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Post by BrianV on Aug 8, 2009 18:11:14 GMT -4
Posted today on the Vienna Senators' website: www.viennasenators.com/2009%20Game%20Summaries/09seasoncomplete.htmToo many injuries and too few players. Not only is it bad to not have Baltimore and now Washington in the tournament, but to find out that we lost a team at 6:00 PM the night before registration? My initial thought, as has been done in years past, is that the Old Timers would try to bring in another team to take their place. But can you muster a team in such short notice? And if you do, who would it be? It seems (UNOFFICIALLY -- THIS IS SPECULATION) that Baltimore would be the next in line. They finished 2nd in their regional, they won a game (which Cleveland did not), and they're relatively close to town (2.5 hours). I doubt that I'll know about this until tomorrow. Brian_V |
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Post by donpetree on Aug 8, 2009 18:53:12 GMT -4
The tribune is reporting that Johnstown will get a second entry. Martella's is in to replace Washington.
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Post by BrianV on Aug 8, 2009 19:04:58 GMT -4
Thanks for the heads up, don.
So if Johnstown wins, how many are going to ask for an astericks in the record books? 2 entries and no Baltimore or Washington.
It'll be a wide-open tournament this year.
Brian_V
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kek
Senior Member
Posts: 180
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Post by kek on Aug 9, 2009 0:24:46 GMT -4
It's nice for the Martella's kids to get a chance to play in the tourney and all, but this is not a good thing for a tournament that's already lost a lot of its luster. No Detroit/Livonia/Ann Arbor team for years, Baltimore doesn't make it out of regional and now no Washington team.
The WJAC sports said that there was no time to have another team that didn't make it through regionals to make it. Gee, I wonder if anyone asked Dean Albany as he was being inducted in the HoF. I would rather, for competition's sake, have a scrambled up Baltimore squad to give the tourney a little boost.
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Post by knowitall on Aug 10, 2009 8:16:36 GMT -4
No asterisk.
New Orleans becomes the favorite.
It does make me question the future of this tournament though. Washington doesn't have enough kids. Baltimore doesn't qualify. Philadelphia forfeits the championship game of the Altoona regional because they only have eight healthy players. Chicago's bus breaks down on the way to the regional. What's going on and what needs to change?
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Post by BrianV on Aug 10, 2009 9:04:19 GMT -4
Chicago-SS also hasn't won a game in Johnstown since 1995. Maybe they should take the train like teams used to  Philly isn't the first team to do that in a regional. That's probably happened at least once a decade. Why play a meaningless game so close before the tournament? Before the mercy-rule era, there were even some teams that conceded national tournament games when they were getting beat real bad. Baltimore lost. Plain and simple. If anything, that would seem to be a good thing for the tournament. It seems we have two teams who can (and HAVE) beaten Baltimore now. The only bad part was that it didn't happen in the tournament. Washington went through a very tough regular, falling to second place, and then winning the regular season title in a 1-game playoff. They had a lot of injuries, and some kids were already heading back to school. (Maryland State had the same problems and only fielded 12 of 18 players for the regional.) Some people think Washington just didn't want to come, but remember that they also missed the NBC World Series the week before. Again, they are not the first (nor the last, I'm sure) team to have to withdraw due to a player shortage. What made this situation so bad is that they waited until 4 o'clock on Saturday to tell anybody. If they make that decision a day or two earlier, the 16th team would probably be different. Brian_V |
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Post by BrianV on Aug 10, 2009 9:06:37 GMT -4
P.S. And if nothing else, it certainly makes things interesting this year. Like the Tribune says, it's wide open. Sure, New Orleans is a favorite, but they've been quiet the past handful of years. Two Johnstown entries means extra focus on the afternoon games (and all of those night-shifters at the mill can see a game now  ) and hopefully extra revenue for the Old Timers. Brian_V |
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Post by slickmick on Aug 10, 2009 9:17:20 GMT -4
I believe this is good and bad for the Tourney on one hand we will see a new winner maybe a fisrt time winner on the other we miss seeing some good talent play ball from Wasington and Baltimore.
Don't read to much into Washington not coming my son has been the bat boy for them for the last two tourneys, we were in contact with them last week they simply could not get enough healthy bodies to put a team together.
Baltimore well they will be back and I imagine when they get here they will have a chip on there shoulder.
I look for the Johnstown teams to make a good run this year.
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Post by nolawinner on Aug 10, 2009 9:53:18 GMT -4
Go New Orleans we should win this year!
The word is from Washington the kids wanted not to come to AAABA after they could not make it to the NBC World Series. They only had 10 age eligible kids in town and they were flying four more back to town before the others kids left on Saturday. The Manager was not coming with the team to Johnstown for some reason. They think the owner was getting AAABA back for the 2003 umpiring fiasco or something.
Anyway the owner wanted to go to Johnstown bad, but the word is we have seen the last Washington franchise in Johnstown.
The teams have not had any interest in coming up to Johnstown for some reason.
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Post by knowitall on Aug 10, 2009 9:53:32 GMT -4
Does anyone think it was a bit ironic that Delweld picked up no players from Martella's? That makes me think the 4:00 Saturday announcement that Washington wasn't coming was known a bit in advance.
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Post by BrianV on Aug 10, 2009 10:30:54 GMT -4
No, and it wasn't. DelSignore said the Martella's pitcher he wanted was injured.
Brian_V
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Post by ballgame on Aug 10, 2009 15:56:47 GMT -4
I hear that many local's think Washington dropped out on purpose. Not so at all
They had to win a 1 game playoff to win their league. They were banged up before that and got a few more hurt. One of best pitchers and a right fielder were among them .
Teams down here (No VA) have players from all over the country and they need to go back to school. I know they were trying to get players from other teams to come up but they ran short when they had a meeting Saturday. Not the best time but they did want to go to Johnstown. If they had 12 players they would have still been tough to beat. Their league could send up any one of 4 teams that would be tough. The year McLean Raiders were there they were 4th place team.
Baltimore is a team that plays in Cal Ripken league but is only team from league that is AAABA team. That is how some teams keep coming.
I happen to think Martellas is a better team than Delweld. We will see, I guess.
JB
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Post by BrianV on Aug 10, 2009 15:59:03 GMT -4
"many locals" = just knowitall
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Post by jabberoski on Aug 10, 2009 16:03:31 GMT -4
I still think the decision to move the tournament back a week last year was a bad decision. Too close to the start of college for many of the players. Hopefully the national AAABA board and the Oldtimers will realize this and go back to the first week of August.
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Post by knowitall on Aug 10, 2009 16:07:35 GMT -4
"many locals" = just knowitall I don't think Washington dropped out on purpose. I do think the AAABA powers that be may have known that they were dropping out before 4PM Saturday. There were no players from Martella's other than one injured pitcher that would have made Delweld even more competitive? Really. The teams had nearly identical regular season records and the championship series went the distance. |
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) and hopefully extra revenue for the Old Timers.