Every Spring for the past 17 years, Policesoftball.Com has hosted the West Coast Championships/WCC in Southern California and has used a variety of venues including:  West Covina Big League Dreams, Cathedral City (Palm Springs) Big League Dreams, Chino Hills Big League Dreams, Riverside Big League Dreams and the past 5 years, it has been at the Sportsplex in San Diego.  The tournament has always been a provided bat tournament and was among the first to implement that format. 

This year, due to lack of participation, the event was cancelled as we did not generate enough interest to secure the Sportplex facilities.  Instead, PS.COM management pivoted and only rented the Poway complex due to a smaller draw.  The cancelled WCC was rebranded the Del Pickney Intra-Agency World Series.  It was designed to recapture the spirit of the early days of police softball where teams were largely comprised of players from the same police agency.  There is a different level of pride when you are playing both your team AND your agency.  Only those who have done this know this feeling.

Early on, it appeared it would be sold out at 16 teams.  But, unfortunately half of those teams dropped leaving only 8 teams to compete in the event.  For the 8 teams that did participate, all seemed to have a great time.  The unofficial player party was held in the open seating area at Petco Park where attendees ate, drank and watched the defeat the Pirates. 

The home run derby took place on Saturday morning with CDC Lockdown/Supreme threads slugger Charlie Hinojosa beating out 20 other competitors to win without even needing a swing off.  Charlie appears dialed in for the World Series XX derby where the winner walks away with a custom AR-15 courtesy of Bud’s Gun Shop.

On Saturday teams played 2 round robin games for playoff seeding purposes.  It was very evident early on that the tournament featured a lot of parity as there were several one-run games and even a tie.  Guest prognosticator, The Swami was even out of sorts as he changed his predictions 4 times within the first 3 hours of the event.  Unlike many PS.COM tournaments where there are a handful of teams that could realistically win, it seemed this one had 5 or 6.  If you don’t believe there was parity, consider this, only ONE team, LASD Red went 2-0.  The next seed went to Detroit PSC who finished 1-0-1.  Every other team had a tie or loss.

There were many nailbiters in the playoffs but the first two teams eliminated were the San Franciso Seals and Detroit PSC.  Somehow, Detroit the #2 seed going into the playoffs were eliminated early and that was largely due to very sluggish starts to every playoff game.  They would always battle back to create a see-saw affair, but it was always too little too late.  If the games would have started in the 3rd inning, they probably would have won the entire tournament.  In 5th place, two established CDC teams tied.  The West Coast Lawmen who are having an amazing year tied with last years WCC Gold Champions Lockdown/Supreme Threads.  One of the early favorites, the LAPD Blue finished in 4th.  There were many multi-time World Champions on the team including:  Braun, Delgado, McClement, Woods etc. and they used it as an opportunity to scout some young upcoming LAPD athletes.  The Blue was one of the few teams not to use the “wildcard” as every player was an LAPD officer.  3rd place went to a very strong San Diego Sheriffs who looked a LOT like the open team.  They had Kimo at 3B, Stoner at SS  and LA Empire pitcher Heinen on the bump. 

The championship game was an amazing battle between the undefeated LA Sheriffs who looked a LOT like the DEA Combo.  Consider this single agency lineup:  Mason, Mort, Ankeney, Toaloa, Kovacs and more…  They had soundly defeated the Sacramento Razorbacks in the king seat game, but the pesky Razorbacks gave them a run for the money in the ship.  The Razorbacks led most of the game, but their open team Achillies tendon was also their single agency Achillies and that was home run management.  They blew through their home runs early and then struggled to add on to their lead.  The LASD Red team chipped away and eventually won it by 1 in the bottom of the 7th. 

The final results were:

1.       Los Angeles Sheriffs Red- Intra-Agency World Champions

2.       Sacramento County Sheriff Razorbacks

3.       San Diego County Sheriff

4.       Los Angeles Police Department Blue

5t. CDC Lockdown/Supreme Threads

5t. CDC West Coast Lawmen

7t. Detroit Police Department

7t. San Francisco Police Department Seals

MVP:  Kevin Mort- LASD Red

All Tournament : Brandon Kovacs, Jon Toailoa, Justin Ankeney- LASD Red

Defensive MVP:  Jakob Robinson- LASD Red

All Tournament:  Justin Higley, Nick Pasquale, Shea Lukes-Sac Razorbacks

The prize package included a World Champion Obelisk (just like the World Series stone trophy), medals, custom pullover jackets, custom shirts from Elite Sports, a case of Skrewdriver whiskey.

Thanks to the sponsors, Jason Reeves from Blue Line Productions, Elite Sports, Brett Helmer, Jason Kendrick from Rawlings, and all the fans who showed up to support the players.

A message from Jeff:  This event was bittersweet as I had hoped teams would make it a priority to honor Del’s legacy and return to the roots of police softball for a weekend.  The lack of interest has cast doubt of this event or any event hosted by PS.COM next Spring.  Hopefully, the younger players will gain more interest in police softball as this year tournaments across the nation (with some big exceptions) have seen a decline in attendance.  With the cancellation of both the WCC and now, the Keeper of the Peace in Waxahachie, West Coast softball is struggling.  But, for those teams that did come, I appreciate you.  Thank you for honoring the spirit of what first drew Del and I to police softball. I look forward to seeing many of you in Nashville next week in what should be an epic event! 

Del Pickney Intra-Agency World Series Recap