In The Ring With A Great 1990s Reds Heir

During the 10+ years that I sponsored and managed one of the first bonafide travel baseball teams in South Florida between 1998 and 2009, my South Florida Raptors team played in numerous competitive tournaments throughout the Southeast and nationally. Just before a playoff game against a team from Jupiter, Florida at the Florida Marlins Spring Training facility in the same city, I noticed the starting pitcher we would face was named Jack Armstrong, Jr. While my Reds' passion was primarily for the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, I still followed the 1990s championship team and was well aware of the role a pitcher named Jack Armstrong played on those great teams with Hall of Famers like Barry Larkin.

I started to look around both sides of the field until I spotted a an athletic man wearing dark sunglasses with a towel around his neck standing by himself against the fence far down the baseline by himself. I was busy preparing my team, but I kept peering that way until it registered that was the Jack Armstrong, who was a first-round Reds pick in 1987 and was on the mound in Game 4 of the World Series when Reds completed their sweep of the Oakland As.

Our teams battled to a 0-0 tie through 7 innings and we lost 1-0 on a controversial call at home plate in extra innings. While Armstrong's son, who later turned down a $1 million signing bonus with the Texas Rangers to play for Vanderbilt University, recorded the victory, he and Dad walked away knowing they had been in the ring doing battle against my fierce South Florida Raptors team.


  

 

 

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