A truly exciting week of baseball as the Albany Blue Bombers made a legitimate run to win a championship in the 52+ Division of the MSBL's Fall Classic in Jupiter/Port St. Lucie area. But in the end, the Detroit 60s, the only team to have beaten us all week, edged the Long Island Yankees, 3-2, to win it all at Roger Dean complex, home to both the Florida Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.

We certainly can come up with legitimate excuses, but we really never played one clean game in winning close games all week as we went 4-1 in the Round Robin, then beat North-Carolina-based Triad in the quarterfinals of the playoffs. We gave up an average of 9 runs a game, and that was lowered by the shutout effort of Skip Treece (8 innings) and Mike LaBarge (1 inning relief) in an 11-0 win over the Toronto-based Snowbirds on the last day of the Round Robin competition.

After beating Triad in the first playoff game, we led Detroit 3-2 after 5 innings of the semifinal game and trailed just 4-3 in the 7th when we came unglued in losing 9-3.

Back on day two of the Round Robin, we led Detroit 5-3 after 5, but couldn't get it done in losing 10-5. On the way to a 5-2 overall record, we beat Washington DC, New Orleans, North Carolina-based Triad twice and Toronto. Again, our only two losses were to eventual champ Detroit.

Thanx again to the following Albany Blue Bombers who sacrificed so much time in preparing for the tournament:
Tim Brown, Ralph Caputo, Paul Celentano, Peter Geanellis, Mike Girard, Matt Kelly, Mike LaBarge, Mike Lannon, Tom Maney, Jon Martin, Ted Martin, Ted Poleto, John Reel, Bill Smith, Skip Treece, Pete Westfall.

And just to let all of you know what guts it took by some of our players, consider Pete Westfall had a stint inserted a week before he left, then endured back spasms in the first inning of his first start and couldn't pitch again till the semis. Mike Lannon endured two herniated discs that ultimately sidelined him for pretty much for the entire tournament, leaving Maney, Kelly, Treece and Reel to patrol those big outfields for 7 games in 5 days. Pete Geanellis played in pain in recovering from surgery, Tim Brown played admirably while playing with shoulder pain and Tom Maney was held together with duct tape and also played with nagging pains.

And the news only got worse for Mike Lannon. On the day before he left for the tournament, Mike was diagnosed with colon cancer. He will see doctors on Wednesday to figure out what the plan of attack will be. Preliminary diagnosis is that it is not life-threatening. (Sorry Mike, but I'm sure the CDMSBL family would want to know).

While all the players were MVPs, of the many memories I'll take were of Sharon Kelly, Beth LaBarge, Sue Caputo, Dee Treece, Pam Martin and my old high school friend Deb Halacy, who lives just up the road in Hobe Sound. They were there rooting for us every day. And Sharon Kelly comes out with the tournament MVP. She took care of us like we were family: Lasagna, sausage & peppers, omlettes, wines, desserts - all at her and Matt's place.

As for nights out, what went on in Florida, stays in Florida!
Thanx again guys for a great experience. We never know if it will be the last.

Jim Konstantakis