The first ever California Cup Tournament was played this past weekend. After months of banter in the Fastpitchwest Forum, the teams finally took to the fields to compete. When it was all said and done, Fred Hanker’s Black Sox were crowned as the 2004 Cal Cup champs and will get to hold onto “the Cup” until 2005.
For those of you who have not followed the Forum discussion about the California Cup, it is an all comers tournament for ASA “C” level teams for teams from anywhere in the State of California, designed to crown a “California Cup Champion”, which takes home a perennial trophy for the year (a la Stanley Cup), passing it on to the next year’s champion, after engraving the name of the prior year’s winner. The idea for the California Cup did not surface this year until almost Memorial Day, and while not all of the teams in California were able to make it this year, we were pleased to have all three regions of California represented at the tournament, and hope to have even more include “the Cup” in their plans next season.
For the first year, the tournament was hosted by Eddie “Dude” Ybarra and the City of Fresno Parks and Recreation Department, which provided the facilities, balls, umpires, scorekeepers, trophies, logo, T-shirts, and full time grounds crew all for a remarkable $150 entry fee.
Job well done, Dude.
The concept is to “take the show on the road”, moving the tournament locale each year, to give each region an opportunity to host (and to be fair about the travel required for each region). The hope is to expose the fastpitch teams of the State to new places to play, give them the opportunity to play against opponents that they might not otherwise get a chance to face, and finally, to spur interest in the game of men’s fastpitch across the Golden State.
With host Fresno in Central California, the Cup will be in either Northern or Southern California. Cities or teams interested in hosting the tournament or people wishing to lend a hand to the organizing committed are invited to send an email to calcup@fastpitchwest.com
We also invited teams and players (both those who played this year and those who did not) to send comments on things you liked about this year’s eveng, or suggestions on how to improve the tournament in the future. The tournament committee will revisit such topics as the tournament format, roster eligibility and the like, in an effort to be responsive to the wishes of the teams that compete for The Cup.
For 2004, those in attendance will probably remember the remarkable 8-game performance of The Tribe’s pitcher Mark Manuelito whose teammates said they would “ride him ’til he dropped” (he didn’t), and the three wild games played between the Black Sox and the Tribe to decide things. While the Sox escaped with the rubber game, and the Cup, the Tribe impressed everyone with their “never-out-of-it offense” and refusal to surrender to fatigue or the heat. In the last couple games against the Tribe, Sox centerfielder Steve Tollington was dubbed “The Fugitive”, because of the number of times that he hand his hands in the air to signal “ground rule double”. For all of the teams, it seemed like an “Earl Weaver” weekend, as home run ball reigned. Cal Cup MVP Gerald Pyle hit three, each one seemingly further than the last, and eliciting plenty of eye-popping reactions ’round the field. Even the slo-pitch fences behind the championship fences weren’t safe from his and a few others. Jerome Arteberry of the Native American team hit a couple of key homers to swing the momentum in two of their games, turning 5 run deficits into 11-10 wins. Valley Lyons , the pre-tournament pick by many and still regarded as one of the best teams in the state, carried the banner, along with the Shockers for the home-town Fresno fans, finishing in a tie for third, losing only to the Sox and Tribe in hard fought games.
A personal thank you goes out to all of the teams that did make it to Fresno, to take a chance on a first year tournament, including the Knights, Gaines Liquor, The Tribe, Raymar, Energy Link, the Amigos, Valley Lyons, the Black Sox, the Native Americans, the Shockers and KHT Pumpers. Win, lose or draw, you were there to compete. We hope to see all of you and many more at next year’s Cup, wherever that may be.