The Beckmans, Jack and Bill, one from Michigan and the other from South Carolina, meet for the first time in Lancaster, PA to play baseball.	A tripleheader with three decks following the team draft; Bruce Young vs James Terry, Ilan Woll vs Mike Lam, and Pete Stein vs Bruce Wigdor.

Superstar Baseball continued its recent record growth; increasing by nearly 24 percent - to 52 managers, with nearly 227 total games played.

The tournament saw a change in the format this year - rather than a free-form, week-long tournament, each 'day' was its own heat. The format was still free-form; but each day would reset, and each day's heat would advance its own winner, with second place finishers added, as needed to round the playoff field to six.

The six teams making it to the playoffs (sorted by winning percentage) were 1) Rich Moyer (1931 Philadelphia As); 2) Terry Coleman (1927 New York Yankees); 3) Bill Beckman (1948 Cleveland Indians); 4) Bill Ashburgh (2004 Anaheim Angels); 5) Doug Galullo (1961 New York Yankees); 6) Harry Flawd (1986 Houston Astros).

Throughout the heats, the Indians and the As looked like the most formidable teams, routinely scoring double-digit runs. The Indians scored 19 and 20 runs in two games.

In the first game of the playoffs, Galullo's Yankees took on Ashburgh's Angels. The Yankees jumped out to an early 2-1 lead, behind a two-run homerun by Yogi Berra. In the top of the 6th, the Bombers put some gap into the game, scoring four runs off Clete Boyer and Mickey Mantle homeruns, and chasing Jarrod Washburn from the game. The Angels made a game of it, scoring three runs in the bottom of the 9th, but Garett Anderson struck out with the tying runs on base, and the #5 seed had upset #4, 7-5.

The second playoff game pitted Flawd's Astros against Beckman's Indians. The game - incredibly - became a pitchers duel, pitting Mike Scott against fellow flamethrower Bob Feller. In one of the least realistic representations of the tournament (at least, given today's ultra-conservative pitching coaches), both pitchers pitched complete games, tallying 11 innings each! Scoreless until the 11th inning, the Astros drew first blood. Kevin Bass reached on a fielder's choice, and - with two outs - Steve Mizerak doubled him home to give the 'Stros a 1-0 lead. It was all Scott would need, as he gave up a pinch-hit walk in the bottom of the 9th, before getting the last batter on a strikeout. Each team had five hits, while Feller gave up no walks and struck out ten. Scott was even more dominant, giving up two walks but striking out 14. The second first-round upset was complete.

The first semi-final game saw Galullo's Yankees taking on Moyer's As. The As jumped out to an early lead and dominated all the way through, scoring at least once in each inning but the 5th, en route to a 15-4 win. Mantle and Maris contributed a pair of homers, but they were no match for the firepower of the As, who racked up hits galore, flexing their muscle before the Final.

In the other semi-final, the overachieving Astros went up against Coleman's Yankees. The Yankees suffered an early loss when starter George Pipgras left the game after one batter, due to a freak arm injury. The Astros capitalized in the 2nd, scoring one run off reliever Wilcy Moore. In the 5th inning, a 3-run blast from Tony Lazzeri gave the Yanks some room, chasing Nolan Ryan from the game. Lou Gehrig powered another shot over the wall in the 7th, giving the Yankees a 4-1 lead. A 2-run triple by Craig Reynolds cut the gap to 4-3 in the top of the 8th, but pinch-hitter Billy Hatcher struck out with Reynolds on 3rd, and the Astros couldn't get into scoring position in the 9th, giving the Yankees the 4-3 win.

In the Final, any expectation of a slugfest between the two teams was quickly put to rest, as only one of the teams, apparently, got that memo. The As rushed out to a 5-1 lead after three innings, behind eight hits, including a 2-run homer by catcher Mickey Cochrane. Only a Jimmy Collins homer prevented a shutout. In the 4th, Lou Gehrig homered to get it closer, but the As responded with a sac fly by Jimmie Foxx, and added three more in the 5th, thanks to a blast from Max Bishop, making the score 9-2. The Yankees put three up on the board in the 6th, stringing together five hits, including two doubles, to momentarily make the score more respectable (9-5), but the As rubbed it in, doing their best interpretation of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," tallying three runs of their own in the bottom of the 8th, behind four hits. The final score was 12-5.

Rich Moyer, who - since the reformat of the SSB tournament has made this his own personal playground - continued his dominance. In the four years since the reformat, Rich has made the playoffs each year; made the Final three times, and is the first back-to-back winner of SSB (and only the third multi-title winner) in the history of the event, dating back to 1991.

Sadly, I may be unable to attend next year in which case Superstar Baseball is going to need a new GM if it is going to continue its renewed popularity.

John Welage and Roderick Lee trade fastballs.	Terry Coleman and Rich Moyer in the A's-Yankees Final.