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Miller, Friedman named NL and AL Manager of the Year
NEW CARLISLE- Throughout last month, the 2018 season awards were announced on the official ORWBL twitter account (@ORWBL). All awards were voted on by the managers of the league.
Maple City Magic manager Alex Friedman won the award in the American League, while Saugany Lake Landsharks manager Levi Miller came home with the hardware over in the National League.
For Friedman, this award marks the 5th time the Maple City Manager has come home with a Manager of the Year award, each time with the Magic in the American League. This is also the third consecutive year Friedman has been voted as the AL Manager of the Year.
Friedman’s Magic team went 20-4 in the regular season en route to their second consecutive ORWBL World Series title. The Magic were able to accomplish this despite losing two big pieces from their previous team in 2017 World Series MVP Anthony Rieff and long-time left fielder and Captain Zach Liberatore in the off-season.
Thanks to the return of former long time Magic members Shane Anderson and Drew Luther, Friedman was able to assemble an even deeper squad than the previous season as Maple City managed to not lose a single game in the post-season.
Over in the National League, it was first-year manager Levi Miller who was voted as the Manager of the Year. Miller lead the expansion Saugany Lake Landsharks to an impressive 15-9 regular season. Despite starting the season 1-5 against some stiff AL competition, Miller was able to rally his squad to finish the year strong as the Sharks went 14-4 the rest of the way.
Miller’s Landsharks were an expansion team consisting of various players from around the league. In total, players from five different ORWBL franchises (both current and former) came together under Miller’s leadership.
Not only that, but Levi was able to accomplish all of this while battling through the loss of would-be Landshark and Levi’s best friend Cody Strauch passing away in the 2017 off-season. The way the Sharks (and Levi in particular) were able to come together and snag the #2 seed in the NL was admirable and truly speaks to Miller’s toughness and leadership.
