Minor League Baseball, as opposed to its MLB overseers, has a hard-out halfway through the season. None of this wishywashy All-Star-break stuff, coming nearly 100 games in. A true first half, with a standings reset and everything.

The only time that ever happened in the Bigs, a mid-season players’ strike forced it upon the owners. And probably opened their eyes way back in 1981 to how lucrative another round of playoffs could be.

But such things happen every year in places like Appleton and Altoona, Toledo and Tulsa, Eugene and, yep, Spokane.

Those last two places are important for this exercise in MiLB analytics, at least as those numbers apply in the Northwest.

How so? The Eugene Emeralds ran away with the Northwest League’s first-half title. The Ems, as they are affectionately known in the community Sen. Bluto Blutarsky once called home, finished the High-A first half having won 42 of the 66 games. That was seven more than runner-up Tri-City. And one of the few highlights of the San Francisco Giants’ year, which any MLB fan knows has been a disaster.

The first half crown assured Eugene a spot in the league’s end-of-season playoffs. Where it will face always tough TBD. As in “to be determined.”

Entering Wednesday’s game at Eugene, there were still 60 games left in the regular season. That’s about as close to an eternity as baseball has. But if the season were to end today … well, besides season ticket holders storming Bobby Brett’s office, the Spokane Indians would be the ones filling the TBD role.

Yep, the same – sort of, but we’ll get into that in a second – Indians that finished 29-37 in the first half, just a late warm streak, and two games, above lastplace Vancouver.

That warm streak wasn’t just like one of those weeks around here in early April. It was not a mirage. It was a fullblown prophecy. One that has taken root since the standings reset 17 games ago.

And bloomed into something special the past 13 days. Entering Wednesday, the Indians had played 10 games. Won all of them. No one else in the league, first or second half, has put together a winning streak of such length.

Not surprisingly, Spokane is in first place – ahead of the Mariners’ High-A franchise in Everett.

Will the Indians continue this roll through July, August and into the September postseason? Predicting that may be even harder than hitting a Jacob Misiorowski fastball.

Heck, it’s hard to even know if the lineup the Indians run out on the field in Eugene Thursday will bear any resemblance to the one that will hand out Harry Potter bobbleheads July 17 at Avista. Yes, the “Boy Who Lived” has a bobblehead.

But no, the Indians players won’t be giving it away at the gate before they face Everett.

At least I don’t believe so. Those chores are long gone from the MiLB experience, though the lengthy bus rides so vividly shared in “Bull Durham” still exist.

The team that loads the bus in Eugene on Sunday evening, headed back to Spokane and the leaguewide four-day MLB All-Star hiatus, might not include Tommy Hopfe, the guy whose hot bat seems to have ignited his teammates’ recent barbecuing of the rest of the league.

Entering Wednesday, Hopfe had a hit in every contest since June 5. That’s 22 consecutive games. A franchise record as a High-A team. Heck, since June 1, Hopfe, who has played five defensive positions, including a one-inning stint behind the plate, is hitting .381 with six homers and 19 runs batted in. That’s really good. Good enough to join Jack O’Dowd in Double-A Hartford, a promotion the catcher/DH earned a week ago? Maybe. It’s up to the Rockies’ front office.

O’Dowd started the season at Low-A Fresno. Was a force there. Continued to be after being moved up to Spokane.

And now is doing the same at Double-A.

That’s the nature of the MiLB experience.

For the players and the franchises.

Not only does it help fuel program sales, it also means the team playing this week might not have all its main pieces come playoff time.

Prospects like O’Dowd and Hopfe can supply lineup thunder one night and blow out of town before breakfast at Hogan’s the next day. High-A is a livein-the-moment level of the game. Right now, the Indians are all having their moment. And the rest of the Northwest League is dangling in their breeze.