The robust national fall tournament schedule continues, after the incredible run in Arizona by the Albany Stud 55s (aka Braves) and solid runs in Fort Myers by the 45+ Maine Indians (featuring 5 CDMSBLers) and in Clearwater by the 45+ Albany Yankees (not to mention the other squads that various CDMSBLers have adorned). The 50+ Albany Capitals began their run today at the Fall Classic in Clearwater with a less-than-hoped-for effort falling 18-2 to the Colorado Blues on one of the outlying fields at the Philadelphia Phillies spring training complex.

The team features 13 players from Albany and 2 from Denver, Colorado. As reported earlier by Don Ball, the Albany gang includes 3 Mikes (Cleary, Kocienski, Surin), 2 Johns (Cortese, Weber), 2 Tims (Borwick, Burns), 2 Bobs (Hiller, Yakatan), a Jim (Tesoriero), a Pat (Alston), a Don (Ball), and a Chris (Abrams). From Denver, another Mike (White) returns having played with the group the last few years, and a Scott (McReynolds), who replaced Curt Tucker who went on the DL last month (but coached 3rd base in today's game).

A beautiful sunny Florida afternoon was marred by too many Capitals errors: 8 of them, mostly in the first 3 innings, and we found ourselves down 10-2 a third of the way in. Jim Tesoriero, who struck out 6 in his 3 innings on the mound, was the unfortunate recipient of the early miscues. Scott McReynolds pitched the next 4 2/3 innings, when we found our gloves, though the Blues scratched out 3 more runs. Don Ball and John Cortese did mop up duty on the mound.

In the meantime, we didn't hit. Of our 5 hits, 4 came in the first two innings, when Pat Alston and Don Ball delivered RBI knocks. Borwick, Cortese, and Yakatan had the others, and we managed one walk and a hit batter. The Blues' hurler worked his 6'5" frame to frustrate us all afternoon.

With the dust and jitters behind us, we'll be up early Monday morning for a 9:00am battle against the Carolina Colts.

Curt (Scoop) Tucker