The Pocatello Razorbacks are four wins away from one of the greatest seasons in Idaho American Legion baseball history.
If things fall Pocatello’s way in the state tournament that begins
today in Nampa, the Razorbacks could win a state championship and
qualify for the Northwest Regionals in Alaska with a 52-1 record.
The Razorbacks began the season winning 35 straight games. Shortly
before that I wrote, “Ultimately, if the Razorbacks don’t win a state
championship, their 34-game winning streak isn’t invalidated. ... The
streak is an achievement that stands all on its own.”
I still
believe that. This exact same Razorback team could start the season
over and there is absolutely no way they would rip off 35 victories
before losing, not in a game like baseball with it’s volatile, fickle
nature. And that’s why the start of their season is so special.
But there’s something else at stake for the Razorbacks this weekend in
the Treasure Valley, something like Idaho baseball immortality.
“We’ve played in four tournaments now and we’ve won them all,” said
Razorbacks head coach Dan McCaskill. “So they don’t want to come in
second. ... If it happens, it happens. Let’s just play hard. I know with
the way that they play, if they play hard, they’re going to be in every
game.”
McCaskill and the Razorbacks are desperate to win a
state championship. They can taste it. This is a group of players that
has gotten used to winning, and winning big. It doesn’t mean that there
hasn’t been close games along the way to their current 48-1 record.
There have been plenty of those, but for every one-run game the
Razorbacks have had to pull out in the seventh inning, they’ve bullied
five other teams in 10-run blowouts.
McCaskill just wants to
make sure that if the Razorbacks do go out, if they do fall short of
their ultimate goal, it will only be because their opponent played out
of their minds. He wants his club to go down against a pitcher hurling
85 mile-an-hour fastballs. He wants the Razorbacks to lose in the final
inning, on a walk-off single that some kid managed to hit off one of
Pocatello’s best arms.
If they’re going down, McCaskill and
the Razorbacks are going to make sure the opposing squad had to throw
everything at them to win.
Not that Pocatello is traveling
west with losing on its mind. No, believe me, they’re headed to Nampa
with the intent to claim a state title.
“It would definitely
make our season a lot better if we did win state, to just show everyone
that our record is true — it’s not a fluke,” said Mason Foltz, one of
Pocatello’s star pitchers.
And there’s the rub. The Razorbacks
have accomplished so much to this point of the year that every future
Razorback squad will be compared to this one. But if they don’t finish
the job and win a state championship, the season won’t feel complete.
They’ll always have a 35-game winning streak and a district title, but
the Razorbacks haven’t climbed the last rung to legendary status — not
yet. And whether they do or don’t, it won’t change their lives. It is
just baseball, after all.
But that doesn’t mean the thrill of winning or the agony of losing won’t tug at their hearts any less.
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