Champions, Chops & Huge Hops (Part I)

I really couldn't come up with a good title for this series, so the above will have to fly...
so welcome to the Chop Shop!

As I have done for my previous tournament experiences, I would explain the game action that went down during the games of the tournament, as well as the great participants that I had the wonderful privilege of playing.

Due to APBA, I have friends that I consider close friends. My actual home life consists of my wonderful wife & cat, and then work. I don't go out to the local watering hole, and kill time by drinking my worries away, I don't really go out with buddies or have guy time. These APBA tournaments are my guy time. I have met some wonderful fellas through these tournaments, and have had long conversations with these guys throughout the years -- I believe these guys know me better than people I have to work next to day in & day out.

Sure we all come from different backgrounds & may all have different political views -- or even different views on Baseball. We are all different & unique in our special ways, but while we are all together in one place, our unity for our love of all things APBA Baseball shines through.

Woke up at the hotel, Saturday morning... pretty excited! I made sure I was up bright & early at 6 a.m., quick shower, and went downstairs to a disappointing Continental breakfast -- in which the wife & I decided to say screw it, let's get some McDonald's; I wanted to make sure she had a big breakfast, since she was going to be lounging in the hotel all day, while I kick it with my pals at the GMABT.

We were surprised a little by the few inches of snow we received over night, after such a clear sunny day the day before.

The drive over to Gene Davis & Son's Steak Eatery was a little slick on the highway, and for a moment on that last stretch of high way, I was starting to wonder if I past my exit, because I did not remember this stretch being as long as the year before -- Sure enough, I found my exit, and all was familiar looking.

The wife and I -- One strong team that keeps rolling.

I don't know what it was, but for some reason the moment I woke up that day, I knew that my team was going to have a great day. I am not sure how I can properly explain it... Of course, I am not psychic, but I just knew -- maybe other past champions can relate or chime in, I don't know. I knew almost in the same way, as waking up to the morning of my wedding day -- thinking & knowing it was going to be great day; That's the best way I could compare it...

Now am I comparing the tournament day as a equal to my wedding day? Well of course not, Becky (my wife) will always be my greatest victory & I get rewarded every day with her in my life. I had my battles with my faith, and when I started to have my doubts, Becky came into my life, and without a doubt, we both knew that God brought us together. We had a tough year, this past 2015, having her brother living with us for almost 3 years, while her sister (a huge pain in the butt, I may add) joined us the last 4 months at our old place -- It caused a lot of chaos around the house, they simply didn't respect the household rules, and even bailed on their last month of rent.

Our funds were drying up, waiting for the new place (we were moving to) to open up... in which it kept getting delayed -- while living at the current place that was over-priced with only myself working. I also had to make an adjustment to a new job, so we were treading water & we were both pretty stressed. The beauty of Becky & I, is that we always stick together, and never fight -- We make the ultimate team, and we said that 2016 would finally be the year of us.

A Christmas miracle happened when we finally got into the new place on December 18th, we never put up a Christmas Tree -- Our present was having a roof over our head. Due to January being slower in the restaurant business, hours were skimmer, which means the wallet gets leaner. There was a moment until some of our taxes came back, that I wondered if I would make it down to Jackson even.

I honestly believe God keeps making good things happen for us of late, and I wonder looking back at this past weekend, if divine intervention even happened, God works mysterious ways-- But why me? There is other wonderful guys at the tournament as well, with obstacles in their lives as well.. No one's life is smooth as gravy, so why me? The previous day checking in, I was almost charged for only a $1.70 for two nights at the hotel -- which I quickly mentioned the error to the lady at the service desk, but I'm an honest guy in general, so was I being rewarded? I'm not sure.. I like to think that the fact that I have a wonderful wife, a roof over my head, and great friends, that I've already been rewarded.

Anyways, back to Gene Davis's (thanks for letting me ramble)...

Feeling good about my team may have started the night before (our exhibition against Ken Schulz's 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates) as mentioned in my Road to Jackson post -- while my 1993 Atlanta Braves opened up the tournament playing the 1983 Chicago White Sox, against my new friend Greg Tews. I had the wonderful privilege of having dinner with Greg and Rich, Friday night at this nice Chinese restaurant, along with my wife -- little did I know at the time that I would be playing him Saturday.

GAME 1 at 1983 CHICAGO WHITE SOX

Each opening game of each series of the tournament would open up with a dice roll for home-field in the first game; The home team gets to choose DH/or no DH as well -- Greg won the dice roll, and elected to be home for Game 1.

LaMarr Hoyt (A-YZ) would take the mound for the White Sox, while I countered with my ace Greg Maddux (A-XZ). Hoyt won the 1983 American League Cy Young with a 24-10 record, 3.66 ERA & 148 K's in 260.2 innings, he would have a few more productive seasons before drug issues destroyed his career; All Padres fans will remember their trade blunder with Chicago in acquiring Hoyt in exchange for Ozzie Guillen (who would win 1985 A.L. Rookie-of-the-Year), pitchers Tim Lollar & Bill Long, and Luis Salazar.

Fred McGriff starts things off.

With a hint of things to come, Fred McGriff led off the top of the second with a solo homer, while David Justice launched a two-run homer in the fourth, to give the Braves a 3-0 lead. The White Sox would get a run back in the 5th with a RBI single by Rudy Law. McGriff strikes again with RBI double in 6th; The Braves would add further damage in 9th with two insurance RBI doubles, one by Damon Berryhill and Mark Lemke. That was kind of my luck in the tourney, every one at some point in the championship run played a factor at some point; Lemke was not much of a factor for the tournament overall, batting only .122 with a .408 OPS & 3 RBI -- He would start every game though, to give my team just enough for a fielding one with his Grade 8 on defense (compared to Bill Pecota's fielding 7), as long as I had a fielding 2 pitcher on the mound.

My Braves won the first game, 6-1, as Maddux allowed only 5 hits, 1 walk & 1 run in a complete-game victory; Hoyt would get 9 K's, but allow 6 hits & 6 runs in complete-game loss.

Interesting Game Stats: Ron Gant would draw three consecutive walks, while Deion Sanders struck out 4 times.

GAME 2 vs 1983 CHICAGO WHITE SOX (at Atlanta)

Pendleton's 93' Donruss MVP.

The Atlanta Braves would be quieter with Floyd Bannister (B-XZ)on the mound for the White Sox; The Braves selected Steve Avery (B-YZ) to be their #2 starter. The rotation I decided to go with was Greg Maddux (A-XZ), Avery & Tom Glavine (B) for my third starter; Leaving John Smoltz (B-X) to come out of the pen.

My reasons for the rotation is this, I need to have Z's in the rotation, because tournaments are loaded with talented teams & talented teams know how to get on base -- So eliminate the walk whenever possible; My other choice is that John Smoltz in real-life was the only pitcher of the bunch to have a successful bullpen career, plus Glavine would just look silly running out from the bullpen. Sure I would love to have showcase the Hall of Fame rotation, but at the same time, there needs to be some strategy, a walk here, or a play here, or a few fielding points less here all can accumulate losses & create more chances for the opposition -- So I chose to eliminate as many possibilities as possible.

Back to the game, both teams would be silent through 4 innings, until the Atlanta Braves got on the board during the bottom of the 5th; Sid Bream led the inning off with a dice roll 33-0, in which it would go to the second column with a dice-roll of 66 -- HOME RUN! Right?!

#2 Starter Avery: The Kid is Alright!

Nope, not so fast, Mr.Bream... second column result was a '2' for triple -- interesting since he hit 9 HR's in 277 at-bats, but it turns out he had only one triple all year, so the rare feat was accomplished... All I could think is that ball must have rolled quickly to the deepest corner and deflected just right, where the fielder over ran it -- but according to the APBA booklet, it was hit to left center... then again slow Ron Kittle is playing left (and must have been too shallow). Mark Lemke would knock in Bream with a RBI double to tie it.

Terry Pendleton, who next to Lemke, would be my other lousy tournament hitter, makes his mark count though with a solo HR off Bannister in the 7th -- That would be the difference, as Steve Bedrosian would lock down a two-inning save with 3 K's; Braves win 2-1.

Sid Bream went 2-for-3 with a triple & run.

The White Sox had some opportunities, Top of the 4th was a prime example, with bases loaded, and one out, Ron Kittle would hit into a inning-ending double play.

Interesting Stats: Greg Luzinski gets plunked twice in the game, while getting plunked in Game 1 as well for the White Sox. John Smoltz gets the win for only 1/3 innings of action in top of 7th. Ron Gant draws his 4th walk (while reaching base 5 times) in the series, while Deion Sanders (0-for-9) struck out a 5th time in the series. On a personal note, this was the first time in my tournament career that I started a tournament off, 2-0.

GAME 3 vs 2015 LOS ANGELES DODGERS (at Atlanta)

In recent tournaments, the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 2010's have had some pretty good success; The 2013 Los Angeles Dodgers reached the Final in the 2015 Toledo Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament, while I believe the 2014 Los Angeles Dodgers have also had success... So I had my eyes open for this match-up prior to tournament, who knows how this team will play. The man leading the charge for the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers is Mike Pryson, who happens to live in the Jackson area.

It was a battle between the #3 starting pitchers from each team, Brett Anderson of the Dodgers & Tom Glavine (Grade B) of the Braves; Anderson would be the only Grade C that I would face in the tournament.

The Dodgers would strike first with an RBI single by Andre Ethier in the first inning, while the Braves would answer back in a huge way in the bottom half; Deion Sanders led off with his first hit of the tournament (stealing 2nd), while Jeff Blauser would hit him in with a double. Ron Gant would add to the Dodgers troubles with a RBI single (then stealing 2nd), and Fred McGriff piled on with a two-run HR; The Braves drop a 4-spot on the Dodgers, and this would not be the only time in tournament play that the Braves would score 4+ in an inning.

Terry Pendleton would add some insurance with a solo HR in the bottom of the 4th, that run would pay off later, as the Dodgers would inch closer with a run in the 5th & 8th innings. With a 5-3 lead in the top of the 9th for the Braves, Atlanta would call on Steve Bedrosian (A&C-YZ) to close out the game. After a quick strikeout of Yasiel Puig, Enrique Hernandez would hit a solo HR off of "Bedrock"; With two outs, Dodgers decide to have young phenomenon Corey Seager to pinch-hit for Jimmy Rollins -- Bedrosian & the Braves would intentionally walk him instead.

Glavine pitches 6 strong innings for the Braves.

Tom Glavine was in control allowing only 2 hits, 2 runs with 3 walks through 6 innings -- including 7 strikeouts.

Interesting Stats: Deion Sanders collects two hits, after an 0-9 start. Fred McGriff is 2-for-4 with a two-run HR, while Terry Pendleton hits a HR for the second consecutive game. The Dodgers collectively draw 6 walks, but hit into a couple double plays and into a couple force outs to slow down any sort of rally & yet still fall just short, 5-4.

GAME 4 at 2015 LOS ANGELES DODGERS

It was a dream match-up of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux (A-XZ) against Clayton Kershaw 
(A-KZ) who is off to a wonderful start to his MLB career & may be calling Cooperstown his home someday as well. Prior to the start of the game, Mike mentioned that this game will be a quick one, and for the most part it was.

Maddux was dealing, allowing only 3 hits.

Early on, the pitchers were dueling it out -- Entering the 6th, Kershaw only allowed one hit, a single to Jeff Blauser in the first, while Maddux for Atlanta, was pitching a no-hitter through 6 innings. As we entered the bottom of the 7th, Mike decides to jinx it by mentioning the no-hitter verbally that it was taking place, I was trying to keep my lips sealed... the very next dice roll, Adrian Gonzalez delivers a single to right -- I jokingly said "Hey, man you jinxed me", and he mentioned "Sorry man, I had to do something, I need to get something going." It's all good, all part of the strategy, I'll give him props there.

At that point, with the broken-up no-hitter, my Braves had a 3-0 lead; Back in the top of the 6th, Jeff Blauser delivered a two-run HR, while Fred McGriff added a RBI single.

Atlanta would add insurance runs in the top of the ninth, with a solo HR by David Justice (his 2nd HR of the tournament, at this point) -- with additional runs coming from a Damon Berryhill RBI double & RBI single by Deion Sanders.

Greg Maddux was lights out with a three-hit shutout performance of the Dodgers, with 9 K's & 3 walks allowed; Clayton Kershaw would rack up 13 K's in a losing complete-game performance, allowing 8 hits, 2 walks & 6 earned runs -- running out of steam the last 4 innings, compared to excellent start. Braves win, 6-0.

Interesting Stats: Off to 4-0 start in the Carl Yastrzemski Division at this point, with a scoring differential of +13; Outscoring the Dodgers and White Sox, 19-6... I was definitely enjoying the results in my head, but wanted to keep cool & not get overly excited with 6 games still remaining. Terry Pendleton's most productive stretch of the tournament would be Games 2 through 4, batting 3-for-10, with 2 solo HR's & a double -- Other than that, Pendleton's performance was that of a .158 hitter through 38 at-bats. Adrian Gonzalez logged the most hits against the Braves in two games, with only two hits.

* * * This concludes PART I of the Braves Tournament run, to be continued... * * *