Can someone report on the results of the trip to SA and their experience? Makes good info for those interested in future trips there. And, we're always interested in the CDMSBL brethren. Mostly, was wondering if Maney and Girard stayed sober long enough to get in some meaningful and productive innings. Or did JP impose a curfew? JimK
We had a tremendous time, about as much fun as anybody can have without getting arrested.
San Antonio is a cool city. We stayed in its heart, near the River Walk, and fully utilized the amenities. Mike Hart, a former resident, served as tour guide during the day, leading us to restaurants and pointing out places of historical interest. At night, Tom Maney led the more intrepid explorers on blurry excursions through the bowels of the urban underbelly. If Mike showed us interesting places, Tom introduced us to fascinating people, including but not limited to a dancing leprechaun named Jose who favored shots of tequilla, por favor.
On the field, we went 2-1-1 in consecutive doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. That earned us a spot in the championship game on Sunday. However, our Texan rivals saw fit to forfeit that game. It was, in the fullest sense of the word, a shame.
We were pissed, and then we got over it.
As in all winter tournaments, our bats took a few innings to heat up. We were scoreless over the first four innings, with one lone hit. After that point, we scored -- incredibly -- 52 runs over the next 20 innings. In two games, we scored more runs than we made outs. The Albany Pirates went to Texas and crushed baseballs, period.
Mike Kane and Todd Calhoun provided us with dominating pitching performances. Defensively, we had our lapses, providing poor support for Mike Girard in particular; that’s to be expected in March, I suppose. We should have won every game.
Maney, Girard, Stark, and Smaka formed the heart of our order and scattered baseballs all over the field. Everyone, in absolute fact, contibuted. Carlo Agneta and Mark Meyers opened eyes down there, showing us all what complete players they are; very impressive. Greg Johnson, John Reel, Mike Hart all made significant contributions. Everybody pulled on the same oar -- we came together and we an instant "team" -- and it was beautiful.
Outside of the disgraceful forfeit, we did experience one bad moment. Marc Tryon, my good friend, came on this trip on two bad knees, determined to see how much more baseball he could squeeze from his bad joints. So he “braced up” and took the field. Early in the 3rd game he had a typical at-bat, fouling off 4-5 pitches, working a deep count, before turning on an inside pitch and driving an RBI single through the hole between first and second. Rounding the bag, Marc’s knee buckled and he fell.
I don’t know that we’re going to see him on the field again.
Ultimately, I don’t know that I could have possibly brought a better group of men, or had a better time both on and off the field. I truly feel grateful to everyone for a memorable adventure. Good ball, good friends, great times. Or, as Tom Maney said, “Let’s go out tonight and have a time we’ll never remember.”
Jimmy Preller is much to modest to mention this, but for the tournament he was 9 for 11 plus 3 walks. And even worse for the Texans, he was scheduled to take the mound in the Championship game. No mas, no mas. Mike
Great recap Jimmy! Except you left out one player. Gentlemen, Jimmy Preller was as hot a hitter as I have ever seen. He must have have 8-10 hits in the 4 games. Most of them gappers, or just plain over the outfielders heads. As a member of the Silver Marlins I honestly hope he shot his load in Texas! Todd and Mike, you can pitch on any team I'm on any time any place!!! Do you have any plans for the first or second week in November??? Albany's Fall Classic team could win it all if we could add your arms to the guys who went this past November. One more thought on this trip: I think Jim Jordan would have been proud of us, both on and off the field.
Thanx so much for the recap. Except, I'm not sure Maney know what the hell you are talking about!!! "Bowels of urban underbelly ...?'' He probably had his doctor check below his midrift.
Anyway, I'm jealous. Glad to hear you "boys of winter'' had a great time and won some games. When I see you, let me know why the Texans forfeited. My guess is that they didn't want to get swashbuckled by the northern Bucs.
Anyway, congrats on your efforts and thanx for the report. JimK
I think you are right, Jim, that this probably isn't the venue to discuss the championship game that never was. Just to be fair, however, a few comments: We played four games in about 32 hours. It's very likely that the SA teams just felt sore and tired. We certainly did. Still, I don't think there was enough of an effort to accomodate the out-of-town "guests," who traveled far and at some expense to play baseball. For me, personally, I don't get the chance to play for championship ANYTHING all that often, so we were looking forward to it. The glory, the ticker-tape, the sparkling sasperillas.
Maybe, after the passage of time, Mike Hart and others will pick up the pieces, learn from this experience, and literally re-visit this tournament with a new team in the future. The fields were nice, the tone friendly and relaxed, and San Antonio is a terrific town. I don't think they are "bad guys" or anything. Quite the contrary. Somehow it just got away from them and, again, in my view they didn't make the necessary effort to look at it from our perspective. It's a mistake that can be corrected, I suppose. Maybe a new manager would like to take that on.
As far as us winning that final game, shrug, who knows. It was bad enough that I was going to pitch, just hoping to dazzle them with my "nothing ball." But we had some semi-fresh arms in Girard and Hart, plus Kane and Calhoun were both willing to give us an inning or two. It would have been nice to try. We definitely were going to score some runs.
