Rangers: The reverse of the curse

People in the sports world are often both encouraged and plagued by superstitions and apparent omens that give cause for their success or explain their shortcomings. The Ford Rangers of the Saipan Major League Baseball Association are no different, as some of their players agree that the “lucky” number “7” had plenty to do with their win over the Northern Yankees in the championship series.

According to catcher Joey Dela Cruz, there is no coincidence that the score of yesterday’s game held on Sept. 11 (7+4=11) was 7-4, and that seven of the players in the starting line-up were from the original Pirates team from seven years ago.

The list of numerical similarities continues, as Dela Cruz pointed out that the team played throughout the entire season and playoffs with exactly seven bats, and following the game, the team went down to the Smiling Cove Marina to watch the ships come in from the 21st Saipan International Fishing Tournament where passing anglers tossed them seven fish.

It would be hard to dispute Dela Cruz’s claims that the apparent curse that kept the team from winning the championship has been reversed, but teammate and original member of the squad Mario Sablan said that taking the title was more of a relief than a blessing.

“I’ve been on the team since Day 1 seven years ago and it feels good man. It’s a relief—the monkey’s off our back. We just needed to win, and we wanted it more than [the Yankees],” he said.

Both of the players had plenty to say about losing the first game of the series only to come back to win the next three, but most of it surrounded the play of pitcher Craig Sanchez.

“Craig was just awesome. If I told him to inside, he pitched it inside. If I said outside, he just put it in my glove,” said his catcher Dela Cruz.

“He just pitched a complete game the day before and came out to pitch three scoreless innings—he was great,” said Sablan.

The compliments from the pair continued, as Dela Cruz mentioned the leadership in the dugout as a main factor in the win.

“Oh, the main thing was the strategy from our manager, Craig Tenorio. He knew when to make the right moves,” he said.

Sablan had even higher praise for his manager by endorsing him as the leader of the future squad of all-stars that will retake Francisco M. Palacios Baseball Field in June.

“He deserves to be the manager for the [2006] Micro Games for winning the title,” he said.

Tenorio had plenty of praise for his players, and credited their ability to overcome the obstacles for the series win.

“I’m really satisfied. We were short some pitchers, Chris Nelson was injured, and they were missing some of their pitchers as well, so it was the same for both of us. We lost out on our chance at the pennant due to mistakes, but we made up for it,” he said.