Well gentlemen, tonight's Harlem World Labor Day RBI Tournament was a success, mainly because I won.
The tourney featured myself, former New York champ, Burks For Leadoff, lovable loser Ryan Express and newcomer GDavis. The so-called "Big Apple RBI Champ" was a late scratch, and will have to remove his login, and wait at least a few weeks for a chance at regaining his title.
Each person got 2 teams to compete in an 8 team bracket, in the opening series, I believe a record was set when a game 3 battle between Houston and St. Louis went 17 innings. Morris slapped an rbi single in the Bottom of the 17th off of Dave Smith, who had been pitching since the 8th inning without yielding a run.
The first semifinal featured the Ryan Express as Detroit, but he was soon eliminated by Boston who exhibited the best hurlers throughout the tournament. Hurst was 3-0, pitching 19 and a third throughout the tourney, giving up 2 runs for an ERA of 0.95
The second semi saw San Fran eliminate St. Louis, thanks to the torurney's home run champ Will Clark (6).
The Finals:
Burks for Leadoff (San Fran) at Blyleven No-No (Boston)
Game 1: Boston 5 San Fran 3
Clemens goes 6 1/3 giving up 1 run, as Boggs flexes power with 2 doubles, and Rice pitches in a 2 run shot. Stanley strikes out the side in the ninth to earn the save.
Game 2: Boston 4 San Fran 1
Hurst was the story here, going 6 1/3 scoreless innings. A key mental error was made by Mike Aldrete, who had been subbed in for Uribe at SS. Double play grounder to Mike at short, he touches second, but does not realize that it is only 2 out, so Baylor is safe at first. Evans hammers the next pitch to left, and Gedman follows with a solo shot to give the Sox a 3-0 lead. Stanley worked Boston out of a bases loaded situation with no outs in the top of the 8th, eventually earning his third save to give Boston the title.
MVP: Clemens
Even though hurst may have pitched better, Clemens was a workhorse. After getting shelled by GDavis in the first game against Caliornia, Clemens had an ERA of 0.79, with 16 strikeouts, including a streak of 15 1/3 straight shutout innings.
Boggs also played great in the field, and Dwight Evans and Jim Rice combined for 5 home runs. Buckner even had 2 jacks, one in the B8th of the final game.
Not to mention Bob Stanley who had great movement coming out of the pen to shut things down.
Boston wins, too bad that would never happen in real life.
HAIL TO THE KING!
Congratulations Blyleven,
It was a great tournament. All three of my opponents were top notch players. Can't wait to do it again.
Congratulations Bly No No! I have added the word "Ex" to my dee nee screen name.
Sounds like a great tournament. I certainly wish I could have been there, but I had an opportunity at work that I couldn't pass up.
I look forward to the next tournament- perhaps in October. I will continue to train hard, eat right and take my "vitamins."
Stan-O is an underrated guy out of the pen. He has one of the best curveballs in the game today, and can get big outs. I'd like to hear GDavis's take on the quality of play he witnessed.
I am awaiting Ryan Express's arrival at work so I can give him a tonguelashing- I told him not to come in today unless he won the title.
Happy RBI playing boys!
The quality of play was excellent. My first series was against burks for leadoff and he whooped my ass. The other two series against bly no no and ryan express went to three games and were packed with excitement and drama. I lost the one to blyleven in the 10th inning of game 3 1-0 and barely squeaked out the series win against ryan express, for the consilation prize of 3rd place ranking in the tourney.