Recap: "Fall Ball" in Cooperstown!

The Timeless Diamond Tournament “Gallery of Managers!” (Standing L to R): Keith Avallone, Jay Williams, James Cast, Brien Aronov, Cooper Gilbert, Pete Adams, Brian Walder, Eli Caren, Mark Caren, Jeff Curtis, Mike Canestrari. (Seated L to R): Connor Bartow, Randy Coryer, Brian Bartow, Pete Stevens, Steve Tower, Bruce Berkowicz, Travis Jansen, Dale Buckingham, John Wise. Not pictured (how did we miss him?) Tom Bromwell!

(by Keith Avallone, PLAAY Games LLC)

We'd been talking about this since LAST October, when, at the Hartford, CT event Randy Coryer offered to put together a PLAAY Games event at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY. Randy lives in the area and has connections within the hall, and had just helped out with a similar event for the APBA baseball community that was initiated and orchestrated by Geoff Giordano. Would PLAAY Games be interested in doing a similar event? Definite "yes" on that! And so it was arranged for the weekend of October 13th through 15th, "Fall Ball at the Hall" and a couple dozen PLAAY Gamers made the trek to baseball's ultimate shrine.

For me, it was a flight from Denver back to Hartford--I have relatives in the area--followed by a beautiful autumn drive through Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York State. Fall color was at a minimum, because of the wet summer I was told, but there were still splashes of gold, rust and orange amidst the New England colonial landscape. I kept expecting to see Ichabod Crane and the headless Horseman! The towns and countryside were very quaint and very old. Our hotel was just south of Cooperstown, in Milford, and I arrived Friday afternoon around 3:30. As I pulled into the parking lot, there were Cooper Gilbert and Travis Jansen unloading their car and Randy Coryer and Pete Stevens standing by. "We are nothing if not punctual," I told them as I got out of the car! And, the weekend was underway...

Even as we were checking in, other folks started arriving. Bruce Berkowicz. Steve Tower. Dale Buckingham. John and Vicki Wise. There were some new faces, people whom I'd not yet met, like Brian Walder and Tom Bromwell. By the time our event "officially" began, we had eighteen gamers in the house!

Our annual "Fall Classic Pre-PLAAY" started promptly at 6p, featuring the four teams who'd won their way into the evening on our 10.05.23 YouTube stream: Minnesota, Texas, Atlanta and Arizona. On our stream, it seemed a but of a stretch that the Rangers would knock off the Orioles, and even more unlikely that the D-Backs would get past the Dodgers--but, of course, that's exactly what happened. I guess you never know. So we had half the actual field in our pre-PLAAY, and were eager to see who would come out on top. We played everything with express and the In-Season cards. I set up the starting pitchers and bullpen heroes for each team, each game on special color-coded score cards, which sped things up considerably.

Our ALCS pre-PLAAY was an explosive, high-scoring affair. Texas won Game One 8-2, behind Eovaldi's complete game. Game Two, the Twins put five runs on the board in the 7th inning to break open a close game and cruise to a 12-6 win. Game Three, Garcia's two-run homer in the first and Semien's three-run shot in the seventh launched the Rangers to a 10-1 laugher. Game four, it was Eovaldi again in a 4-2 Ranger win. Minnesota stayed alive behind the pitching of Lopez to take Game Five 4-2. But Texas took the series with a 5-4 win in Game Six, holding off a late Twins rally.

In our NLCS pre-PLAAY, Atlanta took Games One (6-2) and Two (4-2), Strider and Fried pitching deep into the later innings for the wins. The D-Backs rebounded with an 8-4 win in Game Three, Walker's three-run homer in the fifth the biggest blow. Game Four was a pitching duel for the ages, Strider and Gallen, 1-0 Braves heading into the seventh. But Arizona scratched out solo runs in the 7th and 8th innings and Chafin shut down a late Atlanta threat to help the D-Backs even the series at two games apiece. Another pitching battle in Game Five, Fried vs. Kelly, Arizona eked out a 2-1 win to take the series lead. The series then returned to Atlanta to wrap up. The Braves won Game Six 2-1 on an Arcia solo homer in the bottom of the eighth, forcing a seventh and deciding game. Up to this point, the home team had won all six games and with the Braves leading 6-4 heading into the ninth inning, it looked like the pattern would continue. BUT, a double from Perdomo drove in two D-Back runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game at 6-6. Smith's solo home run in the eleventh inning gave Arizona the lead, and the Braves were unable to match it. WOW!

That gave us a Rangers/D-Backs World Series. Arizona's momentum kept them rolling in Game One, Longoria's first-inning homer the key to a 4-3 D-Back win. The Rangers rebounded though, with three straight wins, enabled by a suddenly-silent Arizona offense. First came an easy 8-1 Ranger win in Game Two, with big games from Semien and Garver. Then a 7-0 trouncing of Arizona in Game Three, and a 4-1 win in Game Four. Hard to compete for a championship scoring two runs in three games. Trailing three games to one, the D-Backs got a shutout performance from Kelly, a 3-0 win in Game Five. But with the Arizona bats continuing to be mostly silent, Steve Tower brought the Uke for the seventh inning of game six, with the Rangers on the verge! Dunning tossed a shutout in Texas' series-clinching 6-0 win.

Steve Tower strums the AFR ukelele for the Seventh Inning Stretch! “Take me out to the balllllll game…”

After baseball, other games ensued. We vowed to wrap up early because we had a busy day ahead tomorrow--uh, no. We stayed up late. Me and James Cast joined forces for what's becoming sort of a ritual, an attempt to fly around the world in 30 days with Aviatrix '37. Last year in Hartford (IIRC) we got as far as New Guinea before having to ditch the plane in the Pacific Ocean, out of fuel. We survived, but the trip remained un-finished. This year, though, we made it. It took us 55 days--so no prize money--but I felt we played it well, using the experience d10 to survive a forced ditch outside Calcutta, and to snuff out of potential trip-ending refueling fire in Singapore. We also had issues getting to Howland Island, twice returning to Lae, New Guinea for repairs before finally making it on the third try. From there, it was pretty much smooth sailing to Oakland. All in all, a memorable trip!

Keith Avallone and James Cast take on the roles of Amelia Earhardt and Fred Noonan. Refueling in Gao, Mali, midnight, Day 13…

Saturday was the big day, the "Timeless Diamond" Tournament inside the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Wow. Talk about the "Hallowed Halls." We arrived around 9am, got everything set up in the Education and Learning room where our tournament was to be held, and then we had a couple of hours to roam through the hall. Obviously, two hours is NOT enough time to see everything, not even close. So I made a short list of all the "must see" (for me) exhibits: Women in Baseball/AAGPBL (from the movie League of Their Own), Baseball Board Games, Baseball Cards ("These are the cards your mom threw out!"), Souvenirs and Merchandise. I also made it a priority to watch the Hall of Fame house film, a seventeen-minute video tribute to baseball and the players who have made it America's pastime.

Ready to Hit the Hall for some Fall Ball! (L to R) Pete Stevens, Brien Aronov (in background), Keith Avallone, Randy Coryer.

Then it was time to "PLAAY Ball!" Amazing. Playing HMB with the very players whose exploits and careers had just come to life in front of our eyes and ears. It's hard to describe the experience.

Before leaving Denver, I had divided up the Cooperstown Complete card set into 23 teams. There are actually enough cards for 24 teams, but I wanted EACH team to have roughly the same composition of four or five players from each of the card set groups, Pioneers, Legends, Hopefuls and Footnotes. Because of the way the positions are distributed within the set, the 24th team didn't have the right mix of eras. There are also a dozen Exiles in the card set, which meant that about half the teams got one. I then came up with nicknames for all of the teams.

Everyone was seated at their tables a couple of minutes before 11am. We spread the teams out on a separate table, assigned each of the game tables a number 1 to 6 and then did a random die roll to decide which table got to pick first. Each team was sealed in a cellophane packet with ONE player showing at the top, the other 19 were hidden. The back of the pack had a team card identifying the team nickname.

After everyone had chosen their team, we gave the signal to open packs and began a 30-minute "Hot Stove" trading period, where people could customize their team to their liking by trading for coveted/favorite players. The trade action was lively and fun! It was especially interesting to see how people handled the "exiles." We had decided that all teams for this tournament would enjoy full HARMONY--unless you were playing an "exile," in which case your team would be semi-DISSONANT! Some folks were eager to dump their exiles, while others were just as eager to pick them up!

You can re-create our rosters and teams with the downloadable tools found here. Look in the “All Time Greats, All Stars” tab.

At 11:40, the games began. Five hours later, we had our champion: Travis Jansen's Emeralds, who prevailed over Mike Canestrari's Leathernecks 5-4 in the Timeless Diamond Title Game. Edd Rousch was the unlikely hero, with three RBI on two singles and a sacrifice fly. Our tournament MVP was Ralph Kiner, who sent the Leathernecks to the title game with a dramatic three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th against the Privateers and then nearly brought the Leathernecks back against the Emeralds with a two-run homer in the sixth that tied the game 4-4.

Dale Buckingham (left) manages the Brutes against Jeff Curtis’ Harvesters while Mark and Eli Caren manage the Pastimers and Mythics.

Editor's note: I have all of the score sheets from the games, but in the interest of timeliness, I'll post them later once I've had time to compile everything.

Because we had an even number of gamers, I got to play in the tournament myself, something I usually don't do. Usually, I float from table to table, taking pictures, making notes for the recap, encouraging people and enjoying the game action as it unfolds. This time, I wasn't able to do that, but I can tell you about my own experience as manager of the Toucans!...

In the Hot Stove trading period, I dealt Al Rosen to Steve Tower's Neptunes for Bill Madlock. I also picked up Larry Walker from James Cast's Excelsiors for Johnny Vander Meer. Bob Uecker was my catcher, sentimental favorite. Great pitching, good speed, I decided my strategy would be to scratch out a couple of runs and trust that the pitching would hold up.

It didn't.

Game ONE was against Brian Bartow's Originals, I put Grover Cleveland Alexander on the mound to face Sandy Koufax. Figured I might as well "Go Big, or Go Home." He did well enough, scattering five hits, but one of them was a two-run homer from Pepper Martin. Down 4-1 in the bottom of the fifth, Stan Musial ripped a no-outs single off GCA so, down by three and with Koufax mowing 'em down, I went to the bullpen with Goose Gossage. Sammy Sosa promptly ripped a two-run homer and, basically, that was the game. Madlock lofted a home run in the top of the ninth to make it a little more respectable. Originals 7, Toucans 4.

In Game TWO, I faced Brian Walder's Keystones, this time I was the home team. Vida Blue was my starter, vs. Three Finger Brown. We had a classic pitcher's duel through seven innings. Brown struck out five of my first six batters! Meanwhile, Blue was pretty strong, too--except when he faced Mark McGwire, who took him deep in the second inning and again in the fourth, both solo shots. (Victimized by BOTH Sosa AND McGwire!). It was 2-0 in the top of the eighth, Gossage was again on the mound by then, he got the first two out in the eighth and then disaster struck. He gave up a home run to Willard Brown, walked Yogi Berra, gave up ANOTHER home run, this time to Zack Wheat, then walked Ron Santo! Now it's 5-0 and looking pretty bleak.

I decided to go rogue and replace Gossage with none other than Cooperstown Footnote Joe Cleary! From Cleary's bio line: "Joe's single big league appearance in ’45 was a memorable one: he faced nine batters, allowed five hits, walked three, struck out one, for a career ERA of 189.0, worst ever. He never pitched again!" I thought it would be cool to give him a second chance, right here, right now, INSIDE the Hall of Fame. And...

I grabbed this photo of Travis Jansen standing in front of the “Shadows of Homers” display inside the Hall of Fame. Little did I know I would see BOTH of them hit home runs off my pitching…

…He came through! Cleary struck out Heine Manush to retire the side! Such a cool feeling. Vindication. (The next inning didn't go as well, though...) Meanwhile, Three-Finger Brown was relentlessly great, he ended up with a three-hitter (giving up singles in the eighth and ninth innings), striking out seven. Final score, Keystones 7, Toucans 0.

Game THREE was against Mark Caren's Pastimers, who were also 0-2 in Timeless League play. "Well, ONE of us is going to win!" I told Mark as we filled out the line-up sheet, haha! Mark sent Hal Newcombe to the mound, I countered with "The Big Unit," Randy Johnson. Sam Crawford slammed a two-run homer off Johnson in the third inning. And, that was the only scoring in the game! Johnson, Gossage and Martin Dihigo combined for eleven strikeouts and allowed just five hits, but Newcombe was even better, going the distance with a four-hitter, nine strikeouts and just two walks. Final score, Pastimers 2, Toucans 0.

Interestingly, you know who got two of the four hits? None other than "Mister Baseball," Bob Uecker! I mentioned "sentimental reasons" earlier--I grew up in Wisconsin and he and Merle Harmon were the Brewers broadcast team all through my teen-age years and early 20s. While touring the Hall of Fame, they had his legendary Miller Lite commercial on the video loop ("I must be sitting on the FRONT row!")("Hey! He missed the tag! He missed the tag!). How could I not play him? Anyway, it was pretty neat that he was the best batter for me in the whole game.

One other note, I did have an "exile" on my team, Pete Rose. I started him in Game One, and lost out on more than one scoring opportunity because of the dissonance! (You think it won't matter, but it DOES!)(Or at least it did for ME!). I didn't play him at all in the other two games. And, maybe not coincidentally, didn't score any runs, either.

As I said, I haven't had time to compile the full tournament results--but I will. Watch for a blog post as soon as I can get one together.

Pete Adams took this awesome panoramic photo of the Timeless Diamond Tournament in-progress. Judah Williams and Eli Caren (bottom right) were in the midst of an epic seventeen-inning game won 3-2 by Eli’s Mythics when Babe Ruth was hit by a Hoyt Wilhelm pitch with the bases loaded!

After the tournament, we headed back to the hotel for pizza from a local pizzeria and more fun and games! (Shout out to Randy Coryer for reserving the hotel's spacious conference room for our game-playing both Friday and Saturday nights--amazing!) Steve Tower brought the latest expansion for the wrestling promotion game "Book It," and me, Dale, Bruce, Judah and Pete Adams Joined in. James Cast did a demo of Fury Hardball and a few other games. Pete Stevens, Randy Coryer and a few others continued play with their Cooperstown teams using HMB "express," which was pretty neat. I had hoped to do a quick "League of Their Own" round-robin using the 1944

Next morning, it was time to head back home. >>Sigh<< Hate when that happens. We consoled each other by looking ahead to next year's live events in Wisconsin, Denver and--maybe Cooperstown again! Stay tuned!...