Dolphins Ride Late Season Hot Streak to WBA Championship
BUENOS AIRES -- It was early in the morning in Buenos Aires when Dionisio Alvelos caught the fly ball that clinched the WBA title for the Dolphins, but it might as well have been prime time. Fans flocked to bars and huddled in friends’ homes throughout Argentina to watch game 8. This moment, perhaps the pinnacle of several great careers, seemed an impossibility just a few months ago.
It was the middle of July and a 1-10 stretch had dropped the Dolphins record to 45-50. The team dropped to 6th place in the ABL standings, 6 games out of the playoff picture. In a hot-and-cold manner that has come to characterize Buenos Aires baseball over the past few years, the Dolphins snapped that cold stretch, which had culminated in 6 straight losses, with 7 consecutive wins. This turnaround appeared to be in jeopardy when the team dropped a home series to Santo Domingo, then, in the first game of a road trip to visit the upstart Puerto Rico Coqui, something happened that many Dolphins point to as a turning point for their season.
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Abilio Boye is the unquestioned heart and soul of the Buenos Aires Dolphins. He has never pitched a game for any other team, and his two pitcher of the year trophies make him among the most decorated pitchers in the WBA. It was his turn to take the ball in game 1 of that Puerto Rico road trip. This game would not rank among the best he pitched this season, but, if the Dolphins players are to be trusted to write their own history, it may be remembered as his most important.
Abilio Boye
“Puerto Rico played us tough all season,” said BA right fielder Gabriel Cuarenta. “We’re a young team. They’re a young team. I don’t wanna get into specifics, but those games would get intense. There was a lot being said. Those games felt like brawls. I mean, ya know, even the ones that weren’t.”
In this particular game, things escalated in the 6th inning. The Dolphins scored 5 runs in the top half of the frame.
“We put up those 5 runs. And, you know, we wanted them to hear about it,” said backup catcher Jae-weong Lee. “I hit that homer, and maybe I looked at it a little too long. Maybe I said some things I shouldn’t have said. Then Abilio came up and he got a hit, and that just kinda rubbed them wrong I guess.”
But the Coqui responded with a barrage of their own in the bottom half of the inning. John Butler hit a 2-run homer and got into a shouting match with Lee when he reached home plate. The next batter was Maximimilano Gaias. Boye hit Gaias with a pitch. Gaias charged the mound. Benches cleared. Boye and Gaias would both be suspended by the league.
When asked whether he threw at Gaias intentionally, “It slipped,” was all that Boye had to say.
The Dolphins went on to win that game 8-4. They won the next game 12-4, and they won the next game 16-3.
“That game brought us together. Seeing how bad Boye wanted us to be winners, it just gave us a jolt,” said catcher and MVP candidate Pat Vinson.
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That jolt carried the Dolphins to impressive showings in August and September. By the time the regular season concluded, they finished just a game out of first place, behind a Rio team that had knocked them out of two consecutive playoff series.
Buenos Aires defeated the Northwest Emeralds in the first round of the playoffs. In the second round, they matched up with the same Rio Jaguars that had eliminated them in the two previous postseasons. History seemed to be repeating itself when the series went to a decisive game 7. Just as he had in 2121, one-time Dolphin Gaudencio Bobahilda got the starting nod for the Jags. Two years ago, he shut down a young Dolphins offense and sent them home disappointed. This time, the Buenos Aires bats got the better of him. The Dolphins would advance to the finals.
Gaudencio Bobahilda
The Mumbai Cobras were the winners of the IBL. Their lineup featured three of the best hitters in baseball in Belmon, Katz, and Fflunker. Like Buenos Aires, their pitching and defense led their league in run prevention.
Mumbai’s home stadium is known as a launching pad, the opposite of pitcher-friendly Dolphin Stadium. But games 1 and 2 belonged to the pitchers despite being played in Mumbai. Unfortunately for Dolphin fans, they belonged mostly to Mumbai’s pitchers. The Cobras jumped out to a 2-0 series lead after 3-2 and 1-0 victories. It appeared as though maybe the Dolphins difficulties in close games were haunting them on the biggest stage. But then their fortunes changed. Buenos Aires rattled off 3 consecutive 1-run wins. Closer Shang-de Foong converted the save in each one.
“Moving Foong to the bullpen wasn’t an easy decision for any of us. But then he started this season with about 40 scoreless innings, and we started feeling pretty good about it. And then this series he really came into his own as a dominant closer.”
Shang-de Foong
Up 3 games to 2, the Dolphins were clobbered in game 6, losing by a score of 9-1. Game 7 was crucial and would be the last game they’d play in Buenos Aires in 2123. Declan Cullimore got the starting nod and excelled. He left the game after 6 innings leading 3-1. But that lead would not hold. In the top of the 9th, Foong gave up a two-run homer to Ross Iddon, tying the score at 3. But the Dolphins, who struggled mightily to win close games for almost a two year period, came through in the bottom of the 9th. With Claude Barbier on base, Juan Garcia got the call to pinch hit for the pitcher. He came through, belting a triple that plated the winning run. The Dolphins would travel to Mumbai with a 4-3 lead in the series, to this point all 4 of their wins had come by only one run.
Two rookie pitchers squared off in game 8. The Dolphins started lefty Manuel Reyes, and the Cobras tapped Hyat Niazi to make his first ever major league start. Reyes excelled, surrendering just 1 run in 5 innings of work. Niazi struggled. He exited the game in the 2nd inning after having given up 5 earned runs. The game would never get close. The Dolphins triumphed by a final score of 7-2.
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As the victorious Dolphins paraded through the streets of Buenos Aires, the crowd showered adoration on no one more than hometown heroes Tomas Franco and Tony Macias.
“I always dreamed of playing in Dolphin blue,” said Dolphins first baseman Tony Macias. “I grew up idolizing guys like Clifford Mitchell, Lopo Sobaran, Vinicius Caruma, and Haywood Ward. We all did in BA.”
Tony Macias
Reliever Tomas Franco echoed Macias’ sentiments. “When I got traded here, the first person I called was Tony [Macias]. Me and him went to a WBACS game in 2109. Highlight of my childhood. I was 11, and Tony was 13. I called him up, and I said Tony, let’s bring that [trophy] back to BA, and boy we did.”
And so the 2123 Dolphins ended the season as champions. They'll have a winter to bask in their glory before reporting to spring training in March seeking to defend their crown.
By Dan Farnell
Dan Farnell is the Dolphins beat writer for the Buenos Aires Tribune. He was also a pitcher for the Montreal Voltigeurs of the World Baseball Federation, and is the author of the best-selling memoir Twice Blinded in Quebec: One Pitcher’s Story of Fame, Heartbreak, Blindness, Healing, and Becoming Blind Again.
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