[Alsfastball] FedLock Sucker Punched at Monkton

[Al Doran]

From: "Mike Groves" <falcon at fedlock.com>
To: "'Al Doran'" <fastball at pmihrm.com>
Subject: FedLock Sucker Punched at Monkton
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 11:49:57 -0400



"Never promise more than you can perform."
-- Publilius Syrus

The FedLock Falcons journeyed to the village of Monkton, Canada for the 
Monkton Fastball Tournament over the weekend of July 2-4, 2004.  Monkton is 
a tight-knit community approximately 2 hours north-northwest of Toronto's 
Pearson airport.  The environment is rural once one travels outside the 
tiny town.  Large working farms roll away from the arrow-straight two-lane 
roads that pierce the pastures.  Many Amish buggies were continually plying 
the shoulders of these same roads as cars & trucks whipped along the pavement.

The weather was superb, with loads of sunshine until dusk on 
Saturday.  People here were very hospitable and extremely friendly and 
helpful to travelers from other locations on the globe.  Tournament 
Director Brian Bailhy did a magnificent job of pulling together a raft of 
volunteers to staff the parking gates, the ice cream stands, the large beer 
tent, and the several other snack stations and sundry aspects that go into 
running an event of this type.

Monkton has an indoor ice hockey rink located 140 feet from the 
ballyard.  Within this facility are four changing rooms with shower & 
bathroom facilities.  Each team was allocated the use of a locker room 
prior to, and following, their ballgames.  The Monkton folks generously 
provided fresh sliced fruits and cold beverages in each locker room for 
each team to enjoy.  It was a classy touch and much appreciated by all of 
the teams.

After beating Heflin in Woodstock and in Amsterdam, FedLock played very 
poorly against Heflin.  FedLock gave this game away.  The line scores & 
details have already been reported by others.
Heflin 5
FedLock 0

FedLock locked-up with the tough & classy Bow team for 7 innings of great 
fastball.  FedLock had a 3-0 lead early on, but Bow battled back, as they 
always can, to tie the game 3-3.  With 2 outs in the bottom of the seventh 
FedLock's Larry Peck hit a solo shot to straightaway centerfield off Frank 
Cox to end it in dramatic fashion.  These two teams have played some very 
good ballgames against each other.
FedLock 4
Bow-Spirit 3

FedLock took on County Materials in the final pool game.  FedLock tried to 
mail this one in, and once again, discovered the hard way that "that's not 
an option."
Materials  8
FedLock 1

See below for other comments on pool play / bracket play.

Organization
"No problem is so big or so complicated that it can't be run away from."
--Linus, from the Peanuts cartoon

Poorly done.   Very poorly done, in fact.  No rule sheets were distributed 
to the teams in advance.  It was thus a large surprise to teams who 
learned, upon arrival, that there would be time limits AND tie 
ballgames.  As an example, a terrific Friday afternoon ballgame between 
Midland & Halifax ended in a 0-0 tie.  As well, on Saturday Halifax 
intelligently utilized the time limit rules to their advantage in the 
Halifax-Calgary contest, much to the frustration & dismay of Calgary 
manager Porcelli.

The worst and most flagrant part of the tournament incompetence resulted in 
FedLock being deprived of its rightful spot as the number 3 seed in its 
pool.  FedLock could qualify for bracket-elim play only two ways:  if 
Heflin won in its final pool game versus Bow, or if Bow beat Heflin by more 
than 10 runs.  This was because with a three-way tie between FedLock, Bow, 
and Heflin, the runs for-against ratio came into effect going into this 
final pool game.  The tournament "committee" (still not sure who these 
people actually were) decided, apparently at some point just prior to the 
Bow-Heflin contest that, if Bow won by more than 7 runs, then the score 
would be "adjusted" backwards to show only a 7-run triumph.  Furthermore, 
Heflin was informed that even if it lost to Bow, then Heflin would move on 
to the first game of bracket/elim play.  At no time did tournament 
officials inform FedLock of any of these plans.  At no time was this 
"adjust the runs total" rule part of any rules or parameters distributed to 
the teams.

Heflin, thus, had no reason to put forth any effort into the game, knowing 
ahead of time that even if they took a pounding from Bow, they were already 
moving on into elims.  Thus, Heflin sat their number one pitcher Koert 
(given what Heflin knew, it was the smart move on Heflin's 
part).   FedLock, unaware of any of these behind-the-scenes machinations, 
sat patiently by, waiting for the game's results to determine whether 
FedLock would play again.  Bow pounded out 14 runs in 3 innings.  In 
another "make-it-up-as-one-wanders-along" scenario, tournament director 
Bailhy hastily approached Doc Simmons and asked if three innings was 
enough, and could the game be stopped & declared completed.  Done.

FedLock, seeing the 14-run blowout, knew that the runs for-against ration 
had swung in their favor & prepared to warm up for the evening game.  Only 
at this point, after persistent questioning of Bailhy by FedLock's manager, 
did FedLock finally discover that, well, no, "things have changed" and the 
14-run win was really only 7 runs and that "the Heflin-Bow game was 
actually meaningless from the start and it probably shouldn't have been 
played."  And thus FedLock was bounced from the circus.

"Get the facts first.  You can distort them later."
--  Mark Twain

Recommendation:  if you're going to put on a tournament of this caliber of 
competition, get it right before the competition commences.  Talk to Larry 
Lynch (Woodstock) or Paul Barnetson (Orillia).  In other words, get some 
help.  And if you can't get it right, once one discovers that one has 
butchered something, it's incumbent upon one to make it right.  Don't hide 
behind bad decisions.  Taking a score and re-working it was 
shameful.  Informing some, but not all, of the teams ahead of time of this 
"new policy" was not the correct way.  Trying to hush-hush FedLock's 
legitimate complaints and then hurrying the conclusion of the Bow-Heflin 
game to try to make it "official" and thus irreversible was unethical.

Teams come a long way and spend a lot of money in these events.  The 
community benefits nicely from the fact that people come out to see top 
teams, those people spend money at the park, and the teams themselves give 
a nice pop to the local economy with their spending on everything from 
beverages, restaurants, local hotels, and ballpark purchases.

The main reason that I began these critiques was to impart some 
accountability to organizers of tournaments that were giving Major ball 
teams the short-end of the stick.  In this case, a mistake was made, a bad 
mistake that cost a team the opportunity to compete.  Given the chance to 
rectify the situation, the organizers did nothing and then tried to sweep 
the mess under the rug as fast as possible.  The teams and the sponsors 
deserve better.

Hotel
Great.  Listowel Country Inn, brand new everything, very nice proprietors 
(The Timlins), reasonably priced.  20 minutes drive to yard.

Food
Not a lot of choices here.  Tim Horton's, anyone?

Travel
Easy to locate & easy to get to.  2 hours drive from Pearson, 2.5 hours 
from BUF.

Field
Only one field was utilized.  Ballplayers liked the field surface.  Dugouts 
were excellent and the newly-constructed dugout roofs were 
appreciated.  Water in dugouts at all times also appreciated by 
players.  Warmup areas were good.  Lights were very bad, with no light 
towers in most of the outfield.  And the lack of a scoreboard of any kind 
had many, many people mystified.

Game Organization
"If you know that a thing is unrighteous, then use all dispatch in putting 
an end to it - why wait till next year?"
-- Mencius

Tournament Organization
Thank you to all of the volunteers that made this a pleasant off-the-field 
experience.

Attendance
Excellent.  Many people packed the stands all around the yard.  Most of the 
time, no cheering, just very quiet & taking it in.  The exception was with 
the classy Bow-Spirit third baseman Jody Eidt from nearby Mitchell, Canada, 
who received a warm welcome from fans every time at bat.  It's a "sign of 
the times" that fans felt they had no team to root for, due to the roster 
composition of most Major teams in the modern era, and the fact that the 
field in Monkton wasn't really "home" for anyone in actuality.

Random Notes
The competition was top-notch.  County Materials has emerged from its 
hibernation and this team is a big bear that is just loaded with talent 
with one goal in mind:  to top out at the Fargo ISC World 
Tournament.  Bow-Spirit is a powerhouse & always plays ferociously, but 
stumbled a bit this weekend.  Very interesting to watch how the dynamics 
within the hitting lineups of Bow & Materials have shifted ever so 
slightly, but quite noticeably, by the move of the superb hitter Thomas 
Makea from Bow to Materials.  The upstate NY-based team known as Heflin 
scraps.  The Heflin battery of Paul Koert-Chris Shufelt, as I had mentioned 
several weeks ago, is starting to pay off for this team, especially as the 
talented Frank Perez, John Brunton, Shufelt, and Jordan Taveras start to 
hit their strides on offense.  Calgary always looks good, and they will be 
a factor for everyone to deal with as Peter Porcelli gets his 
multi-talented crew up to speed during the coming weeks.  Midland continues 
to have a bit of a struggle, especially with top pitcher Doug Gillis 
hampered with an injury, but Midland's veterans have been there & done 
that, so deep experience will tell the tale eventually, and they will be in 
the hunt as they always are.  Halifax could be one of the 
sleeper-neutron-bomb teams at the Worlds.  They have outstanding talent & 
don't understand the meaning of the word "quit."  Sebringville / Hallman 
did a terrific job of it in their pool.  It's unfortunate that they 
apparently will not be going to Fargo.  FedLock continues to make great 
strides as the team starts to realize its potential.  With very good 
outings in Woodstock, Amsterdam, and a duke-it-out win over Broken Bow in 
Monkton, and with the imminent arrival of top players Gareth Cook and 
Darren Davies, the Washington, DC team looks like it has finally shifted 
into the higher gear that has been expected of it for so long.  And, by 
relying on themselves to determine their own fate, instead of for & against 
run rations, the Falcons would be better off in tournaments.

The rankings should be interesting reading this week.

"Look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger."
--  Henry Longfellow

Regards,

Michael Groves
<mailto:falcon at fedlock.com>falcon at fedlock.com



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