Tournament Organizer Roundtable #1: Tournament origins

Players compete at the November ’15 Chicagoland APBA Tournament

APBA competitive tournaments have been around for years. The APBA Game Company has held them since the 1970’s. The core concept of a tournament is simple. You get APBA fans together in one location and each has a team. Through a designated fashion, a series of games ensues and the last player and team who meets the criteria of the tournament championship, wins it all.

For one reason or another, APBA tournaments have had a resurgence especially in the Midwest. The last five years have seen many regional tournaments spring up in addition to the one held at the national convention. Each has its own local flavor which only adds to the fun and excitement.

The APBA Tournament Roundtable 

The original idea of my project was simple. I would contact a few people responsible for organizing APBA tournaments and ask them for their reflections and thoughts on particular topics related to their experiences.

I’ll be honest. The scope of the project exploded on me. The responses I received from each of the organizers I contacted exceeded my expectations. I was overwhelmed by both the amount and the sincerity of the content submitted by everyone. Silly me, I initially thought I could squeeze all the responses into one article. With all the quality content I’ve gotten, I’m going to have to break it out into a few segments. That’s good news for you all though because I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this series of articles.

So who participated in this virtual roundtable? A total of nine APBA players who have organized tournaments took part.  Here they are:

Skeet Carr of the APBA Game Company and organizer of the national APBA Game Convention Tournament	John Cochrane, organizer of the Robert Henry Memorial Tournament held in Philadelphia
Ron Emch, organizer of the Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament held in Toledo, Ohio	Jim Fraasch, editor of Jim’s APBA Barn and current organizer of the Neil Ess Memorial Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament going on its fifth tournament next spring
Geoff Giordano, editor of the APBA Football Club and organizer of the APBA Football Club Tournament held in 2013 at the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio	Jim Saska, co-founder of the Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament
Ken Schulz, organizer of the Linda B Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament based in Pittsburgh	Doug Schuyler, co-founder of the Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament which is going on its sixth APBA Baseball Tournament next summer
Rich Zawadzki, founder of the popular Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament

On to Question #1

I can tell you, that’s quite a group. As you’ll see in the upcoming series of questions, each of these guys have a true love of APBA, sports, and the camaraderie the game brings to us. For the first segment of the roundtable, the first question that I asked each of them is simple…

“What was the original impetus to organize your particular tournament?”

…and here are their answers:

Skeet Carr – APBA Game Company National Tournament

“The first APBA Convention was held in 1973. Tournaments were held at the convention and seemed to go over very well.

Pete Simonelli ran almost all of the early tournaments.”

John Cochrane – Robert Henry Memorial Tournament

“The Robert Henry Memorial Tournament came about in a peculiar way, which in turn defined it as the peculiar tournament that it is.

Starting in 2011, Brian Cavanaugh of the Bridesburg unit of the Philadelphia Boys and Girls Club had begun, at the invitation of the Game Company, to bring a vanload of his summer campers to the annual APBA convention in Lancaster. Brian has played the game all his life, and has used it as an activity at the BGC summer camp for some time. In 2011 the kids played a satellite division of their own which was not a part of the main convention tournament. They were a joy to have as our guests at the tournament, and were invited back the next year and placed in the main draw.

That 2012 convention was, by the time it happened, known to be the last Lancaster convention. In 2013 the conventions would move, as the game company already had, to Georgia. The 2012 tournament was, IMHO, the most fun in which I have ever participated, and the presence of the BGC kids, and their adult leader Brian Cavanaugh (against whom I played two of the most exciting games of APBA either of us has ever played) was the reason it was so great. The kids were the highlight of the weekend in terms of the energy they brought.

I was sitting around with Brian and another good friend, David Small, after the group play was over, when Brian lamented that the move of the convention to Georgia would end the ability of the kids to attend. A day trip from Philly to Lancaster for 9 or 10 kids is one thing; getting them to Georgia is, both in terms of logistics and cost, a bridge too far. David asked if a separate tourney for the kids could not be inaugurated in the Philly area to replace the experience. At this point I did what I often do to get myself in trouble; I opened my mouth, and turned to Brian and told him that if he could give us a weekend date in the summer of 2013, I’d get a venue, raise the needed funds, and gather enough of my APBA friends to give the kids a good one-day tournament that he could reach. He later sent me some workable dates, and, with a lot of help (most notably from 1) Hall of Famer Pete Simonelli, who has done most of the successful recruiting, and secured for us the right to attach the late Hall of Famer Bob Henry’s name to it, 2) my better half, Rebecca Peterson, who has handled all the facilities matters, and 3) APBA Games President John Herson, in more ways than I can recount), I kept up my end of the bargain.

I figured it might be a one off. Silly me. By lunch in the first year, the adult APBA players that Pete and I had recruited were telling me, not asking me, that it had to become an annual thing. We’ve done it three years now, expanding the number of kids to as many as 20 after the first year.”

Ron Emch – Glass City APBA Baseball Tournament

“It was definitely seeing all the other tournaments that were springing up and being held. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the first Minneapolis tourney. On the heels of that was the Greater Michigan one, and then the Pittsburgh one. My feeling was it would be great to have a tourney every month. There is nothing like getting together with like-minded folks and enjoying doing something we all love to do.

Between the 3 I’ve mentioned and Chicagoland, I saw an opportunity to hold one in Toledo.  I felt it would have a good chance to be successful because of its location. Pretty centrally located between Chicago, Greater Michigan and Pittsburgh. So I found a date/month between all the others and said let’s do this.”

Jim Fraasch – Twin Cities APBA Baseball Tournament

“Our Twin Cities APBA Tournament came about because of Bruce Tyler organizing an “APBA” lunch back in 2013.  He posted a thread on the APBA Between the Lines forum, for anyone interested in meeting for lunch at O’Gara’s in St. Paul.  Bruce is a long-time APBA player, dating back to 1961/1962.  He and 2 other friends, Leroy Arnoldi and Neil Ess, all classmates, formed their own face-to-face league back in 1962.

This league would survive High School, college, careers, moves, etc.  For anyone reading the APBA Journal, back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, you would have stumbled upon a few “Letters to the Editor” about their league from Bruce Tyler.  The league is still going today.  So part of the lunch group at O’Gara’s that Saturday in October of 2013, was Bruce Tyler, Leroy Arnoldi and Neil Ess.  Also present, were Darrell Skogen (APBA player since around 1960, and owner of several APBA Journal replays himself), Kevin Cluff (the much appreciated moderator for the APBA Between The Lines Delphi forum) and myself.  6 of us met for the first time at O’Gara’s.  After some general APBA talk, and sharing a few stories, we talked about hosting a local tournament.  The Chicagoland tournament was just held (Doug Schuyler and Jim Saska) and we thought why not us?  The wheels were in motion, and after laying down some rules for the tournament, we had our plan.

While we did not expect a big turnout for our first tournament, we were very encouraged to end up with 13 guys for our first tourney.  We have since hosted 2 a year, and will continue to have 2 a year, always the first Saturday in April and the first Saturday in October.  Easy to remember.  23 attended our 4th tourney.  With the sudden passing of Neil Ess after our 1st tourney in 2014, we have since named our tourney in honor of Neil Ess.”

Geoff Giordano – APBA Football Club Tournament

“As is common knowledge in the APBA community, there hadn’t been an official football component to the annual APBA convention, at least in the 2000s. Eric Naftaly had told me about a few football tournaments he’d participated in, and I believe Ted Knorr also passed along some similar details, if I’m recalling correctly. I recall putting out feelers on the Delphi Forums around mid-2012 in regards to interest in a football-only competition. While APBA’s baseball game is, of course, the bread and butter of the company, football has a hard-core group of fans — many of whom weren’t attending the official tournament in Lancaster. The only football being played at the APBA events was a traditional Sunday morning game between Greg Wells and Gilles Thibault.

Fortunately, Francis Rose and his team organized a last, unofficial APBA tournament in Lancaster in 2012. I loaded my car with football games from various eras and attended that tourney — my first — to get acquainted with the APBA community in person and get a sense of how the tournament ran. The rush of camaraderie was a significant factor in the “I want to do this, too” decision. John Cochrane, Skeet Carr, Veryl Lincoln, Randy Coryer, Frank Welsh, Bill Blair and so many others were instantly welcoming they further solidified the idea. At the Lancaster tourney, I met up with Jack Beckman, a fan of the APBA Football Club’s Facebook page; he wanted a quick primer on the football game during the Friday night welcoming session. A football tourney seemed a logical way to increase understanding and enjoyment of the game. Lastly, I’d also seen the schedules of the early tournaments of the ‘70s, featuring presentations around the competition.

With so many facets surrounding the APBA football game, in terms of face-to-face vs. solitaire play as well as the intricacies of leagues, a football-only tournament seemed an ideal place to share success stories from those who embrace the game beyond an occasional contest. In no small way, a football tourney serves as a marketing device for the game — particularly for those put off by the length of a game. And with the option to integrate a football tourney with other sports on occasion — we featured the soccer game at our event — participants experienced in the nuances of one or more games could help answer others’ questions in person.”

Jim Saska – Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament

“Doug Schuyler had made a post on Delphi Forums asking for some support in starting an APBA tournament in the Chicago area about two and a half years ago.  I had hosted a number of small in-home tournaments with friends over the years, so the idea of holding a local regional tournament held a lot of intrigue for me.

I contacted Doug and making a long story short, worked together to set up our first tournament known as the “Chicagoland World Series tournament”.

Ken Schulz – Linda B Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament

“The Linda B Schulz Memorial APBA Baseball Tournament was first going to be titled The Steel City APBA Tournament however when my mom passed away unexpectedly in March 2015 my brothers and I decided it was a great idea to rename it in her honor.  She was never an APBA player however she loved hosting our friends when we were growing up.  She was thrilled when we reformed the Lakeview APBA Baseball League in 2014 after a 4 year hiatus.

The idea to have a Pittsburgh tournament came from seeing the Michigan tournament getting started by Pastor Rich.”

Doug Schuyler – Chicagoland World Series APBA Tournament

“It is just great to find other folks who play the game.  Before Facebook, I thought there were more people that had walked on the moon than had played APBA!  You say APBA to some people and they look at your cross eyed.  One of the kids I coached (He was originally from Pennsylvania) played the game…not even sure how it came up in conversation but once you find someone, they are like your soul mate!  I played mostly solitaire for 30-40 years so to play against others and strategize is really fun.

Jim Saska and I had a game one time where I think we made a total of 6 or 7 managerial moves in one half inning….”Put him on!  Who’s up next? I’m going to the pen!”  It was a real chess match and one of the reasons you play the game.  Just like the original ad says…”Think you can manage in the big leagues????”  I was 10 years old on the bus to summer camp reading the ad in the sporting news with the Bruce Sutter card and I think Pete Rose and the cards just spoke to me!  Strat-o-matic cards look like a parking ticket.  The APBA cards are just so cool, magical and spiritual….they just speak to YOU!”

Rich Zawadzki – Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament

“The APBA Baseball Facebook Group has contributed to the start and organization of many of these regional tournaments; but especially the Greater Michigan APBA Baseball Tournament (GMABT).

Dominick Provisiero’s “Roll Call” in which those in the group list their town and state showed that there were several players in the Greater Michigan area; however, it was through the group when found out about and took part in the APBA Chicagoland World Series (held of the 2^nd Saturday of November) in 2013 organized by Doug Schuyler and Jim Saska, that I began to seriously entertain the possibility of organizing a tourney here in Michigan.”

There’s more to come!

Thanks to all the gentlemen that are participating! There’s a lot more coming in future articles.  Stay tuned for the next segment!