We’ll be posting more info shortly on the upcoming Best of the West Tournament in Santa Barbara, May 30-31, 2009, including the schedule of games. In the meantime, a few “notes on my scorecard”:
Tournament director David Blackburn told me yesterday, that he has sixteen (16) teams lined up for the tournament (May 30-31) in Santa Barbara, the largest field of team ever in the tournament’s longstanding 18 year history.
Among the teams headed to the beautiful coastal city in 2009 are the Pueblo Bandits and Innovative Communications (the 2007 BoW champs). Last year saw a couple of classic pitching match-ups between Lucas Mata (So Cal Bombers) and Sebastian Gervusutti (Team Rainey). Mata and the Bombers won the Saturday round robin game, while Sebastian and Team Rainey came away with the win on Sunday in the playoff round, and went on to capture the 2008 title.
The tournament was started in 1991 by Long Beach Painter’s GM Allan Ruegsegger, and held that first year as the “Best of the West Shootout” at Joe Rodgers field in Long Beach. That one featured the two Salt Lake City powerhouses of the day, Larry Miller Toyota, with Peter Meredith, and Page Brake, with Neil Chadwick, the Guanella Brothers, the Painters and Vista Bombers. (held so long ago, that I played in it).
The image above is from an old T-shirt from the 2nd Best of the West in 1992.
Since then, the tournament has made the rounds, being held in places like Soboba, Winchester, but seems to have settled into a home in Santa Barbara the past few years. David Blackburn has been the tournament director for most of the tournament’s history and now getting a big assist from the tournament’s Santa Barbara host, Clyde Bennnett. The tournament has been up and down in terms of the number of teams (down to a half dozen a few years ago), but the most reliable event on the So Cal schedule for nearly two decades, thanks to Dave’s hard work.