The 2022 World Series was a true Fall Classic including extra-innings drama, a no-hitter, and a come-from-behind series clincher. After six tense games, fans of the Astros cheered their team to victory and set off celebrations in Houston. A Major League Baseball season that started under a cloud of a work stoppage concluded with a downpour of orange and blue confetti.
Congratulations to the Houston Astros, World Champions of baseball — and the first-ever champs to be honored with a special Baseball BBQ commemorative home plate cutting board. Officially licensed by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association, each hand-crafted cutting board is made in the U.S.A. and engraved with each of the signatures of the 2022 Champs. (Or, choose the plate saluting the National League pennant winning Philadelphia Phillies.)
The guys behind Baseball BBQ are baseball fans first and foremost and we are thrilled to be able to create these amazing commemorative — and handsomely functional — grilling accessories. It is our sincere pleasure to congratulate the world champion Astros and pennant winning Phillies. Thanks for giving us some incredibly memorable games on baseball’s grandest stage.
But, Baseball BBQ’s founders are not just makers of amazing tools and cutting boards, we’re still playing baseball as a serious hobby. While the Astros and Phillies were slugging it out for the Major League crown, the Baseball BBQ Forkballers were competing in the Men’s Senior Baseball League 40+ Mountain Division (teams can’t have more than 2 ex pros who played no higher than AA ball) for our own World Series bragging rights.
“One for the other ring finger!” was the rallying cry for our Baseball BBQ Forkballers when we returned to the MSBL World Series as defending champions after winning it all in 2021. After a thrilling, 7-6 win in the deciding game, the Forkballers claimed our back-to-back championship and added that second ring.
The core of the Forkballers team has been making the trip to Phoenix since 2008 and while every week in the sun was full of baseball memories and lots of laughs, the team had made a habit of returning home without a trophy. Now, despite having a roster that includes no ex-pros and only a handful of players with elite college experience, winning has become a tradition.
The Forkballers earned a 5-1 record during the week of round-robin play. In the playoffs, the team needed a thrilling, walk-off, come-from-behind win to secure their berth in the finals. Down a run with a man on first in the bottom of the 9th, Baseball BBQ CEO Mike Mullen worked a 12-pitch walk and then Chuck Lovell, whose dad was the inspiration behind our bat-handle tools, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that was thrown away, allowing the tying run to come home before the next batter knocked in the winning run past a drawn-in infield.
In the final game, Mullen kept the opposition off balance from the mound and the Forkballers hung on for the 7-6 victory after the middle infield completed a line-drive-force-out double play to end the game. Baseball BBQ CFO and team manager Brett Mandel kept his deep roster fresh and pulled the right levers all week to keep the team winning on the field. Off the field, the team stayed together and enjoyed a raucous kangaroo court conducted by Baseball BBQ partner and winning pitcher of round-robin game five, Bret Binder. Each MLB Fall Classic and every MSBL World Series is great fun, but being able to salute baseball’s best with commemorative cutting boards and adding “one for the other ring finger” made this one just a little bit better for the Baseball BBQ gang.