Comments on: Moments from a weekend in Appleton

By: DaveP

DaveP — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:52:43 +0000

I attended the tournament as I have every year it’s been in Appleton.
They do a wonderful job. Guzman’s call in that game was clearly blown. It wasn’t his only one. He was involved in two more after that the next day.
He held up play by having conferences during play and even going over to talk to George. There were a lot of close calls and a number of them were obviously blown. I asked George how he thought his umpires did and he said they did a pretty good job overall.
It was another great tournament, looking forward to next year.

By: Spence

Spence — Sun, 31 May 2009 00:20:05 +0000

You and me both Ron. I told a friend of mine who picked a VERY good bracket that it had to be luck based on how many variables there were among the top pitchers.

Heeman — suspended/ejected from the tournament for…something. Judging on the penalty, my best guess is punching a bellhop at the Paper Valley Hotel upon arrival.
Or maybe something else involving paper at the Paper Valley Hotel. Just guesses, I have absolutely no inside knowledge here. I’m just being a wiseacre like I do.

Ruffie — hurt
Bartlinski — hurting
Kitchens — hurt

That’s half your teams in the field with an ace (or co-ace, in the case of Ruffie) impaired in some way that we didn’t know before the tournament started.

Wooster faced Carthage’s #3 or 4, some freshman schmohawk from Kean with very mediocre numbers and a guy who has two starts since 2007 to get to the finals.

By: Ron Smith

Ron Smith — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:53:53 +0000

Probably still would have sucked–only differently.

By: Ron Smith

Ron Smith — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:53:27 +0000

Had I known that Kitchens was unavailable, I can assure you that my bracket would have looked different.

By: Spence

Spence — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:45:54 +0000

I know what you meant, for sure. Just reminded me of what Schaly always said was the great thing about baseball (unless it’s 22-1 in the 5th and you’ve got 4 innings to go).

Sorry about the incorrect assumption on the nature of Kitchens’ injury.

By: Pat Coleman

Pat Coleman — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:16:49 +0000

I hear you on the technicality, but I think you also know what I mean. Winning run scored on the last play, winning goal scored on the last play. Also have seen a couple men’s basketball title games that were in doubt on the final play but where the winning basket was scored a possession earlier.

Kitchens issue isn’t in his elbow. I didn’t get a name of what it was but it’s in his upper arm.

By: Spence

Spence — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:16:22 +0000

I would like to know why everyone was so secretive about pitcher injuries. If Kitchens was out for the whole tournament, then why not just say so. If anything it would probably give you better pitching matchups because people wouldn’t be thinking “well they may start him so I better go with the best I have.” I mean that’s theory but regardless, just seems to make no sense. Same with Carthage and Trace Ruffie. If they can go and you just don’t know when, then I get it. But if they can’t go the whole tournament, it just seems silly. Wonder if Kitchens will have Tommy John surgery…that’s turned out to be a good thing for some guys.

And oh those brats…goodness.

By the way, technically, in baseball every game is decided on the last play. Not over until the last out.