Where's The Mayor?

		Coffee Time
		by Carl Coffee

WSEM has had its share of disappearing acts. Mike Merlo came onto the scene in 2011, was very committed, and then vanished. Greg Franzen was one of the faces of the league in 2012 and also has left. The first Satellite Tournament of 2013 saw Michael ‘The Mayor’ Sessions made his WSEM debut; after that he could be found everywhere. The Mayor would show up at games even if his team wasn’t playing. He would drive for hours to pick up out-of-town teammates from as far as Port Huron. The Mayor was Alex Linebrink’s right-hand man for the Islanders, and he was responsible for finding All-Star pitcher Will Mundel.

The Mayor was an obvious choice to captain a team in 2014. He liked the idea of bringing back the historic Flying Squirrels franchise, and he quickly built a roster of veterans and rookies. The front office was thrilled to have such a committed wiffler taking over the Squirrels, and everything was going great.

As the weather turned cold, The Mayor no longer could be found. We had a winter meeting. The Mayor wasn’t there. I have captain chats on facebook. The Mayor is never on them. As quickly as he exploded onto the scene, he has now exploded off of it.

Fellow front office member Brandon Corbett and I founded the Flying Squirrels in 2010, and both hope the reputation of the team isn’t tainted because of The Mayor’s disappearing act. In the November Power Rankings, the Squirrels were ranked sixth and many had them as a wildcard contender. The March rankings now have them at ninth, with only King Friday worse.

Sure, The Mayor could just care during the spring/summer and all of this is for nothing. As both the Commissioner and only other person to have captained the Flying Squirrels, I am worried. I wrote this article with one goal in mind, to wake up The Mayor.

So Mr. Mayor, just know you are beloved in this league. Your peers voted you as an All-Star, even though you had a .035 batting average. Please, come back soon.