1- Joe Bob awarding the trophy to Larry, the 2012 winner of the pitch tournament.

2012 Pitch Tournament

by Erik Craddock -
<< back

Winner: Larry Craddock

The Craddock Family Pitch Tournament trophy sits prominently on top of Larry Craddock’s mantel. After years of frustration, he was finally able to bring the trophy home. As is usually the case for the champion, dad won every game. That is a lot more than I can say for myself. I couldn’t draw a hand to save my life and was well on my way to a perfect score of 0 and 6 before I finally won my last game mostly due to the efforts of my partner.

The tournament went off without a hitch despite some early concerns about the age of our newest contender. Johnathan Morris (13) was at his best behavior and managed to win four games which was more than I could claim. There were several of the opinion that 13 to was too young to sit at the tables with the adults. Under normal circumstances I would agree, but there has been a decided lack of new players attending the pitch tournament. I was hesitant to exclude anybody, so long as they knew how to play the game. John Morris assured me that Johnathon has been practicing for months and was up to the challenge.

Still, before I was willing to let him play I had a couple of stipulations.

  • Rule number 1) no getting upset if you lose. The last young player to compete ended up accusing an uncle of cheating and actually took a swing at him. I won’t name any names (Joshua Morris) but the event has gone down in infamy.
  • Rule number 2) no trash talking or bragging if you win. This was the main concern that most people had. The last thing anybody wanted was a cocky little teenager spouting out taunts. I informed Johnathon that there was an art to trash talking at the pitch tournament that could only be learned through experience. This meant that he could do NO trash talking even if people mouthed off to him first. If he wanted to play he would have to grin and bear it. I honestly didn’t think he was up to it, but he did great and everyone was glad he played.

We all had a great time and I want to thank Joe and Debbie Craddock for once again hosting the tournament at their house.