Battle of American League Managers

Thirty five players came out to play and to wish Ray Mills God Speed and Best Wishes as he heads north. He is selling his house here and his future with the league is in question. If this was his last game, we will remember him fondly for his unique style and dress , as well as his great pitching. And while continued his torrid hitting, he was not able to win his final game, settling for the silver medal.

 

Today's managers were selected because they all managed in the American League last season. Nick Matta lead the hitting team of Rivera, Zelazny, Scarbrough, Laffoon, TSmith, S Hill, Matta, Fulton, Mills, Barnes, Bowley, and Gibson. They looked pretty strong as they seemed to score at will in the early innings. They scored five,five, three, and four in the first four innings and built a lead. Unfortunately, they could not separate themselves from Don Witmer's sitting team.

 

Don's lineup was strong, top to bottom. The team consisted of M Gonzalez, Witmer, Duff, Butler, Coffman, Herbie, Reagan,Marino, Thompson, Wells, Merritt, and G Baker. They were the only team to score in every inning for the entire game and by the end of four had closed to within one run of Team Matta. M Gonazalez had the only extra base hits up to that point with a homer and double.

 

Freddy Gonzalez's fielding team had Dampier, Hamilton, Giordano, Freddy G, Schapler, D Hill, J.D. Davis, Hite, Simon, Bess, and L Baker. There run production was way down today and found themselves with a scant three runs at the end of four innings, Drilling down one would find that they only had six hits during that time with Bob Hite's double being the highlight.

 

In the fifth, the only Team to score was Team Witmer and they took the lead by scoring five runs as M Gonzalez hit his second home run of the day. The sixth was productive for all three teams as Team Matta scored three quick runs to retake the lead. Team Witmer responded by scoring five as Rich Marino had a double. Team Gonzalez' first four batters scored  as Freddy  had a double. Going into the last inning the score was Team Matta 20, Team Wimer 25, and Team Gonzales 7. The final inning was a repeat of the fifth inning as Team Witmer was the only team to score runs. BY scoring four they widened the margin of victory to nine over Team Matta and twenty-two over Team Gonzales.

 

Todays high scoring affair was interesting in that Team Matta scored twenty runs with only Jim Laffoon's double going for extra bases.  Meantime Team Witmer tallied twenty-nine on just seven extra base hits with three coming off the bat of M Gonzalez. Deano and Freddy hit the only extra base hits for Team Gonzalez.

 

Key Performances

 

Jose Rivera    3 for 4

Bob Zelazny    3 for 3

Donnie Scarbrough    4 for 4

Jimmy Lafffoon    4 for 4 with a double

 

M Gonzalez    4 for 5 with two homers and a double

Don Witmer    4 for 5 with a double

Chuck Duff    4 for 5 with a homer

Kirk Coffman    5 for 5 with a double

Herbie O        4 for 5

Ron Thompson    5 for 5

John Merritt    3 for 4