CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — If the Okinawa Diamonds are to sweep all four Pacific interservice Grand Slam tournaments in one calendar year, that bid will have to wait until 2004.
Citing a lack of women’s teams, only one available field and just three days to play the tournament, organizers of this weekend’s Typhoon Classic, the Grand Slam’s last leg, called off the women’s portion of the tournament, leaving a men-only field of 11 teams.
According to tournament director Mike Collins, only three women’s teams, all from Okinawa, signed up to play in the tournament.
Factoring in costs for umpires and field-maintenance crews, Collins said four teams would still leave the tournament “just short of breaking even by $420. We lost money on the women’s side last year. We’ve been told that all our events have to break even or pay for themselves.”
The decision “disappointed” Diamonds coach Al Lozano, who said the team had been looking forward to a shot at history. No women’s club has won all four Grand Slam tournament titles since the circuit’s inception in 1989.
“I don’t understand. I was totally shocked,” Lozano said.
The Diamonds won the Typhoon Classic last October, then swept the Pacificwide Invitational over Memorial Day weekend at South Korea’s Yongsan Garrison, the Firecracker Shootout on July Fourth weekend at Camp Foster and the Kadena Klassic over Labor Day weekend at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa.
“We wanted to do them all in one year,” Lozano said. “We’re disappointed and so were the other two teams that wanted to play. We were ready to play. That’s all we can do.”
It would have taken five women’s teams, Collins said, for him to change his mind. The 11 men’s teams will play a single round-robin schedule, the clubs divided into two pools, with the top four in each advancing to a double-elimination playoff.
Though acknowledging it was too late to change anything, Lozano suggested that instead of four from each men’s pool, that three each advance to the playoffs, creating an opening for a three-team women’s round-robin pool and playoff.
“Just drop it to three men’s teams each and add a women’s playoff,” he said. “To me, it was poor organization.”
