[MAW] 2020 Winter Classic Tournament Recap

By: Paul Cooke

POC Makes a Statement

As is the case with any tournament, in the lead up to the 3rd annual Mid Atlantic Winter Classic there were some teams that drew significantly more attention than others.

The Hardos were after essentially a threepeat. Champs Here were the preemptive favorites. The Fingerballzzz came to Hershey with an interesting story, having come as close as possible to the title in both 2018 and 2019 without winning it outright. Teams new to MAW like Balls Deep, the North Canton Mastodons, and OG Goon Squad drew the usual level of curiosity that “new” teams tend to draw. Both the Mothmen and Chicken & Wiffles stood out for their unique, varied rosters.

In such an eclectic 16 team field, it was easy for a team or two to get lost in the mix.

POC entered play on Saturday as one of those overlooked entities. Their tournament roster was a solid combination of veteran hitters (Pete Slater, Phil Fresiello), very good two-way players (Johnny Costa, Dan Whitener) and a good younger hitter in Tim Beck. None of the players were new to MAW. The roster had some variety to it, but its hard to get noticed for variety in the same tournament where Chicken & Wiffles put together a roster of players so random it looked like it had been picked out of a hat. The POC roster had charm, but not Chicken & Wiffles level charm.

The team was also essentially an amalgamation of the 2019 version of POC (Costa, Beck, Whitener) and the 2019 version of ATF (Slater, Fresiello). Both of those teams - while immensely talented - had underachieved relative to their respective talent levels. Perhaps for that reason, POC failed to garner much pre-tournament chatter. The tournament predictions followed suit. Colin Pollag’s tournament preview for The Drop had POC finishing 5th. The consensus from the panelists on the Wiffle Zoo prediction show was that POC was not a top four finisher and perhaps closer to eighth place than first.

The members of POC were aware of their team’s position in the pre-tournament chatter. While some teams might view that inconspicuousness as a potential advantage - it can be beneficial to fly under the radar - that was not the case for this group. POC played the Winter Classic with a chip on their shoulder. They were out to prove that as both individual players and as a team, that they are not to be overlooked.

After overcoming a 0-1 deficit, rattling off five straight wins, and winning the 2020 Mid Atlantic Winter Classic, its safe to say that POC won’t fade into the background any longer.

To paint POC’s victory as an underdog tale is a bit of a stretch. Any team with two pitchers the quality of Costa and Whitener, POC’s level of all-around team offense, and so many notable names is not exactly the ’69 Mets. The victory was, however, an impressive one featuring big performances by several players who were in search of a signature MAW tournament performance.

Numbers-wise, Johnny Costa pitched well in MAW last summer. His ERA, walk rate, and strikeout rate compared favorably with the best. He won three games and lost only a pair, but his stumbles tended to come in more high profile situations. Among his losses were one to ATF in New Jersey that shifted ERL’s semi-final match up from ATF to the Juggernauts and a first game pool play loss in July to the Longballs that got the newly formed POC off to an inauspicious start. His wins meanwhile were easy to miss - a pair of total base victories over the Barrel Bruisers and a drubbing of Wiff Da Balls in August. Offensively, Costa struggled to get things going all year long, perhaps a result of adjusting to a 4-2 count.

Taken altogether, it is easy to see why he slipped below the radar heading into the 2020 Winter Classic.

In their first pool play game at the Winter Classic, Costa and POC faced the same Longball squad that greeted them so rudely in their July MAW debut. Just as it was then, the Longballs handed POC a loss and history looked to be repeating itself. However, after a lengthy break Costa and his teammates brushed off the defeat, didn’t panic, and got right back to work. Johnny Wiffs shut out the Yaks 1-0 to move his team within a game of advancing to the elimination round. POC then handed Chicken & Wiffles a 2-0 loss to secure a spot in the elimination round.

The quarterfinals brought a chance for revenge as POC once again matched up with the Longballs, a team they were previously 0-3 against. POC stuck with their game plan - get the ball to Whitener no earlier than the semi-finals - which meant sending Costa back out for his fourth straight game. For the first time in four tries, POC finally got a win over the Longballs and more importantly, a trip to the finals. While the entire team contributed offensively to get them to that point, Costa’s ability to win three games in a row and keep their ace’s arm fresh was the biggest driver in reaching the semi-finals.

In many ways, Dan Whitener’s 2019 MAW season was a mirror image of Costa’s. Both players started on ERL, went to POC, and performed well, but their otherwise strong performances were overshadowed by a big loss or two and overall lack of team success. For Whitener, it was one high profile loss in May versus the Shortballs and two tournaments where he never even touched the ball that overshadowed his otherwise excellent numbers and incredible stuff. In six prior Mid Atlantic tournaments, only twice had Dan been given the ball in a tournament final with a chance to finish things off. Both ended in defeat courtesy of a late inning home run.

To get that elusive first Mid Atlantic tournament title, Whitener would first have to pitch his team to victory in the semi-finals. Dan held down the potent 3-man lineup of the NY Meats just long enough for the rest of the POC offense to come through. With his pitching duties done for the day, Costa delivered the big blow - a walk-off double off Ryan Bush - to put POC into the title game.

Once there, they met perennial Winter Classic runners up, the Fingerballzzz, who were coming off a solid victory against the Dragons in the other semi-final. Whitener was at his best this game and the dangerous bats of Ben Stant, Kenny Stengel, Devin Torres, and Chris Sarnowski were essentially silenced. Torres matched him through six innings and a lengthy championship game (the building curfew was luckily still an hour away this go around) seemed likely.

That changed with one swing of the bat.

Leading off for POC in the 7th, Costa turned on a sweeping slider that caught just a bit too much of the zone. He watched the ball sail out on a line over the left field fence as his POC teammates mobbed him down the first base line.

For the five members of POC - not just Costa and Whitener - the victory was vindication.

“This team was down 0-1 with their backs against the wall, needing to go 2-1 to make playoffs and rattled off six straight wins. Never gave up on each other, never stopped fighting,” Slater wrote on Instagram accompanied by two team photos. “I’m proud of my guys and you better start showing us more respect. If they didn’t know us before, they know us now.”

“Respect” was a common theme in POC’s post-tournament statements.

“POC coming out victorious defying all odd and coming home with the respect we deserve,” Whitener wrote, also on Instagram.

It is safe to say that POC got what they were after. The 2020 Winter Classic Champions made an emphatic statement and if they were indeed overlooked before, that most certainly will not be the case come April.

Here and There

Ryan Bush threw just under six complete innings over the Meats first five games, with every inning pitched coming in relief. Ryan closed out wins in four of those games. After spending the entire day pitching in short stints, Bush started for the Meats in the semi-finals where he picked up the loss on an extra innings walk off.

In addition to his work out on the rubber, Whitener impressed fellow players with his bat. Known more for his arm, Dan was among the offensive leaders in MAW last year and picked up where he left off at the Winter Classic.

Hoping to throw off a group of hitters that were familiar with him and seeking some added velocity, Devin Torres threw clean balls exclusively during the championship game.

Last year at the Winter Classic, Rich Tyler picked up rookie Gino Joseph for his squad and Gino proceeded to have a breakout tournament. This year, Tyler grabbed another young righty in John Polanco. While Polanco’s win/loss record wasn’t much to write home about, he impressed with his natural ability and the scouting report was that he is maybe just a few tweaks away from turning some of those L’s into W’s.

Speaking of Gino, he had another strong Winter Classic, pitching the Dragons into the semi’s with a flawless 4-0 record.

Due the dimensions of the playing area, the four Wiffle Ball fields constructed inside In the Net’s air dome were a little more spacious than usual. Fences were at least 100 feet deep to all parts of the fields and one portion of the fence on each field was ten field tall. Despite the dimensions, there were still a fair share of home runs hit.

It is fair to wonder how different things may have been had Kevin Norris been with Champs Here as planned. Norris missed the event due to injury, but we should be seeing a lot of him this summer. The word is that Norris and his C4 teammates plan to make Mid Atlantic a regular stop this year.

Although they were surely disappointed by their 0-3 record, Balls Deep played well in their MAW debut. The 2019 BWBL champions took the Hardos into extras and the Caladie brothers were as advertised.

Speaking of new-to-MAW teams, the OG Goon Squad were impressive in their first outing going 2-1 and reaching the elimination round. All three players on the Goon Squad pitched and their tournament resume included an impressive early tournament victory of the Shortballs.

In his Shortballs’ debut, Austin Bleacher was robbed of a sure home run by Tim McElrath. That is nothing new for Bleacher who has a reputation around the Ridley Park Wiffleball league as the ultimate bad luck hitter. As Austin pointed out, however, he still has one up on Tim. Last July, it was Bleacher’s two-run walk off home run that propelled the RPWL Longballs over the MAW Mafia in a semi-final game at the NWLA Tournament.

FREE AGENT ALERT - Mike Sidorov, Mike Weiner, and Kenny Stengel - among others potentially - are still looking for a team for the 2020 MAW season. If you are a team looking for an additional player or two or are a player looking to put together a team, keep these players in mind. Please contact Tim Cooke (@timcooke82 on Twitter or timcooke1982@gmail.com) if you need help getting in touch with any potential free agent of if you are a free agent yourself looking for a team.

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