Directed by G.F. Korreck, the Second Annual Furniture City APBA Tournament will take place on Saturday, October 26, 2019, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As it was last year, the venue is Legends Sports & Games. The theme of this year’s basic game tournament is a non-pennant winning team from 1920?1972, plus, one extra APBA-issued player added from the dead-ball era of 1901-1919. The extra players were selected in the reverse order of the initial team draft. As you might expect based on the time period, no designated hitter will be used.
The tournament is on the smaller side but should be very competitive. I’m interested in knowing who you think will be the teams to beat in this tournament. Please share your opinions in the comments. Here are the teams in pursuit of the championship:
- 1969 Minnesota Twins with 1905 Cy Seymour
- 1922 St. Louis Browns with 1912 Homerun Baker
- 1964 Baltimore Orioles with 1911 Eddie Collins
- 1928 Philadelphia Athletics with 1904 Nap Lajoie
- 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers with 1911 Ty Cobb
- 1952 Cleveland Indians with 1908 Addie Joss
- 1961 Detroit Tigers with 1903 Sam Crawford
- 1967 San Francisco Giants with 1908 Honus Wagner
- 1930 New York Giants with Smokey Joe Wood
- 1920 Chicago White Sox with 1918 Babe Ruth
- 1939 St. Louis Cardinals with 1908 Christy Mathewson
- 1935 New York Yankees with 1913 Walter Johnson
- 1927 Philadelphia Athletics with 1908 Ed Walsh
- 1950 Detroit Tigers with 1903 Cy Young
I will be guiding the 1930 New York Giants with Smokey Joe Wood. When he’s not pitching, Wood will be playing the outfield. If you’d like to follow my progress through live tweets of my games, follow the Twitter handle @APBAWeber. Also, I plan to update the tournament’s progress through The APBA Blog Facebook page, and I plan to give a report on my experience in the new podcast I started with my brother (Kirk Weber) called Double Take.
I’m hoping the Furniture City APBA Tournament will continue to grow. Grand Rapids is a great city to visit. There’s plenty of nice hotels and excellent restaurants. There are a variety of entertainment options, like minor league sports and excellent museums. Plus, it’s Beer City USA, if that’s your thing. I urge APBA tournament participants to look into a future trip to West Michigan.
My money is on your 30 NY Giants. I believe Smokey Joe puts them over the top and makes them the #1 seed.
I hope you’re right, Steve. I’m certainly concerned about any of the teams from the 1920s because they all hit so well. The 1930 Giant’s weakest link was their pitching. With Wood, they go A&B, B, B for their three starters. Paired with a .329 team batting average and a bit of power, they should be formidable.
They have been practicing very hard getting ready.
Sam Crawford has been taking extra batting practice getting ready. His only comment has been, “What the holy heck are these balls, SUPER BALLS!” He has been doing target practice hitting the light bulbs in the stadium lights in the outfield! Stadium maintenance is getting tired of replacing them.
He has filed a protest saying that any double roll should be a “1” result! (Just kidding!)
The team is looking to improve on their 4 -4 record from last year. They say they are over their first tournament jitters.
The scouts are eagerly waiting to see who they will face in the “league” play.
Sincerely;
Bill Geresy
’61 Tigers Manager
The 30 Giants are tough, but I think it is wide open. All of the managers did a good job addressing weaknesses with their deadball picks. I don’t see any team cruising in this one. There should be some exciting offense-driven games and some dominant pitching performances.