2020 Father/Son Central

Kansas City A’s 17, TABU 11

Submitted by Jim Velaer, A’s manager

Although the 2020 MSBL World Series being a trying time is a huge understatement, our players would commit and de-commit several times during the pandemic so I really did not know of final roster until early October.  Also, the loss of assistant coach John Brown in July after a battle with cancer weighed heavy on player’s minds.  We somehow managed to come together and have one of our better tournaments and win the championship.

Making this year’s trip to Arizona with very little ‘father’ pitching put a heavy load on a couple of dads. Going 3-1 in pool play and getting a bye on Saturday was definitely instrumental in us winning our third championship.  After a very tough semi-final game we came out on Sunday ready to play a very tough opponent in TABU.  We found ourselves down five runs in the first inning but the ‘never quit’ attitude on this team was amazing as we managed to fight and get back into the game rather quickly and had a comfortable win.

I can’t say enough about Mike Jensen, who’s knees at the end of the tournament we’re shot but managed to come in and pitch four strong innings in relief before turning the game over to Zach Weindant for the win. We had several kids on the team this year who were worthy of the MVP, which made it a tough decision, but in the end, we named Andre Gregory the team’s most valuable player. As a coach I must say this team did not need a lot of coaching.  I just stayed out of their way and let them play!

We certainly are looking forward to be back in 2021 to REPEAT!!!