Background

I want to give you all a little sneak peak into why this tournament came about. My name is Becky and I started this tournament 6 years ago as a way to get people to the Pitman carnival and to provide cheap entertainment for them. You see I’ve grown up in and around the Fire house and the ballfield. When I was just a wee lass, back in the elementary school days, I played little league like so many others in our community. And Pitman’s teams played and practiced at the Mahantongo Elementary school in Klingerstown. No big deal but my Pappy was quite involved in ball – he played as a younger man and umped for us when we were kids. (In fact quite a few weekends, my brother, dad, him and sometimes my uncle would play kickball/wiffleball and he always was our designated pitcher.) He had a dream that we would have a field and team in Pitman again and when the ground next to the fire house became available he worked to get a field built there.

He passed away in the early 2000’s and we had a dedication service for him the summer after with my dad and uncle’s lowering the flag to half-mast and his memory lives on with a plaque at the field (see Left picture).  I know that he would be both impressed and proud of what I have been able to bring about in these last 6 years. Growing from 4 teams the first year to 7 teams in 2018.

Last year, Andrew passed away a few days before the tournament. At the fire company, many of us knew and were friends with him. We wanted to do something to honor his memory, and knowing Andrew’s connection to and love of sports we couldn’t think of anything better than renaming the tournament. This year we were fortunate enough to have a banner made and donated to our tournament (see Left picture).

This year it was clear we had angels watching over us, even after the 15-17″ of rain we had in the week prior to this year’s tournament, our field was in good shape and playable. Saturday morning, when I went to the field to prep for the upcoming games, I was greeted by the image on the right, which looks to me like an angel watching down through a break in the clouds (though photos aren’t quite the same as what the eye perceives).