The Albany BlueJays with 6 CDMSBL BlueJays and 1 Giants player played outstanding ball even though we received little help from pool players particularly in the pitching dept. John Weber, Pat Alston,Bob Noto, Artie Gianakos provided consistent hitting throughout the 5 games and John "Rubber Arm" Weber pitched his typical great start only to not get the support offensively in the first game albiet due to some bad luck on shots into the wind with runners in scoring position. He came into several games and pitched his heart out and gave us innings we needed to just get by. He also saved the the last game which we won. Mike Labronowski played outstanding at shortstop and anchored our infield. Mike Surin after fracturing his ankle only 4 weeks before the tournament showed the guts and determination that we are used to with our CDMSBL BlueJays. He literally saved us with his play. Here was a guy who never pitched before and comes in when things were bleak with the pool pitching and shuts down the opposition in our third game and comes back to start the last game and goes 5 + innings of one run allowed and gets us our win with John Weber closing the door. Remarkable!!! Bob Hiller gave us a valuable utility player who also hit over .300 and was invaluable as an assistant who kept the book and reminded me of player situations. Overall the pool players did contribute offensively and defensively particularly in the outfield. This was a great bunch of guys to manage and I believe all had fun playing baseball.
I just want congradulate the Albany Cubs on a great run in the tournament. Jim Mcquade put together a top notch group of guys who showed what talent CDMSBL has and will for many years to come.
I just want to second Artie's post and say that The Albany B' Jays pitchers really held their own despite the lack of run support. I had players from another team tell me what a great job John Weber did on the mound. Artie pitched 5 innings of 2 run ball when we needed it most. I can't say enough about what Mike Surin did. Mike was wearing a cast the day before the tournament started, but that didn't stop him from helping out on the mound and shutting down the Moorestown Rays to give us our only win.
There was some talent from the pool players we added, But it's tough going into a tournament like this picking up players sight unseen. We knew what we were getting with Mike Labronowski of the Giants who played a solid SS. I give Mike the unluckiest player award. He made solid contact, but unfortunately he hit everything right at defenders or they made good plays. Thanks for Joining us Mike.
If we can't go in with a full team next year, maybe we can go in with a combined team of players that we are familiar with. I'm definitely in next year.
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We don't stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.
