Good field, no hit was a classic juvenile fiction book written by Duane Decker in 1947. Decker’s work became a moniker of sorts for weak hitting but superb fielding infielders in baseball eras that followed. His characterization of baseball infielders, particularly as it relates to middle infielders, was turned on it’s head in Binghamton’s championship season this summer.

From Opening Day to the final day of the season, the Binghamton middle infield drove the B-Met championship engine. An infield experiment generated speculation and intrigue at the opening of a new season when management chose to alternate Matt Reynolds and Wilfredo Tovar at second base and shortstop on a day-to-day basis.

The defensive hijinks had no negative effect on the offense outputs of the middle infield combo. Tovar exploded from the gates, batting a lofty .370 through the first 10 games of the B-Met season. By the end of Binghamton’s first month of play, Tovar was coming back to earth as his batting average dipped to a respectable .319. But, as Tovar cooled a bit, Reynolds found his footing and his batting statistics climbed upward on a steady incline. By the end of April, Reynolds was leading the Eastern League in batting with a .373 average.

It was a position Reynolds would hold during his entire stay in Binghamton. Reynolds literally hit himself out of the Southern Tier continuing an impressive stat line and still batting an Eastern League best .355 when he played his final game with the B-Mets on June 18.

The Reynolds departure was a crisis of sorts in Binghamton since the B-Mets had lost the services of Tovar after the middle infielder injured his thumb on a slide while stealing second base in a game played on May 28th. Tovar’s injury required surgery and kept him sidelined until late in the Binghamton campaign. The slick fielding middle infielder, voted as the Mets best defensive minor league infielder for the fourth consecutive year, was off to his best start as a B-Met batting .313 with a .377 on-base percentage in 47 games. Tovar’s 21 RBI’s were the fourth best for the B-Mets before he sustained his injury.

With both Tovar and Reynolds gone, Rylan Sandoval helped fill in the B-Mets infield holes playing both shortstop and second base with Brian Burgamy spending some time helping out at second base. But, the calvary arrived from Port St. Lucie the day after Reynolds departed for Las Vegas in the form of T.J. Rivera. Rivera, who was hit .341 in High-A, elevated his game in Binghamton. Playing shortstop, second base, and third base for Binghamton as need dictated, Rivera maintained incredible focus and discipline in the batter’s box with a .358/.394/.438/.831 slash line in 201 at bats. Had the B-Met infielder had enough at bats to qualify, he would have won the Eastern League batting crown.

By the first of August, Tovar was back. It took awhile for the spunky defensive whiz to get his batting eye back as Tovar would finish the season batting .282, but Tovar logged a .345 OBP and stabilized the B-Met infield. And, Tovar was clutch in post season play batting .310 and going 5-for-9 with 3 RBI’s in Binghamton’s back-to-back must win games in Portland.

Rivera, too, did not crumble under the bright lights of post season championship play. The B-Met infielder had perhaps the best night in his professional baseball career helping Binghamton launch their post season by going 4-for-5 with 2 doubles, a walk-off three run home run and 5 RBI’s in a stunning 8-5 win over Portland. Rivera would hit .324 in the post season.

To those who adhere to Duane Decker’s prototype of a baseball infielder as ‘good field and no hit,’ the 2014 seasons of Wilfredo Tovar, Matt Reynolds and T.J. Rivera in Binghamton would be counter-intuitive. But, to the B-Mets their trio of middle infielders proved to be the lynchpin of a remarkable championship campaign.