They've been searching for home longer than E.T. They've been on the road more often than singer Willie Nelson. They've seen more highways than PennDOT.
The Midwest Sliders have logged more than 10,000 miles trekking between Frontier League cities this summer. They were the league's traveling team, playing all 96 games on the road. They batted in the bottom of the ninth inning only one time all season - Sunday at Kalamazoo, when the Kings, with the East Division championship secure, opted to play as the visiting team.
"That was neat," said Midwest first baseman Bryan Vickers, one of players who were with the team all year.
"They introduced us before the game, when we ran onto the field. The only problem was none of us knew where we should stand for the national anthem. We hadn't been on the field for that all year."
The Sliders' season began with spring training 121 days ago and they've been on the road ever since. It's the kind of travel schedule that only an up-and-coming rock band or a minor-league baseball team could survive.
The Sliders' mystery tour, which was anything but magical, ended Wednesday night at Consol Energy Park with a 7-3 victory over the Wild Things. Midwest finished with a 29-67 record.
For the Sliders, the season ended better than it started - in a mall parking lot in the Detroit suburb of Waterford, Mich., with the players trying to load a season's worth of gear into a bus' baggage compartment prior to a trip to Traverse City.
"It didn't take long before we realized we couldn't fit everything into the bus," recalled Washington outfielder Rob Vernon, who began the season with the Sliders. "They had to get a van to put all the extra stuff in. Someone has to drive the van and follow the bus from city to city."
That someone usually was the trainer. Sometimes it was a coach. The Sliders changed vans at the all-star break. They've put more than 9,600 miles on the second one.
For the most part, the Frontier League attempted to limit the Sliders' traveling with creative scheduling, but there were a few rough trips. One was from Washington to Traverse City, when the water pump on the Sliders' bus broke. The bus couldn't go more than 30 mph for the last hour of the trip. During a trip from Kalamazoo to Florence, the air conditioning stopped working.
"That was like a hot box," Vickers said. "It was awful. Guys were sitting in their underwear."
Being a traveling team presented more problems for the Sliders than not batting last every inning. For example, how does a player get home when he's released on the road? Where do the players who drove to spring training store their cars for the summer? Where do the players wash their clothes?
"We don't even get the chance to do early work at the ballpark," Midwest manager Eric Coleman said. "When we sign a guy, we don't get a chance to work on pickoff plays and bunt plays with him."
One day when the Wild Things didn't take batting practice prior to playing Midwest, the Sliders used 50 minutes of that time taking infield.
"One of the few times we had a chance to do that," Coleman said.
Vickers played last year for Slippery Rock, which had only 30 home games. Even that experience couldn't prepare him for an entire season on the road.
"Slippery Rock felt like a real pro season, having a home, having fans and being recognized in town," Vickers said. "You could even go fishing it you wanted."
Still, Vickers and Coleman said they enjoyed the experience.
"If I had to do it all over again, I would," Coleman said. "I just don't want to do it next year."
Next season promises to be different. The Sliders will be renamed the Oakland County Cruisers and play in a new 3,900-seat ballpark in Waterford.
There is no guarantee Vickers or the other players who were with the Sliders all year will be with the Cruisers on opening day.
"There are no guarantees in baseball," Vickers said.
Perhaps there is one guarantee: the Wild Things losing their final game of the year. In seven seasons, Washington has never won its finale. Six times that loss came in the playoffs. This year, Washington had its string of postseason appearances and winning seasons end. The Wild Things were 48-48 and missed the playoffs by three games.
Anthony Albano and Miguel Magrass hit back-to-back homers off Washington starter Zach Groh (3-3) in Midwest's five-run third inning. That was enough support for Kyle Kearcher (7-7,) who pitched seven innings to beat Washington for the second time.
Chris Sidick had four of the Wild Things' eight hits.
Extra bases
Washington's Aaron Ledbetter threw out the honorary first pitch. The 27-year-old Ledbetter, who will be too old to play in the Frontier League next year, plans to retire from baseball. Ledbetter is the Frontier League's all-time leader in wins (51), games started (98), complete games (18), innings pitched (671 1/3 ) and strikeouts (522). ... Washington designated hitter Jacob Dempsey set team single-season records for games (96) and doubles (31) and tied the record for RBI (88). ... The Wild Things attendance averaged 2,970 per game.