Creaky muscles and rusty joints limbered up, while all of the pitchers caught up with each other about happenings since fall. Edward Thompson arrived with a splint on his arm, and amazed all of us with his story about an accident with a mirror in his house. New member to the VaHPA, Stanley Friend arrived, and seemed impressed – even in January – with the abilities of the other players. He’s looking forward to visiting other courts as the season gets rolling.

By 11am, we had 24 pitchers signed up, and we were raring to go! The big grill was lit, heated up well, and by noontime, some of the pitchers were stripped down to shirtsleeves. We had chicken soup available, steaks, hotdogs and burgers were cooked to warm up the innards of the pitchers.

We set the event up with 4 classes of 6 people each. – Really happy to welcome Tamara Burke from WV. Kevin Foster brought his nephew Mike Petit, vowing to buy his VaHPA membership for Mike’s birthday. (We cheated and counted Mike during warm-ups, and he averaged 40% starting out!)

As things turned out, in Class 1, Kevin foster won all of his games, ending with a 5-0 record, but Stuarts Draft’s own Bobby Johnson gave him a run for the money –Bobby’s only loss of the day was to Kevin. In class 2, Randall Weakley won all of his games hands down with a 5-0 record, and class 3, Mike Petit also had all wins, with a 5-0 record. In Class 4, Tamara Burke came in with a 5-0, but Jim Hartman beat all other contestants but her, ending with a 4-1 record for the day. <See Tamara’s determination in the photo # 2008_01_12IMG_0021 – focused, determined, impressive.>

This set up the Championship Flight, all contestants competing for a cut of the entry fee and the “GRAND CHAMPION” snowman trophy!! Tamara Burke won the round, and laughed as she accepted the prizes. Randall came in 2nd place, Mike 3rd, and Kevin 4th. <See the championship trophy in 2008_01_12IMG_0045 – he was cute, and I built him myself.>

It was a really fun day, hope you can join us next year. I can’t guarantee the lines of communication with Mother Nature will stay as wide open as they have been in the past, but the Stuarts Draft Club will do all we can to make it worth your while.

See you on the courts this spring. Pat