August 1, 2057
by Banjo Jackson
Nashville, TN
Juan Rivera began the 2057 campaign in usual fashion – on pace for another Silk award. After accumulating 1.8 WAR in April with a blistering 1.157 OPS, Rivera cooled off with an .888 OPS and 1.2 WAR in May. However, the next couple months saw Rivera compile just 1.0 WAR combined and a fractured hand will all but guarantee Rivera won’t see his 4th Silk award. This, after a torn hamstring robbed him of another Silk award in 2056, when he out WAR’d the rest of the league, but didn’t have the qualifying amount of plate appearances.
“Not the way I wanted this season to go,” said Rivera. “I realize I only have a couple more seasons in me and I wanna be on that field as much as possible. Having injuries the past couple years really pisses me off, but maybe it’s my body just telling me I’m getting old. I mean, a knuckleball off the hand. C’mon! I’m getting brittle.”
LF Juan Rivera
Rivera exited the first inning after Cyclones pitcher, Enzo Bouton, floated a knuckleball that rode inside. Rivera was unable to get out of the way due to the late break, but the ball struck his hand and after being unable to close his fist, trainers removed him from the game. The third and fourth metacarpals were shown by x-rays to be fractured and the slugger will be sidelined for a month.
Later in the same game, another vet went down with injury. Salvador Allende came up grimacing after throwing a ball in the third inning. He immediately began walking towards the dugout, but fans and announcers were left wondering what happened to the new Bluebird. It was announced after the game that Allende would miss a few weeks with a strained back, but it doesn’t appear to be a serious injury.
3B Salvador Allende
Both players head to the IL leaving the Bluebirds scrambling to find replacements with the River Monsters on their heels for the Heartland title.
