For the fourth consecutive season, and sixth of seven, the USA has prevailed in the Great Lakes Championship Series. The Chicago Architects won their fourth title as a Wild Card team against a game Kingston Comet squad that was looking for their third Championship ring.
The story behind the Architect’s season is best described by their own General Manager, Alex W.
On April 26 last season, we were seven games back of Traverse City (6-13). We stopped losing ground at that point, at least for a bit, Traverse City, Milwaukee, and even Toledo (though that may have been earlier) traded places. However, by late May, we were down 12 games to Traverse City and 7 games out of second. While our winning percentage had improved, we had lost ground.
Early June, around June 2nd, we started to turn things around, beating Toledo in a series by taking two of three. Milwaukee beat them in the next series. Those two series were key, pulling them back to the pack. A 6-0 run the next week and we had passed Duluth and tied Milwaukee. However, Milwaukee took two of three in the next series, so by June 15, Traverse City was in command of first by 6 games while Milwaukee, Chicago, and Toledo were all within a game or so, but Milwaukee held second.
Interestingly, I looked back and saw that I had trade discussions the first week of June (before the 6-0 run) about my relievers, Bartold Swaneveld, and Whip Charles. Luckily, no offers came of that at that point to make me pull the trigger (I was looking for more as I knew that probably meant throwing in the towel). I even saw a PM to a GM about holding off after my 6-0 run as things had changed.
July 7th, after a sweep of Milwaukee, all three of us (Toledo, Milwaukee, Chicago) were tied, while Traverse City was 6 games in front. After a seven-game win streak that ended July 18th, we found ourselves two games ahead of Milwaukee and Toledo for the first time in the season. Traverse City maintained a 4 game hold on first. Traverse City extended their lead over us by beating us in the next series, but we wouldn’t relinquish second place and a seven-game win streak in early August made it a two team race.
We finished within two of Traverse City and the rest is history, but it was definitely a long path back. And while I was confident I had a good team, it definitely wasn’t a sit and wait situation, if I recall correctly. I benched Swaneveld against right-handed pitchers to get a better defensive option in (since neither were really hitting), kicked Walt Rowsell from the rotation for Campbell Sabin, swapped out my fourth outfielder (who gets a lot of at-bats against all the left-handed pitchers in the USA) and traded for second baseman Galimberto Benincasa to bolster infield defense and hoped he could swing a bat.
All Star shortstop Daniel Huffman led Chicago with 4.6 WAR.