The Las Vegas Kickoff 45+ tournament wrapped up yesterday with the Seattle Frickin A's edging the Las Vegas Rattlers 13-12 in 10 innings. The Rattlers seemed in firm control of the game until one bad defensive inning let the A's get close. The A's tied it 9-9 in the 9th and scored 4 in the top of the 10th. Rattlers got a 3-run homer in the bottom half and had a man on first when their comeback fell just short. It was the fifth game in three days for both teams, each of which were undefeated heading into the title match.

I played with the Rattlers. The team had a Vegas core, five guys from San Antonio, and a few others (from NY, IL, IN, FL). We threw five different starters, each of which was effective. We had good bats, scoring double-digit runs in 4 out of 5 games. The defense was also solid, except for maybe 2 innings out of 40 or so. We gave up the fewest runs in the tournament. But the Seattle gang pounded the ball, had pitchers of various types, and played solid defense. It was a good game. Both sides were pretty exhausted when it ended.

I logged a lot of innings in LF and CF. Fields were only slightly smaller than the MLB spring training fields we played on in Florida last November, so it was still a lot ground to cover. And with plenty of sun, and a surprising amount of wind, it was sometimes adventurous when balls were in the air.

The northern climate teams mostly didn't fare well in this tournament. The fact that we haven't seen the ground back home in a few months might have something to do with that. It was my first live pitching since November and I had to shake a few cobwebs. But my three hits all came in the semi-final and championship games, so it started coming around. Throw in a couple walks, a sac bunt, and a role as courtesy runner and I got to run the bases a bit...and my legs aren't likely to forget it for a few days!

All in all, it was a blast. Five games in three days didn't leave me too much time to explore Vegas's other entertainments (which I hear it has). Maybe just as well!

Curt

P.S. On Sunday, we bit the So Cal Mantanzas, the defending champs of this tournament and mainstay atop a lot of western tourneys. It meant that we got a bye into the semis, while they had to play a THIRD game on Sunday. They apparently called in Jose Canseco to pitch that game, which they won (he also lined a shot off the center field fence and struck out with the bases loaded). He didn't play in our game, nor in the semis, which they lost to Seattle.