. Seth Yoder left town suddenly and Bruce Longacre quit the league, leaving us with only three guys to play in the Rookie Game; Darnell Uhland, Mickey Kendall, and Mike Walsh. We desperately wanted a game, so we pleaded with Bruce to reconsider long enough to play ONE MORE GAME. Then he could quit. He agreed, so we breathed a sigh of relief, thinking we had just saved the showcase for up and coming talent (*cough*).

Then Mike Walsh decided to throw a screw into our plans by not showing up. After waiting what seemed like an hour (but was actually more like 10 minutes), we said "forget him" and decided to let Darnell, Mickey, and Bruce play in a "1 on 1 on 1" game, made famous back in 1994 with players like Scott Carmichael, Terry Creighton, and Joey Creighton. One guy would hit, one guy would pitch, and one guy would field. Each guy would get two ups, one against each pitcher. Sounds easy, right? Maybe, but what we had were not-very-good and inexperienced players competing against other, not-very-good and inexperienced players. On top of that, you had Bruce Longacre looking like he was ready to hang himself. To say he didn't want to be there would not do the situation justice.

After each player had one ups, Darnell was the only man with a run, as he took Bruce deep. No other hits were seen. Then, during the second ups, Mickey took on Bruce and would up taking a bunch of walks. He took two, then hit a homerun, giving him three runs. At that point, Bruce looked was lobbing the ball in and playing with zero spirit. Mickey then shut down Darnell, and Darnell shut down Bruce, giving Mickey the 3-1-0 win, and the game was mercifully over. In total, we saw two hits (both homeruns) and seven walks. After that, all players who witnessed the game agreed to completely block it out of their mind or we might have experienced "1997, Part II." Mike Walsh was eventually forgiven, but will probably not live this down for quite some time.