Category: Kal Cup

by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Red Kites win inaugural Kal Cup

The Herts Red Kites won the inaugural Kal Cup, a baseball tournament in memory of our friend and team-mate Kal Dimitrov who died suddenly during a league game between the Herts Raptors and Essex Archers in 2015.

The tournament featured mostly Single-A League teams including both the Essex Archers and the Herts Raptors. The lineup also included Kal’s Knights, a team made up of veterans who played alongside Kal during his 14 years at the club.

On day one of the competition, the teams faced each other in a league format. The organisers opted for the single-inning format in these group games, a concept which Herts fans are familiar with from the Hunlock Series. In a change from the usual baseball system of counting wins and losses to determine the group standings, teams were awarded three points for a win, one for a tie and no points for a loss, perhaps influenced by the fact that the Premier League football season kicked off this weekend.

The Herts Red Kites, which is the club’s Under-17 team managed by Andrew Fulford, dominated the group games picking up 5 wins and a draw out of their 8 games. That was enough to put them in first place in the final Group Standings, one point above Kal’s Knights. That earned the Herts Red Kites a considerable advantage on Sunday as they could sit back and wait during the first round of double-elimination games while all the other teams knock each other out.

Before Sunday’s game, on Saturday evening each team had a representative in the Home Run Derby. The lineup of batters included a good number of power-hitters with many home runs to their names over the course of their careers, so it was surprising that the derby produced very few home runs. The MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the NBL in 2012, Jarrod Pretorius, proved too strong for the rest and won it.

Pretorius was a member of the Babalas Barracudas, who struggled on Saturday winning only 1 of their 8 games. Their chances were further hindered when they lost their first game on Sunday 3-0 to Kal’s Knights. There was no room for error as one more loss would mean that they would be eliminated. An outstanding performance by Iain McCrimmon on the mound helped them secure a 2-0 win eliminating the Essex Archers despite an excellent performance from their own pitcher Humberto Goncalves.

It seemed like everyone was wearing Kal’s number 12 this weekend

Herts Raptors had a strong start on Sunday but the resurgent Barracudas knocked them out of the Cup with an 11-2 win.

The number one seeded Herts Red Kites came up against Kal’s Knights for a place in the Final and continued their dominant performance from the previous day winning 7-5.

Kal’s Knights were not out of the Cup yet. They had a second chance to book a place in the final if they could beat the Babalas Barracudas. The large number of games played was taking its toll not only on the Knights but also on the Barracudas, as some of the players on both sides were playing baseball for the first time after announcing their retirement from baseball years ago. Both teams submitted a joint request to the tournament’s Commissioner, Lee Manning, to merge the two teams for the Final and face the Herts Red Kites whose young players had hardly broken sweat all weekend. The fact that they were wearing different colour uniforms did not matter that much as the jerseys of both teams had Kal’s number 12 on their back. The request was accepted but even that wasn’t enough to derail the Herts Red Kites who went on to win the Final 11-4 and lift the Kal Cup, a crystal trophy which was made thanks to the kind personal donation of British Baseball Federation President, Gerry Perez.

View full 2017 Kal Cup Scoreboard

One of these three caps is edible – Heather Cooke produced another outstanding array of cakes for the Kal Cup

The first Kal Cup proved to be a very fitting way to remember not only Kal but other members of the British baseball community that we have lost including Phil Chesterton (Essex Arrows), Norman Wells (Liverpool Trojans), umpires Dave Smith and Ted Gerard-Thesingh, among others. The event was another example of the incredible power of baseball to bring people together. Some of the players on show made their return to the diamond for the first time in many years. There were others who were playing their first ever baseball game.

“We aim to make this an annual event” said Commissioner, Lee Manning. He added that “the club hopes to find a free date in the 2018 British baseball calendar in discussions with the BBF”.

Kal’s brother, Aspi Dimitrov, thanked everyone involved for creating this wonderful event in Kal’s name. He said: “I know how much work Lee and everyone at the club put into this and I want to express the gratitude of the whole Dimitrov family for all the support and kindness from everyone at Herts and the wider baseball community not just at the weekend but over the last two years.”

by Rob Jones

A new tribute – The Kal Cup

Herts Baseball Club is very proud to announce a new event on the sporting calendar this summer — The Kal Cup.

This will be a special tournament to remember our friend and team-mate Kal Dimitrov, and to celebrate the values of friendship and fair play he brought to our sport. It will take place at our Grovehill home in Hemel Hempstead over the weekend of August 12th-13th.

Herts will enter three teams — including one of veterans who played alongside Kal — and invites all Single-A level sides to enter for a weekend of fast-moving, knockout baseball.

The format will start out as a series of single-inning games for every team — a format successfully used in Herts’ own intra-club competition in the autumn. It means that every inning is like the ninth, with all the drama and strategy that entails.

But if you lose, there’s another game coming just a few minutes later!

As teams progress to semi-finals and a final, the games will stretch to three and finally six innings. The aim is to have everybody playing as much baseball as possible over the weekend, and competing against friends old and new.

Kal Dimitrov was a key figure at Herts Baseball Club for over a decade and helped build it to the force it is today. He died suddenly during a league game in 2015, a moment which shocked the Herts baseball family but also the whole British baseball community.

He had been a player, coach, umpire, manager and mentor for several teams. In 2015, he was the joint manager of the Herts Raptors in the Single-A division.

That is why the club has chosen to focus this tournament on Single-A teams. And, indeed, on anyone taking part in baseball below the expert level! Kal’s legacy was about love for the game, and for the way it brought people together, and that is what we want to mark.

He had also been instrumental in developing the youth leagues which have now flourished at Herts. The Under-17 Red Kites will therefore enter a team in this tournament.

The Raptors will be there, the current Herts Single-A team. And so will “Kal’s Knights” — made up of former players who played with Kal over the years.

Herts would love to have teams from across the country come and help us celebrate our friend.

The club’s Communications Director, Rob Jones, said: “I have nothing but wonderful memories of Kal. His character, humour and spirit lifted every baseball occasion.”

“We want to pay a tribute to him — and I know many people across the British game want the same. A weekend of baseball will be a great chance to show what Kal was all about.”

The entry fee is £100 per team, with Herts providing balls, umpires and all the necessary facilities. There will be food, drinks and merchandise available from our expert concessions team.

Please contact us at hertsbaseball.com for more information and to enter the tournament. We can be found on Facebook and as @hertsbaseball on Twitter and Instagram.