Jim Saska and 2015 Cubs win Capital of Confederacy title!

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The competitive game of APBA must be getting big.  The same day of the Illowa APBA League All-Star Game, Jim Saska hosted the second Capital of the Confederacy Tournament in Richmond, Virginia. 

On October 15th, Jim organized and hosted the tourney.  He was nice enough to send a wrap-up.  Here it is…

Last Saturday afternoon (Oct 15) at 1 pm, the Capital of the Confederacy Tournament began with the 1948 Indians hosting the 2015 Cubs and the 1998 Yankees visiting the 1995 Braves. The Cubs, managed by Jim Saska, managed to hit four homeruns (Rizzo-2, Bryant 1, and Soler 1) to back a stellar effort by Jon Lester in a 6-2 triumph. Bob Feller took the loss for the Indians, who struck out 11 through 7 innings of work. The Braves and the Yankees played an exciting game that went 10 innings with the Braves pulling out a 5-4 win. Fred McGriff’s homerun in the bottom of the eleventh was the difference. Borbon picked up the win in relief of starter Tom Glavine, while Mariano Rivera had a rare bad game, giving up the tying and winning runs in one plus innings of work.

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The second round saw the Cubs hosting the Braves, while the Indians traveled to Yankee Stadium to take on the Indians. In the Cubs-Braves game, Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta took the bump for the Bruins against former Cub Greg "Batboy" Maddux for the Braves. Both teams scored a pair of runs in the first, with the Braves taking a 4-2 lead in the top of the third on a two-run homer by Dave Justice. However, in the bottom of the third, Anthony Rizzo led off by getting hit by a pitch, and the next batter, Miguel Montero, jacked a two-run homerun to right field. The next batter, Soler, ripped a solo homerun off of Maddux to make it 5-2 in favor of the men in blue pinstripes. The Cubs proceeded to add to their lead in the bottom of the seventh when Montero hit a grand slam homerun off of Maddux (preview of what was to come in real life about seven hours later) to make it 9-4 Cubs. Starter Arrieta made that stick for the winning Cubs.

In the Yankees-Indians game, the two teams took turns scoring one run with the Yankees getting one in the first, followed by Cleveland in the fourth. The Yankees went ahead in the sixth on a Tino Martinez homerun, but Cleveland tied it in the seventh. The game stayed knotted at two each until the 18th inning when Jim Hegan blasted a two-run homer as Cleveland scored three times to beat the Yanks 5-2.

At the end of the day, the Cubs won the tournament with a perfect 2-0 record, with Cleveland and Atlanta tied for second at 1-1, and the Yankees bringing up the rear at 0-2.

Thanks to everyone who came, it was an exciting day!

Congrats, Jim and thanks for the writeup!!

Thomas Nelshoppen

I am an IT consultant by day and an APBA media mogul by night. My passions are baseball (specifically Illini baseball), photography and of course, APBA. I have been fortunate to be part of the basic game Illowa APBA League since 1980 as well as the BBW Boys of Summer APBA League since 2014. I am slogging through a 1966 NL replay and hope to finish before I die.

One Comment:

  1. Congrats Jim! The 2015 Cubs are champions at two tournaments now. Hope that’s an omen.

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