Linda B. Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament- “Cards, dice, and APBA enthusiasm!”

Tournament champ Greg Wells is handed the trophy

I was ready to write something up about Ken Schulz’ APBA Tournament in Pittsburgh.  Fortunately, Ken has a brother who teaches English and writes a whole lot better than I. 

Here is Darren Schulz’ account of the weekend… –Tom

With the video broadcasts of both game seven World Series games from 1960 and 1979 projected onto the venue’s walls, the 2015 LBS Memorial Tournament held at the Penn Brewery in Pittsburgh PA did not disappoint those in attendance. After the 26 participants competed in the opening round robin matchups, eight teams were left to battle it out in sudden death style: #1 seed 1927 Yankees (Darren Schulz – Kiner Divison), #2 seed 1977 Philadelphia Phillies (Greg Wells – Wagner Division), #3 seed 1909 Detroit Tigers (Ron Emch – Bonds Division), #4 seed 1968 Detroit Tigers (Bill Lilley – McCutchen Division), #5 seed 1995 Cleveland Indians (John Cress – Clemente Division), #6 seed 1931 Philadelphia A’s (Tim Rounds – Stargell Division), #7 seed 1968 St. Louis Cardinals (John Schoeb – Blass Division), and the at-large seed 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates (Brian Droz – Bonds Division). Many participants stuck around for the quarters and semifinals. After the “dust” or rather dice rattles settled within the confines of the Penn Brewery, the two top seeded teams emerged victorious as the 1927 Yankees outlasted the 1902 Pirates and 1995 Indians, and the 1977 Phillies overcame the 1968 Cardinals and 1931 A’s.

The first championship game proved to be a memorable one. Toeing the rubber for the Yankees was School Boy Hoyt while the Phils countered with their ace Steve “Lefty” Carlton. At the top of the 2nd inning, The Phils struck first under unforeseen circumstances. With two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, light hitting Larry Bowa stepped to the plate and quietly took the first pitch. After barking at the home plate umpire about balls and strikes during second base runner Davey Johnson’s eventual one out walk, Hoyt had drawn the ire of the umpire after the pitch to Bowa and was ejected. For the first time in the entire tournament, the Yankees had to go to the bullpen and called on Urban Shocker. Bowa took advantage of Shocker’s initial rustiness and smacked a single scoring Johnson with the game’s first run. The Phillies tacked on another run with two outs in the top of the fourth with Garry Maddox launching a solo shot off Shocker. Murderers’ Row finally responded in the bottom of the fourth as Earle Combs, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig smacked doubles to tie the score at two runs apiece. Carlton averted further damaged when his play-off tested defense doubled off Gehrig after a hard hit line drive off the bat of Bob Meusel.

The next three innings proved fruitless behind the pitching of Carlton and the Yanks’ long man Dutch Ruether. Heading to the 8th inning and sensing a need to bring in his best available pitcher despite the fact the guy pitched a complete game win during the semis, manager Darren Schulz called upon Wilcy Moore whose 2 out hanging curve ball was rudely welcomed by Bake McBride who muscled it over the right field fence for a crowd-inspiring homer. After a scoreless bottom of the 8th, the Yankees responded off of the rubber-armed lefty with a one out Combs single followed by a RBI double by Mark Koenig. However, as he always does, Carlton struck out the Babe and followed Manager Greg Wells decision to walk Gehrig. The decision proved to be a wise one as Carlton easily put away Meusel to keep the Phils title hopes alive in extra innings.

After retiring six consecutive batters in response to the McBride homerun, Moore seemingly had the game under control with 2 outs and nobody on in the top of the tenth. Wells once again sparked some magic by inserting pinch hitter Richie Hebner for Ted Sizemore. Hebner did not disappoint his skipper and stroked a single to right field. Subsequently, Wells called on Jerry Martin to run for Hebner and the clutch-hitting veteran Tim McCarver lined a double down the first base line to give the Phillies their third lead of the game. With the heart of Yankees lineup out of the way, Lefty made this lead stick as he easily induced outs off the bats of Tony Lazzeri, Joe Dugan, and Pat Collins.

Congrats to Greg Wells in capturing the first LBS Memorial tourney in impressive fashion. The 1977 Philadelphia Phillies are now officially retired from future tournaments. Both the team and manager’s names will be etched into the championship plaque. Special thanks goes out to Ken Schulz for organizing the event and Mark McDonel for providing the World Series broadcasts along with numerous vintage APBA items. There were plenty of exciting games throughout the tournament and certainly more wonderful APBA memories made to cherish for a lifetime. Ken Schulz is already working towards improving the tournament for 2016!

Thanks Darren!!  A few words from me… I remember when Ken was in initial stage of organizing this tournament.  He seemed a little tentative at first, not sure if he could pull it off.  But wow!  Getting 26 people together and from the comments I have read and photos I have seen, everyone had a great time.  Kudos to Ken for having the motivation to put this all together! 

That headline is Ken’s by the way.  I told him to sum up the weekend in five words.  Perfect!