Byline: Max Offen Sichtlich
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Aging Veteran Having Season For the Ages
August 27, 2055
Carlos Flores sits in the media room with an ice pack on his shoulder after an outing in Hawaii in which he went into the seventh inning, struck out ten, and walked two while allowing only two hits. When the club finished up a 4-1 victory, he notched is 14th win on the season, against 4 losses.
His ERA sits at a dominating 3.37. His FIP an even more gaudy 2.98.
He’s having one of those years, you know? One where the word “Nebraska” starts being bandied about.
Flores is kind of used to that. Or at least he was. Back in the days more than a half-decade ago—2048 and 2049 when he took the award back-to-back. He was younger then, of course. Back in Atlantic City where he combined those years to go 35-7, which is good sailing if you can get it. You can make an argument he should have won it again in 2050, too. I’m sure Flores was disappointed at the time, but who’s counting, right?
Since then he’d had his moments, but they would come and go, and his endgame in Atlantic City was a disastrous 0-10, 5.68 performance that drove a trade to Sacramento that came with a healthy dose of “don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”
Things have a way of changing, though.
If anyone knows that today as he sits and answers this question about a 2-1 pitch to that batter (“It was too far inside”), and whether he had considered throwing a slider (“I don’t throw a slider”), Carlos Flores is probably dreading the question he knows is coming. “What do you think your chances of a Third Nebraska Award”
Or maybe he’s not dreading it at all.
Maybe the moment is enough.
Enough that he knows it’s always been in him. That his peak wasn’t a fluke.
Maybe he wants to talk about those old days, and how they feel now that he’s looking at them from the very far wrong side of 30.
All we can say for sure is that Carlos Flores is looking remarkably relaxed these days as he ices his shoulder, and that he’s 14-4 with sidecar numbers that are once again making hitters develop flulike symptoms whenever he comes into town.