With the better part of a couple of weeks passing since our championship week, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for a great week that ended with a championship. I had a blast, I hope you did as well.

There were so many great stories at the 2012 Roy Hobbs World Series, it's difficult to know where to begin. Frankly it would have been tough to predict the championship for this team at the outset of the tournament, a rash of last second cancellations and changes of plans had the team short in numbers, and thin in several positions.

But it seemed like every time we had an obstacle in our way, we figured out a way around it. I’m sure every team had their issues, but we managed to come back from each. The doubleheader on Tuesday meant we would be without the South Florida boys, but we managed to split a pair. Miguel Ramirez came down and ate up some valuable innings, saving our staff some serious wear-and-tear, thanks Miguel! Then Eddie Hernandez had to leave when his father suffered a heart attack, thank the Lord he seems to be on the long road to recovery. Eddie also managed to hit the bomb of the tournament on Tuesday, short hopping the 375 sign in left, we missed you Eddie!

Things once again looked grim when Miguel came down with a case of bronchitis and couldn’t return for the playoffs, but my old pal Tony Caruso came up huge in the first elimination game, tossing a complete game gem. Jose Tavarez was absolutely critical to our success, throwing a shutout in the opener, then coming back to win our quarterfinal game to get us to Saturday.

Then Kent Milliken returned Saturday, which was crucial since Miguel was out, and most of the other arms had been exhausted. All he did was proceed to win both the semi-final game and the championship, going 13 innings on the bump in one day! That allowed us to save "ace-in-the-hole" Matt Conrad as long as we could, and he came in and shut the door over the last 4 innings for us to seal the deal and wrap up the crown. This despite the fact he told me he wasn’t even a pitcher on more than one occasion.

Which brings me to the point of this long-winded diatribe, we gave the MVP to George Kerst, and he certainly deserved it, he played every inning at short, made all the plays, and just hit shots all over the field for all 9 games, and had big hit after big hit. BTW, he doesn’t even play short on his league team! But we could have given it to just about anyone and I wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

I thought Candido Ramirez was amazing, he hit over .500 + for the week to lead the team, pitched amazingly well, stole 7 bases, made several diving catches in the OF, and also spent time at 1st, 3rd and caught! Matt Conrad is simply a ballplayer, led the team in RBI for the week, caught and pitched, threw BP to everyone who even looked like a Blazer, and put up with my massive over-thinking about when best to deploy him.

Tony C was nails, in addition to lowest WHIP of the pitchers on the team, he banged out a .471 average for the week, this guy’s tournament credentials are nothing short of incredible, I’ve never seen him have a tough tournament, and I’ve played with him probably 15+ between Hobbs and Disney..Throw in the catch of the tournament in the semis when he made a grab in deep center that would have made any highlight reel..

Gary Lamb is such a good player, and great guy, 31 for 31 on fielding chances for the week at a tough position, and despite missing a couple of games, anchored that middle of the lineup with a plus .700 OPS, he just gives you a great at bat every time.

Joe Del Valle was a heckuva add, he showed up late, but was a force, Slugged almost .1100 for the week, second only to George, and raked at a .486 clip with 9 RBI, and he kept telling me he didn’t feel quite right at the plate.

His buddy Jose Rosado quietly was dominant, .481 BA was good for 3rd on the team, and threw out not one but two guys trying to take an extra base from right field in the same game, as I recall…not to mention he recruited Joe, which was critical!

Keith Mendel had to miss Tuesday’s DH for work, then showed up to Friday’s games in street clothes, which is never a good sign. That would mean that Matt would have to come out of the rotation and catch, and our chances would go from slim to none. Somehow he made the recovery of the century and came out to catch both games Saturday. For good measure he added a couple of long doubles and fielded the toughest position on the field flawlessly and completely shut down opponents’ running games.

Ron Nerf had to put up with me using him as the designated emergency guy for a lot of the time, and still made some great plays all over the infield, 1st, 2nd and 3rd were all his at times. He also was a clutch hitter, drove in a run every four AB’s, the highest rate on the team!

Rick Thoman was right there in the MVP race in my mind, hit a hard .355 and ran down 16 balls in center, including some super catches. An injury early in the semis prevented him from being on the field with us in the end, but he had as much to do with us being there as anyone.

Finally my other old buddy Carlos Ruperto, who couldn’t run, couldn’t field, just hit, and hit he did, despite having no running speed at all, which is usually a big part of his game, he banged out 9 hits, about half of which would have gone for extra bases if he had been right, and stuck in there for the entire week. Nobody would have blamed him one bit if he had had headed home.

Most importantly, what a bunch of great guys to spend a week with. Didn’t hurt that we won, sure, but I had a great time getting to know each of you, And how about that weather!

In any event, I’m overly long, no shock to those who know me. Let’s do it again, Hobbs 2013, if not before.