Before I leave, an update

Yesterday the Sherco summer baseball tournament was held at my house in Puyallup.  It was a good time though it got started a bit late.  Many of the attendees hadn't been to my house in years, and Bill Nelson had never been here, so I had a couple of phone calls, despite the aid of GPS.

The tournament was set up in a round robin format, with each player playing every other player once.  With six players, that guaranteed everyone five games.  We set up three historical parks-The Kingdome in Seattle, Candlestick Park in San Francisco, and Tiger Stadium in Detroit.  I ran the idea for these choices past Time Barela, one of the participants, who was instrumental in helping with the set-up for the draft and tourney. We chose these ballyards because each had something unique.  First, none were in existence any longer.  The Kingdome was small, a home run hitter's paradise. Candlestick had the notorious wind that could play havoc for pitchers, defenders and right handed hitters. Tiger Stadium, with its right field overhang was another boon to left handers.

Games got under way at about 2:40, about 40 minutes later than anticipated.  Because everyone was fairly rusty with the rules, games lasted about two hours.  At that point we had to make a decision, and we chose to shoot for completing three games rather than five.  The last two games took much less time, about half as long, and we managed to squeeze in some time to eat some of the great food everybody brought.

Everyone seemed to have a good time.  In a drafted league, the players tend to get pretty invested in the success of their team, chiefly because it represents their philosophy of what a team should be.  There were a couple of heated moments about rules interpretations, but mostly it was about the fun and disappointment of seeing their teams win or lose.  Nine games were played, and all but one were pretty close.

How did my team do?  Well, my team started in Candlestick Park and built a 2-0 lead that I held until the 9th when Cliff Lee melted down.  Bill Nelson strung some singles together.  I brought in Mariano Rivera who gave up the game tying runs on another base hit, but snuffed the rally with a double play.  The game remained tied through the 10th inning and was won 3-2 by Alexi Casilla on a wind blown home run.  I was 1-0.

My next game was against Dave Schueler in the Kingdome.  I led off with a hit by the fleet Brett Gardner and stole second.  The next batter was my DH, Johnny Damon who singled.  I tried to score Damon but Dave made a great throw to nail Gardner at the plate.  Bad news, rally ended.  In his half of the first, Dave reached base with five consecutive batters, and I found myself down 3-0.  A home run in the 3rd inning padded that lead.  Though I managed to score a couple of runs, I lost 5-2.

My last game was against Dave Demick, also in the Kingdome.  I got off to an early 2-0 lead, but Dave hung in there.  As we headed into the later innings, Dave managed to score two runs to tie the game at 2-2.  That's where it remained  until the ninth when Dave managed baserunners galore, loading the bases with one out.  A walk-off single scored the winning run.

 I finished the day with one win and two losses.  We're going to try to wrap the series in the near future. The tournament  standings are as follows:

Dave Schueler   3 wins 0 losses
Bill Nelson        2 wins 1 loss
Dave Demick    1 win 2 losses
Tim Barela        1 win 2 losses
Pat Smyth         1 win 2 losses
Kevin Smyth    1 win 2 losses

 Interesting grouping. Unfortunately, I was so busy with the tournament and getting food ready I didn't take pictures.  Dopey me.