The
Maryland Orioles are the 2007 AABC 11 Year Olds Gil
Hodges World Series Champions
Story by: Max
Sanchez-Martinez
You can dare call these 11
year-old young men Little Leaguers, but you better
be aware that they do not play Little-League-Style
baseball. These young American amateur athletes play
Sandlot Baseball. They play baseball the Major
Leagues way. They steal bases on the pitcher and
they score on pass ball. The difference between
these young men and the Major Leaguers:
they play 75
feet bases; pitch at 50 feet from the mound compared
to the Majors’ 90’/60.5’ and they are 11 years old.
Brooklyn, New York - Under
the guidance of Frank LoPiccollo, they came from
all over the United States to represent their
neighborhoods, their towns, their counties.
They
arrived in Brooklyn, New York’s The
Our Lady of Grace
Gravesend Gil Hodges
(OLGAA), armed with only their gloves and their
bats, they put on their uniforms, ready to do
damages on the baseball field.
You can dare call
them Little Leaguers, but you better be aware
that they do not play Little League Baseball.
The 2007
American Amateur
Baseball Congress
(AABC) 11 Year Olds Gil Hodges World Series
competitions should have started on Friday,
August 10, 2007, but Mother Nature decided
otherwise by pounding Brooklyn with one of the
heaviest rainfall. However, three inches of rain
would not stop the determined
Grace Gravesend
crew from starting the Saturday morning, 8:00
a.m., baseball games on all three baseball
fields.
The local media was nowhere to be found, since it
was “no news worthy” to report. But, these 11 year
olds were looking not for publicity, they were
looking forward to play
baseball for the
ultimate prize: the Championship.
It was easy for the
Brooklyn locals, since they knew the New York City
Subways and the short cuts to the baseball field.
All the likes of the Brooklyn natives: Host teams’
Grace Gold, the Spring creek Angels and the 78th
Pct. Bulldogs were happy to make it to the World
Series, but it was more fun for the out-towners who
enjoyed their stay in the Big Apple, for the first
time.
And on they played the
American Pass-time in the-well-accommodated Gil
Hodges and Grace Baseball fields for four days, from
August 11 to August 14, 2007.
From the start of the
tournament, the
Maryland Orioles of
Baltimore
assumed control. On a mission to repeat what the
Olney Maryland Pirates had accomplished a year,
earlier, the Orioles enjoyed an early easy victory
over the Raiders of Ridgewood New Jersey, however,
they had to fight their way to the final game of the
2007 World Series.
At the same token,
the
Atlanta Heat of
Georgia
were experiencing a harder time when they
received their first defeat of the short series
at the hands of the Dallas Blue Sox of Texas. By
the third day of the AABC Gil Hodges World
Series, only one team remained undefeated.
The Orioles
entered the third day of the tournaments as the
only team which had not experienced a defeat.
Consequently, the last remaining four baseball
teams, which had not got booted out of town, the
Clarkstown Stars of New Jersey, the Dallas Blue
Sox of Texas, the Connecticut Naturals and the
Atlanta Heat of Georgia, were all ready to send
each other home.
On August 13, the
Blue Sox got eliminated by the Orioles. Soon
after, the Nationals sent the Stars home to New
Jersey. By the end of the day, the Nationals
were packing to go home after the Heat hedged
them in the 7th inning of the semi
final game of one of the most exciting game of
the day, as the Heat qualified to face the
Orioles for the Grand Prize on the next day at
Grace Field.
On August 14th,
the Heat jumped to an easy early lead in the
championship game that one of the umpires was
quick to remind the Orioles that there were no
mercy in the championship game.
In order for the
Heat to go South with the ultimate prize, the
very talented Atlanta team must surpass the
equally matched Maryland team, twice. For the
first few innings, it seemed that American
Amateur Athletes would have to video stream a
double header. But, teammates Troy Stokes and
Matt Bougourd of
the Orioles had other ideas.
They
made sure that those
who would watch a baseball game between the
Maryland Orioles and the Georgia Heat on
www.amamat.com
could only watch this final game. And, the
Orioles made certain that one game was played
for the AABC World Series Championship.
So, the Orioles follow their Older Maryland
brothers, the Olney Pirates. The Orioles won the
2007 American Amateur Baseball Congress 11
Year Olds Gil Hodges
World Series in great fashion. In fact, they did
better than the Pirates of 2006; the 2007 Maryland
Orioles went through the tournaments undefeated.
#9 Troy Stokes was
later named the Most Valuable Player of the 2007
AABC 11 Year Olds World Series. Troy hit two
home runs and drove in five RBIs in the
Championship Game against the Maryland Heat.
Mr. Stokes is the
second amateur athletes to be place into the
www.amamat.com
“The Johnny
Amoroso
MVP” page.
The “The Johnny Amoroso MVP” page figures
amateur athletes who display the same qualities
as that of Johnny Amoroso’s in all sports
American Amateur Athletes will cover. Mr. Johnny
Amoroso, a young baseball amateur athletes of
big heart and great determination to be the best
he can be, with his dominance of his opponents.
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