International Stickball
League
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Official Thirst Quencher Thank you Melo! The Official Food The Official Magazine Publisher
of our Exhibition games in Panama! Provider for Stickball in Panama! for Panama Stickball News!
Friendly reminder about the upcoming Miami Labor Day Tournament. Don't wait until it's too late!
Hosted by the Miami Stickball League: Click here for more info!
USA Stickball Today
July 12th, 2009
Champions of Florida!
Orlando Skybounce!
Congratulations Sky Bounce
Here are the results:
Round One: Tampa Lightnings versus Orlando Skybounce
The Tampa Bay Lightnings brought All-Star veteran Outfielder "Big Lou" from Miami to help get past Orlando's Sky Bounce . After 18 innings of play, yes 18 INNINGS, Orlando was able to pull out a 4-2 victory. Marcos Santiago had tremendous pressure as the All-Star Shortstop and team Captain had injured players to manage through one of the longest playoff games in Stickball history. The Lightnings took a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning, which would be tied during the bottom of the 5th with a close play at the plate. 13 innings later the Orlando Skybounce turned on the pressure by scoring 3 big runs. The lightnings posed a serious threat in the bottom of the 18th as they scored another run, but eventually folded with 3 outs.
Tremendous credit to the Lightnings as they depleted their bench before one of the best hitters (Manny) fractured his ankle. With the bench depleted, his at bat was an out each time.
Round One: Tampa Chargers versus Deltona Rockets
After watching 18 hours of defensive plays (above game), both the Chargers and Rockets were penetrating through their respective defenses with line drives and deep shots into the outfield. The Deltona Rockets had additional fuel power with Tony (Miami) locking down the entire 3rd base corner. Hard play & hustle from the Chargers all year long was also evident during this one game elimination playoff match, but the Deltona Rockets could care less about their regular season mismatch against Tampa (Rockets winless versus the Chargers all year) as they felt confident that their 10 plus years of experience could defuse the league's best team all year long during this one playoff game. Experience did prevail in this case.
The Championship: The Deltona Rockets vs. Orlando's Sky Bounce
Game 1: Experienced Manager Manny Padilla (Selected to Manage Team USA) placed more emphasis on defense all year long. Reinforced by Albie Santiago's opening huddle comments "It's our defense that brought us here today, and we will win with our defense today". The Orlando Skybounce needed all the defense they could get as key hitters were not having their best offensive games. The first game went scoreless into the 6th inning before Albie hit a double and was brought in by a sacrifice fly by Michael Kotsikas. 1-0 Skybounce
Game 2: Rockets jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning which would be tied later in the 6th inning by Sky Bounce. But the Rockets launched a few more missiles through the sky which penetrated right through Orlando's strong defensive system, which had not been done all day long. Rockets celebrated the 3-1 victory and forced the final game of the playoffs.
The Final Game: After 43 innings of play and a long day of stickball (7.5 hours) in the Florida sun (with threats of rain), the Orlando Sky Bounce would take the final game of the year to win the Florida Stickball League Championship Series. After a controversial play at first (an overthrow) by the Rockets into the middle of the infield towards home plate which forced the umpires to review the rules and bring back Sky Bounce runners to 2nd and 3rd base, a fired up Jay Tirado (Sky Bounce 2nd baseman) hit a scorching line drive past the Rocket's shortstop to score in the two runs giving Sky Bounce the 3-1 victory. Three outs later, the Orlando Sky Bounce players celebrated on the field with bottles of champaign and the traditional dumping of the ice cooler on veteran Speedy Lopez and Manager Manny Padilla.
Records broken: 1. Most innings played in a playoff game 18 (Sky Bounce and Lightnings)
2. Championships won in different leagues-4 by Albie Santiago (Emperors, San Diego West Coast League, The Manhattan, and Florida Stickball Leagues. Followed by 3 (Rich Mojica) Emperors Stickball League, Florida Stickball League, and the Bronx Stickball League.
3. First Manager/Coach to win in two different leagues-Manny Padilla, Florida Stickball League and The Emperors Stickball League in New York City with the Gold.
See updated links related to the event:
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=103047
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090327&content_id=4077540&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/mar/28/na-yankee-hits-ybor-street-for-a-game-of-stickball/
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-alpreview&prov=ap&type=lgns
http://snap.tbo.com/photos/index.php?id=2258828
International Stickball News!!
Tuesday, March 17th
Congratulations to our Exhibition Team USA and Team Panama for having
a successful week in Panama!
The Panama Arrival Video has been uploaded. Click here to view it.
The Indian Village Video has been uploaded. Click here to view it.
The Kids Program Video has been uploaded. Click here to view it.
Team USA and Team Panama being Introduced to Panama!
United We Play, United We Stand
A wonderful week in Panama was finished by an exciting and somewhat emotional game for both teams!
After a formal introduction of Team USA to the Chicago Bulls theme song and a formal introduction of Team Panama to their native song Patria, the two teams let their playing represent their countries.
Team USA was scoreless into the fourth inning after Angel "Dusty" Quinnones (Co-Captain America) hit a towering shot 400 plus feet into center field but was thrown out at home plate by a perfect Panamanian relay. This will be known as "The Play" (see photos below)
During the bottom of the 4th inning, Team Panama took the first lead by hitting a homerun into left field. (See photo
below...)
At this point, 1st baseman Michael Kotsikas and 3rd baseman Rich Mojica from Team USA looked at each other with Team Puerto Rico is now officially a member of the International Stickball League Team Costa Rica? Exhibition Team USA will be returning to the Dominican Republic with a few players from Team Panama and Team Puerto Rico during June. The goal is to play an exhibition game with both countries in Romana Dominican Republic and more importantly to conduct clinics for the inner city kids.
concern. However, eventually the pressure applied by Team USA proved to be a little too much for the recently
established Team Panama. Homeruns hit by Ruben Garcia of Puerto Rico and Co-Captain Angel Quinonnes of New
York City (3 each for the day) help bring Team USA to 7-1 and 7-3 victories over Team Panama respectively. Both players were named Co-MVPs.
The day was finished by awards and shirts being exchanged by Team USA and Team Panama players. In addition, a
very emotional and moving speech offered by Angel Quinonnes Jr.
Stickball T-Shirts? $10.00
MVP Trophy? $40.00
Stickball in Panama??
PRICELESS!!!
_________________________________________________________________
International Teams for 2009
Click on each country photo below for additional details
Team PANAMA joined the International Stickball League on November 2008...
Team Dominican Republic joined the International Stickball League on February 23, 2009
The ISL Board will be having a strategy session to determine exactly which country we will teach in November. Candidates include Costa Rica or Colombia which will partner with Panama, or Curacao which can easily partner with Venezuela. The decision will be announced after the Memorial Day tournament.
Click above for International Click above to see the Home Field
League Tournament I details of International League Tournament II
(July 2011)
Quote of the week:
"It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference"
Tom Brokaw-Journalist (1940- )
Rich Mojica
MySpace Link
