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South rules the Tri-County League
By Keith Groller
Of The Morning Call
Want some trouble?
Get a dozen major
league baseball fans in one room and start a debate about which division is the
toughest. Chances are, there will be plenty of shouting and screaming before too
long. There might even be some hair-pulling between National League East and
American League East supporters.
But when it comes to
the Tri-County Baseball League, there really is no debate. The South is
king.
A South Division
team has won the Tri-Co regular season title five straight years and seven
of the last nine seasons. Last year, South members Upper Perk and Quakertown
each picked up a crown with the Chiefs winning the regular season
championship and Q-town taking the playoff title.
So, as Tri-Co opens
its 30th season of amateur baseball action this weekend, look south for the
pre-season favorites.
"Over the years,
we've always felt that the South was the toughest, most competitive
division," said Upper Perk manager Bob Graber, whose team went 22-5 in the
regular season and beat North Division champ Coplay 2-0 in a playoff series
for its fourth league title last year.
"Last year, our
division had three teams (Upper Perk, Gilbertsville and Quakertown) that won
20 games. I don't know too much about what each team has this season, but we
always expect Quakertown and Gilbertsville, with its Boyertown background of
players, to be very tough. We play each of those other teams three times and
they are good rivalry games with lots of people watching. We try to give
them a good show."
Graber said his team
will try to defend its title with many of the same faces that won last
year's title. Graber, Tim Fox, Tom Cichocki, Scott Baker and Chris Fluck
will anchor the pitching staff, while Graber, Cichocki, catcher Mike Svanson,
shortstop Pete Hoff and outfielder Todd Swenk will supply the big bats.
"Many of the guys on
our team have been playing together since '83," said Graber, a 1979 Upper
Perk High grad who has been with the Tri-Co League team for 10 summers. "I
still enjoy playing the game and most of our players enjoy it a great deal.
If you don't have fun playing the game at this level, then there's no sense
being out there."
Many familiar faces
will return this year.
In the North
Division, veteran skipper Ishky Fatzinger, now 50, will be back incharge of
his Limeport team in his 34th year of local amateur baseball. Limeport,
incidentally, is the last North team to win the league crown with
Fatzinger's club winning it all in 1982.
Coplay, under the
direction of Lou Falco, will be out to defend its North Division title.
Coplay won the playoff crown in '85 and went 22-5 in the regular season last
year. The Allentown Angels, who finished 12-15 last year and just missed a
playoff berth, will be managed by Ray Ganser, while North Parkland (13-14
last year) will be led by manager George Horn.
Nick Marino Sr. will
try to get his Bethlehem Township Pirates to bounce back from its 8-19
campaign a year ago, while Dave Snyder will try to lead Salisbury back from
a 4-23 season.
In the South, Brian
Gilbert and Todd Slonaker will try to bring Gilbertsville back to the form
that saw it win three straight league crowns from 1984-'87. Stave Bauder is
the new man in charge of Quakertown (26-8 overall last season).
Bill Moyer III will be in
charge of Old Zionsville, looking to regroup from an 8-19 season, while
Silver Creek and Alpha, N.J., will also be looking to get into contention
this year. Alpha was formerly known as Del Val.
keith.groller@mcall.com
From The Morning Call --
May 14, 1988
Copyright
© 1988,
The Morning Call
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