2018 Garden City Wind Season Recap - The Worst Team in Wind History
The 2018 Garden City Wind season was one the organization would rather forget. Three years after professional baseball arrived at Clint Lightner Field and only two years after Garden City had run away with its division under Bill Moore, the Wind went completely in the opposite direction. Garden City finished 10-52, endured losing streak after losing streak and regularly found itself on the wrong side of enormous scores. It was the worst season in Garden City Wind history and one of the most difficult seasons any team had experienced in the Pecos League.
The problems started before the season ever developed a rhythm. Ian Horne began the year in charge of the club, but the situation never developed into a stable managerial operation. Horne essentially pretended to be the manager without ever establishing the leadership, organization or roster necessary to compete over a Pecos League season. The results quickly reflected the instability. Garden City opened the season with eight consecutive losses and spent almost the entire summer trying to recover from a disastrous beginning.
Eventually, Nolan Chewlad took over in the middle of the season. By that point, however, the damage had largely been done. The roster had already endured weeks of losing, the pitching staff was being overwhelmed and Garden City had fallen hopelessly behind the competitive teams in the standings. Chewlad inherited a nearly impossible situation and was left trying to stabilize a team in the middle of a season that had already gotten completely away from the Wind.
The 2018 season was also Randy Ralston's first year as general manager of the Garden City Wind. Ralston stepped into the organization during its most difficult season and immediately experienced the realities of operating independent professional baseball. The Wind weren't simply losing games. The organization was dealing with managerial instability, roster turnover and the challenge of keeping the operation moving through a summer when victories were extremely difficult to find.
For Ralston, there was no easy introduction to the job. Garden City had developed a good reputation during its first three seasons, particularly after the success of the 2016 division championship team. The 2018 club was completely different. Instead of promoting a playoff race, the front office had to continue selling tickets, running promotions and maintaining interest in the team while the Wind fell further and further behind in the standings.
The season began on May 17 with an 18-6 loss. One week later, Garden City lost 23-6. That was followed by defeats of 21-13, 14-10, 21-6, 10-2, 7-1 and 9-8. Eight games into the season, the Wind were 0-8.
Garden City finally broke through on May 31 with a 12-6 victory. It should have been an opportunity for the Wind to reset the season, but instead it became one of the few bright spots during a brutal opening stretch. The Wind lost 9-4 the following night before winning an extraordinary 16-14 game on June 2. Garden City was 2-9, and already the season was becoming a battle simply to remain competitive.
The scores became increasingly difficult as June progressed. Garden City lost games 19-11, 27-13 and 36-6. The 36-6 defeat was particularly symbolic of the problems facing the club. When the pitching staff struggled, games could get out of control quickly, and the Wind simply did not have enough depth to consistently stop opposing offenses.
There were occasional moments when Garden City showed some fight. The Wind won consecutive games 7-6 and 4-3 on June 11 and June 12 and followed a one-run loss with a 9-7 victory on June 14. For a brief period, Garden City had won three of four and appeared capable of putting the terrible beginning behind it.
It didn't last.
The Wind immediately fell into another prolonged losing stretch. Garden City lost 20-19, 14-13, 9-2, 12-1, 18-2, 14-9, 8-0, 14-5, 12-11, 18-5 and 8-7 before finally winning again on June 27. Some of those games were blowouts. Others were agonizing one-run losses. The result was the same: another loss added to a season that was rapidly becoming historically bad.
The one-run defeats were particularly frustrating because they showed that the Wind weren't incapable of competing every night. Garden City lost 9-8, 7-6, 20-19, 14-13, 12-11 and 8-7 during different stretches of the season. A few breaks could have turned some of those games into victories, but the 2018 Wind rarely seemed to get those breaks.
At the other extreme were the blowouts. Garden City allowed 20 or more runs repeatedly. The Wind lost 23-6, 21-13, 21-6, 27-13 and 36-6 during the first portion of the season. Later came defeats of 25-23, 26-5 and 30-3. When things went badly, they often went very badly.
That placed tremendous pressure on a roster already dealing with the instability surrounding the managerial situation. Independent baseball teams are constantly changing even during successful seasons. Players are released, signed by other teams, injured or leave for personal reasons. On a team losing at the rate Garden City was losing, keeping the roster together became even more difficult.
The decision to have Nolan Chewlad take over in the middle of the season represented an attempt to bring some stability to the club. Chewlad wasn't being handed a contender that needed a small adjustment. He was taking over a team that had already established itself at the bottom of the standings and was struggling in virtually every phase of the game.
His job became less about chasing a playoff spot and more about getting the Wind through the remainder of the schedule while trying to restore some credibility to the baseball operation.
July demonstrated just how difficult that assignment was.
Garden City entered the month with another extended losing streak. The Wind lost 11-2, 19-3, 13-3, 13-8, 9-7, 16-1 and 18-5. The July 7 loss was particularly difficult because Garden City had to play again later that day before continuing through a demanding portion of the schedule.
The Wind then lost 26-5 on July 9.
At that point, simply winning a game became an accomplishment.
Garden City finally put together consecutive victories on July 10 and July 11, winning 13-10 and 11-5. Those games showed that the players had not completely quit on the season. Despite everything that had happened, the Wind were still capable of producing offense and putting together a couple of good nights.
The victories were followed by losses of 11-7, 13-4 and an ugly 30-3 defeat. Garden City responded to the 30-run game by winning 15-14 the next afternoon, perhaps one of the better examples of the strange nature of the season. A team that could lose by 27 runs one day could come back and win a one-run game the next.
That resilience was admirable, but it wasn't enough to change the overall direction of the year.
Garden City went through another difficult stretch with losses of 12-4, 15-4, 8-2, 15-1, 7-6, 11-5 and 17-5. The Wind finally won 16-15 on July 24, another high-scoring one-run victory, before closing the schedule with losses of 19-17 and 17-5.
When everything was finished, Garden City's record stood at 10 wins and 52 losses.
The numbers were staggering.
The Wind had lost more than five games for every game they won. They had endured multiple long losing streaks. Opponents had scored 20 or more runs against them on numerous occasions. Garden City had lost games by 30, 27, 21 and 17 runs while also suffering a remarkable number of painful one-run defeats.
It wasn't simply a bad season. It was a complete collapse from the standard the Wind had established only two years earlier.
That contrast made 2018 even more difficult to understand. In 2016, Bill Moore had arrived in Garden City and immediately built the Wind into a division champion. Clint Lightner Field had developed into one of the better environments in the Pecos League, Dollar Beer Thursday had become one of the league's most popular weekly promotions and Garden City appeared positioned to become a consistent contender.
Two years later, the Wind were 10-52.
The transformation showed how quickly things could change in independent baseball. There was no farm system from which Garden City could simply call up replacements. There was no Major League organization supplying the team with prospects. Every roster had to be built independently, and when recruiting, pitching and roster management went wrong at the same time, the results could become disastrous.
The instability at manager only made those problems worse. Horne's time running the team never produced the structure Garden City needed. By the time Chewlad took over, he wasn't being asked to fix a few weaknesses. He was being asked to salvage what remained of a season that had already spiraled out of control.
Ralston was experiencing all of this during his first season as general manager.
That made 2018 a trial by fire for the new GM. Ralston had to learn the Pecos League business while operating a team that was losing almost every night. He still had to make sure Clint Lightner Field was ready, promotions were happening, sponsors were being taken care of and fans had reasons to continue coming to the ballpark.
That distinction was important. The baseball team was terrible, but the organization still had to function.
Garden City had already developed traditions that were larger than the standings. Dollar Beer Thursday remained an established part of the Wind experience. Clint Lightner Field remained the team's home. Fans still had a professional baseball club representing Garden City throughout the summer.
Ralston's challenge was to keep those pieces together while the product on the field struggled through the worst season in franchise history.
The 10 victories themselves became unusual highlights. Garden City won 12-6 on May 31 and 16-14 on June 2. The Wind won consecutive one-run games 7-6 and 4-3 on June 11 and June 12 before winning 9-7 two nights later. They won 11-9 on June 27, put together consecutive victories of 13-10 and 11-5 in July, survived a 15-14 game and later won 16-15.
Even the victories showed how difficult the season was. Several required Garden City to survive high-scoring games decided by one or two runs. There were very few comfortable nights.
The 2018 season also demonstrated how important leadership and roster construction were in the Pecos League. A team could not simply show up in May, put players in uniforms and expect to compete. Successful Pecos League clubs needed a manager who could recruit, organize a roster, handle constant personnel changes and keep players committed through difficult travel and demanding schedules.
Garden City never found enough of that stability in 2018.
By the time Chewlad assumed control, the season had become an exercise in survival. His responsibility was to finish the schedule, keep enough players available to play every night and try to restore some order to a club that had spent much of the summer getting overwhelmed.
There is no way to turn the 2018 Garden City Wind into a success story. The record doesn't allow it.
Ten wins.
Fifty-two losses.
A 36-6 defeat.
A 30-3 defeat.
Long losing streaks and repeated nights when the Wind simply could not stop opposing offenses.
It was the worst team Garden City had fielded and the low point of the franchise's early years.
But the most important thing about 2018 may have been what happened afterward. The Wind survived it.
The franchise did not disappear because of one terrible summer. Clint Lightner Field continued hosting Pecos League baseball. The organization continued operating in Garden City. The traditions that had been established during the earlier years remained in place, and Ralston's first season as general manager became the beginning of his experience with the organization rather than the end of professional baseball in the city.
That is what separates a bad team from a failed franchise.
The 2018 team failed on the field. The franchise survived off it.
In the years that followed, Garden City would have opportunities to rebuild and eventually return to the level of success its fans had experienced earlier. The 2018 season would remain the reference point for just how bad things could get and how far the organization had to climb.
The season began with Ian Horne in charge, descended almost immediately into a long series of losses and eventually required Nolan Chewlad to take over in the middle of the year. Randy Ralston experienced all of it during his first season as general manager.
There were no playoffs. There was no division race. There was no championship chase.
There was simply a team trying to make it through the summer.
The 2018 Garden City Wind finished 10-52, the worst season in franchise history. It was a summer defined by managerial instability, overwhelming defeats, occasional flashes of competitiveness and the difficult reality that independent professional baseball can go from first place to the bottom very quickly.
