The sting of their Class AA season ending prematurely hadn’t completely left their system when Arkansas Travelers manager Cesar Nicolas called a team meeting.
Some players were getting ready to shower, others were still in sweat-soaked uniforms, not wanting to let a magical season end. But they gathered one last time, in the visitors’ clubhouse at ONEOK Field in Tulsa, Okla., before heading separate ways in the offseason. Their season ended with a disappointing 5-1 loss to the Tulsa Drillers in Game 5 of their first-round series of the Texas League playoffs.
Nicolas wanted to thank them for their effort and their commitment, particularly since he wasn’t their manager at the start of the season.