OETL: Power in Numbers- the 2014 Year Class

On the End of the Line is a periodic series casting light upon seminal events in Sea Kitten history

In the natural history of Sea Kittens one will notice that the team often features groups of players who debuted together, and more than once a particularly strong year class has bolstered the team for some time.  After the great founder event of 2010, groups like the 2011 year class that included current Sea Kittens Zen Master Rowe, Heidibadger Nelson, Man-Aaron Jossart, and retiree Boomer Boehm made a big year two splash and played huge roles in the team’s 2012 championship. Three years later another significant year class appeared on the scene and gave the Sea Kittens new depth and much-needed versatility in the years following The Schneid.    Three players made full-time debuts in 2014- Dan Dynam-Oele, Schultzy Oele, and Klutch Karlin Younger and two others- Sweet Thing Harkins and Alex Latzka, the Polish Puma- began moonlighting with the team.  Since the former three began playing together full-time in Fall, 2014, Sea Kittens have enjoyed a run of success in which the squad has won 41 of 66 games played, a 0.621 winning percentage. Read more about each player by following the link on their name to their player page.  All player pages can be found at Meet the Sea Kittens.

Dan Dynam-Oele was the first to join full-time, following the retirement of Ghena at the beginning of the 2014 season and Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichosz’s season-ending knee surgery.  His signing promised to bring a modicum of respectability back to the middle of the Sea Kitten lineup.  Dynam-Oele wasn’t able to turn the team’s fortunes alone.  He was the only member of the ’14 year Class who played through any part of The Schneid, and he scuffled a little in his five games that summer, going 5-13, but his two doubles and two triples showed the big bat potential.  Originally nicknamed The Wall in recognition of his defense prowess, he mainly slotted in at third base, stabilizing the position for Los Gatitos… Schultzy Oele was recruited for Fall Ball, 2014.  Originally nicknamed “Jess,” in reference to her birth certificate, the athletic former volleyball star adjusted quickly to catching a small hard ball rather than attempting to swat it away defensively.  Or at least swatted it away with no more frequency than most Sea Kittens.  From the get-go she preferred hitting it with a stick and took to that element of the game naturally- currently she is #2 on the all-time batting average list among Sea Kitten women… Karlin “Clutch” Younger also debuted with the squad in Fall 2014, as she and Schultzy slotted in for the annual departure of some Summer league regulars.  Recruited by stats mistress Jillian Potter, Younger brought fast-pitch experience to the slowpitch diamond for the Cats.  Sidelined with a shoulder injury in the current season and often called away by her duties as an “International Agent of Change,”  Younger mashed her was to a 0.475 batting average in 2016, the year she played regularly… and dangerously… These two Cats also started hanging around the Olbrich playfields in 2014: Sweet Thing Harkins debuted for Sea Kittens in the 2014 Harmony Tourney and contributed greatly to the first win the Sea Kitten side ever achieved in the tournament, and has since established himself as an offensive force in that arena.  A dervish on the basepaths, Harkins made his first Summer League appearance in 2015, played the Tourney again in that year, and joined Sea Kittens full-time for the Summer 2016 campaign, earning Rookie of the Year honors. Alex Latzka, the Polish Puma, also strutted onto the field for Sea Kittens for the first time in 2014.  The Polish Puma made a quiet Sea Kitten debut September 3 that year, going 0-3  in a 9-6 win over the Caribou Bou Crew. He continued to be a regular sub for the next three seasons, appearing for the Cats 9 times in the span.  His game ratcheted up each time, culminating with a gaudy 0.889 batting average and 0.900 on-base percentage in 10 plate appearances in summer 2017 that accelerated the present, lucrative, long-term deal he signed prior to the Fall 2017 season. But scientists can’t agree as to how to assign these two to the proper year class, so we’re just going to let the masses decide!  Feel free to debate in the comments section.  

By the numbers: Year Class Strength

2010 Joe Hennessy Mama Cat O’Brien Boom Boom Magyera KC Ropes Curtis Man-Aaron Jossart (full-time 2011) 2011 Zen Master Rowe Heidibadger Nelson 2012 Red Shoes Hewitt (FT 2013) 2014 Dan DynamOele Schultzy Oele Clutch Younger Sweet Things Harkins (FT 2016) Alex Polish Puma Latzka (FT 2017) 2016 Jami Roadrunner Hauer (FT 2017)