DAVID CLARK'S FATHER, Watson Clark, throws out the first pitch at last year's Clark Memorial Tournament. This year fourteen teams will play for the trophy at three different ball fields around Hudson.  Action begins Wednesday at 5:00 PM at Carleton Park.
 

The sixth annual David Clark Memorial is all set to go. Fourteen teams are coming to town to participate in the big event that begins Wednesday afternoon at 5:00. Early last week two teams dropped out from the original field of 16 that would have been a record number after having 15 teams a year ago. The Hudson Tigers are the host team and coaches Tom Freeman and Rick Aguirre promise to put a very competitive team on the field in this tournament.

Hudson will begin play on Thursday afternoon at 5:00 at the high school field against South Central from the Jackson area. Many of the experts that know about age 14 and under baseball in this area call South Central the team to beat and they are the early favorite. However, there is a veteran youth baseball team south of the border down in Pioneer, Ohio, who always fields a very tough team. The Pioneer Legion team led by Eddie Robinson is always a threat to battle for the gold and bring home the title. Pioneer, last year's runner-up, is the only out-of-state team in 2006 after having teams from Wisconsin and Indiana last year. The tournament runs from Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 through Sunday with the championship game slated for 2:00 or shortly thereafter. Hudson will play its first game today (Thursday) at 5:00 and then will have three more games with the following game times. Friday early in the afternoon at 3:00 at the high school diamond against Dexter, which is another team expected to battle for first place as the Titans are loaded with talent. For those who like late night games the Tigers will take on the well-known baseball town of Homer at 10:00 at Will Carleton Park under the lights on Friday night. Then on Saturday morning the Tigers will play Jonesville at 9:30 after an early wake-up call with this game at Memorial Park.

Each team in the tournament is guaranteed four games in pool play with eight of the 14 teams advancing to a single elimination playoff tournament set to start late Saturday afternoon at 5:00 with the quarterfinal games. On championship Sunday the final four teams play with the semifinal games set for 10 and 12 noon followed by the championship. In the five previous David Clark Memorial tournaments no Hudson team has ever advanced to play in the playoffs. Could this be the year that Hudson breaks through and qualifies for the playoffs and advances to the final four on Sunday? We don't know for sure but knowing the sharp baseball minds of Freeman and Aguirre you just know that Hudson will make a serious run in this tournament. Tournament director and founder of this annual event Bruce Morse, who now lives in Spotsylvania, Virginia, is back in town ready to call balls and strikes and help run the event with his co-director Bill Mullaly. A new addition this year will be a home run derby contest conducted on Saturday on the little field at Will Carleton Park.

The t-shirts have been ordered and this year the tournament has four businesses sponsoring the purchase of the t-shirts. The businesses are Bank of Lenawee, C R Motor Sales and Sir James Outerwear from the Hudson area. Morse also got a donation from his company in Virginia called Walter Grinders, Inc. A special thanks goes to those sponsors. The tournament colors this year are blue and orange as those were the colors of the last team that David Clark played on when he played for coach Morse and the Hudson Diamondbacks in 1999 and 2000 as a 13 and 14 year old.

Clark passed away from leukemia in May of 2001 and since that July the tournament has been named in his memory. It's time for the five days in July to begin and the weather guys call for nothing but sunshine and David would not have it any other way. His parents, Watson and JoAnn, will be at many of the games and Watson will throw out the first pitch on Wednesday to begin the event and he will also throw out the first pitch for Hudson's first game and Watson, if he still has anything left in his arm, will also throw out the first pitch on Sunday for the title game. It's DCM (David Clark Memorial) time so let's play ball and keep alive the memory of a youngster who just one month into the 15th year of his life lost a courageous battle against leukemia. If you can, get on out to support the local team or watch a game or two in this classic event that happens every July in Hudson.

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