Announcement
REPRINTED FROM AUGUST 7, 2006: Chiefs in Uncharted Waters-Sitting Out ICL Playoffs
THE CHIEFS QUALIFIED FOR THE 2008 ICL PLAYOFFS WITH A 6-3 WIN ON SATURDAY.
THE FOLLOWING STORY APPEARED ON AUGUST 6, 2006.
Medford, MA (August 6, 2006) - Imagine going to Fenway Park and finding no left field wall.
Going to a MacDonald's and Big Macs are off the menu.
Heading to a Dunkin Donuts and being told that there is no more coffee.
Or driving through Boston and finding no traffic.
Just can't happen, right? Wrong!
Improbable, yes. But they are just a few examples of things you always expect to find in the same place.
In fact, you take for granted they'll just always be there.
You can now add another item to that list of improbables.
There are no Chiefs to be found in the 2006 Intercity League playoffs
For the first time in the 44 seasons that the Chiefs have played local semi-professional baseball, they are not on the ICL playoff party's guestlist. They will be watching from behind the velvet ropes when the championship hunt begins this week in Somerville and Lexington.
After a two year hiatis from ICL play, the Chiefs returned this spring with the youngest team in franchise history, perhaps in ICL history, with only a couple of veterans having previous ICL experience. With the exception of 30 year old veteran Justin Crisafulli, the Chiefs daily lineup consisted of players who had not yet reached their 20th birthday which is pretty wet behind the ears by ICL standards.
The end result was that the youth and inexperience led to a 7-20-1 regular season (8-20-1,overall) and no invitation to the 2006 playoffs. It was the first losing season the franchise has ever experienced since it began play way back in 1958 as the Hosmer Chiefs. In the forty three winning seasons, 21 regular season championships and 17 playoff crowns in between, the Chiefs played almost .700% baseball.
Despite the noted absence of the Chiefs, the ICL playoffs promise to be as exciting and hotly contested as ever. The regular season champion Cassell Club has to be considered the favorite to win their first ever ICL crown. The defending champion Lexington Blue Sox, the solid Watertown Reds and the veteran laden Wakefield Merchants will all have something to say however before the Cassell Club is crowned.
But the Chiefs will be in a very unfamilar seat. They will be just fans watching it all.
