Baseball at the beach
What’s better than playing baseball at the beach? NOTHING!!
The firefighters that participated in the 2017 Firemen’s Over the Line Tournament can vouch for that. The weather was great in Santa Monica where this year’s OTL was held. We had 11 teams swing it this year. Kern Co. Fire made the three-hour trip out as well as Corona Fire. We even had retirees Bill Bringas, Brett Davis, Danny Costa, Rick Denning, Ray Hamel and Luis Carlos chasing down balls in the sand.
After pool play, all the teams played a single elimination tourney. There was an “A” flight and a “B” flight based on how the team performed in the pool play. When the dust had settled, Bintang Ballerz, with Casey Glenn, Greg Felix, Trever Insley, Brian Farris and Matt Rush had taken the “A” flight. And Gangreen, with Keith Bandy, Russ Barnes and Joe Cunningham had taken the “B” flight.
This fundraising tournament has been going on for eight years now. Captain II David Moorman was a member that never missed a year. He always showed up for the camaraderie and competition. Dave was a staple for this event and will always be there with us. It was announced at this year’s event that we are changing the name of the tournament to “David Moorman’s OTL”. Dave’s mug will be on the flyer as well as the shirts. “It’s all good” Dave, We Miss Ya.
I would like to thank Cronies of Newbury Park for donating the food, Paul Davis from Santa Monica Beach Maintenance for grooming the sand, Tommy Czubek for running the brackets (I could not do it without you Tommy), my daughter Cameron for being the photographer and all the others for helping with this event.
I will be running OTL for this summer’s Firefighter Olympics. The event will be in San Diego, the home of Over the Line. I hope to see all of you out there.
By Sean Millett
Photos by Cameron Millett