MICHIGAN CUP 2010
The Saginaw Old Golds led every inning on a cool/wet Saturday afternoon (9/25/2010)
but the 1st and last inning of two games. Going for their 3rd straight Michigan
Cup at
Carroll Park in Bay City, Saginaw found themselves down 4-0 after one inning.
Manager
Richard “Professor” Curry got tired of watching the Rochester “Grangers”
dropping in
balls just over the infield so he had his outfielders play shallow the rest
of the way. This
resulted in helping Chuck “Ducky” Mahan toss 5 straight shutout
innings & the Golds
running up a 19-4 lead and a final 19-10 win. It was reminiscent of the 21-6
game with
the “Grangers’ in last years Michigan Cup final won by Saginaw.
The “Grangers” only
lost 3 games out of 18 this season before this game and earlier in the year
beat Saginaw
21 to 10 at the Rochester Farm. This tournament game was the Gold’s 18th
win, a team
record (18-12). Captain Adam “Squints” McCauley, John “Lumberjack”
Piersall, and
Dennis “Vanilla Gorilla” Konuszewki led the way, all going 4 for
4. Brandon “Bull Dog”
Daig and Toby “Scoops” Larkin working together made numerous outstanding
plays as
the 3rd/Short combination. The Finals pitted Saginaw against a powerful La-De-Dah
team
out of Greenfield Village with their pitcher the “Pirate”. Richard,
“He lays in more junk
then Sanford & Sons.” “He does all this pitching while saying
“ARRGH” to the very
end. This is one day he even outdid himself, nearly running his catcher “Oxbow”
ragged
with balls flying past/over/under & every which way but loose. “Ossy”
at game’s end
looked like Michael Spinks after meeting Mike Tyson in ’88. The ‘Golds’
started out by
hammering in 8 runs in the 1st inning & led 10 to 2 after 6. A dropped ball
(with two out
in the 7th) in the outfield led to 5 of 7 runs by the Da’s and a reduced
the game to a one
run lead by Saginaw. The Da’s shortstop Matt “Mad Dog” Valant
slap hit his way on
every single time. It drives the Golds daffy. The ninth found Saginaw up 13
to 9
(John “Hound” Smith drove in two during Saginaw’s last at
bat), but the bottom two for
the Da’s in their lineup hit hard line drives and the 9th inning lead
evaporated into a 15-
13 loss & 2nd place. Richard “That one really hurt, but they know
who the best two teams
are in this state”. Rookie John Smith, McCauley, Ryan “Britches”
Dost, Sonny “Hustler”
Guerra, and Chad “Shorty” Short rapped out three hits each for the
Golds. Dost &
McCauley totaled 7 hits each for the two games (not bad for hitting out of the
Carroll
Park Fox Hole), Piersall and Konuszewski 6 & Larkin came thru with 5 putouts.
Jayme
Johnson put on a great Tournament and the food provided was phenomenal. Saginaw
retired to Heck’s Bar with Harold Campeau buying food & drinks. The
team gave
Richard a bat to thank him for the season and setting up the trip to Cooperstown.
There
was one game ball issued this weekend & it went to the team’s wonderful
photographer
Nicole Tesch who is undergoing some medical issues. She will continue to be
in our
prayers.