On Sunday, at Washington, D.C., national teams representing five nations participated in the first ever International Deaf Baseball Tournament, July 2-7, 2000.  Opening ceremonies, which were open to the public, took place on Sunday, July 2, at 6:00 P.M. on the baseball field of Gallaudet University in Northeast Washington, D.C.  Elite-level deaf athletes from Canada, Cuba, Japan, the United States and Venezuela competed in the tournament, which was co-sponsored by the USA Deaf Sports Federation (USADSF) and Gallaudet University.

     "The Deaf Baseball 2000 tournament was an exciting event for us, and a worldwide historical first," said Dr. Bobbie Beth Scoggins, President of USADSF.  "We were delighted with the interest the Tournament was generating and had been very fortunate to have Al Sonnenstrahl coordinating it for us, as well as generous assistance from Washington/Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition and Hamilton Telecommunications.  Team USA played in Venezuela in 1996 and Japan in 1998 and we were looking forward to welcoming them to the United States, along with teams from Canada and Cuba.  Not only do we expected an exciting level of competition, but exciting inroads in international friendships as well."

     All games were open to the public, with tickets available at the gate.  Admission was $10 per day for adults and $5 per day for children under 12 and seniors over 60 years of age.  The July 4th games at Gallaudet University was free of charge.

     There were few spectators (100 people) attending the ceremony.  That embarrassed me due to the fact that at an International event there should be 2000 people.  There was another event at the NAD conference happening on the same week, which attracted 4000 people. 

More News from USA Deaf Sports Federation  - www.USADSF.org

Baltimore(MD) - Muriel Strassler

Final Day

The Deaf Baseball 2000 International Tournament championship and 3rd/4th
place games were held Friday, 7th of July at the Joe Cannon Stadium in Hanover, Maryland.  After three days of round robin play, participants had these standings:  USA 3-1, Japan 3-1, Cuba 3-1, Venezuela 1-3, and Canada 0-4.

Because of the three-way tie created by the Japan win over Cuba on
Thursday, the margins of wins among the three teams with 3-1 records were
used to determine which two teams would enter the championship game.

Results from round robin play:

Cuba 1  USA 0  (Cuba +1, USA -1)
USA 9  Japan 3 (USA +6, Japan -6)
Japan 8  Cuba 2 (Japan +6, Cuba -6)

Based on the margin totals, the USA led the trio with a +5 margin, Japan
second with a 0 margin, and Cuba was third with a -5 margin.  Because of
this, the championship game would be played between USA and Japan, and
Cuba would be matched up with Venezuela for the 3rd/4th place game.

In the Cuba-Venezuela game, Cuba showed its baseball finesse by posting a quick 10-0 victory with strong play both sides of the game and captured third place.

For the USA-Japan game, which opened up to a 0-0 scoring in the first inning, things started to look lopsided in the second inning when USA
started slugging and capitalized off Japan's unusual breakdown of defense
mentality.  After the dust cleared when the second inning ended, it was
6-0, USA.  Stingy defense again became the mantra for the next few innings
as the score remained unchanged until Japan again committed a few key
defense play errors to give USA 1 and 3 extra runs in two straight innings
to bring the score up to 10-0.  At the end of the seventh inning, Jason Wynne of the USA had pitched a nearly perfect game, with exception of one defensive error that allowed one player on base.  Coming into the eighth
inning, Japan got two quick hits off in succession, spoiling a very possible no-hitter.  A sacrifice bunt brought a run in to make the game 10-1, and stingy defense again reared its head to end this and the next inning.  Final score:  10-1, USA.

Following the games, closing events at Gallaudet were witnessed by a good
crowd of fans from Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.  The evening
ended with a stellar performance by Shawn Dale Barnett, reknown deaf
drummer, international dancing led by fiesty Venezuela players, and good
fellowship and fun for all.