NEWARK, NJ - The hallmark of any championship team is being able to bear down and get the job done in the face of adversity. This was ultimately the difference between the 2007 Atlantic League champion Newark Bears and their 2008 incarnation.

Yes, their 6-1 loss to the Somerset Patriots on July 6th was a heartbreaker, a game that had first place in the Freedom Division for the first half on the line, but they had a whole second half to atone for what could have merely been a bump in the road.

However, they started the second half of the Atlantic League season 1-6 and we never able to recover from that disastrous start. Watching the Bears on the field, it was clear they had not gotten over their first half miscue.

It was also clear that they were short on offensive fire power thanks to some key departures. Cory Aldridge, Val Majewski and John Pachot were all key cogs in their attack and they clearly didn’t have the pitching to make up for it.

Pat Stanley, who was unhittable for most of the first half began to struggle. Stanley previously had one professional in which he’d thrown more than 100 innings and subsequently began to suffer from arm fatigue, not used to being the ace of a staff. He still managed to lead the Atlantic League in strikeouts.

Mike Bumstead, the Atlantic League’s wins leader with 14, probably should have had more, but began to suffer from Johan Santana syndrome. The Bears bullpen blew several games for Bumstead over the final month of a season in conjunction with their fall from the divisional race.

Despite everything, however, all of that could have ended up meaningless when the Bears were handed yet another chance to get to the post-season.

In mid-September, the York Revolution came to Riverfront Stadium in first place of the Freedom Division, holding a 3 ½ game lead over the Bears.

They won the first game of the series, thanks to Ramon Castro’s two late inning home runs, which pulled them to within 2 ½ games of York. However, the bats went silent and York took the final two games without much of a fight from Newark. The Bears closed out their season getting swept by the Patriots, who are off to play York in the first round of the playoffs. In a whisper, the season was gone.

Newark hit .303 as a team for the season, managing to actually beat their team total of .302 from last year, and it is a new Atlantic League record.

Leading that charge was Ramon Castro, who was held out of the lineup in the last game, unable to defend his lead for the batting title. He would end up hitting .352 for the year, finishing two points behind Somerset’s Josh Pressley.

Keith Reed continued his gold glove-caliber play in center field and led the team in home runs by going yard 26 times. He also tied fellow outfielder Jose Herrera by driving in 93 runs.

Cory Willey was, by far, the steadiest and most consistent member of the Newark bullpen. He went 7-2 with a 2.96 ERA and struck out 71 batters in 76 innings. The bullpen was mostly a rotating door of arms, and Willey was the one constant who could be counted upon in late-inning pressure situations.

The 2008 season will be remembered as what might have been for the Newark Bears. A small bounce their way here or there and perhaps the Bears are still playing, fighting it out in the post-season to defend their title. But, they had their chances and came up short when it mattered the most. Riverfront Stadium will, unfortunately, be very quiet this late September.