Published: August 09, 2009 01:04 am      

Johnstown gets second entry as Washington drops out of AAABA

JOHNSTOWN — Moments after his Martella’s Pharmacy team lost the final game of a best-of-5 championship series against Delweld on Monday, manager Chris Pfeil figured his AAABA League season had concluded.

Delweld earned the right to represent Johnstown in the 65th AAABA Tournament that begins on Monday at Point Stadium and outlying fields.

But late Saturday afternoon, Pfeil received an unexpected phone call from Johnstown Oldtimers President George Arcurio III.

That impromptu conversation followed a surprise call the AAABA National Committee had taken a few minutes earlier on Saturday.

The Washington, D.C., franchise informed the AAABA National Committee that the Vienna (Va.)-based team will not participate in this year’s tournament. Washington representatives made the announcement only a day before the scheduled registration at the Holiday Inn downtown.

After Washington dropped out, the AAABA National Committee hastily met and decided to invite Martella’s into the

16-team bracket as a second representative from Johnstown.

“We received the word late afternoon (on Saturday),” said Pfeil, who led the Johnstown Grays in the tournament in 2002, 2004 and 2005. “Obviously, it’s exciting. We got in touch with all of our guys and they’re excited. We’re going to have batting practice (today).

“Luckily, we have guys who are committed. Despite us losing early in the week, our guys were getting ready for college by taking some swings and our pitchers were getting ready. We would have liked to have more, time, but we’ll take the opportunity.”

Pfeil was attempting to add several pick-up players to his roster prior to registration. As of Saturday afternoon, Berkley Hills Renegades center fielder Tom Burkett had committed to play. Burkett appeared in last year’s tournament as a Delweld pick-up.

“George Arcurio initially called me to feel out whether we thought we would be able to get our team together,” Pfeil said.

“Then, I spoke to (AAABA National officer) Bob Wolfe and he explained the situation.

“We told him we would be more than happy to have a crack at getting into the tournament this year.”

The only other time Johns-town had two representatives in the same tournament was

20 years ago when champion Pepsi-Cola and runner-up Coca-Cola each played in the 22-team tournament that commemorated Johnstown’s 1889 Flood Centennial.

“It happened at 10 after 4 (on Saturday),” said Arcurio, president of the Johnstown Oldtimers organization, the tournament’s sponsor. “Bob Wolfe called me and said, ‘We’ve got a problem.’ I said, ‘Go fix the field. Get a new home plate. Whatever the problem is, just fix it.’ Bob said, ‘No, we have a problem. Washington cannot field a team. They only had eight players.’ ”

Washington has 220 wins, 10 AAABA Tournament championships and 12 runner-up finishes, including last year. Without the D.C. team and the Baltimore franchise that had won the past six championships, the tournament has taken a hit with two of the so-called “Big Three” – which includes New Orleans – absent this year.

Baltimore was eliminated in last week’s Altoona Regional.

But Arcurio viewed the setback as an opportunity.

“We had been talking about this for a year, but we never thought it would happen until at least next year,” Arcurio said of Johnstown’s potentially fielding two teams in the tournament, an idea that had received support from the likes of former Baltimore manager and AAABA Hall of Famer Dean Albany. “There were preliminary talks.”

Pfeil is accustomed to the paperwork and off-field preparation for the tournament. He’s just never had to accomplish all the required tasks in hours instead of days.

In addition to trying to round up his own players, he had to find willing pick-up players and assemble the proper information for registration. He wasn’t sure of his opening day starter.

Martella’s will play an afternoon game at the Point on Monday, with the time to be determined. Martella’s will take Washington’s spot in the upper bracket.

“We worked things out with the National AAABA Tournament Committee,” Arcurio said. “This was the easiest way to go, but it also is a good way to go. This is the 65th anniversary of the tournament. I told Bob Wolfe there is no way we could go with only 15 teams on the 65th anniversary.”