I think we've been spoiled. And when I say “we,” I mean anyone that follows Auburn Doubledays baseball - the team's employees, the fans and those of us that cover the team.

In Class A short season baseball, we've all been treated to a lot of great things at Falcon Park for nearly a decade. Great accommodations, great managing and winning teams - so it seemed that enough was enough.

It's not that we got bored with all the winning and playoff appearances, but we did expect it year after year - especially with manager Dennis Holmberg at the helm.

At some point, something had to give sometime.

Last summer it did.

In all reality, winning in minor league baseball can only last so long and even though they ventured over the .500 mark last season, the Doubledays ended their season the same way nine other New York-Penn League teams did - short of the playoffs.

While there is little wrong with not making the playoffs at this level - the main purpose is, after all, to develop the players - not playing in the postseason had become a foreign concept in Auburn. Six straight seasons with Pinckney Division championships - and a New York-Penn League title to boot - was enough to accommodate every single die-hard D-days fan.

So, maybe last season was what we all needed to shake things up a bit.

First off, let's be honest - last year's team wasn't terrible. They were inconsistent at the plate and underachieved at times, but what fan didn't enjoy watching Mike McDade and Adam Amar crush balls over the fence? Or in closing innings when Bobby Bell came out to the mound to shut down opposing batters?

There were plenty of exciting moments mixed into last season's mediocrity, just not enough. The Doubledays sent a league-high six players - three pitchers, three position players - to the New York-Penn League All-Star game, so the talent was surely there. It just didn't always amount to wins.

Maybe we all just needed to know that it was possible that a Holmberg-managed Doubledays team was capable of being average. It might have been impossible to believe before the 2008 campaign - especially with most fans still riding high on the '07 title team. We probably needed a reminder that not every pitcher was going to have the lights-out domination of Brett Cecil, the bat of JP Arencibia or the speed of Darin Mastroianni.

Now in his eighth season in Auburn, Holmberg will likely have this year's team back to winning form, because that's what he does.

With each different-shaped molehill he's been given, he's constructed it into a mountain. And watching the Doubledays make the climb this season will be that much sweeter after a disappointing 2008 because our expectations have come down to normal for the first time in a while.

Like in the game of baseball itself, it's the intricacies of a minor league baseball season that are the most fascinating to watch. Trying to figure out which player could make it to Toronto versus which ones won't is a pure joy that only towns with lower level minor league baseball teams have. And when the best players are promoted and moved around just as the team gets on a roll, the effect on Auburn's beloved Doubledays is usually palpable. It's like kicking a leg out from underneath a table and scrambling to find other ways to prop it up, so that it stays level and functioning.

Playoffs or no playoffs, starting fresh with a new table every year is the fun part, especially when the builder remains the same. It keeps us all on our toes, anxious to see what happens next.

CLICK HERE to meet the 2009 Doubledays.