August 2, 2006 - Here's what Tom had to say to his team:

Well the tourney is over! Are you still sore like me? That was truly an endurance test in that 95 degree heat! In case you did not hear, Western Mass won the 55 Division Tournament with a 13 - 10 victory over Canton in the 9th game of the tourney. Canton beat Western Mass in the game after ours, 22 - 17. Canton played 6 games in a row! However, they had at least 15 players who all rotated in and out of the game.

I would like to say that I am really proud of our Team from EMASS! We gave it everything we had and we won a Bronze Medal. That's a great accomplishment with only 11 players who at the end were banged up and tired. We never quit.
We lost our 1st game to the eventual Tournament winner Western Mass by a 14 - 8 score. We did not embarrass ourselves. We beat the Methuen Team quite handily by “slaughter rule,” 16 - 4. We then played Rhode Island, a very good team with Tournament experience. We were down 7 runs in the 6th inning. We scored 8 in the bottom of the 6th, & then shut them down in the top of the 7th to take a 15 - 14 victory! That was sweet! We gained a lot of respect with that game.
In the last game Vs Canton it was a 13 - 9 game in the 5th inning when we just ran out of gas and lost 21 - 9. We ended up 2 wins and 2 losses. This was an excellent performance for a team that had not played together against some top flight competition. What was most impressive is that everybody kind of clicked on a personal level and everyone pulled for one another. I did not see any complaining about errors, just encouragement to do well. It was a positive experience for me. I hope you agree.

I went over the book and we had some really great stats. We batted .560 as a team, 75 hits in 134 at bats. We scored 48 runs in 4 games - a 12 runs per game average. Six of the 11 players (55%) hit .500 or better. I think that is excellent.
I don't like to single out players but there are 2 players who were awesome. Bobby Salamone [our #2 hitter] went 11 for 15 for a tidy .733 for the Tourney. He also scored 8 runs to lead the team in both categories. Just behind Bobby was Gerry Scott [our shortstop and #3 hitter] who went 8 for 11 for a .727 average. He also scored 7 runs and had 3 walks - a team high.

Again, thanks for being a great representative for EMASS. I truly enjoyed playing with you. I hope we can do this again!

Take care, see ya' on the field!
Tommy Mack
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EMASS 60+ TOURNAMENT TEAM takes Silver Medal & Qualifies for National Senior Games Championship for '07.

The Emass 60+ Team at the 'Cambridge Tournament' consisted of Bob Clifford, Miguel Colon, Chas Crawford, Bud Dodge, Bob Gallant, Stu Gray, Mel Hanauer, Les Machkowsky, Jeff Philcrantz, Mike Russillo, Joe Salzano (Mgr), Ken Savage, and Dave Wainwright, with Angie Scarcella lending great assistance as an injury replacement during the Tourney.

Over the three days and 8 games of tough competition in 90+ degree heat, our 60+ team lost only once to Massachusetts teams (a tough 12-11 last inning loss to The Cape on Friday). Among the highlights were beating the previously undefeated Western Mass 'Relics' in the last seeding game on late Saturday; and then defeating them again to secure the Silver medal & National Qualification by one run in the TENTH INNING of the semi-final game on Sunday. Along the way, we also won three games vs the Rhode Island Teams but lost twice to the exceptionally strong 'Edge Tech Team' from New Haven, CT, including in the Gold medal Championship final. This is the same team that beat us in the Championship final of the Springfield Tournament back on Memorial Day weekend.

There were many highlights, a few low lights, and some injuries too, but all 14 men who played "toughed out" eight games in 51 hot & humid hours and contributed to another fine showing by this year's Emass 60+ team.

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