I'm on holidays this week and a little bored so I thought I would offer my thoughts on the recent ISC World Tournament & Legends Tournament.

 

 

My team was entered in the Legends tournament and the tournament didn't start until the Thursday, I had planned to drive to Moline real early on the Wednesday morning but I remembered reading a post on Al's Fastball about some possible construction delays. I got a little worried about being stuck in some nightmarish traffic so I decided to drive down on Tuesday evening. It was tough to stay awake around midnight while driving through Michigan but luckily the Toronto Blue Jays were playing on the west coast and the game was on satellite radio so that kept me awake. What the heck were so many vehicles doing on the road at 1:00 am in Michigan ?

Who knew so many of those orange road construction cones even existed !?!

Anyway, I made it safe and sound to Moline around 4:00 am, what do you do at 4:00 in the morning in Moline Illinois when you can't check into your hotel to 3:00 pm ? You go to the nearest Wal-Mart and find a quiet place to sleep in your car, ok so why are there so many vehicles in the Wal-Mart parking lot, because the store is open 24 hours. My next question is who is shopping at 4:00 am and what the heck are they buying, only bad things can happen between 2:00 - 5:00 am.

 

 

I woke up in my car in the Wal-Mart parking lot around 7:30 and went to the host hotel, The Ramada to see if this tired Canadian could get an early check in, low and behold they let me check in right away, things were looking good or at least so I thought !

What a weird a hotel, first off it looked to me like the hotel was back in the 1980's, this hotel had allot of character to it and allot of weirdness.

This hotel was not very tall, it was more long and wide with only 2 floors, a fairly long walk from the reception desk to the back of the hotel.

You could make this walk at any time of the day or night and not see anyone else, it was like you were the only person in the entire place, you would notice some weird smells walking through the hotel as well. Some of the ballrooms at the back had their doors locked with a heavy duty chain and padlock, who were the keeping out, who were they keeping in, was their a secret in this room ? This hotel was starting to remind me of the movie the Shining with Jack Nicholson. You needed to use your room's swipe card to gain access from the parking lot to the hotel if entering through a side entrance, anyone could just walk right in through the back entrance as there was no swipe card reader.

I like my room cold, the air conditioner was running but it wasn't very cool in my room, I cranked the thermostat to the coldest setting but the room never cooled off. I was awake most of the first night because of the heat in my room and when I did manage to fall asleep the toilet would wake me up because it decided to flush all by itself ( remember the movie the Shining where strange stuff happened )

The next day I complained about the AC not working in my room and the toilet that self flushes itself in the middle of the night.

The gave me a new room, first thing I did was crank the AC to the coldest setting, the compressor kicked in and sounded like it was working the way it was supposed to. I went out for something to eat knowing that when I came back in an hour or so my room would be nice and cool.

When I returned the room was not cool, the AC was still running but there was a weird smell in the room, you know the smell when wiring is burning. I called the front desk and they sent the maintenance man right away, he couldn't fix it. I had to leave to go to the ball park for a game. When I came back I moved into my 3rd room, the AC finally worked properly and I was happy. I stayed 4 nights but they only charged me for 3. The Atrium was pretty cool, not sure I'd swim in the pool though ? The best way I can describe the hotel is to say I love/hate that place but I would probably stay there again in the future.

 

 

My only complaint about the ball diamonds was the lack of netting in and around the diamonds, a serious accident waiting to happen, foul balls a real concern. Lot's of parking right on site, diamonds in good condition, drinking water on the benches for the players. Hot ! Hot ! Hot ! means lots of beer sales

 

 

The volunteers really stood out in my opinion, some of the nicest, happiest most polite volunteers I have ever seen.

 

 

The Special Olympics Game is very near and dear to me, I have a son with Autism and I see the joy he gets from being involved in Special Olympics basketball and track & field. I was honoured to donate one of our team's hats and t-shirts to this very worthy cause.

A very special thanks to the mastermind behind this great event, Kyle Beane of the Midland Explorers.

 

 

Some of the best souvenirs and pricing I have ever seen, the prices were very good at the start and get better and better each day as the tournament wound down. It would be nice to see some "Legends" specific souvenirs in the future.

 

 

So I'm standing there introducing myself to ISC President Dean Oscar and when we finish chatting a fellow sitting within earshot sticks out his hand and introduces himself to me. He says his name but it doesn't register, so I'm shaking this guys hand he tells me his name but I have no idea who he is, he repeats his name like we know each other but I have never met him before, he says his name (Dan Haas) for the 3rd time and adds "from your hockey pool!"  Small world eh ? I'm from Ontario and Dan is from Wisconsin and we meet by chance in Illinois, just blew me away.  I have been running my hockey pools for 26 years and I have over 140 people in my annual hockey pool, people from all over North America, I don't know some of the people or how they even got in my hockey pool, small world indeed !

 

 

Although my main interest was the Legends Tournament I was happy to see my Jarvis boys win it all.

I was really pulling for the Ontario teams to reach the championship in the ISC II Tournament, the Toronto Gators

and Sweaburg Crush both lost in the semis.

 

 

Rick Hames and myself put together a brand new team to compete in the 50 and over Legends Tournament, we decided on the name "Scrappers" for our team. We called ourselves the Scrappers partly in honour of a local team from the 1970's.

The Hamilton Waxman Scrappers competed in the 1977 ISC World Tournament in Phoenix Arizona.

Another reason we called ourselves the Scrappers was because we are old ( over 50 ) so we had a laugh at our own expense, when you are too old and worn out you go to the Scrappers or Scrapyard right ? We also hoped we would be a scrappy team to play against and I think we were. Our record wasn't much to talk about, 1 win and 3 losses. We lost to some pretty good 50 year old pitchers, Peter Meredith & Brent Stevenson, Wayne Wells and Darren Zack. In the quarter finals we lost to our Ontario buddies, the Cobourg Force with Darren Zack on the mound.  We gave a scrappy performance losing 4-3, had tying and winning runs on 1st & 3rd with 1 out in the bottom of the 7th. but couldn't score. Our players were mainly from Ontario, 1 from Michigan and 3 Kiwis, 2 of the Kiwis live in Australia, every single player and coach played for the love of the game and paid for all of their own expenses. Our team is planning on returning for the 2012 ISC Legends tournament in Midland Michigan, we may need to add a few bodies to our roster for 2012. Our team chemistry was the best I have ever been a part of, being a brand new team I guess the players haven't had enough time to hate me yet ! ( lol )

 

Cheers

 

Stoney Creek Scrappers