San Francisco Angels

 Wood Bat Baseball Team

Recap of 2003 season

Grand Forks International Baseball Tournament, August 26- Sept 1

Mike Ryan Adds Punch to Astros Lineup

Reno Wins Grand Forks Tourney Over Seattle Studs

Above & left: Mike Ryan

September 1, 2003:  The Grand Forks International Baseball Tournament, an open-roster money tournament that began last Tuesday, finished up on Labor Day with a 4-3 win by the Reno (aka "Houston") Astros. The tournament is held in the town of Grand Forks, British Columbia, about 100 miles north of Spokane, Washington. The Astros, 1999's tournament champions, edged the 2001 champion Seattle Studs in the 4pm final game for the $20,000 (Canadian dollar) 1st place prize money.

Mike Ryan, who starred with the San Francisco Angels this summer, broke into the starting lineup with the Astros and helped them win the championship. In the final game, Ryan had two hits, was hit by a pitch, and scored a run.

In the Astros' pivotal 9-6 extra-inning win against Caldwell last Thursday, Ryan made an appearance as a pinch-hitter, with a 6th inning sacrifice fly to center. A loss to Caldwell could have knocked the Astros early out of contention for prize money, since they had already lost to Taiwan on Wednesday night. On Saturday, Ryan joined the lineup. He was hit by a pitch in the second inning, and ended up scoring after stealing third. Later in the game, he doubled as the Astros grabbed a 4-2 win over the Sacramento Athletics. The Athletics ended with an 0-3 record in the tournament.

In the Astros' first Money Round Game late Sunday, Ryan was dropped to 9th in the order, but hit a two-run double to right field in the 6th inning, as the Astros shut down Team Canada, 7-0. In the 14-0 semi-final whooping of the Trail team, Ryan was back hitting 7th, and assisted the overpowering offense with a walk, a sacrifice fly, and a triple, driving in three runs and scoring once.

The Taiwan National Team dominated the first stage of the tournament.  A couple of weeks ago, the Taiwan team  won the NBC Summer World Series in Wichita, Kansas. In their first Grand Forks game last Wednesday, they defeated the Reno Astros 5-0, after Astros' manager Matt Konopsis made a 7th inning pitching change in a 0-0 ballgame.  Last Thursday, Taiwan shut out the Sacramento Athletics, 5-0. Finally, they shut down the Caldwell Coyotes 3-0 on Friday, and then waited comfortably in their position as the #1 seed for the Money Round.

Taiwan's patsies for the Sunday afternoon game were the Lewiston Truckers, sporting players from Lewis-Clark State College, famous for its perennial harvest of major league draft picks. In the preliminary round of three games, Lewiston had scored a total of 2 runs, going 1-2 but winning the #8 seeding, the final Money Round berth, in the 12-team tournament, by keeping the gap down between runs scored and runs allowed.

In the biggest upset of the tournament, the Truckers defeated Taiwan 4-2 in Sunday's first Money Round game. The favored team was thereby eliminated, leaving the 1st place prize money on the table for the other teams.

The Astros were grouped with Taiwan, the Athletics, and the Caldwell Coyotes in one of three preliminary pools. Eight of the 12 teams participating in the tournament advanced Sunday to the single elimination money round.

In a departure from previous practices which spread the Canadian teams to different pools, four of those teams were now grouped in a single pool. This protected the native teams, which in the past were generally eliminated early in the tournament.

The Athletics attempted to recruit several former Angels for Grand Forks, but the well-funded Reno Astros may have offered free airfares to a couple of them, although the Astros were probably overloaded with players. Mike Ryan is the only name of a 2003 Angel player who showed up in the play-by-play descriptions provided on the tournament web site.

Canada Division

Game scores

Canada 4 Trail 1

Canada 19 Prince George 6

Trail 4 Prince George 2

Trail 8 Burnaby 5

Burnaby 3 Canada 1

Burnaby 7 Prince George 4

64 runs, 5.33 runs per game per team

0 shutouts (0% of games)

Seeding number, team, won-lost, offense- defense

(advancing teams in boldface)

3. Team Canada (2-1)

                                 +3, +13, -2=+14

5. Trail  (2-1)

                                  -3, +2, +3=   +2

7. Burnaby (2-1)

                                  -3, +2, +3=   +2

Prince George (0-3)

                                 -13, -2, -3=   -18

Favorites Division

Game scores

Chinese Taiwan 5 Houston 0

Houston 9 Caldwell 6

Chinese Taiwan 5 Sacramento 0

Chinese Taiwan  3 Caldwell 0

Caldwell 6 Sacramento 4

Houston 4 Sacramento 2

44 runs, 3.67 runs per game per team

3 shutouts (25% of games)

Seeding number, team, won-lost, offense- defense

(advancing teams in boldface)

1. Chinese Taiwan (3-0)

                                +5, +5, +3=  +13

6. Reno Astros (2-1)

                                -5, +3, +2 =      0

Caldwell Coyotes (1-2)

                                -3, -3, +2  =     -4

Sacramento Athletics (0-3)

                                -5, -2,  -2=       -9

Studs Division

Game scores

Seattle 2  Lewiston 0

Lewiston 2 San Diego 1

Seattle 1 Chicago 0

Chicago 1 Lewiston 0

Seattle 1 San Diego 0

Chicago 6 San Diego 2

16 runs, 1.33 runs per game per team

4 shutouts (33% of games)

Seeding number, team, won-lost, offense- defense

(advancing teams in boldface)

2. Seattle Studs (3-0)

                                +2, +1, +1=   + 4

4. Chicago Prairie Gravel (2-1)

                                 -1, +1, +4=    +4

8. Lewiston Truckers (1-2)

                                  -2, +1, -1=     -2

San Diego Stars (0-3)

                                   -1, -1, -4=     -6

Notes on seeding for Money Round: Among the three division winners in the preliminary round, the Studs and Taiwan both went 3-0. Top seed went to the Taiwan, since it had the highest cumulative run differential (Rule #12- see rules below).  Team Canada won the third seed despite a +14 run differential because it had only a 2-1 record.

All the second place teams went 2-1. Chicago was +4 on run differential, so won the #4 seeding. The Lewiston team had only a 1-2 record and a  -2 run differential, but since there were only three divisions instead of the four contemplated by the tournament rules, both Lewiston and a third Canadian team went to the Money Round. 

Trail and Burnaby were matched in run differential, and would have played a tie-breaker game to determine who would move on to the Money Round. As it was, Burnaby was seeded lower as a wild card team apparently by some ad hoc decision method not covered by the rules (head-to-head, coin flip, etc.).

Seattle was the only surviving division champion. Under Rule #19, it was the top seed for the Monday semi-final games.

After the first Money Round games, Lewiston's record was 2-2, while Reno and Trail each were 3-1, so Lewiston was the #4 seed and matched against Seattle, despite the fact they had been in the same division.

It is unclear why Trail was the #2 seed for the semi-finals, since Reno's cumulative run differential was higher. In any case, they played each other and Reno stomped down the Trail. The Astros then went on to edge the Studs for the championship.

1. The official rules of baseball, as published by Baseball Canada, shall govern the playing of baseball games during the tournament. Specifications as to facility, equipment, play-off format, etc. have been modified to meet the needs of the tournament. Teams may elect to use the designated hitter rule.

2. All games will be seven (7) innings with extra innings to be played to determine winners.

3. Toss of a coin at home plate will determine home team for all preliminary round games. Teams with better records, as determined by the tournament rules, will be the HOME TEAMS for all MONEY ROUND games.

4. Teams must be prepared to play ball when scheduled. Infield drills will be permitted only if time allows.

5. Should circumstances arise where a game or games are postponed or canceled, the Tournament Rules Committee (TRC) has the authority to act upon any alteration to the tournament format or schedule.

6. Should a contest overlap the scheduled start of the following game considerably, then the TRC also has the authority to either halt the contest and declare the team ahead the winner, or stop the game and order a continuation of the contest at a determined time. This rule will apply to all preliminary round games only.

7. The TEN RUN RULE will apply to all tournament games, except the tournament FINAL.

8. There are no restrictions relative to roster size. However, teams will not be permitted to add to their roster any player who was on the roster of a team eliminated earlier from further competition.

9. Should a protest arise, that protest must officially be brought to the attention of the home plate umpire, who in turn will forward such protest to the Tournament Protest Committee Chairman of designate. This Committee will then rule on the identified protest and their decision will be FINAL.

10. In the event a contest is forfeited, the team receiving the forfeiture shall claim a 7-0 win. The forfeiting team, meanwhile, shall surrender all earnings, if any, to the tournament.

11. The top two teams in each division will qualify for the tournament's MONEY ROUND.

12.After the preliminary round, should two or more division winners have identical won-loss records, then the RUNS FOR - RUNS AGAINST differential will determine the order of finish in the over-all standings.

13. After the preliminary round, should two or more division runner-up teams have identical won-loss records, then the RUNS FOR - RUNS AGAINST differential will determine the order of finish in the over-all standings.

14. Should THREE teams in the same division complete the preliminary round with an identical record of two wins and one loss, then Rule #12 will be applied to determine the division winner. A seven (7) inning play-off game will be played to determine the runner-up position.

15. Should THREE teams in more than one division complete the preliminary round with an identical record of two wins and one loss, then Rule #12 will be applied to determine the division winner. Five (5) inning play-off games will be played to determine the respective runner-up positions.

16. Should THREE teams be tied for the runner-up position with an identical won-loss record of one win and two losses, then the RUNS FOR - RUNS AGAINST differential will determine the order of finish.

17. Should teams be tied for any position following the above, then the TOTAL RUNS FOR/INNINGS PLAYED OFFENSIVELY will determine the position in the standings.

18. Should teams still be tied following Rule #17, the RUNS ALLOWED/INNINGS PLAYED DEFENSIVELY formula will be applied to determine the order of finish in the standings.

19. Division champions will always have the higher precedence when determining the match-ups in the MONEY ROUND.

RE: Rule #14 & Rule #15

Should a play-off game or games be required, then the tournament's MONEY ROUND will be moved back to accommodate such.

Grand Forks Tournament

EXPIRED!!!

The San Francisco Angels Wood Bat Baseball team exploded and expired Tuesday morning, August 5, fallen by a fireball foisted by a fulminating fumigator from his philistine parapet of pretentious perfidy.  May the holy orb strike him- 1,2,3 you're out!  The deceased will be unable to get to Grand Forks but the tournament director Gerry Foster might want to sell the remains for chemicals.

A contributing factor to the team's sudden demise was the failure of most players to pay the travel fees by the deadline. A group airfare deadline had come and gone, and the team wasn't about to get stuck with a large number of unpaid fares dangling around at the last minute. The travel director already went through multiple embarrassments over the 2001 Grand Forks trip, especially the mass of debt built up from incomplete airfares and costs of adding players. The four checks received for this year's trip were mailed back Wednesday August 6.

This is the time of year that summer teams disband.  As the NBC World Series in Wichita and the AABC Stan Musial World Series in Battle Creek complete the elimination process toward their respective championship games, the eliminated teams break up and send their players on their way.

The Angels had originally planned to continue on, spurred by some summer season success, for post-season competition at the Labor Day Weekend tournament in Grand Forks, British Columbia.  But although the team completed a 40-21 record, the second part of their ambitious schedule was disappointing. There were no hopeful signs that the team would succeed in Grand Forks. 

Angels' staff were volunteers. The main volunteers, Roland Nazar and Jim Brown devoted enormous effort to keep the team going and getting it to succeed, just as they had done in the last ten years.  The team succeeded at a first place finish in the local AABC Rural League for the first time. The Angels played in over 60 games, going up and down the West Coast playing highly-competitive summer teams. But while the team continued to play at a competitive level,  they couldn't quite get through to meeting their goals. Staff were distracted by the demands of their private lives and the team lacked money.

The San Francisco Angels Wood Bat Baseball Team thanks Jack Wolf, Dan Kingman Sr., Doug Price, Steve Holt for their volunteer efforts. The players should congratulate themselves for making personal sacrifices not normally expected from a summer baseball team- you displayed commitment and passion the memory of which you can draw on in your future activities. The team thanks the support of Jack Wolf, Mr. Gray, Mr. Herbert, Mrs. Dianda, and Mr. Shannon, all of whom stepped in to help with necessary team costs despite their confusion about (and even outrage over) this anarchist collective posing as a semipro baseball team.

The team's death came at a  convenient time for the weekend staff, since they wouldn't be focusing on the team again until late Thursday at the earliest and didn't have to break out of their routines.  The Sacramento Athletics are making the trip to Grand Forks and are looking for players to complete their roster. The Maxim Yankees also considered an entry into the tournament but decided against it.