USE OF METRODOME HIGHLIGHTS DOME TOURNAMENT

March 1, 2010 – Steve Simmons New England & North Regional Director, Clubs & Leagues

TWIN CITIES, MN – The SSUSA North Region Recreational February Dome Tournament, played on February 25-26, was enhanced by using the Hubert H Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN. 2010 is the fifth year a senior softball tournament has been held in the Twin Cities but this is the first year the Metrodome has been utilized as one of the playing sites.

Steve Simmons, the tournament director for all eight of the dome tournaments that have been held over that five year span, said, “I expected the use of the Metrodome to be a hit because of the novelty aspect of playing in a Major League facility, but I never expected it to elicit the emotions and excitement I witnessed. There were more flash bulbs popping and pictures being taken than you would find at a wedding or a family reunion. It was like the movie ‘Cocoon’, the seniors on the field were transformed into little kids again (even more so than usual). I overheard one grizzled veteran player say, ‘I got so nervous just setting foot on a big league ball field!’

The feedback was unanimous everyone enjoyed the experience and have encouraged me to make the same arrangements in the future, despite the increased costs due to the high rental rate. Now that the Twins have moved to their new home I hope to be able to make these arrangements annually, or at least as long as the Metrodome stays standing.”

The arrangements, at least this year’s, entailed playing games at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30…AM! There were four college doubleheaders scheduled in the dome starting Thursday morning at 7:00 AM and ending Friday morning at 2:15 AM. There were four more scheduled to start later Friday morning at 7:00 AM. This left a window of opportunity from 2:30 AM to 6:30 AM and the decision was made to reserve these times and hope for the best. The best happened!

Eight of the 12 teams in the tournament got to play a game in the Metrodome. The first question asked, by those that were not in attendance, was, “Did anyone put one out?” The answer was an emphatic YES!

Garry Morris, playing for the Ancell (MN) team in the competitive division, bombed one in the seats down the left field line right over the 343’ sign. Morris, age 56, plays for the nation’s top senior softball tournament team, the California Seacrest Mavericks, the country’s number one ranked 50 Major Plus team.

Morris’ drive was hit fair down the left field line, just inside the foul pole. Later in the morning Vince Bruce, 50 years old, of the Omaha (NE) Godfathers also hit one in the left field seats but it was just outside the foul pole in foul territory. Maybe more impressive was a drive Bruce hit earlier in the game that one-hopped the baggy in right center field, closer to the 408’ sign than the 327’ sign. It was estimated that the fence was about 375’ from home plate where he bounced one off the plastic.

Two other long range shots came off the bats of a pair of left handers from Ancell. Steve Pease also one-hopped the right field fence but his drive was much closer to the 327’ sign than Bruce’s. Tony Udean launched one to straight away center field that might have hit the tarp in right had it been pulled down the line.

Morris and Bruce, both competing in the competitive division, may have provided the offensive highlights of the tournament but the top defensive plays came in a couple of recreation division games at the Holy Angels Star Dome in Richfield, MN. The “Fighting Woodticks” (MN) entered the top of the seventh inning of their game against “We’ve Got The Runs” (MN) protecting a two-run lead. “We’ve Got The Runs” loaded the bases with nobody out and appeared on their way to a big inning. That’s when Mike Foley, the “Woodticks” first baseman, came up with the game winning play. Foley fielded a grounder and tagged the runner coming off first base for one out, then stepped on the bag for out number two, and fired home for a game ending triple play!

Equaling Foley’s fielding magic was the matchup between Mark Lilledahl of the “Cream Puffs” (MN), playing the rover position in the field, and Tammie Picton who was the batter for “We’ve Got The Runs”. Lilledahl was recently voted MVP of this winter’s Minnesota Twins Fantasy Camp. A fellow player in Lilledahl’s senior softball league, Rick Olson, is a Minnesota Twins employee and he helped make the arrangements to get Lilledahl enrolled in the camp. Lilledahl had the time of his life and made a tremendous catch on a drive hit by Ron Coomer, a former Twins player, which went a long way towards his MVP selection.

Lilledahl exhibited his MVP credentials against Picton, an outstanding women’s senior softball player. In her first time at bat Picton, a left handed hitter, scorched a line drive that normally would have been a gapper but Lilledahl, as the rover, positioned himself in that gap and made a tough catch to take a hit away from Picton. Picton’s second at bat was more of the same, another line drive that was picked off by Lilledahl, this time with a more difficult catch. In her third and final at bat Picton hit a blast that appeared no one would catch when it left her bat but the ball caromed off the dome roof in right field and Lilledahl robbed her a third time with an acrobatic catch that topped the first two. This catch was met with a chorus of good natured boos as the all male audience was rooting for Picton to beat Lilledahl at least once.

There were 12 teams in this dome tournament which was played in three different Twin Cities domes. The tournament field was broken into two six-team divisions, competitive and recreational. Basically the younger teams (by average age), and / or more skilled teams, were in the competitive division and the older teams were in the recreational division. All ages could be included on any team, as witnessed by 50-year-old Scott Hanson and 78-year-old Bob Lundegaard, the youngest and oldest players in the tournament.

The tournament format was a round-robin affair with every team playing each other once, within their respective divisions, for five games apiece. In this kind of format it could be that two teams in contention for the top spot could meet at any time in the tournament, including the very first game of the event. But this dome tournament had the good fortune of having the recreational championship game occur in the next-to-last game of recreational division play and having the competitive division championship game occur in the last game of that division’s schedule.

Both championship games lived up to their billing as both were decided by one-run apiece. These two games constituted two of just three one-run games in the whole 30 game tournament.

Defense played a big role in determining both titles. Ancell, an East Metro (MN) Senior Softball League team, used shut down defense to get to the title game undefeated. They held opponents to 9, 0, 2 and 2 runs in their four games prior to the championship matchup. An interesting side note, the team shut out by Ancell, Charlie Daniels’ KC Renegades (MO) who were rusty in their first game of the tournament against Ancell after a winter of dormancy, later recorded the most runs of the tournament when they put 25 up on the scoreboard.

In the competitive division championship game Ancell entered the bottom of the seventh inning against the Saints’ Seniors (MN), another undefeated East Metro team, trailing by six. Ancell rallied to score seven and win the game 17-16.

The recreational division championship also pitted two undefeated teams. One team was the Rochester Relics (MN), probably the favorite because their average age of 58 more approximated the competitive division teams and was 7 ½ years younger than Ron Nelson’s “Cream Puffs”, their opponent in the championship game and one of four West Metro (MN) Senior Softball League teams in the recreational division. The other three West Metro teams were a combined 4 and 11 in the tournament.

The “Cream Puffs” held a five run lead entering the seventh inning of their recreation division championship game. They staved off a four-run Rochester rally, assisted by Lilledahl’s defense in the middle as a rover, and came away with a well earned 15-14 victory.

This tournament was the first in 2010 on the SSUSA North Region Recreational Tournament Circuit. Tentative plans are in the works to try and hold another dome tournament, a one day event, on Friday, March 26 at the newly opened dome in Rochester, MN. The rest of the North region tournament schedule for 2010 is as follows:

* April 15-16; West Des Moines, IA

* July 20; Edina, MN

* July 21; Edina, MN (this is a one day event intended to be the SSUSA Minnesota 60-&-over Recreational State Tournament)

* August 4; Edina, MN (this is a one day event intended to be the SSUSA Minnesota 65-&-over Recreational State Tournament)

* September 7; Rochester, MN

* December 9-10; Twin Cities, MN (dome tournament)

For more information regarding these tournaments contact Steve Simmons (H) 952-470-9250, (C) 952-239-7674, (E) stnlsimmons@aol.com.