The time for my last column has arrived. I had no idea what to write about, because you can’t write about just anything on the last column. It has to be something with some substance, something that matters. The spotlight has to be on something that is notable, hopefully on something that sums up the year, or if you are lucky, something that honors 10 years of history. I guess you can say I got lucky with mine.

Loyola recently announced their baseball All-Decade Team, and seeing the names on the list made me realize how fortunate some of us are to have been at Loyola when these tremendous athletes were representing the maroon and gold.

Out of the 19 players on the list that have gone through Loyola in the past 10 years, I had the privilege of writing about three of these players successes in the last three years. Josh Borges, management senior, Brian Mason, A’07 and Kevin Fontenot, psychology senior, who is the only active player on the All-Decade Team, are three guys who I was lucky enough to write about.

One of my first stories for this paper was to write a story about two baseball players who were chasing single season records. They were Mason and Fontenot. I had no idea who they were or just what they had done.

In 2008, both of these players made their mark in the Wolfpack Athletic history books. Mason recorded the second highest batting average for a single season, hitting .417, and Fontenot became the ‘Pack’s single season stolen base record holder with 43. That did not seem to be enough for Fontenot as he also set the record for runs scored, with 59. He graduated from Loyola as the All-Time leader in stolen bases with 76, and in saves, with 10.

That same year, Borges broke three Loyola season records. He set the mark in RBIs with 67, home runs with 13 and batting average with .430. Mason, however, is third All-Time in batting average with .349 and hits, with .220. Despite Borges playing for only two seasons, he is tied for second in most career home runs with 18 and highest batting average, with .379. Mason went on to sign a deal with the Reno Silversox in 2008.

With promising freshmen already getting significant playing time, the future looks promising for Wolpack baseball. The upperclassmen on the team are also significant members whose leadership and experience has proved valuable to help the young players in their transition from high school to college play.

Maybe we will see players like Brooks McMinn, marketing sophomore, who in two seasons with the ‘Pack has 89 hits and a batting average of .332. Maybe we will see more of Tyler Duplantis, management freshman, who in his first season with the ‘Pack has recorded 22 hits, 16 RBIs and 14 runs.

It is too early, however, to tell who will make this list 10 years from now, as baseball is notorious for slumps and injuries. To those who made this list, congratulations, and thanks for giving us something to cheer about.

Eduardo Gonzalez can be reached at [email protected]