The 7th Annual 2022 Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament (GCABT-VII) was played on Saturday, August 27th at the Maumee Elks Club in Maumee, OH. 36 optimistic Coaches/Teams started the day with the title on their eyesight.
After 144 divisional games, 2 single elimination playoff rounds (6 games), and then a full best of 3 Championship series, veteran and APBA HOF, John Duke, and his 1949 Boston Red Sox, claimed the title against a young, energetic Eric Zawadzki and his 1985 NY Mets squad, winning the series 2 games to 1. Eric is the 14-year son of the Greater Michigan TD Rich Zawadzki.
The Red Sox won the first game 4-1. The Mets claimed game 2, 5-4. And in a dramatic finish with the tying run on 2nd in the bottom of the 9th, the Red Sox hung on for the win, 5-4. Down 5-2 in the bottom of the 9th and with 2 outs, the Mets clubbed 2 HRs to make it 5-4. The next batter doubled to set up the dramatic finish. However, it was not to be.
There were 5 divisions, 3 with 8 teams and 2 with 6 teams. After the divisional play was completed, the 5 division winners along with the 3 next best teams (wildcards) moved to the championship bracket.
Quarterfinals
#1 seed 1932 Philadephia A’s (Rich Zawadzki) eliminated playoff veteran John Roels and his #8 seed 1994 Clevland team, 6-5. I do believe a walkoff HR won it for the A’s.
#4 seed 1985 NY Mets (Eric Zawadzki) nipped #5 seed 2021 Toronto (Mike Coon, Jr.) by the score of 4-3.
This set up a semi-final matchup of Father vs. Son.
#3 seed 1961 Detroit (Darryl Langenderfer) lost to eventual champion #6 seed 1949 Boston Red Sox (John Duke), 6-1.
Rich Zawadzki and John Duke both ended up with 7-1 divisional records, but Rich claimed the tie breaker by beating John in their divisional game.
#2 seed 2021 LA Dodgers (Michael Hernandez) fell to a hot hiting Albert Pujols and the #7 2003 Cardinals (Dave Chestnut), 8-5. I believe Pujols hit 3 HRs in the game.
Semifinals
John Duke’s Red Sox easily dispatched the hot-hitting Cardinal team with a 10-1 victory.
In the other semi, one guaranteeing that a Zawadzki would be in the finals, Son bested Dad, 4-2.
Other Notables
All the divisional winners were 6-2 or better. There were 8 teams vying for the final 2 playoff spots. Run Differential was used as the tiebreaker.
We had coaches from PA, IN, MI, IL, KA, OH, SC, and AZ
Regional Tournament Directors who attended: Rich Zawadzki, Jeff Boeding, John Roels, Rob Spatz, Jack Dolan, Darren Schulz
Family combos:
The Smith Brothers – Jeremy and Chris
Darren and Logan Schulz
Rich and Eric Zawadzki
Norm and Zach Zavela
Bob “Pops” and Rob Spatz
No date has been confirmed for next year’s event, but most likely it will be August 26th, 2023. No theme has been determined yet.
Below are 6 videos in a playlist of the day and some of the final action. Click on the bars in the upper right-hand corner to select them individually.
Well played, Mr. Emch! John Duke is a wonderful man.
Congrats to John!
Also to Ron for yet another successful GCABT tournament. Keep up up the great work!
Tom
Fantastic summary of the day! One of my favorite days of the year; it felt so good to be back after two years! Thanks for all that you do, Ron!
My introduction to APBA actually came because of Ron and I being members of a board game group called SAGES. He had come to a SAGES meet up and asked if anyone wanted to play in an APBA tournament he was going to start. I asked “What’s APBA?”. He brought some teams to the next board game meet up. He had brought the 1972 Oakland A’s and the 1972 Detroit Tigers because he knew I was an A’s fan. Well, the A’s won our game and in the process Catfish Hunter spiked Norm Cash and knocked him out of the game. I said “I love this game” and my tournament touring began.
So far I have been to Toledo (Maumee), OH, Chicagoland (DesPlanes and Rosemont), IL, Jackson, MI, Plainwell, MI, Indianapolis (Carmel), IN, Slippery Rock, PA, Chattanooga, TN, Atlanta (Alpharetta), GA, and Minneapolis (Shakopee) MN over the years with repeats in several. This year I still have KC (Gladstone) MO (this is their innaugural), Slippery Rock, PA, and Wilmington, DE (new to me) left.
At Ron’s tournament this year the tone was set in the first game. Vida Blue, the ace, of my 1976 A’s pitched a 2 hitter against Michael Hernandez’s 2021 Dodgers … but both the hits were solo homers and he lost 2-1. The A’s only won 1 game and lost 7. It looked like they might win their very last game but gave up the tying runs in the ninth and then gave up 4 in the 11th inning when the starters became straight D’s. Oh well, its fun times, win or lose! Maybe next year!