10 Questions with Philadephia Balboa’s GM Booshie73

Q: Tell the readers about the Season 16 Balboas. What makes the fans come to the ball park to see this team?
A: We really thought either this season or season 17 would see us put together our most balanced club in awhile. Unfortunately, some injuries to key young players and losing one of our best starters to free agency has hurt. The encouraging thing about this year though is the young talent that we have hitting the big club. Rookies like catcher Matt Marion, LF Matt Chouinard , and CF Hector Kendall give us a good core to go along with IF J.P. Melendez and Valerio Guillen . All of these guys are 26 or younger and should be in the line up for years to come.

Along with the young position players, we have some good young arms in the rotation with Stevie May, Cliff Moore, and Adam Parrish. We were devastated 2 years ago when Adam had the shoulder aneurysm but after missing almost all of last year, he seems to be regaining his form. Finally, there is a young closer J.P. Ordonez. He has started a little slow this year, but he had a great season last year and will be one of the league's best closers for the next ten years.

Q: In season Nine, You moved from Montreal to Philly. What happened, did you find players becoming distracted by the beautiful French Canadian Woman?
A: Season 2 was our first season in Montreal and we ended up winning the World Series which was fantastic. The down side was that we averaged about 5,000 fans and they didn't know a Home Run from a Slap Shot. The fans would throw hats on the field whenever a player got 3 hits in a game and then there was the one really annoying fan that kept dressing up in a orange furry suit. He would run on the field between almost every inning and then in the stands he would hassle the other fans. Needless to say, when the chance to go to a city like Philly, with their passionate fan base presented itself, we jumped at the chance.

Q: In your opinion, what minor league player, in your franchise, has the most potential to be a ML star and why?
A: Our minor leagues are not in the best shape right now. As I mentioned before, we have a lot of our future hitting the Majors all at once this season. Our best prospect would be 2B Heinie Rauch in AA. He has a good bat and glove. He is still 2 - 3 years away however. On the pitching side would be Benny Beltre. He is a 21 year old starter in his first year a AAA. We think he could be 15 - 20 game winner in the near future.

Q: Which Balboa player, past or present, have the fans in Philadelphia been most fond of, and why?
A: Philly is a blue color town and they like the hard-nosed, get dirty, blood and guts ball player. We have had a lot guys fit that mold over the last few seasons. Guys that came over from Montreal like Justin Smith, Eugene Pryce and Wade Prince were guys the fans could relate to. They were not the most talented guys in the league, but they busted their butts and won more than they lost. The current fan favorite though is RF Valerio Guillen. He is going to be a Hall of Famer before it is all over.

Q: Which Balboa player, past or present, the fans have the highest hopes for, only to have them dashed by poor performance?
A: We have had several pitchers fall into this category and one of the most frustrating is still in our organization. I really shouldn't be saying this because I do not want him to get down on himself, but RP Jose Sierra has driven me crazy. We thought he would be much more successful than he has been. He has started out great this year so maybe he has turned the corner and will live up to his potential.

Q: Which NL team do you consider to be your biggest rival?
A: Well until we can get into the playoffs on a consistent basis we will have to stay in our division. We are still stinging from finishing one game behind Columbus in Season 14 and they won it again last year so they would be #1.

Q What trade have you made that you have the most regrets over?
A:.I do not even have to think twice, Season 6 I traded Everett Roosevelt to the Bombers for some bullpen help for the stretch. I did get quality in return but I would loved to have had Roosevelt in my rotation for the last 8 years.

Q: What players on your team (past/present) have had the best nicknames?
A: On the current team there is Valerio "Super Raton" Guillen, which means Mighty Mouse because of his slight build but awesome power. We have JP "shotgun" Melendez and in the minors is Heinie "Slapper" Rauch.

Q: What player on your team has the best theme music?
A: Well this just started in the last couple weeks and it is not really theme music, but instead a movie clip. Since our closer JP Ordonez has been so erratic this season, our scoreboard director took it upon himself to play the tunnel scene from Willy Wonka. The scene were Gene Wilder has everybody on the boat and starts singing that crazy song with all the images flashing by.
"There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going.
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing.
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a blowing?

Not a speck of light is showing
so the danger must be growing.
Are the fires of hell a glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes! The danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing.
And they're certainly not showing
any signs that they are slowing!"

I wasn't very happy about it because it made seem like you could not count on him. The crazy thing is that JP loves it and the fans go crazy for it.

Q: The Clubhouse can be an interesting place to get a behind the scenes look at our favorite players. Tell us an interesting story from the clubhouse.
A: Well as I mentioned before, we have a lot of rookies on the club this year. They were prime targets during Spring Training. The veterans like Hunter Wilkerson and T.J. Little just abused these kids. You had the standard hot foots and such but they had some other more elaborate ones. T.J. went a loosened up the stitching in all of catcher Matt Marion's pants. He made it thru the 2nd inning and then you could see them start to rip. He went out the next inning and soon as soon as crouched down they gave way. The best part was he made through 2 outs before the umpire told him.

Q: In closing, please list the players who have played on your team that you feel are Hall of Fame worthy?
A: I think barring injury(knock on wood) Valerio Guillen will be a HOF. I have not been fortunate enough to have guys that have prolonged great careers. I have stops by guys that could make the Hall like Orlando Martinez and Albert Rincon, but RP will have a hard time getting in for awhile.