VANCOUVER (VANCOUVER SUN) - The Vancouver Mounties started the season with high hopes. Last year's 75-87 record was their best since their first year in the Weaver League as the Tenichtitlan Aztec Gods way back in 1997, and the bar had been raised by GM Cory Muzyka. The goal for this year - to finish .500, a mere 6 game improvement on last year. Vancouver finished this season 11 games worse than last year, at 64-98, fifty one games back.

"We're all pretty disappointed in our performance this year - we think we have a better team than that", said GM Cory Muzyka. "Ryne and I sat down last week and talked about how we wanted to go forward, and we have a plan that we are going to follow. The organization is committed to winning long-term, and we think we have the personnel here to do that."

The biggest disappointments for the team this year were the rookies - Paddy Smalley, Miller Moser, Dan Solis, Charlie Munson and Jay Slocumb combined for 1081 at bats this season and produced a miserable .167 batting average and 17 home runs. The only bright light out of those pathetic numbers was the fact that Smalley swiped 46 bases despite fanning a team-high 157 times.

"It was a really disappointing season for the young guys on the team", said team captain Babe Ruth - who was tied for the team lead in homers with 29. "We went into the season looking good, and things just collapsed at around the one-third mark of the season. Paddy and Miller both know they have to improve on those numbers if they want to stay in the league, so I expect them to be better next year."

The Babe, who has not decided on his status for next season, has already accepted an offer to become a minor league coach with the Mounties once he decides to hang up his spikes.

"I'm not entirely sure what happened to us this year", said pitcher Denny McLain. "We started out really strong, and it looked like we had the makings of a team that would challenge. Then it just fell apart. I personally am very disappointed with my season, I have already started on my off-season weight training and conditioning program so that I'm ready to go hard next year."

Youngsters Tom "Memphis" Belle, John Donohue and Orlando "O-Dog" Tracy are all waiting in the minors. Alongside them are young pitchers like Mel Tavares, Bob "Benji" Benjamin, Gary Mahady and Jamie Swanson. Could we see them all next year?

"Rest assured that we'll be looking long and hard at our young prospects to determine if they can make an impact on the league next year", said Muzyka. "We're very serious when we say that next year will be very very different from this one."