CABA World Series

August 3, 2003, brought to an end the CABA 15 year-old World Series that has been hosted in Crystal Lake, Illinois, since 1993. Once again, as has been the case since 1994, the Fox Valley Blues umpire association covered 154 games in eight days; many of which were covered with 3-man crews. Here are the highlights from 2003:

Winning this year’s tournament was Seattle WA…crushing East Cobb GA 18-7 (?). Working the Final crew were Danny Mathews (UIC-3^rd CABA Final), Jamie Still (1B-3^rd Final), Mark Pickrel (2B – 1^st Final), Timmy Cornwell (3B – 1^st), John Vito (LF, 1^st) and Jeremy Flury (RF, 1^st). In keeping with tradition, FVB continues to rotate new umpires onto the Final game, while maintaining balance with a couple of vets.
The Consolation was won by one of the 19 Illinois teams competing. Working the Consolation Final were Jamie Gonzalez, Stephen Swank, and Johnny Vito…nice job guys.
The tournament opened Saturday morning with the usual race to see who would be the first umpire in the parking lot. Jeff Collis had a chance for the title but was side-tracked to respond to Jaime Gonzalez’s flat tire in the middle of Route 14 in Crystal Lake. Not that it mattered; Danny Mathews was seen arriving first, straight from his return trip from Boston the night before.
CABA 2003 will be remembered as the Thor Guard tournament. Hats off to the Lippold Park complex for having a great device in place but many still wondered how the warning could go off with clear blue skies. Jaime Gonzalez also proved to be the human Thor Guard halting the Puerto Rico/CL Cyclones game before Thor Guard even had a chance to sound.
Many first year CABA umpires enjoyed their maiden experience:

Dave Fisk – Worked the dish in his first CABA game and was able to see the eventual champions from Seattle hit 5 home runs that day.
Jim Ayers – Was ready, willing and able every step of the way and even decided to wear a chest protector for CABA.
Tom Zimmerman – This guy did everything in his power to debunk the toaster rumor! Tom and Henry Clay had a nice tournament, working several high profile and three man mechanics games in his first year with FVB. Nice job Zimm…and your zone is not tight, but it’s not big!
Frank Petricca – Not only this guy visibly nervous, but worked several key games down the stretch…and he didn’t f**k them up!

Veteran umpiring continued to be the cornerstone of another CABA tourney:

James “Earl Anthony” Beveridge won best dressed umpire honors with his black wrist-guard accessory. Due to his healing wrist injury, no players had to worry about being hit by a ceremonial first pitch.
Jim Ellison proved to be a workhorse once again when he found the time between rounds of golf. Jimmy is also recognized for throwing the first player out for drawing “three lines” in the dirt on him. Jimmy, do you think he had a valid gripe?
Jeff “Sammy” Collis once again proved that it’s possible to umpire with excellence while assigning the 150+ games into all hours of the night and morning. We all know though that his source of inspiration to staying up late can be credited to him having diaper changing responsibilities.
Bert “BP” Person continued to show why he was named FVB’s high school umpire of the year and taught all of us the mechanic’s of calling someone out at the plate from 90-feet away.

FVB also showed that although they have great umpires, they may not have the fastest umpires as John Vito, Jaime Gonzalez and Danny Mathews were all hit by batted balls while working the bases. Jim Beveridge will be conducting a session at next years training for you guys to develop “Cat like” reflexes.
Besides Thor Guard, CABA 2003 will be remembered for long evenings on the fields and not just in the parking lots. Many games were delayed in their start times with two of them being completed at almost one in the morning. It was quite amazing that the semi-final on Saturday evening was even completed as the Reunion Tour hit full stride with Jim Beveridge, Jim Ellison, Jeff Collis and Dave Weglarz. Actually they looked more like the AARP Tour as they walked off the field at 1:30am and they all agreed that it was JB’ toaster oven strike-zone that was responsible for the length of the game and not Thor Guard.
Question: What do you call six guys with guns and spotlights at night?
- Answer: In Alabama you call them CoonHunters; at Lippold Park you call them State Police. The cops finally figured out what we have known for ages, that is Jimmy E. and Jimmy B. are always up to no good. In reality, there was a break-in at the soccer storage unit and our two wily vets were pulled over for questioning. Now we know how they sweet talk their ways out of these late nights with their spouses.
In one of the lighter moments of the tournament…during one of our many ThorGard delays, one of the Blues pulled out a watermelon and started carving it up in the parking lot for the 15 guys hanging. Out of nowhere, Charles Dan pipes in “Hey, why’s everyone looking at me?!?” When a fresh cut slice was passed to Charles, he piped “My how times have changed when a white man brings me a piece of watermelon!”. Good times were had by all!!!
One tradition that seemed to pick up more steam this year was the branding of nicknames. Three good ones that come to mind are “Scuba” Stephen Swank, Mark “Eye Black” Pickrel, and of course our new favorite, Tim “Skippy Provolone” Cornwell. Of course, it’s easier to hang a nickname on a guy who brings his “A Game” to the field. Scuba Steve was given every opportunity to fall on his face during the tournament and all he did was respond to every call and showed that he probably has the best timing at the dish as anyone in the association. He even came through by tossing a kid after he tossed his bat over the fence landing on the scorer’s table after striking out to end the game. Work on that ejection mechanic Steve. Eye Black showed why he won the “Big Cat’ Hustle award. Mark capped off a terrific tournament by calling a balk call from deep “C” position to put the first runs on the board during the championship game. I’m sure your parents are proud of you as we are. Skippy also came through to show why he was the “Steve Wammer Pride Award” winner. Tim graciously took his new nickname in stride by having a near flawless tournament.
Not only did Johnny Vito have a great tournament as well culminating with a spot in the championship game, he also earned honors as best parking lot attendant by supplying drinks, grill, and camaraderie. He also saved Randy McCafferty from winning the “Worst Dressed” award by running to the parking lot to get a black hat to match his black uniform. Randy, they say umpires are blind, not color blind.
Jaime Gonzalez cemented his “Top Prospect” award during CABA week by stepping up to every challenge and for making available to us the biggest cooler ever made in North America. If they are still looking for Jimmy Hoffa I think I know where they can find him. Jaime also earned kudos for being our on-field interpreter during the Mexico and Puerto Rico games.
A new tradition was also started on championship morning as Danny Mathews (UIC/HP) took his crew out for a pre-game breakfast at Richard Walker’s where Johnny Vito (LF), Eye Black Pickrel (2B), and Jeremy Flury (RF) were all entertained by Skippy Cornwell’s (3B) parenting stories. Jamie “Webmaster” Still (1B) joined the guys at Vet’s Acres for a pre-game field check and the usual all points covered pre-game. By all accounts, no calls or rotations were missed and by Danny’s own admission, only two pitches were missed although he argues that they weren’t missed since they were called strikes. (Editor’s note….I’m gonna puke!)
As Danny and Jimmy E were the first two to show to start CABA week they were the last two to leave CABA week as they were last seen drinking sodas in the back of Danny’s Blazer in the Vet’s Acres parking lot trying to avoid the flash flood that ensued a couple hours after the game was complete.
Taylor Molitoris from East Cobb, Georgia was the winner of the 2003 “Hats Omachi” Award. Taylor showed that sportsmanship and hustle are two of the valued qualities of CABA participants.
A CABA recap is never complete without mentioning the man himself, EnRico Heirman. Once again, EnRico showed why the Crystal Lake CABA Tournament is the “Greatest Show on Dirt” as he and his crew of hundreds showed why Crystal Lake won the Most Outstanding CABA Tournament Host Award in 2002. Congrats also goes to EnRico’s managing skills as his team advanced to the Championship Bracket and beat Puerto Rico after what may have been the longest rain delay in CABA history.

Finally, from the UIC (Useless Information Center) Home Office:

Five Umpires have worked every year since 1994: Jeff Collis, Jimmy Ellison, Curt Bremer, Dave Weglarz and Screamin’ Gene Shuler.
The Top 10 List for most CABA games worked now looks like this: Collis, Ellison, Bremer, Beveridge, Maczka, Person, “Ratman”, Wegs, Wammer, Buickel.
John Boyd relinquishes his claim to fame for most games worked in a CABA Tournament as Danny Mathews made up for some lost time during the summer while busy assigning and worked 21 games; many of which were gratis to get 3-man experience for himself and his partners. Despite the stellar showing, Danny barely was able to crack the Top 15 all time.
35 officials have now worked on the Final Championship Crew which spans 10 years and 14 games.