Disappointing end to a historic Outlaws 2018 campaign

The stadium was dark. It was several hours after Flagstaff fans left Purina Park in a daze after watching their beloved team drop the two clinchers at home. Looking up in the stadium boxes behind home plate, a lone light was shining.

The light was coming from the Outlaws team box where Outlaws GM Greg Newgard was still sitting in his seat, staring out at the dark and empty park. Newgard had offered a brief congratulations to the Miners front office when Game 7 ended,  but he had sat still, replaying the season in his mind.

As the local press found Newgard, they entered the box asking for a few minutes and he obliged.

“Before I answer any questions, I do want to congratulate the Joplin Miners on a great win,” Newgard said. “They certainly deserved this and while we aren’t happy about the outcome, we do recognize they did what no one had really been able to do all season and we tip our collective caps to them.”

The first question that was asked was a very direct one: Was 2018 a failure?

After a moments thought, Newgard offered “We know that the playoffs are all about short series and who gets hot at the right time. No matter how many wins or good you think you are, there is that element that you can’t get away from, so it’s easy to sit back and answer that question as a ‘no’, but that would be a lie to me.

“We expected a World Series shot, period. It’s not being cocky or anything like that, just confidence in that group of players as we watched the season play out. From that lens, yes, this was a failure. Anything short of a league pennant was a failure for this team.”

When asked what happened, Newgard flinched. “They limited us to four runs and 15 hits over the last three games. You have to tip your hat to that pitching staff because they took it to us. Those last two games were ones that we broke open late all year, but just couldn’t do it this time.”

Newgard was then asked if there was a move or moves that could have been done, Newgard just shrugged. “This team went out and won 115 games. We had pitching, a solid lineup top-to-bottom, a very strong bullpen. We feel we had the best team in the BDBL, hands down, but you have to perform and for whatever reason, the lineup couldn’t do it just one time down the stretch there.”

Eventually the talk turned to 2019 and Newgard just shook his head. “It’s too early. We’ve been looking at this season for two years now and it’s all too fresh. We’ll take a day or two to get over this, to lick our wounds. Then we’ll sit down and start looking at what 2019 will look like, but I can’t tell you that now.”