Santana Squid, Ace Pitcher for the Oceans

Today, I finished the test/remake of Santana Squid, and while I was at it I added the bits and accessories necessary to put forward my original concept - Santana Squid, Ace Pitcher for the Oceans. This is a play on Johan Santana, ace pitcher for my Mets. This is the first time I've actually written up a short story for one of my amigurumi, something which I'd like to start doing regularly (and add to my old patterns). I've gotten the impression that customers find stories appealing and interesting, and at least one other crafts person has suggested that my impression is correct.

So! Meet Santana Squid!


Santana is the ace pitcher for the Oceans. He’s the first in what I intend to have be a series - the underwater players for the Oceans baseball team. The only other one I’ve got planned with any certainty after Santana Squid is Ollie Octopus, the…other…pitcher. These players - and probably others (an Angel fish for the outfield, perhaps?) will all almost certainly be inspired by players from the Mets, cause that’s my team.



Here's his back. He's #1, cause he's the ace!



Santana was born to pitch. As a youth growing up in the warm waters off the Caribbean, he and his friends would while away the days by playing baseball, but none of them excelled as Santana did. He signed with the Oceans right out of high school, and after less than a full season in their minor league system, the Oceans old warhorse pitcher Goody Goldfish went down for the season with an injury, and Santana got his chance - and he shone. In the years since then, he's became a mainstay of the Oceans line up. Whenever the Oceans have a must-win game, Santana is always on the mound, and he’s never let them down. His best pitch is the 4-tentacle fast ball, but he also throws a wicked curve ball, whose delivery is obscured by the swirling of his tentacles in the water. Santana is a natural born leader, but he generally chooses not to be noticed by the media, a result of his natural reticence...though some attribute it to the way his gray body blends in with the club house paint, helping him avoid scrutiny.



I'm pretty happy with how he turned out, and I look forward to making the other players in the future. I'm also happy to have finally written a story, and that he's a perfectly viable pattern both in and out of uniform, which I think will increase his appeal.

In other news, I've got three people testing Blub Blub. Exciting! I'll write more about that process when it's done.