2012: Big League Beginnings
Last Thursday was Opening Day for the 2020 MLB season… or at least it would have been, if not for the COVID-19 outbreak that has put our entire world, and basically all sports, on an indefinite hold. However, without the coronavirus, today would have been 8 days until MiLB Opening Day. With 15 seasons in the books for the West Virginia Power, it’s to turn back the calendar and revisit each of the first 15 Opening Days in Power history.
We opened the first chapter of the West Virginia Power with the 2005 Opening Day game in Hagerstown. Friday, we looked back at the first home opener in team history in 2006. The winning streak continued Saturday with the 2007 opener, and then we dredged through the rain-soaked 2008 debut. We relived the excitement from the 2009 All-Star season, moved on to the 2010 campaign, and dove into the 2011 opener. Now, it’s time for the 2012 season.
Another year, another non-winning season, another managerial change for the 2012 season, as Rick Sofield snagged the reigns of one of the most prospect-laden teams in West Virginia Power history. Though the record doesn’t show it (61–79 and 22.5 games out of first), seven notable future MLB stars made their way through Charleston: Josh Bell, Elias Diaz, Willy Garcia, Alen Hanson, Nick Kingham, Jose Osuna and Gregory Polanco. Unlike in past years, all seven of these players spent the entire 2012 campaign in West Virginia and were in the Opening Day lineup April 5 against Hagerstown.
For the second time in team history, the Power opened the 2012 season in Hagerstown, Maryland, and their offense promptly scored the most runs they have ever tallied in an Opening Day game, despite falling 11–9. The two teams combined for 20 runs and 27 hits, but a six-run second inning for the Suns was West Virginia’s undoing. Every player in the Power’s lineup had a least one base hit, with Garcia, Hanson and Polanco each collecting a trio of knocks.
Hanson also finished a triple shy of the cycle, which is ironic, because he put together 13 triples that season, tied for the most all time in a single season in Charleston, WV SAL history. He also had 99 runs (3rd-most all time) and 151 hits (4th-most) that year. Meanwhile, Kingham’s full-season debut did not go well, as the Houston, Texas, native lasted just 1.2 innings and gave up five runs on four hits.
The dynamic year for Hanson netted him Midseason and Postseason All-Star honors (along with Polanco), the Power’s first two End of Year league honorees since 2009. Polanco, by the way, posted a .325 average, the 4th-best mark in CWV history, and racked up 85 RBI, tied for 8th-most all time.
Kingham would improve upon his shaky start, notching 117 strikeouts, the seventh-most in a single season. Garcia also joined the record books with his 18 homers, 4th-most all time, while Dan Gamache ripped 40 doubles, the club’s second-best season mark.
There are plenty of big names still to come over the remaining seven years of Power history. We’ll continue to delve through them all with the 2013 season tomorrow!
