“The minute Rochester came in they pretty much stripped me of all authority, which was fine,” he said. “It made financial sense to run it out of Rochester. But I was still the GM. I handled all the baseball ops and I was pretty much the face of the team. I had my radio show and all that so that was good for me because I knew I was pretty much putting together my resume for the next job.”

Wellenzohn promised himself that he wouldn’t let his state of limbo undermine his passion for the sport. He got on the field before Batavia home games, microphone in hand, and worked to stir up the crowd. He drove seven hours to Lowell, Mass. for the Muckdogs semifinal playoff opener, then turned around after the three-hour game and drove straight back to Batavia. No wonder the team’s booster club stepped outside the box and named him its Fan of the Year. It was just another strange occurrence in the most unorthodox of seasons with the grand ending still waiting to be written.