A Great Silver Anniversary!!! PLAY BAll!!!

The Roy Hobbs World Series just finished its 25 year where amateur  ballplayers from all over can play on Major League turf. This is the wrapup I wrote for "The Inside Pitch" our daily newspaper for players.

The 25 anniversary year of the Roy Hobbs World Series is now in the record books with a record turnout of 232 teams.

          And as usual, it was four weeks of renewing old friendship and making new ones.

          The marks the first year of a new division—Forever Young—those young fellows of 75-years-plus who are still kids at heart.

          This was the inaugural year for the Roy Hobbs Baseball Hall of fame.

          Seventeen joined the initial class…guys who over the years have shown their love and devotion to the game…not only on the field, but mentoring and promoting baseball at the Hobbs tournament and on their home fields.

          Next year more Roy Hobbs participants will be added when nominations are voted on by the Hobbs trustees and members of the initial class.

          This silver anniversary year was also a great one for an “outside” player—Cupid.

          Old Cupid went to the plate three times and hit three homeruns as three players married or announced their engagement during the Series (no, not to each other).

          The weatherman cooperated nicely this year with only a heavy downpour at Jet Blue Stadium which interrupted the schedule there for one day.

          The construction project at Hammond Stadium went on with no problems that were noted, although it was a bit hard for fans to figure out the inning and score because the scoreboard wasn’t working. And we wouldn’t play night games at Hammond since we had no lights during the work.

          Our oldest player in the Forever Young Division was 82-year-old Richard Pavlak. Our youngest player in the Unlimited Division was the Puerto Rico Astros’ Kelvin Padin, 20.

          In the Women’s Division there were two 15-year-olds,Jenna Hillman and Dani Strejc of the Chicago Pioneers.

          Also there was a bit of drama in the Women’s Division when Kyra Van Genderen arrived from Holland expecting to play on a New Mexico Team. But that team failed to show up for the Series and nobody got hold of Kyra.

          But she hooked up with the D.C. team and played ball.

          There are many highlights and first in the 25 years of Roy Hobbs baseball.

          We not only added players from other countries, but teams from overseas. Two guys who Germany played with a Dayton team. But in 2008 21 German players showed up with only 4 from Dayton. The Germans took on their own name “The Red Barons.”

          We have a team from Russia and one year had a team from Holland. And the Series has added teams from the Dominican Republic and, of course, from Canada.

          In The 23^rd Roy Hobbs Series, William Michael Dillon played his first ball game in 30 years. He had just spend 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. And he wasn’t bitter about his fate. He said he “felt like a baby born in a new world.”

          A new feature in the Hobbs Series was added recently. Players can opt to use the clubhouse with all its amenities…food, shower, trainers…just like the major league boys who play their spring training games on the same fields.

          As one player described it, “It’s living a major leaguer for a week.”

          Of course reunions are many. When the Vaughn Furriers showed up for the 20^th Hobbs Series, the team had last played together in 1962 when they won the Nova Scotia junior baseball title in the Canadian Halifax Minor League Baseball Association.

          Then there’s Dr. Alfred Ayala and Dr. Juan Carlos A. Guilar who played together for the first time in 25 years. After graduating from medical school Juan came to Miami to practice while Alfred opened his practice in Puerto Rico. Thanks to his sister, Alfred heard about Juan and called him. And they had their reunion in Ft. Myers.

          The Family Division in 2005 brought together fathers and sons and daughters. Among those family member were two former major league players, Bill “Spaceman” Lee and Mike Caldwell who brought their sons with them. 

          There have been a bit of misfortune for some players. Take the New Jersey team in 2006. Their equipment was shipped via UPS. But when the team arrived the shipment was nowhere to be found.

They turned to Ellen and Tom Giffen for help. “Out of the goodness of their heart they loaded us Knight uniforms jersey, Manager Jeff Schwartz said. Their equipment showed up 3 days later.

          For its 21^st years anniversary, the RHWS Pro Shop featured a deck of cards, with the back featuring the Hobbs Logo. The Faces consisted of the 20 previous Series program cover. There are three jokes in the deck—one with a photo of Ellen Giffen as Rosie the baseball clown and a photo of Tom Giffen and their dog,  Hobbs along with a photo of the late Todd Windhorst the clown, a symbol of  clown everywhere.

          And let’s not leave the women out. Not only those who take part in playing in the Woman’s Division, but those wives and girlfriends who are the real power behind those bats.

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