Getting Ready for Z0NA in 2007

A huge baseball tournament in Arizona brings 400 teams to compete in various brackets defined by ages and type of bat -wood or metal. As I just turned 55 in August, I decided to compete with my age group-- the 55 and over group. While mulling the choice of 45 and over vs 55 and over, I found my self referring the 45's a "young guys" . In my regular season league -a 28 and over league -the difference is speed of the game and players. A team with average age in the 40's just does not run anywhere near as much as a 30 year old team. I felt my preference would be for a game determined less by speed than by hitting and pitching and defense. Plus speed is not one of the tools I bring to the game. So a game with a diminished emphasis on speed and I figured we had a shot to win in the 55's bracket while I suspected winning the 45's would be very tough. My previous experience in 2005 was with a 48 and over team that was 6-0 in the "season" and won the first playoff game. But that team, a great group from Rhode Island,gave up 4 in the first inning of the semi's and went on to lose 13-4 to a team from Sacramento.

This season I will be playing with the Long Island Athletics. I have never seen the LI guys play but there are 5 guys in my group, 3 other CT players; Jeff Carroll, Steve (Doc) Parsons and Jimmy Scott. Jeff is an infielder and the other 2 are pitchers as am I. Additionally , Bruce Butterfield, Amherst '71, with whom i played as a freshman will be joining us. Bruce came to Wilton last fall while bring his daughter to college ( yes she is now a sophomore at Amherst) and saw my team play. We have corresponded over time and Bruce plays in St Louis and played in Arizona last year with guys from St Louis. In 1971, Bruce was 8-0 and All New England and a delight to catch. Now he plays infield and we are all hoping for a great week of play out there.

Now to the games: Here is the link that displays the teams in our bracket:

http://www.scorebook.com/msblws55am

Reading that we are in 6 team bracket and 4 make the playoffs . The playoffs are Friday and Saturday

Here is our schedule:

http://www.scorebook.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?WEBEVENT+L0D9B593148346100CEFF071+PRD+ENG

or just click the LI Athletics from the previous link.


At this point , we are in hope mode--we hope our other players are good--and they hope the ct guys can play and we hope we have a path to the finals and a chance to play for a championship

But , 6 games in 4 days is tougher than it sounds and guys get hurt or tired or struggle. It is a medieval game--baseball --commit errors, allow walks and you are doomed to pay. so the focus will be to throw strikes . Best pitch in any league is strike 1.