9/15/2011 9:52:52 AM
FORT MYERS, Fla. - There were five of us proudly wearing the Perfect Game colors (or a reasonable facsimile) who left the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids early Wednesday morning and eventually climbed out of a Boeing 757 at the Southwest Florida Regional Airport here early Wednesday afternoon. There were the young PG pros - Ben Ford, Matt Bliven, Ben Collman and Todd Gold - and one middle-aged but enthusiastic typist who will attempt to chronicle some of the goings on at a total of five Perfect Game tournaments over the next four weeks. The latter would be me, Jeff Dahn.
This is the first stop on the month-long adventure. We are here for the 2011 Perfect Game WWBA Florida Qualifier, a 52-team tournament that runs Friday through Monday at eight Fort Myers venues, including Terry Park, the Boston Red Sox Player Development 5-Plex and City of Palms Park. The middle of next week, we'll jet out west to the Greater Phoenix area for the 2011 Perfect Game/EvoShield Upperclass and Underclass National Championships, which run concurrently Sept. 23-26 at ballparks in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Peoria.
From Arizona, we'll make a stop in Austin, Texas, for the PG WWBA South Qualifer Sept. 30-Oct. 3, and then its back to balmy Fort Myers for the WWBA Underclass World Championship Oct. 7-10.
The qualifier tournaments are significant because the champions are awarded an expense-paid invitation to the granddaddy of them all, the 2011 PG WWBA World Championship Oct. 20-24 over in Jupiter, Fla., just up Highway A1A from trendy West Palm Beach.
Over the duration of these travels, I will use this space for not only quick updates about the tournaments themselves, but will also try to offer some perspective in terms of the communities in which these important Perfect Game events are held. That could mean observations about the venues - all of which promise to be spectacular - the local cuisine (the least expensive local cusine, anyhow) and which establishment in each city has the coldest beer. My front-runner in Fort Myers currently is a Jimmy Buffett-themed establishment called "Cheeseburger in Paradise" where the friendly bar-keep will pour you a frosty 22-ounce mug of Landshark beer for just under $4.
Check back here periodically for updates, and also be sure to visit
www.perfectgame.org daily for scouting blogs and feature stories originating from these tournaments.