July pennant race
is an early gift

Now in my sixth different city with my sixth different team in as many years, a little bit of change is always expected in this line of work.

After time spent with the Evansville Otters, Dubois County Dragons, Jackson Senators, Kenosha Mammoths, the Springfield-Ozark Ducks, and now, the Gary SouthShore RailCats, I never try to let myself get too comfortable in whichever town I call home each summer.

Being in the Northern League for the first time has also added some change to the mix, as we make trips to 11 cities I hadn't been to before.

But perhaps the biggest change this year has been playing in the half system which the Northern League uses to determine playoff berths. The winner of each half in each of the league's two divisions earns a spot in the postseason in September.

With our first half just eight games from ending after our 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Goldeyes on Friday night, we are right in the mix, just half a game out of first place.

What all of this means is we are in a pennant race ... in July.

The oddity of playing in a title race in early summer is as foreign as Christmas in March as far as I'm concerned.

In my four previous seasons as a coach in the Frontier League, we always used the full-season format, with each team's complete season win-loss determining the divisional winners. And although I am aware that many other minor leagues use the half system as well, I'm still not sure how I feel about this setup.

After all, if it really worked better, wouldn't they use it in the big leagues?

With the Gary RailCats right in the middle of the race, I guess I really can't complain. As fate would have it, we only get to play one other contender, the Kansas City T-Bones, during our stretch run.

This means that there will be a lot of scoreboard watching over the next week and a half, as we will have to hope that South Division front-runner St. Paul begins to lose.

To add to the challenge, we took a 14-hour bus ride to Winnipeg, Canada, for this three-game set against the Goldeyes (managed by former major league manager Hal Lanier) and then a three-game series against the North Division-leading Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks this week.

But there never is an easy way to the top, so we just need to keep playing. With eight wins in our last 10 games, we have gotten hot at just the right time, and we need to find a way to keep adding up the wins.

With 21 victories now, we need to get as close to 30 as possible to beat out St. Paul and Kansas City.

As strange as it seems, it is kind of neat to have games that mean so much so early in the season.

A pennant race in July? Christmas in March?

I'll take it.