John Duke took this year’s tournament using the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates.  It’s his second title in two years.  He won in 2007 with the 1927 Yankees.

Congrats John!

The NYT focused a lot on Brian Wells, a 16-year old.

“This is a really nerdy place,” said Brian Wells, the spiky-haired teenager whom nobody in the tournament wants to face. “It’s fun, but it’s nerdy.”

Haha, I remember from the last time I went to an APBA convention.  Brian was a tad younger then.  I’m glad he’s still coming despite the nerdiness. This year, he made it as far as the semi-finals.

The Times even devoted a page on The Basics of APBA, a short tutorial on the game of APBA.

Update: Wow, there are TWO articles about APBA in the New York Times on the same day:  Where Puccinelli is as good as Bonds

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Congrats to Chuck Lucas (right) who won the IAL 2008 World Series.  Here he is being presented the trophy by IAL commish Mike Bunch.

Mike Bunch and his East Moline Bombers picked Evan Longoria for the second pick of the draft. 

The first 5 picks of the draft:

Soto, Longoria, Volquez, Jurrjens, and Chamberlain.

Despite what it says on Teddy’s shirt, that’s exactly what he did, losing in the first round of the playoffs.  To add insult to injury, he’s currently down 2-1 to me in our first series of 2009. 

More IAL draft weekend photos here.

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I was re-organizing my photo gallery this afternoon and I ran across some photos from the 2002 APBA Convention.  I remember this trip fondly.  My buddy Brando and I drove out to Lancaster for the convention.  On the way and on way back we saw some minor league games.  The home teams we saw were the Indianapolis Indians, Reading Phillies, Harrisburg Senators plus the big league Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Plus we got some APBA played.  We were in the middle of our 1979 NL replay and we took time out at roadside parks to play a series or two. 

heh, then there was the tournament at the APBA convention.  I had the Milwaukee Braves of ’65 I believe.  I remember thinking that Joe Torre and his APBA smarts would bring me luck. 

Nope, Eric Naftaly and his ’59 Giants took care of me pretty well in the first round. 

If memory serves, 2002 was the year the kid won the tournament.  Does anyone remember his name? 

I uploaded all the photos I found to the IAL photo gallery.  Take a look. 

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