by William Saunders
This week we head to the talent rich South Florida area home of the TBS #7 Miami Playmakers. The Playmakers started playing in tournaments in November 2006 as a 9u team. The team was put together by Andy Garcia and Julian Rivera by bringing together the top nine year olds in the Tamiami Youth Baseball League which is one of the most competitive leagues in the State of Florida. This team has traveled to Colorado, Texas (several times), Cooperstown, Tennessee and all over Florida and have been highly successful. This is remarkable considering they have no sponsor. The parents and players work countless hours holding fundraisers so they can give these boys the opportunity to compete at the highest level and the players have responded in a big way.

At 9u the Playmakers played in thirteen tournaments throughout Florida finishing first or second in all of them except one. They finished the season by traveling across the country to play in the Triple Crown World Series in Colorado. The Playmakers made a huge statement by finishing second to the Tomateros de California.

When coach Julian Rivera and Andy Garcia started the 10u season they had three goals. They wanted to win Cooperstown, the Pony World Series and by winning that have a chance to compete for the inaugural National Youth Baseball Championship. This is something many teams would not attempt but the Playmakers felt they had the talent, desire and dedication to achieve these goals. Although they fell short, what they achieved is rather remarkable. This group of 11 boys from Miami finished second in Cooperstown competing against some of the top teams in the country. That in itself was an amazing accomplishment. But a second place finish only made the Playmakers work harder to achieve the second goal of winning the Pony World Series. The Playmakers went 30-1 in the Pony regular season and finished their overall Pony season with a record of 45-1. They were undefeated throughout the run to the Pony League World Series Championship. They went 3-0 in state play, 3-0 in the region tournament, 4-0 in zone and 5-0 at the World Series. This high powered team outscored their opponents 52-18 in the five World Series games.

This talented group from Miami has seventeen tournament championships, seven second place finishes and four, third place finishes. All this while playing in one of the most competitive regions in the country.

The Playmakers have an incredible combination of size and speed. They are very sound defensively, can slug with anyone and have a solid pitching staff.

This highly skilled Miami Playmakers team is led by the big bats of Ruben Someillan, Mikey Gonzalez, Brandon Chinea and Alek Monoah. Defensively the Playmakers are led by Eli Marrero, Joey Yanez, Andy Garcia, Julio Galvez and Alex Cerda. The top of the deep pitching rotation is led by Julian Rivera, Danny Vaughan, Alek Monoah, Eli Marrero and Mikey Gonzalez.

Look for the Miami Playmakers to climb the polls and continue to make noise in the upcoming spring and summer of 2009.

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