A Thing of the Spirit
"Without fairness, sport is devoid of any meaning or purpose…"
- Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport
19th Annual Alumni Dart Tournament ~ 2010
RECAP - by Brendan Dolan, P 1986
There were cheers. There was frustration. There was blood. So it was just a typical tournament as we had a full house with 47 teams competing, and over 100 Brothers in attendance. And we had Brothers traveling great distances to be there. Seattle, Lake Tahoe, Denver, Atlanta, and Richmond, VA were all represented.
Vince LeBlon kicked off the evening with a status report of the state of Alpha Rho. While many fraternities have closed down at Rutgers, Alpha Rho of Chi Psi is going strong. It’s the best fraternity at Rutgers and 114 is the best address on College Ave. The Alpha was awarded the Thayer Trophy as the best Alpha in Chi Psi. Renovations were made to the kitchen wing of the Lodge and Vince invited everyone to stop by. If anyone has any suggestions for making Alpha Rho even stronger, contact Vince.
On to the tournament.
High scores for the first round went to Bill Bennett/Jim Bonner, Bob Baron/Matt Kaplan, and Larry Kesslin/Kirk Sachtler with scores of 39, 38, and 36, respectively.
In the first round of the winner’s bracket, two-time defending champs Dave Hopkins/Charlie Ruegger threw the high game of the round with a 59, with a bunch of other teams throwing in the 40s.
The Chris DiMuro/Brendan Dolan team started strong in that round with Brendan throwing a bull’s-eye for center against Jeff Pickholtz/Rick Schumann. And this concludes the DiMuro/Dolan highlight portion of the recap. Jeff Pickholtz followed with a bull’s-eye of his own which forced a re-shoot. Rick Schumann then won the bull and their team went on to victory. I don’t want to state the final score, but many Brothers approached me afterwards asking incredulously, “12?” All I’ll say is that the DiMuro/Dolan team reached a double digit score in the game just as all of the best teams in the tourney do.
Of the 16 games in the round five higher-seeded teams lost.
The best game of the 2nd round saw Larry Kesslin/Kirk Sachtler upsetting 3-time champs John Grogan/Dave Shanosky with a 44-42 win.
Top-seeded Pete Castillo/Dave Selk won three straight to make it to winner’s bracket semifinals where they faced 4th seed Rob Carney/Andy Little. Leading by 1 heading to the 9th, Pete and Dave opened the 9th with an 11 and won 54-50.
In the bottom half of the winner’s bracket, in the quarterfinals, Dave and Jeff Kaczka were tied with Hopkins/Ruegger heading to the 9th. The Kaczkas put up a 7 in the top half of the 9th. Charlie threw a 3 so Hoppy needed 4 to tie, 5 to win. He threw a 6 sending Hopkins/Ruegger to the winner’s bracket semifinals. There they faced Kesslin/Sachtler who lead early but blanked in the three middle innings. Hopkins/Ruegger won the game 51-41 to advance to the winner’s bracket finals against Castillo/Selk.
In the winner’s bracket final, the score was tied at 44 after 6. Hopkins/Ruegger took a 55-53 lead after 7. Then Castillo/Selk blanked the last two innings. Final 68-53. So the two-time defending champs Dave Hopkins/Charlie Ruegger would once again be playing in the finals.
In the loser’s bracket, Bennett/Bonner went on a roll winning three straight with scores of 61-5, 46-15, and 37-32.
Jim Crowe/Dan Griffith won their first loser’s bracket game, but then were faced with a daunting task. Try to defeat DiMuro/Dolan and then your reward will be to face Grogan/Shanosky. All four of those Brothers have won the tournament in years past and accounted for 8 of the 18 titles. Crowe/Griffith eliminated DiMuro/Dolan 27-25, but lost to Grogan/Shanosky 50-12.
On a side note, I’m getting a little tired of being eliminated by Dan Griffith. This if the fourth time that has happened (2001, 2005, 2007 and now 2010.) But I am already plotting my revenge.
Having lost their first game, Scott DeNardo/Nick Fabbroni won four straight with scores of 36-19, 37-12, 39-36, and 56-21. But they were eliminated by Tom Abogabal/Brendan Watson 38-36. As an aside, it’s nice to see Mr. Watson restart the old tournament tradition of a having a good thower in the tourney named Brendan.
Having lost their 2nd game, Grogan/Shanosky started putting up some wins of their own with four straight, but then had to face the team that had given them that 2nd game loss - Kesslin/Sachtler. Grogan/Shanosky won comfortable 56-44.
In the loser’s bracket semifinal Grogan/Shanosky retook the lead from Carney/Little in the 4th, then maintained a tiny lead for the rest of the game, winning 69-65.
So in the loser’s bracket final, Castillo/Selk faced Grogan/Shanosky with the winner to play Hopkins/Ruegger for the title. Those 6 players seem to be in the hunt every year which has really hurt TV ratings. To get some fresh blood in there at the end, the Tournament Committee is considering sanctions against them in future years including moving their throwing line back by a foot, giving them only 2 darts an inning, and forcing them to throw darts without feathers.
But onto the loser’s bracket final. Castillo/Selk blanked in three of the first six innings helping Grogan/Shanosky to an easy 52-40 victory and a date with Hopkins/Ruegger in the finals.
During that loser’s bracket final, Pete Castillo had left a bloody mess on the board as his hand had been bleeding without his knowledge.
The tourney finals is best two out of three (Grogan/Shanosky start with a clean slate.) Hopkins/Ruegger won the last two tourneys with Grogan/Shanosky winning the three prior to that so this is a very strong finals.
Dave Shanosky started strong in Game 1 with individual scores of 7 and 6 in the first two innings to help Grogan/Shanosky to an early 18-16 lead after 2 innings. Both teams blanked in the 3rd with Hopkins/Ruegger blanking again in the top of the 4th. Grogan/Shanosky led 26-16 after 4. They increased that lead to 35-22 after 5, but blanked in the bottom of the 6th to only lead 35-29 heading to the 7th. Hopkins/Ruegger put up an 8 in the top of the 7th to take the lead 37-35. But John Grogan came back with an individual 8 as the crowd erupted. Dave Shanosky, apparently in shock, then only managed a 2 to give Grogan/Shanosky a 45-37 lead after 7. Hopkins/Ruegger blanked in the 8th and 9th to help give Grogan/Shanosky a 54-37 win in game 1 of the best of 3.
In game 2, it was tied at 9 after 1. Hopkins/Ruegger threw another 9 in the bottom of the 2nd to take an 18-15 lead. They increased the lead to 29-21 after 3 thanks to Charlie’s individual 8. Dave Shanosky came back with an individual 7 in the top of the 4th to take a 31-29 lead. 8 in the bottom half gave Hopkins/Ruegger a 37-31 lead after 4. The lead increased to 45-38 after 5. John Grogan stepped up again with a 6 to start the 6th which helped cut the Hopkins/Ruegger lead to 50-47 after 6. A 7 in the top half of the 7th followed by a 5 in the bottom half made the Hopkins/Ruegger lead 55-54 after 7.
John Grogan comes through yet again with a 7 to start the 8th. Dave Shanosky follows with a 4 to give Grogan/Shanosky a 65-55 lead heading to the bottom of the 7th. 3 for Charlie and 4 for Hoppy makes the score 65-62 Grogan/Shanosky heading to the 9th.
John Grogan comes through AGAIN with a 6 to start the 9th. 3 for Dave Shanosky.
Hopkins/Ruegger need 12 points in the 9th to tie. Charlie decides to let his teammate have all the glory by only scoring 3. So Dave Hopkins needs an individual 9 to force extra innings.
He only manages a 3.
Grogan/Shanosky win the game 74-68 and win their 4th tournament title. Their 74 points was the highest of any team on the night and ties their own all-time finals high score. But their 142 combined points is three shy of the record 73-72 win of Greenberger/Letzter over Dolan/Dolan in the 1994 finals.
After a loss in their second game earlier in the night, the 3rd-seeded Grogan/Shanosky won nine straight games, including wins over seeds 1, 2, 4, and 5. Very impressive.
Before the finals began, Dan Griffith and I made a wager on the outcome. Dan went with Grogan/Shanosky and I went with Hopkins/Ruegger. The bet was for $9. Why not make it a $10 bet, you ask? Apparently Pennsylvania lawyers don’t make much money as $9 was all Dan had on him. Dan ended up winning the bet, but refused to take the winnings – he only took back his original $9. Had Dan taken the money, I would have immediately reported his illegal gambling to the Pennsylvania Bar Association and thus ended his career in law. My plan to ruin him professionally for eliminating me four times in the tourney had been foiled. But watch your back, Dan!
11th seeds Mike Downey and Pete Hutton became the highest seeded team to throw a goose egg since the first year of the tourney – a year in which there were only 10 teams! I won’t embarrass that 1992 team by revealing their names, but one team member is a lowly-paid gambling-addicted attorney in an Eastern state named for William Penn.
Many thanks again this year to Kevin Haynes and Mike Downey who once again did a great job running this tourney. They, along with help from Pete Hutton, kept the tourney running very efficiently.
Plus thanks to Marc Greenberger for getting the food and dues collection.
And thanks to all who helped set up on Friday evening.
INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM STATISTICS