Published: August 11, 2009 08:20 am      

AAABA: Rain washes out opening night of tournament

A standing-room-only crowd had packed into Point Stadium on Monday night.

A parade of Corvettes carrying the AAABA ambassadors had driven past home plate. Players from 14 of the 16 teams in the 65th annual AAABA Tournament marched across the artificial surface.

The ceremonial first pitches had been thrown and the local league award winners had been announced.

The Bomb Squad lit off one of its trademark blasts from the hillside overlooking the Point simultaneously as a bolt of lightning flashed in the distance down the Conemaugh River.

Then, as John Tucci of Pittsburgh concluded his rendition of the national anthem, the skies broke loose, unleashing a fierce rain storm that sent fans scurrying for cover as the grounds crew put tarps on the pitcher’s mound and home plate.

So much for what had been shaping up as a fantastic opening night of the AAABA Tournament.

Mother Nature added a cruel twist to an evening that should have belonged to Johnstown’s Delweld and the Zanesville Junior Pioneers.

“It hasn’t rained like this in three months,” Johnstown Oldtimers President George Arcurio III said after the storm had postponed the opener until tonight. “The weather has been beautiful. It’s been 68 degrees. We sing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’ and everything breaks loose. I couldn’t believe it.

“A full house with 6,000 people. Everything was set up for one of the best openers,” Arcurio added. “What else more could you want? Two really good Johnstown teams in the tournament. Enthusiasm for the tournament again. Then, we get a tremendous thunderstorm. It’s like popping the balloon and just sitting there and watching it. We’re going to recover (tonight) and do the best we can and hope the people come out again.”

Zanesville and Johnstown will meet again at 7:30 p.m. Ticket stubs from Monday will be honored tonight.

The rescheduled first-round game will shake-up the 16-team bracket because the 14 other teams each had completed their first-round games.

Both Schenectady and Youngstown will receive byes today, awaiting the result of tonight’s game. The rest of the second-round games will be played on schedule.

“We could have waited two hours or three hours and tried to play the game but I don’t think that would be fair,” Arcurio said. “I just think we did the right thing and the national tournament committee did the right thing.”

The tournament promotions that had been scheduled for the second night game at the Point will be held tonight as planned.

That means an appearance by the Pirate Parrot and the Pirate Pierogies as well as a replica Point Stadium giveaway. Tribune-Democrat AAABA Tournament baseball cards also will be sold according to the original schedule, and Tribune-Democrat essay contest winner Rex Morgart Sr. will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“The second night actually is going to be opening night,” Arcurio said.

Delweld’s veteran left-handed pitcher Brett Vescovi was ready to throw on opening night. The Cambria Heights graduate who plays at Slippery Rock took the postponement in stride.

“It’s just unfortunate but (Tuesday) is another day,” Vescovi said. “We’ve got (Tuesday). It will be the same as it was (Monday). It’ll be just like the regular season when we played every day. We’ll take the same approach we always take.”

Johnstown AAABA League MVP and shortstop George Roberts said the storm was disappointing but there’s not much the players could do about the weather.

“We would’ve liked to play (Monday) but we can come back and do the same thing,” Roberts said. “We hope it doesn’t rain again. We want to get things done.”

Roberts said that getting all of the opening-night festivities out of the way might actually help matters.

“I think it takes some of the pressure off of the new guys,” he said. “It makes them feel more relaxed. We can come out and just play baseball.”

Zanesville Junior Pioneers veteran manager Doug Pollock said the rain was just one more distraction on a hectic night.

“The main reason I don’t care for this game is that hoopla,” Pollock said, viewing the game from the opposing city’s perspective.

“You have to change your whole routine. Everybody was done with infield at 6:35. Then the game wouldn’t have started for another hour. Everybody is pumped up. You’re ready to go. Then you have to sit around and then you have to get back up. I like the second day much better because you just kind of play.

“Everybody is fired up and ready to go. You’ve already sat around for 45 minutes or an hour since the time of infield until the ceremony. Then this (rain out) happens,” he added. “The players have to take care of themselves another day and stay enthusiastic. We were ready to play. I’m sure Johnstown was ready to play. There’s nothing much you can do.”