Registration Complete - Altoona replaces Miami
August 8, 2011 - There will be a full field of 16-teams for this year's national tournament, but with big thanks to Joe Faretta from Altoona.
Tournament chairman Bob Wolfe received an email Saturday night at midnight from the Miami franchise. The Florida Bombers were scheduled to make their first trip to Johnstown, but bus problems in Florida have prevented them from even leaving their home state. This was the second time in 3 years that a team had withdrawn on the day before registration: in 2009, the Washington entry could not muster enough players to field a team, resulting in a panic on Sunday.
In 2009, tournament officials had no choice but to look locally for a team that could be quickly assembled. That put Martella's Pharmacy in the tournament as the Flood City franchise. This year, officials looked locally again, and with the help of Joe Faretta, they were able to assemble the Logan Beverage team from Altoona to play as the 16th team. They will be referred to as Rail City on this website.
"They called me at 10:30 this morning," said Faretta. "I had 9 of my players from Logan Beverage team respond right away, and then we were allowed six pick-up players." As of printing this article, the team's roster is unavailable.
Logan Beverage finished their inaugural season in 3rd place in the Altoona Greater City League. Manager Joe Faretta coordinates both the Logan Beverage and Red Bull franchises, with the Red Bull club being the senior of the two teams. Red Bull sponsors both teams and has been so pleased with the exposure that they are considering adding a third team next year. Representatives from Red Bull's Pittsburgh offices are scheduled to be in town for the tournament, and now will have two teams carrying their colors.
"Joe Faretta is amazing," said Altoona Red Bull manager Jeff Miller. "They asked him to do something like this on short notice and he got a team of about 15 guys in about a 2-hour span. It's really helped the Old Timers and the situation they're in and we're kind of hoping that this will get a chance to put two teams into the tournament in the future."
This season, Lansing withdrew due to an insufficient number of players; Toledo withdrew due to player fatigue and injuries; and now Miami has withdrawn due to bus problems. Thanks to the hardwork from the Altoona representatives, the tournament will still be able to continue with 16 teams, avoiding the need for byes and other bracket-wrecking solutions. As if the late notice wasn't enough of a problem for the Logan Beverage team, they also find themselves in the upper bracket.
"The fact that they're in the upper bracket is going to make it tough on them," said Miller.
"I think we'll be very competitive," said Faretta. "We're in the upper bracket which seems to be the best of the best, and that's okay. We're throwing our good pitchers right off the bat and we're confident that they can throw strikes. We're coming in here with nothing to lose and lots of confidence."
Rail City opens their tournament tomorrow at 10:00am at the Point Stadium against Livonia's Michigan Cobras. Admission is $4.