GBL 2015 All-Star Game Recap

After a strenuous regular season, the GBL took a break with All-Star Sunday. During the festivities, the GBL announced the 2015 Award winners, held a Home Run Derby, and played in its fifth annual All-Star Game. Even though the game did not matter, the All-Star game was highly competitive and came down to the last at bat. For the first time, the All-Star game had managers who drafted their teams. Matt Zurawski (Bird Gang manager) and Andrew Felde (Lightning manager) drafted the six All-Star participants earlier in the week to decided who would be on Team Zurawski and Team Felde.

 For Zurawski, his team consisted of Nate Bryan, Jeremy Ratajczyk, and Jackson Buzea. For Felde, he picked Ethan Arvay, Sammy Krucek, and Jim Tucker. It seemed liked that Felde had the advantage before the game but, it didn't turn out the way most thought. Felde's All-Stars had a noticeable numbers advantage on the mound but, Zurawski's All-Stars were nominated for a reason.

After both All-Star teams went scoreless in the first two innings, Zurawski's team struck first. With one out and one on, Buzea sent one into the grass past the basketball hoop to take the lead 2-0. Then, Felde's team answered back. Krucek led of the bottom of the third with a home run and later in the inning hit another to give Felde's team a 3-2 advantage.

Felde's team had the best pitchers in the GBL in 2015 (Tucker and Arvay) but, Zurawski's All-Stars proved that any pitcher is vulnerable. In the top of the fourth, Nate Bryan lead off the inning with a routine grounder to Krucek but, Krucek bobbled the ball. This would turn out to be disastrous for Felde's All-Stars.

After the error, Ratajczyk doubled in one to tie the game. Later in the inning, Bryan also doubled to plate two more runs to give his team a 5-3 lead. Bryan also homered in the fifth to increase their lead to 6-3. Down three, Felde's All-Stars needed a big inning. After a walk to start the inning, Krucek hit his third home run of the game (he was responsible for all the runs for Felde's team) to cut the lead to 6-5.

With nobody out, it looked like the GBL was in store for some free wiffle-ball. Felde's All-Stars did not quit and had the tying run in scoring position but, Bryan was able to find his way out of the jam to end the game. For his efforts during the game, Nate Bryan was also named All-Star Game MVP.

I'll be honest. I did not think Zurawski made the right picks during the draft but, he must have knew something the league did not. In the end, he went with the right players and he ended up as the winning manager.