Just wanted to Bulletin Board thankyou to Mike Girard for heading our team in Maine. As to be expected no stone was left unturned in the details and management of the quickly put together squad.
As we all know these tournaments are very competitive. Some of the hardest parts of the tournaments is not only knowing the times and the places of the games, but even the players you have available to you. Mike did a great job in giving all players equal chance to play.
Yeah, you might say we laid an egg up there going 1 and 2, (taking the first game to xtra innings, before losing, )but anytime you get to be around these guys on the field, and especially off, you can't say it wasn't a success.
What these boys didn't mention was that we were a team with our youngest player being 46, and a couple of players close to 60, and we were playing against teams with complete rosters that were less than 40. The team that beat us in game one had two 33 year olds (waiver players) and many in the 35 to 40 range. The game we won was against the Maine Diamond Dogs 35+ travel team with some all-stars from Westchester county. As always, this group showed the younger players how to pitch and play great defense. We just didn't get enough timely hitting in game one. Had we been able to pull that one out, we would have gotten into the playoffs, and the younger teams really would have had their hands full. With proven playoff pitchers like John Latorre, Jon Martin, and Steve Lounello ready to go, I liked our chances to go deep into the playoffs! But it was not to be! So what did we do . . . we enjoyed the hell out of our time off the field. Great food (lobsta), great friends, and plenty of libations to go around! In no way would I call our time in Maine a failure. It was a great trip with a very classy group of talented ballplayers who just happen to be my best friends on the planet.
Just a note for the guys that run our Labor day tournament: After the playoff teams were determined Sunday afternoon, North Andover (the team that beat us in extras in game one) had to drop out because they had 3 injuries and 3 players that had to go home, leaving them with only 7 players. Downeast tournament director, Jim Doran, chose to give NA's playoff opponent a bye, instead of invitng us or one of the other runners up to take their spot. This left us (and the rest of the "other teams") feeling under appreciated. With all of the time and money spent to travel 5 hours to the tournament, we thought very strongly that we should have been asked to take North Andover's spot in the playoffs. If we have that kind of situation in our own tournament, I hope that we would be better hosts!
Mike - I am sure Q will read this but i will email your suggestion to the board this morning.
No question in my mind that if a team is not able to play then their spot should be filled by the next highest seed ...... it isn't fair to the teams on the opposing side of the bracket who will have to play an extra game.
Not to mention it is completely against the whole concept of why we are all out here ... to play baseball .... if there is an opportunity to play a game it should be played .. by the highest remaining seeds ... period.
If we have rules saying otherwise we will address it via the proper methods / protocol to look into changing them ASAP.
We have long standing policy of honoring our visiting teams during Labor Day. I am sure during this year's event situations will arise that will bring out that policy. We strive to be good host and have our visitor play at times that our convenient and to not only guarantee three games but keep every game meaningful with our unique Sunday morning re-seeding format. We also strive to keep visiting teams on the better fields where we can. Returning teams and players from across the Northeast our testaments to these efforts. Our President and tourny director Quentin Jensen , has proven he can continue this outstanding tradition; in what is the longest continuously held MSBL regional tourney east of the Sierra mountains. This is no small statement and it reveals the commitment we have had to this tourny to hold the event for visiting teams even if we have stand knee deep in puddles and work thru the night to make fields playable. I welcome back our many returnees and hope many more more teams come to play on Labor Day. board member JReel.
I know very well how great this league has been as hosts of the Labor Day Tournament. I guess that is why I was so taken aback by the forfeit decision made by the Maine tournament director. It will cost them at least one returning team!
Maine has been our league's older players travel tourny for too many years; lets talk to our Maine brothers and get this rectified. Previous Maine tourny directors have listened before . I can tell you sometimes after a long weekend you just don't consider all the ramifications and want to get on with the tourny. I am sure our long standing and yearly attendance ( since 1997) counts for something. Jim Doran needs reasoned feedback to keep this tounry strong and perhaps us coming back to next year. J reel maine tourny 97-2004. PS I don't go, cause, as Mike alluded to, this tourny has not aged with me. and I suspect it has some problems of attendance because of that. economy aside. Maine what say you?
John Corrigan said it correctly. It should have been the next seed to fill the spot that North Andover left void. Our Maine Indians squad had an identical 1-2 mark as the Albany Cubs, but the Indians had the upper edge in the head-to-head matchup, having won 17-3. We would have loved to continued on in the tourney. I echo John's thoughts in that no team should be awarded a bye and play one less game. We all come to these tournaments with hopes of playing ball as long as we can. Mike, I hear you on the younger aged guys thing. I wish the Downeast Tourney would have considered something differently for the format (maybe an open division and a 35+ division), but that did not happen and hopefully will be fixed in the future. Your youngest player was 46...our team makeup was similar...our average age was about 47. Running a tournament, I'm sure, is a tall task, one that I would not want to do. Jim Doran would appreciate any feedback to help him out in the future. I am looking forward to my NY time in September at the Labor Day Tourney and hope all is well with everyone.
