WORMS COMPLETE SWEEP; CLAIM FIRST CITY CHAMPIONSHIP

• All Worms Current and Retired:
  
  
• On Saturday August 19, 2000, the aging Tequila Worms softball team finally ended eleven years of frustation by winning the Dallas City Championship Summer Tournament. After a slow start, the Worms breezed through the tournament undefeated, beating the Indians in the championship game 19-11.
  
  
• The ageless Worms entered the tournament with potential personnel problems due to injuries sustained by Randy Cain (38) (ankle) and Mike Wortham (41) (knee, hand, shoulder) in the Denison all nite tournament and Tim Elder (36) (shoulder) playing basketball, and commitments of Jimmie Giffen (28) to coach youth football at midday and RC to attend a wedding in the afternoon. The elder statesman of the Worms, Jack Zimmerman, (44) was out of town on business. These problems never materialized as the Worms called in part time Worm Rick Koosman (42) for the second half of the tourney and RC blew off the wedding. The Worms fielded an opening game lineup of batterymates Earl Jones (age unknown, rumored to be around 40) at catcher and Bobby Cecil (39) at pitcher. The infield was made up of Greg Goebel (32) at third, David Rohr (31) at shortstop, Bubba Tipton (39) at second, and RC at first. The outfield consisted of Ken Washington (38) in left, Larry Wortham (37) in left center, Giffen in right center and Terry Fabian (34) in right.
  
  
• The Worms struggled in the opener against Mayhem (who were 8-0, 1st place in their league), going 8 innings in an 8-7 victory. The Worms' hitting was weak, probably due to the 8 a.m. start, but the defense was superb, turning two double plays and keeping them in the game. The Worms avoided a near crisis at the beginning of the 7th inning. With the score 7-7, the official scorekeeper said it was 7-6 Mayhem. After a review of the books and a discussion, the score was corrected and the game continued tied. After both teams went scoreless in the 7th and the Worms shut Mayhem down in the top of the 8th, Larry led off the bottom of the 8th with a single. Greg walked and RC singled to load the bases with nobody out. Earl popped up to second for the first out, but Jimmie Giffen came through with a game-winning sinking line drive to right field. The right fielder for Mayhem went to the ground to attempt a game saving catch but the ball struck him on his meat hand, splitting the skin. His bone was visible through the laceration, which required nine stitches to patch up. Earlier in the game, Terry Fabian cranked the first of his six home runs in the tourmanent and was also robbed of what would have been his second and game winning hit by a sensational catch by the Mayhem left fielder. Worm hitters were only 18-38 in the game.
  
  
• The Worms received a big break before the second game at 10am against the Alley Crew (8-0, 1st place finish in their league) when the Crew was booted from the tournament for not having enough players. The Worms, not a team to miss an opportunity, took this time to down a few cold ones. With the next game not starting until 2pm, Christine cooked hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill, and a good time was had by all. League rivals Triangle Plastering played at 10am, so the Worms kept tabs on their game. A Triangle win would give the Worms a shot at them in the 2pm game with 10 players (the Worms have only had 9 the last three times the teams have met). Unfortunately for the slapnut Triangles, the Bottom Feeders put a 23-9 whooping on them. The Worms also took this time to watch their friendly rivals Southwest Cardiac compete at 11am. Southwest won that first game, but then lost the next two later in the day.
  
  
• With Southwest Cardiac cheering them on, the Worms took a hard fought 16-14 victory over the Bottom Feeders (8-0, first place finish in their league). With the Worms leading 16-14 in the top of the 5th inning and three minutes left on the clock, the Feeders made a controversial decision to take an automatic out. When the Worms came up, Bobby Cecil and Terry Fabian both singled after taking several pitches, and Rick Koosman took a walk. By then, the time was up, and the Worms were back in the Championship game of the winner's bracket. Ken Washington hit two homers for the Worms against the Feeders, and Terry Fabian added his second of the day. The defense was a bit shaky in this game, but the Worms survived behind a 21-33 hitting performance.
  
  
• Trying to avoid a collapse similar to the Spring tournament, many Worms went to Mike Wortham's house to wait out the 2 hour break until the 5pm game and enjoyed several more cold ones in a cool house as opposed to a hot park. The trash talking Indians (7-0, first place in their league), not known for abiding by the rules, were the next victim for the Worms. In the Spring tournament, the Worms rallied to score five runs with two outs in the last inning to win 13-12 after the Tijauna Tribesman picked up an illegal player to avoid a forfiet. The Indians were also ejected from a recent Garland tourney for using illegal players and didn't appreciate the Worms' comments at that time. In any event, the Indians were out for blood. Unfortunately for them, the Worms were on a mission, and delivered a 17-2 ass kicking to earn a spot in the Championship Game. Terry Fabian cranked his 3rd and 4th homeruns of the tournament, and Bubba Tipton turned in the defensive play of the tournament. With a runner on first, the batter hit a shot at Bubba. It took a a bad hop and pounded off his chest toward the pitcher. Bubba ran to get the ball as the runner ran past him to second base . He picked the ball up with his back toward second base, and delivered a Dale Hellestrae-isque snap between his legs to Bronco at second for the force out.
  
  
• The Championship Game of the tournament was scheduled for 8pm, so the Worms had another two hour break; this one taken at Uncle Julio's where a few more cold beers were drank. A couple of players elected to eat to allow for more beer to be drank during the victory celebration that everyone was sure come.
  
  
• The Worms put another one on the Indians with a 19-11 victory, and when Bubba Tipton pitched the ball to David Rohr at second base for the final out, the Worms became THE 2000 DALLAS CITY CHAMPIONS!!!! The exuberant Worms celebrated in mass on the field. Hugs and high fives were seen everywhere. The tournament championship served as an excellent birthday present for original Worm David Rohr. Jimmie Giffen was heard yelling as far away as DeSoto. Bubba was 5 for 5 in the final with 4 runs scored, while Kenny was 4 for 4 with 4 runs scored and 4 RBI. Bronco and fellow original Worm Larry Wortham were each 3 for 5. Tournament MVP Terry Fabian was 3 for 4 with two more homeruns and 3 RBI.
  
  
• The Worms customary victory celebration in the Fair Oaks parking lot was cut short by the cops, but many team members continued at Mike's house. The party was not near as boisterous as the spring party, partly due to its late start (11 p.m.) and partly due to the absence of Scott "Jim Morrison" Miller and "Head Butting" Greg Smith and Jack (both Zimmerman and Daniels).
  
  
• For their efforts the Worms received a $270 check from the City of Dallas, a team trophy, individual championship shirts, and an invitation to the State Tournament to be held in October. The City Championship comes on the heels of the second place finish in the Spring Tournament. The Worms are now 9-2 in the last two City Tournaments, shedding the image of a team that can't win when it counts. The Worms' attendance was down to 14 fans, following the record 22 fans in the finals of the Spring Tournament. However, this crowd was more vocal than the Spring crowd, even engaging in some counter trash-talking with the Indians and their tribal following and singing the '60's hit "tequila."
  
  
• A few interesting notes from the tournament include the fact that every team the Worms played went undefeated in their summer league. Larry Wortham, the team leader with 20 walks this year, did not walk in 15 plate appearances. The Worm infield of Greg Goebel, David Rohr, and Bubba Tipton committed a total of 4 errors in the tournament. Ken Washington hit .750 with 6 extra base hits and 12 RBI. Terry Fabian hit .714 with 6 homeruns and 10 RBI. Greg Goebel hit .750, Bubba Tipton hit .706 with 10 runs scored, and Larry Wortham hit .667.
  
  
• The tournament sweep marks only the second time the Worms have gone undefeated in a tournament, the first being the Elks Lodge tournament in Sherman quite a few years back when a Worm team featuring current players David Rohr (named haggar player of the game in the final by announcer Ed Davis), Mike and Larry Wortham and retired Worms such as Greg Smith, Mike and Jim Meredith, Ross Stubber, Russell Key, current first and ten bartender William Bell, Craig Stephens, Dee Carter and Joel Falcon routed a group of Sherman socialites led by Joe "slick" Smith, Bob Jarvis, Chip Pelley and "pretty boy" David Brown (who later became a Worm) in the final. (a team that later became the Worms won a tournament in Denton with an undefeated record the weekend Jack Nicklaus won his last Masters in the mid-80's. Future Worms Mike and Larry Wortham, Mike Meredith and Joey Pumphrey and guest Worms Jim Meredith and Jeff "Sluggo" Mallinson and former Shermanite "thunderfoot" Mark Mikelson played on this team.)
  
  
• Although the worms finished the regular season a disappointing 6-2 and in third place in their league, the team carried the momentum it gained with its second place finish in the Dallas Spring Championship Tournament through the season and into this tournament. The only regular season losses came when the Worms only had nine players against Triangle Plastering, who finished third in the Spring city tournament, and Southwest Cardiac, who won the Spring tourney and was sky high for the game after the Worms overcame a 14-1 deficit to knock them out of the all nite denison tournament 10 days earlier. The Worms finished fifth in the Denison tournament playing five games in seven hours between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. with only ten players (which means no subs), including the Southwest Cardiac comeback when the Worms scored 10 in the bottom of the fourth inning to cut the lead to 14-12 and seven more in the bottom of the fifth to run out the clock before three outs were made, and a 24-14 win over YAMFU of Durant (who had a pitcher with a fake leg) when the Worms trailed 11-1 after 2 1/2 innings but battled back with 6 runs in the bottom of the third and 17 runs in the bottom of the fourth to run out the clock without getting three outs. Bobby Cecil finished the Denison tourney with 5 HRs and 24 RBI. The Worms' only two losses were to some young college age punks from Denison and some high school and college age hillbilly farm boys from Gunter.
  
  

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