Championship*

The Gold Medal!

With the rain still coming down this morning, Team D won the Ponce de Leon 2014 Spring Training Championship on a tie breaker.  Friday's championship game was rained out between Team D (the good guys) and Team C, which each had a record of 4 wins and 2 losses.  Since we had defeated Team C twice during the week (by a score of  9 to 3 on Monday morning and 8 to 7 on Wednesday afternoon) we were declared the champions based on head to head competition.  So we were the champions, albeit with an asterisk.  I saw Jonathan Taylor ("JT") the star pitcher for Team C in the Fort Myers airport for our flight home and he said, "You know we would have won that game!"  I think he might have been right, but that is what the asterisk covers!

Note:  I believe if you click on any of the photos they will be enlarged and somewhat easier to see the detail.

So Team D are the champions.  After being on championship teams in 2010 and 2011 and the second place team in 2012, my team tied for 5th and last place in 2013.  So it is fun to be back on the championship podium once again for 2014 (no matter how we backed into it.)  Winning is more fun than losing.

When I say back on the podium -- not exactly.  We hung around the clubhouse this morning cleaning out our lockers and waiting, in the hopes that we would get our medals.  ("Medals? Medals?  There aren't medals in baseball!"  -- Elizabeth Hedlund, circa 2010.)  After about a hour and a half the medals appeared and the stirring ceremony was about to begin.  (Not quite the Olympic Stadium!)  And, no, there was no mayonnaise on the medals when they were presented.  And, unfortunately, not all of our teammates were present for the award.



Members of Team D - Stu Cliburn, present for the award ceremony for the gold medal at the 2014 Ponce de Leon Spring Training Championship:

From left, Front Row:  Frank McAuliffe, Adrian Rosati, Chris Clark, Jay Hedlund, Walt Lynch; Back Row: Bob Bousman, Kevin Bousman, Elliott Sledd and Rick McLaughlin  (Not pictured: Paul Basken, Jamie Bell, Bob Ciunci, Bob Willoughby)

It was a great week, although cut short by Mother Nature.  I will post final comments for the week tomorrow.   And I will sleep well tonight, both tired and - can I say - proud!  (Time for Stu's "humble" speech again.)