Congratulations to the Maryland Cardinals 12U and the South Jersey Young Guns 12U for a fabulous game on Sunday evening in the Beach Blowout tournament.
It was undoubtably one of the best youth baseball games we have ever had here at Sports at the Beach. All the players will definitely remember this game for a long time too come.
Check our new Video Blog on Youtube!!
Sports at the Beach YouTube Channel
There is definitely more exciting stuff to come!!!
Well here we are again with these wonderful previews!!! I hope nobody ever checked to see how often I was right last season. LOL!
Let’s get the disclaimer stuff over and done with first, though: This blog, preview, review is not meant to discourage any team, the players, or the coaches. It is a way to promote baseball at Sports at the Beach and to encourage conversation between the teams and coaches. If I predict a team to win and I am wrong, so be it. More power to the team that proves me wrong. I look forward each weekend to watching the teams and seeing the excitement of tournament baseball. I always welcome comments, feedback, information, etc.. If you do not want to post on the blog directly, then email me.
OK ON WITH 2008 !!!
In the 12U division we have six (6) teams this weekend. The Shore Sluggers are from Salisbury, MD but are considered a local team. They played in the fall in the Beach Brawl Classic. The Delaware Stars are from Bear in upstate Delaware. They played in the Beach Brawl Classic and the Riptide Rumble in the fall. They were the Riptide Rumble Champions.The Jackson Panthers from Jackson, NJ are a new team and have not played at Sports at the Beach before. The Salisbury Seagulls are a new team from Salisbury, MD. The South Jersey Bulldogs Black hail from Sicklerville, NJ and they play here at Sports at the Beach in the fall Oktoberfest tournament. That leaves us with the Central Perk Patriots from Schwenksville, PA. The Patriots played in 4 tournaments in 2007 at Sports at the Beach and took home the championship trophy in 3 of those tournaments!!! So in this case, I’ll go with Central Perk Patriots but the Delaware Stars could be the spoiler. The pool play schedule has them playing each other on Sunday morning at 9 am. Could be a very fun and exciting morning!
Onto the 14U division. We have 15 teams in this bracket. (1 dropped out today). The Sussex Sting are a local team that plays at Sports at the Beach often. I hope the green hats bring you luck!Hailing from Blue Bell, PA are the Blue Bell Angels. They played here last spring in the Baseball at the Beach tournament. The Baymen Clippers are from St. James, NY and they also played in the Baseball at the Beach tournament where they lost in the semi-finals after a great run. The New Jersey Mariners Blue were the champions as a 13U team in last summer’s Firecracker Open. Making a long trip to Sports at the Beach are the Bennington Reds from Vermont. NO, you did not read incorrectly, I typed VERMONT! Wow! The Reds will also be playing again the Summer Slugfest in June. The NY Titans are coming to us from Plainview, NY. They played here last spring as well. (Phil, my buddy, what’s for dinner?) The Jackson Hurricanes are new team from Jackson, NJ. The Lake Forest Titans are a local team and they were the runner-ups in last spring’s Heat at the Beach tournament. The Baymen Red Sox are from Central Islip, NY. I don’t recall them playing here in 2007. The Delaware Destroyers are an upstate team that played in 3 tournaments at Sports at the Beach in 2007. Another new team is the Wall Makos out of Wall Township, NJ. I understand that they are actually a 13U team playing up this weekend. There are actually two other teams playing up this tournament. The Delaware Warriors 13U are a local team that won many Sports at the Beach championships as a 12U team. The Baymen Storm 13U are from Lake Ronkonkoma, NY (somebody tell ME this weekend exactly how to pronounce that, please). I show them as a new team, but I know the coach has been here before. The final two teams are the Germantown Black Hawks and the GAC Hawks both hailing from Germantown, MD. I show both teams as new teams, but the Black Hawks coach was here in 2006 with a team.
Where do I go with this bracket? Truth be told, I am going with Baymen Clippers. I know the New Jersey Mariners Blue have a trophy from last summer but….
See you Saturday!!!!
Okay, here we are 12 days away!! I am excited for the new season to begin. I have my Shamrock Shootout preview roughed out but I need some good tidbits of information on your teams. Help me out here, folks!! Talk to me!!
Players, did you know Sports at the Beach has a MySpace page? We will be updating that page frequently. Champions, pictures, videos, you never know when you might be on there!! Any suggestions for the MySpace, let us know.
My, oh My, how the winter has flown by! We are 16 days away from the first games of the 2008 Sports at the Beach tournament season.
We have had a very exciting off season here at Sports at the Beach. New fields, new concession buildings, additions to the Welcome Center, numerous trips to different clinics and the such.
Let’s start with the field and concession situation. Sports at the Beach has completed a reconfiguration of eight new fields on the complex. That brings our total to 16 fields. For those of you who have played here previously, we took the side of the complex that had the five fields and totally redid that side. Now there are 2 pods of 4 fields with concession buildings and bathrooms, etc. Absolutely beautiful! (Okay I’m bragging, but I’m allowed)
The Welcome Center now has an addition on the back. We needed more space in the gift shop for more equipment and other items. Little bit more elbow room, so to speak!!
Another new addition to our complex is our new trolley! Yes I said trolley. Nothing worse than parking and lugging all that equipment (either baseball stuff or the necessities, you know cooler, chairs, play toys for the younger ones) to the farthest field from the parking lot. Now you can throw the stuff on our trolley with “Dog” Donaway as your driver. Most of you know “Dog”, the good will ambassador/umpire of Sports at the Beach.
This winter, Jeff and I went to several venues to promote and speak about Sports at the Beach. We were in Vegas for the annual CABA meeting and Global Baseball Alliancemtgs. We then attended the ABCA Convention in Philadelphia where we had a booth and met many teams and individuals. Jeff and “Dog” were present for the “Be the Best You Are”clinic in Cherry Hill, NJ. (I skipped out on that one. I had “Grandma” duties. I did miss seeing you, though.) Then Jeff and “Dog” traveled out to Ohio to make a presentation to the CABA Southwest Ohio League. They had a great time meeting all those folks in Ohio. Jeff just came back from Illinois where he spoke at the Great Lakes Youth Sports Events meeting in Lynwood, IL. Thanks to Nancy & Fran for the invitation and the time set aside for Sports at the Beach. Jeff really is quite the traveller!!
Overall, Sports at the Beach has had an awesome winter!! We hope you have had one, also. We look forward to seeing you this season!!
P.S. I need team info, brags, etc. to start the weekend previews!!!!
Ok, day before we leave for the CABA convention is Las Vegas. We are all excited to see everyone out there.
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
I really need to get some pictures up on both the website and here. Four of the new fields are ready to sodded. As a matter of fact, tomorrow (Thursday) morning, the sod will be delivered and they begin to lay it on those fields.
The other 4 new fields are laid out and the backstops are in place. Hurray!!!
WEEKLONG UPDATES
Boy, what a response to our Summer Classic weeklongs!!!! We are moving right along with registrations. Weeks are filling up quickly and we expect to have maximum registrations by the end of January. If you are interested in one of our Summer Classic weeklongs, please visit the website and register.
The schedule is as follows:
Go directly to the Summer Classic Registration!!!
We will blog from Vegas!!!!
Well, the season ended and I took a breather!!! Wow, what a great season it was. I would say it was a successful season and we had over 1100 team here at Sports at the Beach over the eight month long season.
Give you an update for next season’s plans and possible goings on. As some of you who were here in the late fall season may have noticed, we had some heavy construction equipment moving around. We are increasing the number of fields here at Sports at the Beach. By the spring, we will have a total of 16 fields. The new fields were being laid out during the last three weekend tournaments. These additional fields will increase our capacity and we can continue to offer more teams the opportunity to play in our tournaments.
Just because the season is over doesn’t mean we aren’t out here working hard. Hopefully, I will see many of you at the various winter meetings and conventions that Sports at the Beach will be attending.
At the end of this month, we will taking a trip to Las Vegas for the CABA (Continental Amateur Baseball Association) Annual Meeting and the Global Baseball Alliance meeting being held at the Orleans.
The first weekend of January is the ABCA (American Baseball Coaches Association) Convention at the Philadelphia Convention Center. We will have a booth there and both Jeff, our director of Baseball Operations, and myself will be there. Stop by and see us. Also a part of the convention raffle, we will giving away a weekend tournament of your choice.
Two weekends after that, we will be in Cherry Hill, NJ at the Crowne Plaza for the Be the Best You Are Coaches Clinic. Looks to be a great three days there. Again stop by and see us, give us any updates on your teams, etc.
I am still looking for Frozen Ropes to set their Big Apple Bash Convention in Manhattan, NY. If they do, we will be there also.
If you know of a convention, clinic, or meeting that you think Sports at the Beach should attend to spread the word about our facility, let me know. We would love to go!!
I’m getting together the list of all the 2007 tournament champions and will be posting it here on the blog as well as the regular Sports at the Beach website.
Let me know you folks still think about baseball in the winter and drop me a comment or an email. Hope to see some of you at the clinics!!!!
In the 12U division, the South Jersey Bulldogs Maroon had an impressive showing in their championship weekend. They scored 49 runs while allowing only 17 runs over five games. The Bulldogs defeated the Shorebirds Black in the final game 12-4. All five teams in the 12U division had at least one win. The Sussex Sting continue to improve their game and are moving up in the standings every weekend. (Great job boys!!!) The Gambrills Athletic Club (love the sibling with headphones; I’ll get more pictures of you next season!!!!) and the South Jersey Bulldogs Black both had one win over the weekend.
The Tri State Arsenal South Blue are the Champions in the 13U division defeating the Indian Mills Chiefs in the final game. The seedings for this division were very interesting. Both Tri State Arsenal and Indian Mills Chiefs had a win and a tie during Saturday’s pool play. It actually gave them the bye’s on Sunday morning. The Delaware Rebels were playing in their first tournament and they made an great showing ending the tournament with a 2-2 record. They lost a close semi-final game against the Indian Mills Chiefs 2-4.
The Princeton Patriots were the Oktoberfest champions in the 14U division. The Patriots defeated the Titans Baseball Club in the final by a score of 10-2. (Sorry about the score being put in backwards.) The championship game had a slight delay in the 2nd inning when the Patriots pitcher was struck by a line drive. I haven’t gotten the official word on the extent of his injury. Hope the injury was not too serious.
The Delaware Roadrunners had a pretty good weekend ending with a 2-1-1 record. The tie game was with the eventual champions, Princeton Patriots.
The Tri State Arsenal South Blue were the champions in the 15/16U division. They defeated the Harford Sox in a very close game 5-4. The Lanco Cobras Blue had a 2-2 record for the weekend. (You guys really need to come down for a weeklong next summer). The Delaware Stingers (I am gonna keep talking about those uniform pants) had a 2-1 weekend.
Okay after the semi-finals were set, here are the updates:
Maryland Monarchs defeated the Shore Thunder 8-5 and
Delaware Blue Hens defeated the Boyertown Bears 10-2.
In the Consolation championship, the Sussex Sting stung the Mid Atlantic Wave 13-2. (Sussex Sting: Awesome!! I am very proud and excited for you!!!)
The 9 AM games completed and here is how we stack up.
The Harford Sox defeated the Mid Atlantic Wave in a close one 4-3. The Long Island Athletics fell to the Pennsylvania Panthers 13-5. The Delaware Stingers won over the Diamond Jacks 4-1.
The 11:30 games were then set with the Delaware Stingers vs Shorebirds Black, Pennsylvania Panthers vs Shorebirds 14U Black, Harford Sox vs Diamond Kings, and the Delaware Outlaws facing the Tri State Arsenal South Blue.
The Shorebirds Black beat the Stingers 3-1, the Panthers defeated the Shorebirds 14U Black 6-1, the Diamond Kings squeaked out one over the Harford Sox 4-3, and the Tri State Arsenal South Blue defeated the Delaware Outlaws 5-0.
So right now, we have the Tri State Arsenal playing the Shorebirds Black on field 7 and the Diamond Kings facing the Pennsylvania Panthers on field 6.