Tonight the Albany Braves will be getting together for the final time at New Scotland for our last tune up before we head west to Phoenix. Jim McQuade and John Reel have put together a very good team to represent Albany, in the MSBL World Series (55+ division), and to honor our friend, Tom Maney. Tom, as most of you already know, will be inducted into the MSBL National Hall of Fame, out in Phoenix. This is a huge honor for all honorees, but is even more so for anyone that is not a founder for a local league. Tom has been selected for this honor mainly due to his prowess on the field, and his character as a human being! There aren't many of those in this Hall of Fame. To honor him in our own way, we wanted to put together a solid team that could compete for the rings. After all, Tom's most impressive stat is the incredible number of championships that he has won in the CDMSBL, to go along with his 3 national tournament championship rings. While there are a few players that we would have loved to have join us that just couldn't make the trip, we are extremely happy with the team that is going. We are deep in the catching, infield, and pitching departments. We have a solid batting order that should produce an ample amount of runs . . . and we have two of the best managers in our leagues history to guide the team. Look below at the roster, to see what I mean:
Tom Maney John Reel Jim McQuade Scott Ross Ralph Caputo Ron Massaroni Mike Girard Dave Mitchell TJ Scorsone Doug O'Brey Jim Konstantakis Dean Little Jim Wing Mike Labarge Jerry Solomon Wayne Newcomb Randy Craft
In many ways, I think that this team has a better roster that the one that I was on back in 2006 that won the Fall Classic (45+ division).
The competition will be stiff: Texas Blue Jays; Burlington Angels; So.Cal Dodgers; Arizona Pirates; Arizona Diamondbacks; and San Diego Pirates, in the round robin. There are 19 teams in all, and only 8 teams make the playoffs. Cross your fingers and wish us well. My next post will be after our double header on Saturday (10/22/16) morning.
Good Luck men! Congrats to you Tom Maney. You definitely deserve the honor. I wish my schedule would have allowed me to join that stellar bunch men representing the CDMSBL. Wish you well men.
You know it kills me to not be making this trip, but I'll be rooting for you guys to show the West Coast how it's done on the East Coast. What a terrific honor for Tom, and to have so many of his baseball buddies there to share it with him is extra special. Anyone who has made these trips knows it takes a big roster of guys pulling for each other to move onto the championship round, so no problem there. So, here's to good health and a bit of lady luck to reach the promised land -- TIM B.
