Craddock Connection

Was the Pitch Tournament setup with little notice to exclude potential contenders? Was it held in October right after the vacation season in an effort to leave those out who had already taken theirs? Or was it played on a Thursday right after work hours to ensure that anyone close by with a job was unable to attend? These are a few of the questions that beg to be answered. The biggest question in my mind is, will this years Pitch Champion have an asterisk next to his name? You be the judge.

These are but a couple of the controversies that happened before play even began much less some of the “fishy” situations that happened during the matches.

The story of the 2010 Craddock Family Pitch tournament begins innocent enough. On Sunday the 24th of October the first rumblings of possibly planning a pitch tournament begin but it’s not until Wednesday that an official date and time is set. The date of October the 28th is entered as a Facebook status with the time being set at 6pm. Not to be deterred by the short notice, long distance, awkward day and lack of vacation I convince my employer to let me attend this important event. It is hard to describe the satisfaction I felt when I saw the astonished looks on the other competitors faces when they learned that I had overcome their roadblocks and was going to compete. How naive I was. As I look back at what happened the conspiracy that must have been brewing for months becomes crystal clear.

The Older Generation stacked the cards in their favor from the get go.

Let us go over the evidence by first evaluating who attended.

• Joe and Debbie Craddock (Binger, Ok) – Hosts
• Larry and Samie Craddock (Anadarko, Ok) – a couple of months from retirement
• Ada Morris (Binger, Ok) – retired
• Lonnie Craddock (Ft. Cobb, Ok) – retired
• Dan and BJ Craddock (Ft. Cobb, Ok) – retired
• Ansel Finley (Anadarko, Ok) – retired
• Clifford Nath (Anadarko, Ok) – retired
• Sue Ann Upchurch (Anadarko, Ok) – retired
• JW and Viola Craddock (Apache, Ok) – retired
• David and Gay Craddock (Lake Panasoffkee, Fl) – retired
• John Morris (Binger, Ok)
• Josh Morris (Hinton, Ok)
• Leesa Morris (Binger, Ok)
• Erik Craddock (Fort Worth, Tx)
• Nathan Craddock (Fort worth, Tx)

Is it a coincidence that most of the attendees don’t have any more to do on a Thursday than a Saturday? Some of us would not be deterred. My brother and I took vacation time and drove the 3 to 4 hour drive. We were fatigued from travel but made it anyway. The other non retired players made it despite a full day of back breaking labor. Leesa was forced to find last minute care for her children which must have been highly stressful on such short notice. You have to wonder if that was the plan from the beginning. Was it scheduled so that any younger player would either have to drive hours on end or work a full day before competing?

Then we come to the rules of play. Each year the tournament rules are published ahead of time. They don’t really change much but sometimes there are tweaks to improve on items that slow down game play or increase fair play. For example, in the last few years it has become increasingly obvious that drawing the same partner over and over gives an unnecessary advantage or disadvantage depending on the quality of player that one may draw on multiple occasions. This has become a well established issue and in fact a player committed to writing a computer program to better handle the process of choosing who plays against who. It never happened. Who would have the better odds of repeatedly facing a bad opponent? The majority older crowd or the vast minority of younger players. Maybe Larry should also write a program to calculate those odds? What are the chances of that? On top of that there were no published rules and even how many games to be played wasn’t uttered until half way through the first match. Once when there was a question of a rule, the way it was handled was players (preoccupied by their own current game) voting during a match.

It was plain from the beginning that the odds were stacked against any of the younger competitors.

Despite the odds, one of our ranks rose above the shady play of the “retired” group of former pitch champions. If memory serves me every past pitch champion in the history of the tournament showed up for the competition. Of those past champions only I, Erik Craddock was born after 1955. Is it not suspicious that this group of ruthless pitch players were ALL able to attend. It just goes to show you that if you want any chance of competing with this “retired” group you have to be prepared to leap hurdles and dodge obstacles and that is just for the opportunity to play.

As I said though, one of the younger players rose to the challenge. He used all of the self control of a seasoned veteran to stay under the radar. While a couple of the other younger players were participating in the fine art of trash talk, John Paul Morris held his tongue and finally the weakness of the retired group’s conspiracy became clear. In an attempt to ensure that it would be easy to change the rules in their favor with a majority rules vote they had intentionally not been diligent in organizing the event. Unfortunately for them John used this to his advantage and we was able to win four straight matches before anyone noticed. Since the “official tally” was hidden between matches. However, the retired groups hand chosen champion was also undefeated.

In dramatic fashion the last round of pitch matches came down to two games. John and Gay vs Lonnie and Ada played at table B. David and Larry vs Ansel and Samie played at table D. John was ahead of David in total points by a measly one point. All indications were that David would win his second pitch championship in as many years. A feat that has only been accomplished one other time by Lonnie Craddock. Was it fair that John was teammates with his only rival’s wife? Is it suspicious that John and Gay lost that match after he had won so many matches before that? As it turns out it didn’t matter. Despite every reasonable mistake that could be made by Ansel and Samie and even going set while winning 19 to 12, the pitch gods wouldn’t allow David to win I’m sure as a punishment for the attempted treachery.

Overcoming all odds, utilizing wit, self control and a mastery of the game of Pitch, John Paul Morris won the 2010 Craddock Family Pitch tournament.

If you remember these events differently I challenge you to come forward and clear the air. Everyone please congratulate John for his super human performance by commenting below.

Erik Van Craddock