Regional Teams Announced

[BrianV]

From the official AAABA website: www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/?u=AAABA&s=baseball&t=c

NATIONAL TOURNAMENT
Altoona
Brooklyn
Buffalo
Chicago-Metro
Columbus
Elk County
Johnstown
Lansing
Livonia
New Orleans
Schenectady
Youngstown
Zanesville

PLAY-IN SERIES
(I'm calling New York Metro Qualifier)
New York City vs New Brunswick

ZANESVILLE REGIONAL
Toledo
Cleveland
Chicago-South Shore
Zanesville (BYE)

ALTOONA REGIONAL

This is the big one

Baltimore
Washington
Philadelphia
Maryland State
Altoona (BYE)


So, we apparently have a new franchise in Toledo. But that Altoona Regional is going to break a lot of hearts and will have enormous impact on the national tournament. 6-time champions Baltimore, 2-time runner-up Washington, perennial contendors Philadelphia and Maryland State all in 1 regional with only 1 team escaping. The team to win that regional may very well be the next champion. How on earth did that happen?

The regionals are scheduled for August 1-3, which apparently I'll have to come in for now since the Altoona Regional is now all important.

I'd expect some big results from Livonia, Zanesville and New Orleans this season, since only one of the Balt/Wash/Philly crew will make it to Johnstown. Of course, that also means that we can't depend on those 3 to knock each other out. One of the undecorated franchises will need to pick up the wins instead.

Baltimore sure has a lot of work now in order to get a 7th championship.

Brian_V

[knowitall]

Yes. How did that happen? The Altoona Regional should upstage the actual tournament. A win there is more impressive than winning in Johnstown this year.

[BrianV]

I know that the regional teams are rotated every year. New Orleans and Chicago-Metro had to play the play-in series last year, so this year they both get automatic byes. Apparently Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia all fell into rotation this year, and since they're from the same regional . . .

I will do my best to provide coverage of the games on my website

Brian_V

[jkinger26]

Having Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia means 3 out of the top 4 teams from last year are lumped into one regional. 2 teams will not be in Johnstown. This weakens the field in Johnstown and that is not what the AAABA needs.

[BrianV]

Something else bad about the Altoona regional is that they're using 5 teams. That creates for an ugly bracket, especially when using a double-elimination format. Sometimes you get lucky and the teams happen to play the same number of games, but I'm worried that you'll end up with the winning team at 3-1 and the runner-up at 3-2. That would certainly add to the controversy.

Personally, I think I would have preferred to see something like:

Altoona - Maryland State - Baltimore - Washington (ALTOONA)
Zanesville - Toledo - South Shore - Cleveland (ZANESVILLE)
New York - New Brunswick - Philadelphia - Schenectady (SCHENECTADY)

since Schenectady used to have a regional. They'd get a bye into the tournament, anyway.

Brian_V