A look back

Every baseball season is memorable for multiple reasons. Wins or losses. Comebacks. Players. Plays. Games. The following are a few of the things that would make it on a Wild Things 2012 Highlights/Lowlights video:

* Starting with the most recent ... Andrew Heck becomes only second player in Wild Things history to play all nine positions in a game, doing so in the regular-season finale against Schaumburg. Heck does not commit an error and pitches two-thirds of an inning, allowing one run (unearned) with a strikeout.

* The Wild Things' bus broke down near Columbus, Ohio, during a trip from Lake Erie to Florence, Ky. It ended up being a 7-hour delay until a new bus arrived.

* Washington released outfielder James Simmons, who was signed in the offseason and had Class AAA experience, only five games into the season. Simmons later signed with the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League, where he is hitting .284 with 11 home runs and had Bridgeport's only hit off Roger Clemens during the future Hall of Famer's comeback game.

* There was the night the lights went out in Washington. During a July 17 game against Evansville, the majority of the lights at Consol Energy Park are knocked out and the game is suspended because of insufficient illumination. It was completed the next morning.

* During a series at Windy City, and following a game against the ThunderBolts, the Wild Things' bus does not go directly back to the hotel, instead going to the airport to allow the team to pick up a new player. This is a first in franchise history, and it had to leave more than one player who was already on the bus wondering if he was about to be released to make room for the new guy. An uncomfortable situation to say the least.

* In Washington's first 10 seasons, only once did a player steal four bases in a game. After being acquired Aug. 1 in a trade with South Illinois, outfielder Darian Sandford stole four bases in a game twice for Washington. In 30 games with the Wild Things, Sandford stole 26 bases, but also was thrown out 16 times. Sandford led the Frontier League with 71 stolen bases.

* Prior to a game against Rockford in early July, pitching coach Tim Ferguson "resigns." It's the second time in 11 seasons that Washington's pitching coach resigned before the season reached the all-star break.

* The most bizarre event of the year happened after a July 24 home game against the London Rippers. Earlier in the evening, the Frontier League announced the Rippers would be suspending operations at 12:01 a.m. that night. The league did not prevent London from making trades. After the game, Washington manager Chris Bando and hitting coach Jim Tatum, along with two front office representatives, stood outside the Rippers' clubhouse and tried to broker trades for London players. They managed to get four players to agree to join the Wild Things in exchange for four players who would be assigned to the traveling Road Warriors.

* During an August series at West Division champion Gateway, the Wild Things went 14 consecutive innings without a hit.

* After having four players signed by affiliated teams last year, the Wild Things had only one this season, relief pitcher Nate Striz, who had his contract purchased by the Boston Red Sox. Striz ended the year as the closer for Boston's affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic League.

* In a series at Southern Illinois, Washington starts a game with pitcher Orlando Santos as the designated hitter. And he doesn't bat in the No. 9 spot.He bats cleanup.

* Washington signed two players, infielder Anthony Long and catcher Cody Coffman, had them on the active roster for three games, did not put them in a game and then released them. The Wild Things also drafted outfielder Michael Miller in the first round at the league tryout. Miller made the regular-season roster but was traded after five games and not getting an at-bat.

* The Wild Things had a fixation with the independent Pecos League. They either signed or drafted eight players from the Pecos. There were three pitchers, and only one made the team. He was released after appearing in only eight games. Of the five hitters signed, only two were on the team in the regular season, one did not register an at-bat and the other went 4-for-29 before being released.

* Washington tied the record for its longest game, playing a 17-inning contest at home Aug. 4 against Lake Erie. The Wild Things overcame 23 strikeouts by Lake Erie pitchers to win 2-1.

Record-setting season

The Wild Things will set at least one team record this season: most players used.

Washington made another roster move Monday, releasing 6-8, 275-pound designated hitter Tim Leary and signing outfielder Tanner Leighton, who recently completed his senior season at The Masters, an NAIA school in California.

Leary was batting only .130 (6-for-46 with 20 strikeouts) since joining the Wild Things June 7. Leighton, who is from Meridian, Idaho, the hometown of former Pirates pitcher Vernon Law, batted .322 this spring with three home runs and 31 stolen bases.

Leighton becomes the 48th player to appear on Washington's roster during the regular season, which is more than the Wild Things used in any of their previous 10 seasons. They used 47 in 2009.

When Leighton makes his debut, he will be the 46th player to get into a game this year. The Wild Things signed two players, infielder Anthony Long and catcher Cody Coffman, but released them before they ever played in a game.

Washington manager Chris Bando said before the series against Lake Erie began that he had one more roster move to make. This, apparently, is the move and the flurry of roster moves will be stopping, for various reasons. One is that the Frontier League has a limit of 25 transactions (not every roster move counts as a transaction) per team during the regular season. Washington is at 21 moves, according to the league office.

"The first third of the season, you find out who will be your team. The second third of the season, you build team chemistry. The final third, you make a run for the playoffs," Bando said. "That's what we're going to do."

Bando said many of the roster moves were made because several players classified as Experienced by Frontier League roster standards did not play to the level that the coaching staff expected. Many of those players were replaced by rookies from NAIA schools in California.

"We made some poor decisions on some of the Experienced guys who we thought would be productive," Bando said. "They didn't pan out. We will have to be better at selecting our Experienced players in the future.

"Because we had some Experienced guys who didn't produce the way we expected, we went with the approach of signing all young college guys and sinking or swimming with them. What we found out is, you can't miss on your Experienced guys. They have to be the nucleus of your club. In years to come, we don't want to be having as much turnover as we've had."