Bucs say farewell to Alaska league's baseball season
Hannah Guillaume - The Northern Light
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By Hannah Guillaume
The Northern Light
The 2006 summer season for the Anchorage Bucs, who finished last season in fourth place with a league record of 14-20, marked the highest turnover rate the team has seen in years.
Typically, the Bucs will go through as many as eight players, but this year 11 came and went on the roster, said Assistant General Manager Zak Basch. The Bucs recruit their players from colleges across the globe.
"We've sent them home for injuries," said Bucs head coach Mike Garcia. "We've had a couple of different pitchers with arm problems, and we had a couple of disciplinarian problems as far as sending some guys home, because they broke some team policy rules. It has been kind of wacky that way, you know. We're only allowed 22 guys on our team and half of them have gone home."
Garcia, who is wrapping up his fifth nonconsecutive summer season with the Bucs, said despite the replacement of players, the team has maintained their personal baseball style.
"It's all based on an unselfish approach to the game. You mean nothing. The team is first," Garcia said. "My offensive philosophy is getting guys on base and then move them over-instead of just swinging away and trying to get this guy in for a run we have our batter-sacrifice his at bat to move our runner up to a better scoring position."
This is exactly what the team did on Garcia's favorite game of the year, Fourth of July game two, when the Bucs had a double header with their arch rivals the Anchorage Glacier Pilots.
"We beat them three to nothing. We had an outstanding pitching performance and it was in front of over 4,000 people," Garcia said.
The Bucs combined-pitching performance in the second game, led by Brad Kledzik, Darrell Fisherbaugh and Matt Gorgen, gave up just three hits in nine innings to the opposing Glacier Pilots.
This was following the first game, where the Bucs lost to the Glacier Pilots 10-1.
The Alaska Baseball League season wrap-up also marks the end of life in Alaska for most of the players. Ike Davis, an infielder for the Bucs, will return to the Arizona State Sun Devils for his sophomore year.
"I'm going to go back to Arizona and start college, move into my new apartment, get my classes and have fun," Davis said. "This summer has been awesome. I've been up in the great State of Alaska. The last great frontier."
Davis was selected in the 19th round, or 568 overall, in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
One week before the season's end, Davis held a .196 batting average. He said he spent the summer working in a world of foreign features, such as using a bat not made from aluminum.
"I just learned how to swing with wood, played every day and, you know, to be out of my element... like living in a club house and stuff like that," Davis said.
The Bucs do, however, have their own hometown heroes on the team, pitchers Jesse McCarty and Kraig Baily.
Bailey, originally from Ketchikan, finished his sophomore year at West Valley Community College in Saratoga, Calif. before returning home for a summer season with the Bucs.
McCarty, from Dimond High School, is planning to transfer from Allen Hancock College, where he will be entering his junior year as a business major.
"I've had a couple offers but I'm leaving my options open right now," McCarty said, before reflecting on his summer experiences. "It's pretty good to be home. Alaska league is pretty prestigious, and it's something you've always wanted to do if you're an athlete."
Ten days prior to the end of the season, McCarty and Baily each held 4.09 and 3.78 overall earned run averages respectively, and the Bucs were wearing a 24-14 season record, standing second in the league. Thirteen of those games were won at home.
The final dusting of home plate for the Alaska Baseball League's season will be at the Mayor's Cup July 31.
