Card player: "Well, looks like you just about cleaned everybody out, fella. You haven't lost a hand since you got to deal. What's the secret of your success? " Sundance Kid: ...... "Prayer."

'

Tempe Diablo Stadium

October brings us Halloween and also brings us The Men's Baseball World Series in Arizona. Over 300 teams from all over the country journey to the Phoenix area to play for the championship for their respective age groups. Your faithful correspondent will be playing for the Portland Volcanoes, an Oregon based team with some terrific players. We are all very excited about playing in the tourney.

The tournament features 6 games in 4 days as part of the round robin. We compete in an age group division which has 7 teams in our division. The top five will make the play-offs. Playoffs are set to be single elimination format and thus each game is “Win or Go Home”. To go all the way will be a grueling test of up to 9 games in 6 days. Teams need depth to get through that sort of gauntlet and the Volcanoes are bringing a substantial roster with the anticipation of rotating players enough in the 6 game round robin phase to keep them fresh for the playoffs.

The Sundance Kid 

There is an alternative theory to The Sundance Kid's representation that prayer is the secret of success. In the case of  the Sundance Kid, he was a fast draw with the gun and deadly accurate . Those are helpful skills in a gunfight.and especially so since gunfights were known to break out in the Old West . In this tournament the "secret" is having good players. We shall see. In every level of baseball, winning teams make the routine plays and do not give opponents extra base-runners via walks or errors.This is especially true in Men's baseball games. As your faithful correspondent has previously reported many times -walks  lead to runs. 


We start our action with a doubleheader on Monday Oct 31st (Halloween) playing two solid teams at a new baseball facility Riverview where the Chicago Cubs play their Spring Training games.  

Riverview Stadium: Spring Training Home of the Cubs  

Our schedule is displayed below and every opponent is capable and determined. Every team competing believes this is their year to win.

Home/Away	Opponent	Date / Time	Field
Away	Greenwood Ridge Dragons	Mon 10/31    10:00AM	Riverview SE #3
Home	Red Deer Legends	Mon 10/31    2:00PM	Riverview SE#4
Away	Tri-Valley Giants	Tues Nov 1    8:45AM	Tempe Diablo stadium
Home	So Cal Dodgers	Wed Nov 2    9:30 AM	Salt River D 6
Away	Tortuga Solons	Wed Nov 2    1:30PM	Salt River D5
Home	San Antonio Lonestars	Thur Nov 3    2:00PM	Goodyear Indians #4

Joining me with the Portland Volcanoes will be Charlie Zunda who long time readers know well from previous trips to Arizona and the Wilton Blue Jays. Another familiar face, John McCormick, is the player who put us with Portland  and readers met John years ago in Arizona and his involvement with the Mincemeat decoy play. (http://athleticsarizona2010.blogspot.com/). John is expected to be contributing his big bat and trusty glove to the efforts of the Volcano's as we strive to the championship.

A delightful aspect of this tournament is everyone heads out brimming with confidence and hope. The results do not always turn out as foreseen though but along the way we experience the magic of the great game of baseball.

The baseball gods love being in Arizona (the heat doesn’t bother them at all) and will be sure to weigh in an impact our daily efforts with regards and punishment as they deem fit. They are stern taskmasters at every level and let no mistake go unpunished We pay homage to them with our effort and preparation and hope to execute when the time comes to make a play.

So the weather will be perfect, the fields immaculate so let’s Play Ball !