The Twin City APBA Baseball Tournament-XVII has come and gone and we have winner. Jim Fraasch sent me a recap and I’m happy to announce that Garth Andersen has piloted his 1908 Chicago Cubs to victory.
The TCABT-VII took place April 2 in near Minneapolis-St. Paul area. As you can see from the photo provided by Jim, they pack a crowd.
Jim writes:
Tournament Particulars
- “Open” style tourney, no theme. Bring any MLB team from 1901-2021 (issued by APBA Game Co.). The previous 16 TCABT champions are not allowed. No teams from the 2020 season are allowed. 1981 and 1994 teams ARE allowed.
- 33 teams entered, our largest tournament in TCABT history. 16 of the 33 are from out-of-state, representing 10 different states. 8 are “first-time” entrants.
- 4-man pitching rotations for division play, 3-man rotations for bracket play.
- DH used by all teams.
- Pitchers never bat.
Division Winners
Felipe Alou Division: 2004 CARDINALS (Monty Stranski – University Place, WA) 6-2 (#4 seed)
Dizzy Dean Division: 2017 DIAMONDBACKS (Barry Boevers – Champlin, MN) 4-4 (#8 seed, won 4-way division tie-breaker, run-diff +7)
Dock Ellis Division: 1911 GIANTS (Bruce Tyler – Elk River, MN) 7-1 (#3 seed)
Mark Grace Division: 1953 DODGERS (Alec Otto – Green Bay, WI) 6-3 (#7 seed, won 1-game division playoff vs 2018 Dodgers, Mgr. Robert Elley, 7-6)
Todd Helton Division: 1930 ROBINS (Jim Fraasch – Minnetonka, MN) 6-2 (#6 seed)
Keith Hernandez Division: 2019 DODGERS (Jerry Jacobs – Ft. Myers, FL) 7-1 (#2 seed)
Shohei Ohtani Division: 1976 REDS (Scott Dike – Bicknell, IN) 6-2 (#5 seed)
Camilo Pascual Division: 1908 CUBS (Garth Andersen – Ramsey, MN) 8-0 (#1 seed)
Quarter-finals
The #1 seed 1908 Cubs, Garth Andersen, finally lost his first game of the day, game 1 of the best of three vs Barry Boevers and his #8 seed, 2017 Diamondbacks. Garth’s Cubs would bounce back with commanding 9-3 and 5-1 victories in games 2 and 3 to win the series.
The #2 seed 2019 Dodgers, Jerry Jacobs, completed the only sweep in the quarter-final round, easily winning both over Alec Otto’s #7 seed 1953 Dodgers, 7-2 and 9-1.
The #3 seed 1911 Giants, Bruce Tyler, took 3 games to eliminate Jim Fraasch and his #6 seed, 1930 Robins, 2-0, 8-9 and 10-3. This should have been a sweep for Bruce’s Giants, however, Jim’s Robins rallied from an 8-2 deficit in the bottom of the 9th inning of game 2, to score 7 runs and win his only game of the series, 9-8.
The #4 seed 2004 Cardinals, Monty Stranski, the only stronger seed to lose his quarter-final series, vs Scott Dike’s #5 seed 1976 Reds. The Reds would lose game 1, 6-5 then recover to win games 2 and 3, 6-1 and 4-3.
Semi-finals
Garth Andersen’s 1908 Cubs with 2 shut-outs, swept Scott Dike’s 1976 Big Red Machine, 9-0 and 4-0.
Jerry Jacob’s 2019 Dodgers, up against Bruce Tyler’s 1911 Giants. Bruce would win game 1, 4-3, only to see Jerry take games 2 and 3, 7-2 and 5-1.
We had 7 Dodgers/Robins teams (Brooklyn 1930/1953/1956 and LA 2015/2018/2019/2021) entered and 4 Cubs teams (1908/1929/1920/2016) entered. These 11 teams made up one-third of our 33 total entries.
It only makes sense that we ended up with an LA Dodgers vs Chicago Cubs final.
Championship
#1 seed 1908 Chicago Cubs vs #2 seed 2019 Los Angeles Dodgers.
Game 1 saw Garth’s 3rd straight shut-out in the bracket-play round, 1-0 in 10 innings. The 3 straight shutout are no doubt, a TCABT record in both division play and bracket play.
Game 2, Garth and his 1908 Cubbies close in on another new TCABT record. With a win in game 2, Garth would become the first ever TCABT Champion to lose only 1 game all day. Garth would fulfill this quest with a commanding 7-3 win over Jerry and his 2019 Dodgers. The dice went cold for Jerry and Garth finds his way to his first ever, TCABT Championship Title!! Congrats to Garth and congrats to Jerry Jacobs for making it to his first TCABT Championship series. Garth’s march to the championship saw him finish with a 14-1 overall record. A new TCABT record.
The payouts for the APBA Gift Certificates will take place this week. Garth ($200), Jerry ($100), Scott ($75) and Bruce ($75), you will be getting an email from APBA Game Co/John Herson with instructions on how to utilize your winnings.
Thanks to all who were able to make this tourney one of our best yet. Safe travels back to your home states. Our next tournament, TCABT-XVIII, will take place on our standard first Saturday in October, 10/1/2022. Team selection will begin shortly after 7/4. No team requests are accepted until after the next team selection period is announced.
Another special “Thank You” to both Terry and Gary Borthwick for showing up and taking photographs throughout the entire day, including our opening group photo. Also, thanks to Gary for donating 3 APBA Baseball season sets for a give-away.
Last Place Award
Congratulations to last October’s TCABT-XVI champion, Marty Lee, who won October with the 2019 Twins, only to see his April team, the 2015 Dodgers finish with the worst overall record/run-diff, allowing him to “WIN” the last place prize of an unopened, unused new bag of 100 dice (10 different colors). This will be our new tradition to award new dice to the worst overall team in the tournament.
I will be posting a complete tournament blog write-up with pictures, etc, in the next month.
Please provide to me, any tournament occurrences which warrant mention. Odd games, odd results, heroic feats. I will make sure to include these in the write-up.
Thanks to everyone for helping out. With a special mention going to John “The Cooler” Kalous, for being our janitor and cleaning up the joint better than Alice on the Brady Bunch could have ever done.
Thanks for the recap, Jim. Everyone should keep an eye on Jim’s APBA Barn for updates soon. Also, congrats to Garth for bringing the glory to the 1908 Cubs once again! Three straight shutouts, wow!
