The 73rd annual AAABA Tournament will begin on Monday, Aug. 7 at Point Stadium and surrounding fields throughout the Johnstown region.
The annual AAABA Hall of Fame banquet will kick off the week long event on Saturday at the Pasquerilla Conference Center. Former Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman and World Series winner Richie Hebner is the featured speaker.
A social hour will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m., with the banquet set for 6:30.
The Class of 2017 will include Johnstown pitchers Pete Pekich (posthumously) and Eric Dinyar, and Johnstown slugger Bill Cameron. Johnstown Oldtimers member Charles Todaro (posthumously) also will be inducted.
Official registration will be held on Sunday morning at the Holiday Inn in Johnstown, and the 16 teams will participate in the annual players’ banquet at Cambria County War Memorial Arena that evening. Pairings for the second year of pool play competition will be pulled on Sunday during the banquet.
Eight games are set for Monday, including the parade and official opener on Monday night at Point Stadium.
On Tuesday night, country music singer/songwriter Josh Gallagher will perform the National Anthem and sing America the Beautiful during the night game at the Point. Gallagher was a finalist on the NBC show “The Voice.” He is a local native of Cresson who currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee.
On Wednesday night, recently retired NFL player Andrew Hawkins will be honored prior to the night game at Point Stadium as part of Tribune-Democrat Night. Hawkins played for the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns in the NFL and won two CFL championships in Montreal.
Information on the 16 teams may be found on the “Teams” page of this website.