San Diego’s Fall Tradition Is Back Again This October

The Autumn Classic is a NAGAAA sanctioned weekend tournament institution and this year’s 31st annual edition shouldn’t disappoint.  Some 70 teams will descend onto San Diego this coming Columbus Day Weekend to duke it out across three divisions.

Roman Jimenez, Open Co-Commissioner of the AFCSL & Autumn Classic Tournament Director is excited about this year’s tournament.  “The Autumn Classic is the third largest LGBT sporting event in the world and the largest adult two-day softball tournament on the West Coast of North America,” said Jimenez.

The Autumn Classic is rolling out its version of the red carpet by transporting tournament participants to the Opening Party from the host hotels via a limo bus.  The Opening Party will be held at Rich’s nightclub where American Idol star Keith London will entertain the masses. After registering at Rich’s all tourney participants will want to stop by Flicks on Friday night for the Cleats & Briefs contest where cash prizes and a free team tournament entry for 2015 will be up for grabs.

The tournament will be using four field complexes to accommodate this year’s large tournament field.  For round robin and double elimination play all D Division and B Division games will be played at Kit Carson and Poway complexes.  The C Division round robin and double elimination games will be split between Mt. San Miguel and Santee complexes.  One can imagine that with 70 teams it can be difficult to make things run smoothly, but tournament director Roman Jimenez isn’t worried.  “Even though we are a large tournament we are highly organized and run like a well-oiled machine.  We are constantly told by players from all across the country that we have an experience that’s unlike any other tournament in the U.S.,” said Jimenez.

Trophies will be handed out to the top three teams in each division at the field complexes, but that’s just part of what the trophy teams will walk away with.  In addition to trophies the third place team will receive hats, the second place team will receive t-shirts and the first place team in each division will receive jackets!  Each team will have a four game guarantee for the tournament and there will be two umpires for all trophy games in each division.  There are two host hotels for the tournament, the fabulous Doubletree Mission Valley and the historic Lafayette Hotel in North Park.

The competition should be fierce at this year’s Autumn Classic as half of the B Division teams participated at last month’s Dallas Series 2014.  Additionally, six more teams in the C & D Divisions also participated in the 2014 GSWS.  Speaking about the tournament in general, San Diego knows how to do a quality tournament and the 31st edition of the Autumn Classic should be one for the record books.

*Thank you to Roman Jimenez, AFCSL Co-Commissioner and Autumn Classic Tournament Director for his help with this article.*