2021 Carpenter Cup

It’s too bad they have this attitude. The Cup is a lot of fun. Teams that make the semis play in Citizens. My son considered that a thrill.

More importantly, it’s draws a lot of college coaches from Maryland to Northern New Jersey at all levels. It doesn’t matter for the seniors. But it does for the juniors and sophs who make it.

For those who might be wondering what Carpenter Cup is ... The Carpenter family used to own the Phillies. They sponsored a tournament of all the leagues in the metro Philadelphia area on the PA and NJ sides. Typically each conference team is made up of the players who are first and second team all conference.

At one point the tournament was for prospects. Committed players couldn’t compete. Just before my son got to high school it was changed to all players. The tournament became more about our conference is better than yours than prospects.

My belief is if it’s conferences pitted against each other it should be about the best players from each conference.

For sure there are some strong teams in the Shore Conference still playing in the State Tournament. But there are many more teams already eliminated with very good players on them.

"Jersey Shore had to withdraw from the 2021 Carpenter Cup based upon the number of players unavailable due to state tournaments. "

Again, that's lazy, weak and a lie.

sad update, the Carpenter Cup was a lot of fun. It had many structured rules and was far from a perfect way to judge competitiveness but still a great event.

What about travel? There is a PG event in Atlantic City this weekend. Maybe they don't want to miss that too

My 2022 is playing in it right now and his team won on Monday. Turned down several other opportunities (travel tourney, PBR PA State Games) to play in the Carpenter Cup for the second time. He's having a blast playing with the best players in our area.  Sad to see that Jersey Shore couldn't field a team.

I'm not sure how reliable this information is, but I heard some kids have dropped out bc of an invitation only Area Code event in Connecticut this week.

I hope there's some insurmountable issue like insurance or something that explains it. We all know that these kids could round up a roster on social in about 10 minutes.

I'm sure there were some with conflicts - state tournament, PBR, PG, Area Code, etc.

Still, there's probably 80 really good pitchers in the Shore Conference. Take numbers 71 to 80 if you have to go there. Just don't pull the plug because 1 through 10 can't make it.

Fran ... When I saw the 80 pitchers comment I was skeptical. Then I looked up the conference to see how many teams are in it (30). It’s bigger than the Suburban Conference in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Is the Jersey Shore Conference broken into multiple divisions like the Suburban (3)?

@RJM posted:

Fran ... When I saw the 80 pitchers comment I was skeptical. Then I looked up the conference to see how many teams are in it (30). It’s bigger than the Suburban Conference in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. Is the Jersey Shore Conference broken into multiple divisions like the Suburban (3)?

It's broken up into 6 groups:

https://highschoolsports.nj.co...021?conference=Shore

Maybe 80 was too high? Some of the teams are pretty bad. Perhaps the number of really good pitchers is closer to 50? Still enough to find some arms for this thing.

The boys made it to the semi-finals and get to play at Citizen's Bank Park!  What a memory that's going to be, win or lose...

Well, the boy's team got crushed today, but he had an RBI single in the effort.  He'll always remember his first hit in a major league ballpark!  The Carpenter Cup is a great event.