Small to Saladino sprawl

Hillsborough Co.'s annual baseball event now is an almost unmanageable size.

By JOEY KNIGHT
Published March 20, 2007

Streamlining the Saladino

What to do when one of the nation's biggest prep baseball tournaments gets too big? The following are some alternatives to the Saladino Tournament's current sprawling format:

Joey Knight, Times staff writer

TAMPA - They sat in matching folding chairs amid a cluster of pine trees just beyond the leftfield fence of Brandon High's baseball stadium.

On the field, roughly 50 yards from them, one teenager threw batting practice to another as a handful of gloved peers chased down the hit balls. To the east, the Sunday afternoon sun kissed the horizon.

Tony and Bertha Saladino took it all in, their septuagenarian eyes betraying both pensiveness and utter contentment. More than a quarter-century before, on this same field, their philanthropic dream of starting a local high school baseball tournament had been born.

Six days later, the 27th annual Saladino Tournament would commence at this site. For Bertha, the nagging hip pain from that nasty spill at home suddenly didn't seem so acute, the lingering ear infection not so invasive on her equilibrium.

Baseball, once again, was prevailing as the antidote.

"It has been almost like being newborn again," Bertha said. "New spirits all over again."

Yet the couple acknowledges the labor pains accompanying this annual rebirth are intensifying. The nationally revered tournament which consumes the Saladinos year-round seemingly has grown at a more staggering rate than east Hillsborough's suburban sprawl.

In less than three decades, the spring break event the Saladinos originated has nearly tripled in size. The quaint holiday event they once literally operated from the trunk of their brown Monte Carlo now features a memorabilia trailer, children's play room and hospitality kitchen where Bertha and a small staff prepare meals daily.

That's just at the tournament's primary site. Four auxiliary sites are needed to complete the event - open to every Hillsborough County public school and select private schools - in six days.

"Without trying to be negative," longtime King coach Jim Macaluso said, "it's almost getting too big to manage properly."

The first tournament in 1981 featured all 11 of the county's public schools, with all games held at Brandon. This year's event features 27 teams not counting Oldsmar Christian, which dropped out and 46 games.

For Tony and Bertha - ages 71 and 75, respectively - that means more food to prepare, more umpires and security guards to book, and more singers to secure for the national anthem, sung before each game at each site.

"And you know what? It's gonna get worse," said Bertha, her feet propped up on another folding chair. "Tampa is a metropolis now; it's not like it used to be."

Nonetheless, the satisfaction the couple annually gleans from all its legwork far outweighs the toil. And while both agree the tournament ends when one of them dies, they plan to keep it alive as long as they are physically able.

"I plan to live to 100," said Tony, who had open-heart surgery 12 years ago.

"I'll do it as long as I can, because it's for the boys that you do it," added Bertha, who has battled a series of medical woes in the past year. "You want to stick it out as long as you can."

So assuming the Saladinos come within even 20 years of fulfilling their quest for centenarian status, how can Tony and Bertha streamline the Saladino?

"We're kicking around a lot of possibilities," Tony said. "We enjoyed the one-site deal because everybody came through there. That was the best. And then (for 14 years) we held it down to two sites (Tampa Bay Tech and King, both on Sligh Avenue).

"And then all hell broke loose."

Among the initial ideas for downsizing: making the tournament invitation-only, choosing teams by lottery or a revolving-type schedule (half the teams play one year, half the next).

"Maybe we play at all the sites, play those three (pool) games almost like part of our regular season," Newsome coach Chad Haschel said. "And then for the championship round, have that one site, and maybe more teams involved in the championship round."

The only certainty at this point: The status quo seems less viable each year.

By agreeing to play in the tournament's current format, coaches must commit to a maximum six games (three in pool play, a quarterfinal, semifinal and title game). Those who fail to advance out of their pool, however, will play only three.

The other three games - representing 12 percent of the 25 allowed by the Florida High School Athletic Association during the season - can't be rescheduled.

"That's the only bad thing about it," Alonso coach Landy Faedo said.

"I think the problem some of the coaches have is being locked into this big tournament, which is a great, great tournament, there's no doubt," Plant coach Dennis Braun said.

"But only two teams will play six games."

The lack of one centralized playing site also has raised the issue of travel for teams, who provide their own transportation during Saladino week.

Sickles, located in the county's northwest corner, has pool games scheduled at Brandon (a 27-mile, one-way drive), Chamberlain (9 miles) and Newsome (40 miles) this year.

Meantime, area growth seems endless. Two more high schools are expected to open in the county in time for the 2009-10 school year.

"We're just thinking of a solution to trim it down so we'd have everything at one site," Tony said.

Upon finishing that sentence, the unmistakable chime of Tony's cell phone - to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame - infiltrated the dusk settling slowly around the ballpark. One of the Saladinos' 18 staffers was on the line.

Another detail to orchestrate at one site, or perhaps a figurative fire to extinguish at another. All in 365 days' work for the biggest tournament around.

"The Saladinos have done a great job, but it's getting tough," Macaluso said. "They even tell us it's getting tough."

Joey Knight can be reached at (813) 226-3350 or jknight@sptimes.com.

Time to streamline Saladino?

Since it originated 27 years ago, the Saladino Baseball Tournament has grown from 11 schools in 1981 to 27 this year. Two more public high schools are scheduled to open for the 2009-10 school year:

[Last modified March 19, 2007, 23:19:20]