JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — On behalf of Tennessee Tornado players and coaches, tennesseetornado.wordpress.com thanks Tornado fans for listening to Teamline and commenting on the Gameday Forums all season. Now, coverage for the Southern Collegiate Baseball League’s postseason tournament moves to http://scbl.wordpress.com with game previews, recaps, updates, and of course a Gameday Forum for every contest through the championship!
Thanks again Tornado fans, and hopefully we’ll see your sons back in the red, white and blue again next summer!
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Interested in purchashing a set of baseball cards if available (or photos of players)
Thank you.
Neil Abbondante
919-460-1960
Dear Sir:
It appears you’re looking at last season’s site. If you’re interested in updated Tornado cards, try tennesseetornado2010.wordpress.com.
Are you related to one of our players or coaches?
I’m not sure if last season’s cards are still readily available but if there has been a mix-up and you’re looking for the 2010 series, that’s easily done. There is no charge for these cards. The charge would be in taking them to a print shop and having them put on card stock. I don’t have the facilities for that and as such I simply send you the images to print as many times as you like. Again, I don’t charge for them!
Thank you, John Stevens
allright, golden tones of radio guy, Max and I were wondering last night…..who won the tourney this year? Did a threepeat occur or did the Tornadoes stop a step short of a dynasty….? Mike
Hi Mike,
Just got back into this inbox to check something and noticed you’d dropped a comment! Hope you all are doing well out there.
Well it was just not to be this season. For whatever reason they just never could get things consistent enough to contend. Had a bit of an attrition problem as we lost a few to injury and one guy literally called Phil from the airport on his way to the Alaskan League instead of playing for us, and that was Trivett, our closer, so we took a big shot in the chest right from the start.
For the most part it was not the same team you will remember from the heyday. We had some heavies in the lineup like usual, but this year we had even more than before and so it was every kid’s tendency to want to hit the ball 400 feet and not to score runs the smart way. So by and large we abandoned small-ball and the running game. Our pitching was still pretty good, but since we generally couldn’t manufacture runs, there were many times when anything less than absolute perfection on the mound meant we’d lose 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, something in that general sense.
I actually shot video this year and really followed the team with the force of a full media entourage (even though it was just little old me), which you can see at tennesseetornado2010.wordpress.com, but for whatever reason there was never enough to motivate the guys this year. Bottom line, they just didn’t want it like the last two teams, and by the playoffs most of them were ready to go home already.
The league implemented the new playoff format this season so you had to play really well in your own division. I think we started of 8-2, then we lost 6 straight, then we won 10 straight … but after that I think we lost another 4 in a row and then the rest of the season was sort of a ragged series of 2- and 3-game losing and winning streaks. Lost a lot of big games on the road and then lost to the worst team in the league when all we had to do was beat them at home and we’d win the division. So, lost out the top seed and then got beat in the 2-3 game of our division. Home after one game. So since the format was different and the whole thing didn’t get played in Johnson City, I was relegated to doing press releases for the league after our last game. Just as well. I was getting paid for it, and by that time I was in the thick of my first pro gig with the Elizabethton Twins over here.
Yeah, hate to be the bearer of bad news but it just was not pretty this season. I spent most of the time trying to be an objective reporter but at the same time privately second-guessing how they were making so many bad decisions. I couldn’t figure out what Phil wasn’t saying to them, though by late July I think he was as exasperated as I was watching them. This will put it in perspective — we had one game where a kid threw a seven-inning complete game, 74 pitches. How, you ask? Well, chew on this — of the 26 batters we sent up there, 18 of them saw three pitches or less, with a staggering percentage of those getting out on the first pitch. Kid averaged less than 9 pitches per inning I think. It was brutal. And I think because Wiley was feeding them steak dinners every other week they got it in their head they were somehow entitled to win the league again.
Not a fun summer, by and large. Lots of work behind the scenes, very little yield from the players. Still trying to get back in touch with Chris Gordon to do a recruiting video for his guys at Milligan but not sure I’m champing at the bit to stay involved with the league into the fall.
Thanks for the e-mail and best to your family. I’m guessing Max is done at Dayton? Any luck in the draft or any other prospects coming along for him?
Take care and good hearing from you, John