Storm sported a cornucopia of colours on Retro jersey night as Storm players wore the oldest version of the Storm jersey they could find (or fit into). This night would be a tribute to the history of Storm as well as the last regular season game for one of Storm’s longest tenured players.
The game started off with Broadside showing where he got the nickname from as he couldn’t find the broadside (or the short side) of the board and walked the first batter. He settled in and only gave up one run in the inning. Storm responded with two and won the inning. The second inning saw Coulas take the lead with a two run second. Storm opened the floodgates in the second as they put up a max six and Duran clubbed his 30th home run of the season. Storm was up 7-3.
Batting Practice took over in the third, and Coulas’s first four batters of the inning acted like it was batting practice until BP found his groove and retired three in a row to escape the inning with only two runs allowed. Storm added two more of their own and were double Coulas after 3.
Coulas laid an egg in the top of the fourth and Storm added three more taking what should have been a commanding lead at 13-5. However, the top of the fifth saw Storm fall into one of two traps that has dogged their season. After recording two outs with no runs in, Storm started to get a case of the dropsies as at least four high fly balls fell to the ground. Not all of them were cans of corn, but they were all high enough that an in-service film was offered. Had any of them been caught, the inning would have had minimal damage, but with two outs Coulas rallied to score 7 and draw within one of Storm.
Storm didn’t get too discouraged, though, and they were able to bounce back in the bottom half of the inning with four of their own to increase the lead to 5 runs. Storm shut down Coulas in the sixth and added two more to have a comfortable lead in the seventh. Coulas added two in the seventh, but it was too little too late and Storm held on to a 19-14 lead.
Since this was retro jersey night, and players were attempting to wear their oldest jerseys, let’s take a look back and see how retro some of the jerseys (and old some of the players) are!
Shawn - 2025
Tony - 2025 ( we are intentionally ignoring his service time with the A’s!)
Sam - 2023
Ken - 2022
Mills - 2022
Rene - 2019
Brian - 2015 (though he played in the league long before that!)
Duran - 2012
Jeffrey - 2011
Bob - 2006
Joey - 2005
Kevin - 2004
Greg - 2002
Brad -2002
Lance - 2002
Some fun historical notes:
Storm had consecutive killer drafts selecting Joey and Bob in consecutive years. They were two of the league's most dominant players for much of their Storm tenure.
Some research may need to be done, as Brad made a really big deal going into his last at bat, that this was his first year on the team without a home run. This fact is disputed by the records on statleaders, which claim he had no regular season home runs in 2019, 2021 (covid amended), or 2024. Brad can take this up with the people who enter the stats.
Kevin has played his final regular season game as a member of the Storm. His career (as tabulated on statleaders dating back to 2004) has been legendary.
Career Highs:
AVG - .667 (2016)
OPS: 1.609 (2007)
HR - 9 (2007)
RBI - 55 (2009)
Runs - 64 (2007)
2B - 14 (2006+2007)
Hits - 92 (2007)
Career Totals:
HR - 48
RBI - 684
Runs - 790
2B - 185
3B - 13
It looks like 2007 was a career year for Kevin, but it was a pleasure having him on the team every year. We know you’re with us in the playoffs, but we thought it was appropriate to honour you after your last regular season game, especially since it was retro jersey night, and nothing screams retro like Kevin, who as we all know has been playing some form of baseball for over 70 years (or something like that!)
Final Score: Storm 19 - Coulas 14
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