After a rare injury-free spring training, the Brooklyn Knights played terrific baseball in the opening month of the 2015 NALB season. In early April, Blas Ramos was placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder tendinitis. Later in the month, Porfírio Portio was placed on the 15-day DL with shoulder soreness. Other than those minor injuries, not much went wrong for the Knights. Brooklyn’s 19-3 record was easily the league’s best.

April 2015 awards:

League 1
Batter of the Month: Mabon Beniniger (Dunedin Otters)
Pitcher of the Month: Tony Tamayo (Brooklyn Knights)
Rookie of the Month: Sancho Malclonado (Nashville Firecats)

League 2
Batter of the Month: Jordan Blanchard (Stade Maples)
Pitcher of the Month: Mike Wolfe (Washington Allies)
Rookie of the Month: John Patterson (Phoenix Rattlers)

The Brooklyn Knights played well in spring training with an 18-10 record, best in the division. The Luisville Beasts were even better, going 20-8 to top their division. The Key West Corals posted an NALB best spring record of 21-7. In League 2 Division 2, the St. James Crusaders and Vancouver Wild tied for the lead at 16-12.

The Knights emerged from spring training injury free, one of only two teams to do so. Brooklyn’s Lariel Gómez had a hot bat and posted a .375 average. Gómez and Alexis Schmidt tied for the most hits in spring training with 27. Schmidt’s 7 HRs were surpassed only by teammate Hsiao-lou Yeh, who hit a remarkable 9 round trippers.

Key injuries in spring training:
Dunedin Otters: On March 2, SP Sosuke Nakamura was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff. He will miss 5 months.
Dunedin Otters: RF Nub Spade strained his hamstring on March 31. He is expected to miss 4-5 weeks.
Key West Corals: On March 10, CF Ricardo González strained his hamstring. He will be out for 8 weeks.
Nashville Firecats: CL Danilo Fernández suffered a strained oblique on March 7. The injury will keep him out of action 7-8 weeks.
Phoenix Rattlers: RP Kevin Dees tore his triceps muscle on March 24. He will miss 2-3 months.
Phoenix Rattlers: Injured on March 15, an elbow strain will keep RP Antoine Caminos out for 2 months.
Phoenix Rattlers: CL Stokley McGruder was injured on March 27. The diagnosis was a partially torn labrum, which will cause him to miss 6 weeks.
Quebeck Sky Chiefs: On March March 18, RP Cot Morales suffered a partially torn labrum. He is expected to miss 4 months.
Richmond Slam: RP Tim Fisher had been rehabilitating since last July with a torn flexor tendon in his elbow. He suffered a setback in his recover and will most likely miss the entire 2015 season.
Richmond Slam: Gutierre Jiménez will need reconstructive surgery to repair a damaged elbow ligament. He will need 12-13 months to recover.
Richmond Slam: An intercostal strain will cause 3B Mike Merriman to miss 5 months.
St. James Crusaders: RP Jerry Rigney ruptured his ulnar collateral ligament last October. He will miss the 2015 season.
St. Rock Mudcats: SP William Constable torn his rotator cuff and will miss 4-5 months.
St. Rock Mudcats: On March 30, SS Charles Difranco fractured his thumb. He will miss 3 weeks.
St. Rock Mudcats: RP Rob Muncy suffered a partially torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) and will require Tommy John surgery. It will take him 9-10 months to recover.
Stade Maples: LF Hisham Makwetu is on the DL because of plantar fasciitis. He is expected to miss 5-6 weeks.
Stade Maples: CF Fernando Canales is still recovering from a torn PCL (posterior cruciate ligament), which he injured last July. He still has another 8 weeks before he is expected to play.
Vancouver Wild: CF Troy Howell has an oblique strain that will keep him out of the lineup for the next 3 weeks.

There were some notable roster moves before spring training began for the 2015 NALB season.

The Brooklyn Knights made relatively few offseason moves:

• The Knights extended the contracts of nine players through salary arbitration: William Garner, Bruce MacOmish, Tony Tamayo, Maurilio Godim, Lariel Gómez, Alvino Flores, Ángel Santago, Rikiya Kiyomizu, and Victor Trujillo.
• Arbitration was offered to Lonnie Bennett and Rigo Hurtado. Both declined and opted to file for free agency.
• Arbitration was not offered to Ronaldo Mijangos.
• Signed Allen Humphries as Assistant General Manager. He will be in charge of minor league transactions in the organization.
• Signed international amateur SP Mannie Román out of Cuba to a minor league contract.
• The Brooklyn Knights lost seven players in the Rule 5 draft: José Trujilio, Pacifico Delrio, Robinson Texido, Lorenzo Torres, Manny Huebe, Pud Osegeda, and Ulucan Gilmore.

Notable offseason signings:

• The Cornfield Axmen landed the top rated free agent on the market. They signed starting pitcher Porfiro Quiñones to a 6 year, $82.3 million deal.
• The Axemen further strengthened their pitching staff by adding Dong-u Sop to its bullpen. Sop will earn $2.73 million this season.
• Star second baseman Norberto Salguero found a new home in Quebeck. He agreed to the Sky Chiefs offer of $43 for 5 years.
• After many seasons with the Richmond Slam, closer Benny Alazardo joined the Luisville Beasts. His new contract is worth $21.8 million over 3 years.
• Starting pitcher Chris Nelson and Nashville inked a $5.1 million a year deal for 3 years.
• Cipriano Delgudo will be roaming the outfield in Key West for the next four seasons as he accepted the Coral $15,960,000 offer.
• Phoenix was pleased that outfielder Carl Gwinn signed on with the Rattlers. The deal is worth $34.7 million over 5 years.
• After spending his entire career in Washington, star third baseman Cristiano Isidra declared free agency and signed with Cornfield. The contract is worth $38.2 million over 6 years.
• The Vancouver Wild signed one of the most coveted starters on the market in Lewis McGrew. It took a hefty 6 year, $66.9 million contract to secure his services.
• After four seasons in Brooklyn, Ronaldo Mijangos is going home to Key West. Mijangos played the first six seasons of his career with the Corals. Mijangos remains one of the highest paid players in the league thanks to a 4 year, $48 million deal.
• The Corals lured first baseman Yuan Li with a generous $44.9 million deal over 4 years.
• Key West added big home run power to its roster by signing shortstop Martin Swader to a 4 year, $46 million contract. Swader has 292 career home runs and has hit at least 40 HRs five out of the last six seasons.

Notable offseason trades:

• The Grizzlies and Crusaders completed a four player trade. St. James received 1B J.R. Singleton and cash from Vancouver for three minor league players.
• Third Baseman Kurt Johnson is a new member of the Stade Maples after he was traded from the Key West Corals in exchange for RHP Brian Harding, minor league C Juan Arrocena, and a 3rd round draft pick.

I completed all 80 levels of Arctic Adventure, the sequel to Pharaoh's Tomb. Like its predecessor, it was divided up into four episodes of twenty levels each. Unlike Pharaoh’s Tomb, the episodes were not named. Both games were fun and quite similar. There were some notable differences, however. Arctic Adventure swapped the red, green, and yellow colors of the first game for the cyan, magenta, and white palette. This made sense given the two CGA palette choices available. The first game was about exploring an Egyptian tomb while the sequel was about finding Viking treasure in the frozen north. While the levels in Pharaoh’s Tomb were completely linear, Arctic Adventure featured a map where the player could explore the caves in an order of his choosing. The search for keys was replaced by a search for pickaxes to complete most levels. There were still keys to find, which unlocked areas of the map. Spears were replaced by a gun with a finite number of bullets. The biggest change between the two games, however, was that Arctic Adventure had no limit on the number of deaths. You could keep playing as long as you’d like, which I found a nice plus.

Although the game ended with the line “Look for more Nevada Smith adventures in the future…,” I don’t believe George Broussard or Apogee ever made another game in this series.

I thought I might play a handful of levels of Pharaoh's Tomb before moving on to something else. Surprisingly, the game was more fun than I expected. It had that addictive quality that kept me coming back for more. I finished all 80 levels, 20 levels in each of four episodes (volumes):

1. Raiders of the Lost Tomb
2. Pharaoh’s Curse
3. Temple of Terror
4. Nevada’s Revenge

Clearly inspired by Indiana Jones, the Egyptian tomb was depicted in the classic Red, Green, Brown (Yellow) CGA color palette. The gameplay was good enough to overcome the primitive graphics of a game more than a quarter century old. Now I’m off to play the sequel, Arctic Adventure.