Third Annual Capital City Labor Day Charity Tournament a Huge Success

Submitted by Alan Van Ness, Sacramento MSBL League President

This is only our third year of this Capital City Tournament. In the past it was the “Best of the West” Labor Day Tournament. It made sense to create our own tournament since SMSBL was given a new home built by Sacramento State and 20 acres of land provided by Sacramento City, so we became the new host city.

Each year we learn a few lessons on how to improve this tournament. Next year we will be the host for the MSBL 18-over National World Series. It should fit right in with the 25/35/45/55/65 divisions we currently have. I’d like to send a special thank you to Las Vegas League President Larry Bergren for bringing a team all the way to Sacramento for this tournament.

Part of the tournament festivities includes a large raffle that my wife Teena spends months on building up. There are usually 50+ prizes, plus silent action items. But this year provided her with a challenge, as she was hospitalized for four days the week before. So, all my kids and Grandkids, Abby Hegel and Lola Hegel, stepped in and helped her with the set up and completing the raffle.

We also had a Home Run Contest which lasted much longer than we expected. There were three Home Run winners. The winner received a $100 gift card from Dicks Sporting Goods. The fun improvement with this was dividing it into age brackets. For the 18-40 age division, the fences were 335’ down the line and 395’ in center. Then we used cones and moved the 41-60 bracket to 300’. For the 61+ sluggers we moved it in to 275’.

Ever Maldonado threw most of the 18-40 BP and I threw to all the other age brackets.  I must have thrown 350+ pitches! We also had a bunting contest and that winner also received $100 gift card. The bunting was all ages and one winner.

The 18-40 winner was William Salas of the Sacramento Rangers.  He slugged eight homers after three tie breakers.  Raul Macias from the Oakland A’s hit six out after one tie breaker to win the 41-60 division.  The 61-over home run king was Lupe Arellano, also from the Oakland A’s.  He was the runaway champion with 10 over the fence.

There was also a nice barbecue provided which had Brisket, Chicken, & side dishes. Unfortunately, the supplier had the schedule wrong and didn’t show up on Saturday.  He said he thought it was the first. I was stressed out but realized that the quickest thing I could do was order six mountain size pizzas to smooth over the best I could at the last minute, which was about $450 worth of pizza!

I talked to the BBQ truck that was to set up and asked him to come out anyway on Sunday, as there would be 12 teams playing that day. The truck stayed from 12 pm to 9 pm and fed all the players that showed up. So, it wasn’t a total failure and we got through it.

I will end and say the weather was outstanding, 85-95 the whole weekend. The evenings were 65-75 and we didn’t have any wind problems either. So far, only the first year 2022 was extremely hot. Last year was nice as well, so we’re all hoping 2025 is the same type of weather!

Below are pictures of the tournament champions: