Jul 3, 2008

'Fourth of July' tourney packs baseball fireworks

By Julio Lara / Daily News Correspondent

Nothing says Fourth of July like fireworks, BBQ and baseball.

And there will be plenty of the latter this weekend in Burlingame.

Starting today at 5p.m., Washington Park will host the Burlingame Fourth of July tournament with the host city's 19U American Legion team facing off against the Livermore Athletics of the Palomino League.

The San Mateo White Sox of the Palomino League will face the Santa Clara Aztecs in the night-cap, scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Also coming to the party are the Owls of North Bay and first-year American Legion squad San Carlos Tribe.

It's a unique setup, not only because of the mix of teams participating in the tournament, but because of the amount of baseball each team will try to fit in from now until Sunday, when the championship game is scheduled to be played.

If all goes as planned, the teams partaking in the championship game at 5 p.m. Sunday evening will have played six games during the tournament.

The weekend will also help fuel the never-ending debate of which league has the best talent.

"I'm really excited," said Rich Vallero, head coach of the San Carlos Tribe, who will begin their tournament on Friday at 2 p.m. against the North Bay Owls.

The Tribe will have just enough time for a snack, as they'll turn around and play host Burlingame at 4:30 p.m.

"We're ready to tee it up against some of the best competition, not just in the Peninsula, but in the Bay Area," Vallero said.

The Tribe will have their hands full. And for that matter, so will every team in the tournament. While there isn't too much in terms of scouting reports for teams like Livermore, North Bay and Santa Clara, Vallero knows there isn't such a thing as a walk in the park come this weekend.

"Santa Clara is always loaded," Vallero said. "But we look forward to the competition."

One team San Carlos knows something about is San Mateo. The teams aren't far removed from a showdown in late June won by the White Sox. In that game, former Serra slugger Chris Vargas went 4-for-4 with a pair of bombs - talk about your fireworks. Vallero and company can expect that and more from all the Palomino League teams.

"This has been my goal since the beginning, to expose our guys to some of the best competition out there," Vallero said, adding that there is a bigger reward in facing top-notch squads than playing in what he called the "fish bowl" that is the Peninsula, where the same guys face each other over and over again.

Perhaps the biggest concern for any of the teams coming in is the amount of pitchers that they'll need to stay competitive throughout the tournament. Tournament rules put a cap on the number of innings a pitcher can throw at 10, leaving those with deep rotations at an advantage.

"No one has enough pitching to play five games in three days," Vallero said. "So we're all pretty much on the same boat."

The bulk of the tournament will be played Friday and Saturday, with five games scheduled on each day, starting at 9 a.m.

Each team will face the other teams in the tournament once, with the top two teams facing off in the championship game on Sunday, with the first pitch scheduled for 5 p.m.