A Baseball Thanksgiving
The Tornadoes Bring the Gift of Championship Sports Back to Worcester, Mass.

Dan Hickling
Minor League News

WORCESTER, MA. - Twisters are notorious for the wide swath of destruction they cut, and for the lives they devastate. In eight short months the Worcester Tornadoes haven’t ravaged the town, but they have laid waste to the competition, capturing the CanAm League crown in a whirlwind sweep of the Quebec Capitales in three games. The last frame was a convincing 9-4 win before 1,858 at still new Hanover Insurance Park.

"It's incredible," said Worcester third baseman Zach Strong, whose solo shot to dead centerfield snapped a 4-4 deadlock and gave the Tornadoes the lead for good. "I've even made it to the playoffs before. But if I could (picture) a championship team, it would look like this. A team that has stuck through the bad times and the good. We really deserved this."

They were as deserving as the city they called home, at least for the summer.

Worcester has known tragedy. The deaths of six firefighters in the line of duty back in 2000 still scars the community conscience.

The blue collar hockey town knows loss too, saying goodbye to their AHL IceCats after last year.

In one fell swoop, the Tornadoes have restored a heaping measure of civic pride.

Where once there was a modest ballfield on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross, they build a cozy and comfy minor league park.

"I'm happy for the city," said Tornadoes skipper and Worcester native Rich Gedman, who spent most of his big league career with the nearby Boston Red Sox.

"It feels great for a lot of different reasons. Having this dream, then coming back home to Worcester… Having Holy Cross build this beautiful stadium… The fans who showed up and supported us every day... We've got a lot of things to be thankful for. We get to play baseball here."

That wouldn't have been the case eight months ago, when the city had no team and no place to play.

It might not have been the case on this night, when a flash thunderstorm swept through Central Massachusetts three hours before game time and dumped three inches of water on the field.

On this night, however, the Tornadoes were not to be denied.

Team General Manager Mike Lieberman, up to his ankles in water and muck, led the furious effort to whip the HIP into playing condition.  Game Three rolled out its first pitch, albeit two hours later than scheduled.

"We used more 'speedy dry' tonight than we used all season," said Lieberman. "We're in the business of playing baseball. And more importantly, these guys had Quebec reeling, and they didn't want to give them an extra day to think about it. They wanted to take them out right now, right here. They promised that if we got the field ready, they would finish it off tonight."

After having taken the first two games of the best-of-five series in Quebec, the Tornadoes seemed bent keeping that promise right away.

Standing in the way of the coronation was Eddie Lantigua, Quebec's third baseman and the CanAm's Most Valuable Player.

Lantigua drove in all four Capitale runs, singling in one to give QUebec a 1-0 lead in the first, then blasting a three-run homer in the third to tie the game, after Worcester had scored four runs in the second.

In the bottom of the fourth, the spotlight shifted to Strong, who rammed a fat fastball from Quebec reliever Julien Tucker over the center field wall, putting the Tornadoes up 5-4.

"The guy was throwing pretty hard," said Strong, "but I was just trying to get a good barrel on the ball. It went out, but it didn't matter if I hit it or someone else did. We were going to win. We had too much momentum. We're just too close as a team. It was going to take a miracle (for Quebec to win)."

A miracle, and some flawless baseball, both of which passed over the Caps without stopping.

A base running gaffe by Lantigua in the top of the fifth snuffed out a promisingly reply, which only made the three spot put up the Worcester in the bottom of the inning --which featured three Quebec errors and two wild pitches by Tucker-- all the more damaging.

"Who ever makes less mistakes had a better chance to win," said Lantigua, who slammed 31 homers during the regular season. "We made more mistakes, and they played better. That's why they came in on top."

Quebec showed little inclination to spoil the party after that. With half the crowd still on hand at midnight, when Tornado closer Dave Byard rang up Dany Scalabrini for the final out, the party was plenty lively.

"This is a triumph over everything we had to overcome," said Lieberman. "From the short time frame, trying to come together as a team, on the field and off. This is special for the city of Worcester."

That feeling extended to the adopted sons of the city.

"From the beginning, when we got to Worcester," said first baseman Yohanny Valera, who could run for mayor and win in a landslide, "we didn't know what would happen. But we did things the right way. We started together, and we finished together."

In a town that hadn't seen pro baseball in ages, they built a team.

A championship team.