Best season ever.
That statement has become a fact in Aberdeen, as the IronBirds won their 39th game of the year Saturday. The wins kept coming as the IronBirds won Sunday and Monday to extend their winning streak to six, the longest in team history.
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The 39th victory secured Aberdeen?s first-ever winning record in the New York-Penn League and helped the IronBirds in their chase for the wild card. Through Monday, Aberdeen (41-31) was leading the Brooklyn Cyclones by 1.5 games.
“Our goal is also to get to the playoffs,” said Aberdeen manager Andy Etchebarren. “We want to get to the playoffs, but it would not be the worst thing in the world if we did not make it.”
Player development is the first goal of teams in the NYPL, and Etchebarren emphasized how much the IronBirds have accomplished in 2006.
“They have made a great effort,” he said of his players. “The kids have gone through it. They have improved and they are better baseball players than when we started.”
The marked improvement could be seen in Aberdeen?s home game Monday night against the Vermont Lake Monsters. Aberdeen trailed, 7-1, heading into the bottom of the fifth inning but then scored four runs on five hits in the inning. It took the lead with a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
“If it would have been earlier in the year, they might have given up,” Etchebarren said. “Now, there is no give up because we have a chance to win the thing.”
IRONBIRDS MAGIC
» Prior to 2006, the best season Aberdeen had was in 2003, when it went 38-38. The team?s longest winning streak before 2006 was a five-game stretch, also in 2003.
» Aberdeen has gotten key run production down the stretch, scoring 40 runs in during the six-game winning streak. That?s an average of almost two more runs per game than they had the rest of the season.
