Published: August 12, 2009 11:38 pm      

Mike Mastovich | D.C. gone but not forgotten

Washington’s Vienna Senators created a buzz – not to mention a scramble to fill the bracket

– by dropping out of the AAABA Tournament less than 24 hours before the official registration.

Martella’s Pharmacy of Johnstown has filled in admirably, a positive development to an unfortunate situation that has stirred the passions of local baseball fans and longtime tournament followers.

Initially, sentiment was heavily against Washington, one of the most successful and storied franchises in tournament history.

It’s worth noting that Washington first posted the possibility of facing problems fielding a team for Johnstown on the Vienna Senators Web site on July 31. The Sun Gazette story provided a detailed list of injuries and stated that the Senators already had bypassed a trip to the NBC World Series in Wichita, Kan., on Aug. 1. That post also noted an upcoming meeting would determine whether the team would travel to Johnstown.

Of course, such details don’t make the situation any easier to accept in Johnstown, where the AAABA Tournament is not only tradition but a part of life.

There probably should have been a better channel of communications between the franchise and the national committee so that a Plan B might have been in the works.

An Aug. 8 post on the Web site declared that the Vienna Senators’ season was “complete” and that for the first time as Clark Griffith League champion the Senators wouldn’t compete for a national title either in Wichita or Johnstown.

“The late rash of injuries that hampered the team in July was too much for the team to overcome in August,” the release stated.

Reached Wednesday by telephone, Washington franchise representative Bill McGillicuddy said the cancelation could not be avoided.

“If you don’t have enough players, you don’t have enough players,” McGillicuddy said.

“You have injuries, and players went home. We contacted people (on the AAABA National Committee) as soon as we knew for sure.”

When asked about the timing of the decision, McGillicuddy said any backlash would have been magnified had the Senators made the trip to Johnstown hoping to field a team, then shown up for registration only to pull out on Sunday morning when the roster couldn’t be filled with enough bodies.

“That would have been worse for the tournament,” McGillicuddy said. “I had hotel reservations, plane reservations (for some players) and vans rented right up until 2 o’clock on Saturday when the last kid, which made it so iffy, was out. We did everything possible.”

Washington won four AAABA Tournament titles in five years from 1998 through 2002. But the D.C. team didn’t have a representative in Johnstown in 2004 and 2005. The Clark Griffith League team played in Wichita in 2004 and had representatives in both Kansas and Johnstown during other summers. McGillicuddy said his franchise’s history and his respect for AAABA Hall of Famer Joe Branzell, the former Washington manager, impact any plans, past, present or future, he makes regarding the tournament.

Locally, people have wondered about the franchise’s commitment to Johnstown. This year’s situation has done nothing to change that perception.

When asked if his franchise had downplayed the Johnstown tournament in recent years, McGillicuddy responded in the negative.

“We definitely have not written the tournament off,” McGillicuddy said. “I fully expect Washington will have a representative there next year. We’re meeting in the next month and that is one of the top subjects. I think we have a plan on how we can make sure we’ll be sending a team.”

Of course, the AAABA Committee must address the late withdrawals of both Washington and Chicago South Shore (regional play).

“Whether it’s Washington that’s been involved in the organization from the beginning or a new franchise, my personal feeling is we don’t want to lose any franchise,” AAABA Tournament Chairman Bob Wolfe said Wednesday. “I think the AAABA Board of Directors would feel that way as well. We would be willing to do everything we can to keep any member whether it’s someone who just joined or someone who’s been there for 60 years or more.”

Wolfe said the committee will discuss the matter.

“There is a rule in our rule book that a franchise must notify the tournament committee 48 hours before the tournament,” Wolfe said. “Of course they didn’t do that. They called me on 4 o’clock Saturday. When something like that happens, whatever action that would be taken regarding that situation is turned over to the franchise committee. We generally meet in October and the committee then recommends whatever action should be taken, whether that means no action, a penalty or having to go to a regional. Then that recommendation goes to the board of directors that meets in March.”

•••

Two cents worth: Just one humble opinion – two items actually – that might or might not be taken under consideration.

• Baltimore manager Dean Albany said he didn’t mind playing in a regional. A class act, he credited both Altoona and Philadelphia for their wins over the Orioles that knocked out the six-time defending AAABA Tournament champs during the Altoona Regional. Dean took the high road and cited the fact that the regional rules have been in place for decades.

But it seems like a logical decision to annually give the tournament champion an automatic berth in the 16-team field in order to defend its title. Baltimore lost “fair and square” as Albany put it, but losing a six-time defending champ before the week began hurt the tournament.

• If the calendar cooperates, this might be the time to consider moving up the national tournament’s starting date to the first week of August as had been the case most years throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.

I’m not sure what the so-called “cons” to such a schedule change would entail, but one of the most important “pros” would be that those baseball standouts who play college football would be less likely to have a scheduling conflict with football camp. That happened with one of Delweld’s top pitchers, Pat Smith, who is a quarterback at IUP.

Other franchises probably encounter the same situation, maybe even more so than Johnstown. Also, multiple officials from some of the tournament’s traditionally big-name teams have said that the later starting date as well as potential regional dates make it difficult to keep players for an extra week.

Of course, some would say if a player makes a commitment to a franchise, he should be prepared to play into late August if necessary. But times have changed. With all of the travel teams, tournaments and college wooden bat leagues out there, unfortunately, some Division I-type players might view a mid-August tournament as just one more event on a busy schedule.



Mike Mastovich is a sports writer for The Tribune-Democrat.