2014: From First to Worst
March 26 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 6 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. We broke down one of the heaviest MLB-laden teams in the 2012 season, and then we saw a return trip to the postseason in 2013.
To put it bluntly, this season was a dark one in Power history. As great as Michael Ryan’s first year as manager was, that’s how bad his second year at the helm turned out in 2014, unsurprisingly ending his tenure in Charleston after this campaign. The Power went 54–81 in 2014, including an atrociously bad 20–48 mark in the first half. The team posted its lowest win total and winning percentage, along with the highest loss mark in team history; in fact, no other team has accumulated less than 60 wins or more than 80 losses in a single season besides this group.
The woes started on Opening Day of the 2014 season, as West Virginia faced off with Lexington for the second time in team history in their opening match-up. The game actually got suspended and was completed the next day, but the extra 24 hours didn’t help West Virginia, as the Legends walked it off in the bottom of the ninth on a base hit by Alfredo Escalera-Maldonado to claim a 3–2 win. JaCoby Jones was the lone Power player to muster multiple hits in the contest, while his first-inning double gave West Virginia an early 1–0 lead, the lone edge they would have in the game. Lexington would plate two runs in the second before being held scoreless until the ninth. Both bullpens were stellar, combining to allow just seven hits over the final seven innings of work, with both starters being yanked after the second frame.
Three members of that original starting nine were future big leaguers: Jones, Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez, the 2–4 hitters for West Virginia in Lexington those evenings.
Despite the miserable on-field results overall, Jones was a bash bro, smacking 23 homers, second-most all-time in Charleston history, in 117 games to go along with 70 RBI and a .288 average. His massive offensive numbers earned him his lone Postseason and Organizational All-Star honors in his Minor League career, although he did snag a Midseason All-Star nod with High-A Bradenton in 2015.
McGuire joined Erich Weiss as the two Midseason All-Stars for West Virginia in 2014, while Jones was the only End of Year honoree. Meanwhile, Ramirez still holds his place in Power history, as he put together the longest hitting streak in team history this season. The Colombia native recorded a hit in 23 straight games from June 5-July 1, 2014, outlasting Starling Marte’s previous mark by one game (22 games in 2009). Ramirez averaged .347 with one homer and 12 RBI during that stretch, also registering the longest hitting streak in the SAL that year by one game (Pat Valaika, Asheville, 22 games).
The lone other record-holder from the 2014 campaign is Buddy Borden, who currently lays claim to the seventh-best ERA in Power history (3.16) and eighth-most strikeouts (122). Also, four other members from the 2014 squad worked their way to “The Show”: Yhonathan Barrios, Shane Carle, fan-favorite Austin Meadows and Dovydas Neverauskas.
We went from first to worst, and tomorrow, we head back to first as we talk about the 2015 team that holds the best record in team history!
