SJ Sports: The Carpenter Cup

One of the best events of the year is taking place this week at Veterans Stadium with the Phillies out of town. It's the 17th annual Carpenter Cup high school all-star baseball tournament. This brings together 16 teams from the Tri-State area in a single elimination tournament.

The Phillies should be commended for being such an instrumental part of this tournament. To allow a group of high school baseball players the use of a big-league stadium for a week is a tremendous gesture. One year Veterans Stadium wasn't available and the teams had to play at Frawley Stadium, home of the minor league Wilmington Blue Rocks. While that is a beautiful field, it still wasn't the same as playing in a major league ballpark.

Ask any high school player what if he has any individual goals before the season and he invariably says that playing in the Carpenter Cup would be a dream. It's the only tournament of its kind in the country. There are other baseball tournaments, but none affiliated so closely with a major league team.

The Carpenter Cup is in its 17th season and many of the original officers are still running the event. There are also many of the same coaches such as Joe Hartmann, the former Eastern baseball coach. Hartmann has been a coach of the Olympic/Colonial team for all 17 years. The Olympic/Colonial has been the most successful team with five titles in the first 16 years.

"This is great for the kids to be able to play in a professional ballpark," Hartmann said. "Plus the exposure they get is excellent."

There have been many players who have received baseball scholarships from competing over the years at the Carpenter Cup. It's more of a benefit for the underclassmen, who are often first discovered by colleges and then followed for the next year. There have been as many as 200 different colleges who have come to see the players in certain year. In addition, there are a slew of major league baseball scouts. It's one thing to scout a player in a high school setting, and quite another to see one perform in a major league stadium, where there is more ground to cover defensively.

Plus since everybody is an all-star, the players are competing against the best of the tri-state area.

South Jersey has three teams entered each year. In addition to the Olympic/Colonial, the other trhee teams are the Tri-Cape and Burlington County. The Tri-Cape consists of players from the Tri-County and Cape Atlantic Leagues. Burlington County has all the schools in the country, including Shawnee, Lenape and Cherokee, which are members of the Olympic Conference.

There is also something about seeing a high school player put one out of Veterans Stadium. This year's first home run of the Carpenter Cup was hit by Gloucester Catholic's Kyle Davis, whose shot to rightfield went well above the 330-foot sign. Of course, Davis hit eight home runs and had 59 RBIs this season for Gloucester Catholic, but all the other homers were accomplished on high school fields. The one he hit out of the Vet left a lasting impression, one that he'll always remember.

In fact whether a player strikes out, he'll never forget the honor of playing in a professional field in a first-class tournament.

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Author: Marc Narducci