Published: August 12, 2009 12:10 am      

AAABA Sidelights | Team has strong ties to tourney

The Zanesville franchise is making its 51st appearance in this year’s 65th annual AAABA Tournament and current Zanesville manager Doug Pollock has been coming to Johnstown for the tournament for 30 years.

Pollock’s son, Joe, played five years for the Junior Pioneers and has been a coach with his father for three years. The youngest Pollock, Zachary, is a senior in high school and is an outfielder/pitcher with the squad.

Eric Newsom, an assistant with Zanesville who played in Johnstown in 1986-87, has his son Michael, a first-year

16-year-old outfielder/pitcher, on the team.

Jordan Buchanan, a fourth-year outfielder with this year’s Junior Pioneers, had an older brother, Tyler, who was with the team for three years.

Alex Cultice is the fifth member of his family from the Zanesville franchise. Cultice’s grandfather coached with Tom Checkush for many years, his cousin played for Doug Pollock and two other cousins played for Checkush.

Wade Kaido is a second-year infielder/catcher with these Zanesville Junior Pioneers.

Kaido’s father played and coached with Doug Pollock as did his brother, Tyler.

Zanesville first baseman Mitch Klein’s father played for Columbus.

“We try to sell the tradition part of coming to Johnstown,” Doug Pollock said.

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Complete effort: Martella’s Pharmacy opened the tournament with two complete-game efforts from pitchers Landon Wahl on Monday against Philadelphia and Ryan Zamiskie on Tuesday against Livonia.

That’s as solid a start as manager Chris Pfeil could hope for from his pitchers.

But how about this historical fact regarding complete game efforts by the host city?

During the 1950 AAABA Tournament, Johnstown’s Ray Rizzo tossed three complete games for Lincoln Street Garage – on three straight days.

Rizzo was on the mound for wins against Binghamton, N.Y. (6-0) on a Thursday morning and Maryland State (15-1) on Friday night. Against Maryland State he retired the first 13 batters and faced only 34 batters in the game. Unbelievably by today’s standards, Rizzo pitched again on Saturday afternoon, going the distance in a 1-0 loss to Washington D.C.

Left-hander High Waln threw the first no-hitter in AAABA Tournament history for Washington in that game.

Rizzo’s ERA in 1950 was 0.33.

The unearned run scored by Maryland State had prevented Rizzo from becoming the first pitcher in tournament history to toss three consecutive shutouts because he had thrown one in the 1948 tournament against Binghamton. By the way, Rizzo also pitched for Johnstown as a 15-year-old pick-up player in the 1947 event.

His name might not be very familiar to the current generation of Johnstown AAABA Tournament fans, but Rizzo most certainly must be considered one of the best tournament performers from the city in the tournament’s 65 years and should be a lock for a future AAABA Hall of Fame spot.

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The Amaro family made an early exit from this year’s AAABA Tournament. But the two days here meant a few more memories added to those compiled by the family over the years.

Manager Dave Amaro’s Philly Bandits were eliminated Tuesday with a 3-1 loss to Toledo at Roxbury Park.

Dave played in the AAABA Tournament in the early 1980s.

His younger brother Reuben Jr. followed a few years later, and eventually spent seven seasons in the major leagues with Philadelphia, Cleveland and Anaheim.

Their father, Reuben Sr., was third base coach for the Philadelphia Phillies for many years.

Reuben Amaro Jr. was inducted into the AAABA Hall of Fame in 2008, and is now the general manager of the Phillies.

Dave’s sons Robert and Andrew were with him this week. Robert was the Bandits’ third baseman and cleanup hitter. Andrew – a future AAABA player, his dad says – kept the scorebook.

“This is a great tournament,” Dave Amaro said. “Too bad we’re going home so early.”

Dave Amaro recalled staying in dormitories at Pitt-Johnstown and being excited about being away from home to play baseball.

“I remember traveling out here together, going to the banquet, having a lot of fun,” Dave said. “And that’s not to mention the competition, which was top-notch.”

Dave Amaro said his team’s next showing in Johnstown will be better. This year, the Bandits featured a lot of younger players.

“We’re excited, because all of these guys basically just graduated from high school,” he said. “They’re all 18-, 19-year-old kids. They’ll be going to good schools, getting better. But they’re just not there yet.”

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New era: New Brunswick opened 2-0 in its first AAABA Tournament appearance since 2004.

New Brunswick Matrix already has bettered that year’s 1-2 mark. Prior to 2004, New Brunswick hadn’t been to Johnstown since going 2-2 in 1999.

New Brunswick had the tournament’s batting champion in 1972 when Zigmond Brown batted .545, and in 1967, when Frank Cipot’s .500 average tied Washington’s Charles Hines for the tournament high.

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Elk County manager Roger Beimel is the uncle and godfather of former Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Joe Beimel.

After three years with the Pirates, Joe Beimel went to the Twins, the Devil Rays and then to the Dodgers.

“He had a great three years with the Dodgers,” Roger Beimel said. “His contract was up and then he took the job with the Nationals. He did have a slight injury, but he’s back from that. The Rockies needed a situational left hander and they picked him up a week-and-a-half ago because they’re still in the wild card hunt.”

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Breaking new ground: Zanesville coach Joe Pollock took a position as an assistant baseball coach at the University of Northwestern, Ohio.

Haven’t heard of the Racers baseball program?

That’s because Pollock will be helping head coach Kory Hartman start the program from scratch. The school is scheduled to begin play in spring, 2011.

“They are building a new ballfield and have made a big commitment,” Zanesville manager Doug Pollock said. “Joe is going to use the AAABA to help recruit players.”

The first recruit for the Racers? Zachary Pollock, the younger brother of Joe and son of Doug, who is a high school senior at Zanesville High School.