Quick bit of trivia — What is the longest running men’s fastpitch tournament in Southern California? Answer: “Best of the West”, now in its 14th year. The tournament was started in 1991, by longtime fastpitch sponsor, Allan Ruegsegger, then of the Long Beach Painters. The first tournament was held at Joe Rodgers Field in Long Beach, former home of the famed Long Beach Nitehawks. Peter Meredith and his Larry Miller Toyota team came down from Salt Lake City that first year, to take on the host Painters and other teams, including the editor’s team, the Vista Bombers. It was called the “Best of the West” Shootout that first year (still have the T-shirt from that one). In recent years, through ups and downs, and several different locations, the tournament has survived, mostly through the efforts of one man, David Blackburn, ISC Streaming Audio maven and fastpitch pitcher. This year David faced a special challenge, when he lost the Soboba Sports Complex to a wedding at the last minute and had to scramble to find a replacement. Thankfully, David succeeded, releasing the following announcement the other day:

“Much thanks to Sam Goepp of the Valley Wide Recreation & Parks District for coming through with the facility at Winchester Park Softball Complex, at the very last minute” stated Tournament Director Dave Blackburn. “Without Sam’s cooperation and understanding, the Tournament was temporarily in jeopardy, when we lost access top the Soboba Sports Complex on Saturday July 31, due to a private wedding. I am happy to be holding the 14th Best of The West Tournament at this excellent new 3 field complex at Winchester Park”.

Team Rainey will be attempting a “three-peat” in this year’s event, having won the tournament in 2002 and 2003.

For more information on this year’s Best of the West, click here.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2004 at 6:41 pm and is filed under So Cal, Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.