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The Naval Station San Miguel / Pacific-Wide Softball Tournament was first held in 1978 on U.S. Naval Communications Station (NavComSta), Philippines, otherwise known as Naval Station San Miguel. Not named for the beer, but for the name bestowed on NavComSta. It was run by U.S. Navy Morale, Welfare, and Recreation, otherwise known as MWR, until 1990, when Mr. Bennie Jackson and U.S. Army MWR brought it to U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, in Seoul, South Korea following the travel restrictions caused by the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

Mr. Jackson ran this tournament every year at U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan, except in 2002 when it was run at CP Casey because the fields on U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan were being redone. The last tournament was held on U.S. Army Garrison Yongsanin 2017 when the downsizing due to the Yongsan Relocation Program ended its sponsorship. Though it was generally expected that U.S. Army Garrison-Humphreys, near Pyeongtaek, Republic of Korea, would continue the Army's sponsorship of the tournament, this never materialized. Accordingly, in 2018, this 40-year old historical even, run exclusively by the U.S. Military was in danger of dying.

Fortunately for this prestigious tournament and the Asia Softball Circuit, Mr. Armondo Delsi, a retired Marine Officer who had participated in many of these contests over the years, stepped up and ran both a Men's and Women's bracket in Pattaya, Thailand.

Now, for 2019, the Osan Air Base and the Osan Men's Varsity Softball Team proudly to hosted the tournament's 42nd edition of the annual Open Invitational Softball Tournament.

It had been considered one of the Pacific's interservice softball Grand Slam tournaments, to include at any one time the Yokosuka Open in Japan and the Typhoon Classic, Kadena Classic and Firecracker Shootout on Okinawa.

And it was considered to be the most important dress-rehearsal tournament for those vying for spots on their respective service teams for the all-Armed Forces tournaments customarily held in the late summer in the States. It was considered "like competition," as close to the feel of an all-Armed Forces as possible.

Geoffrey W. Denight, a native of Guam, a Vietnam veteran and a Pacific rat for virtually his entire career in government service, arrived in 1980 and changed the tournament's format from fastpitch to slowpitch, with round-robin pool play followed by double-elimination playoffs and a best-of-three final.

Inviting teams from around the Pacific was his next step. Overtaxed base billeting gave way to tent cities and their related madness as the tournament burgeoned massively, from 21 teams in 1984 to 32 in 1985, 38 in 1986 and 37 the following year, when the crackerbox field with its 245-foot dimensions and the 50-foot green monster screen surrounding the field was expanded to 315 feet.

And the great championship games! The Rolling Stone, coached by the legendary T.Y. Querry, of Clark Diplomats base team fame and the Angeles Bar League beating the greatest team never to win San Miguel, the Mariposa Crush of Olongapo City, bordering Subic Bay Naval Station, in 1982.

The Crush featured some of the greatest bats in the game, the late Chris Jenny, Dan "Yogi" Gaffney, William "Lump" Nissen, Ken Dimke and others who hit the ball hard, both at bat and with their gloves (just for proof, a big E5 always adorned the back of Gaffney’s jersey; he might as well have been nicknamed "Dr. Strangeglove").

Noting the tournament’s explosive growth under Denight, the Amateur Softball Association’s Far East Metro Commission began sanctioning San Miguel as its official Far East Interservice Championship in 1984.

By coincidence, that was the first year of two consecutive controversial tournament finishes. In 1984, the Clark Third Eye-Kadena Falcons battle nearly ended by an out-of-batter's box call on slugging E.J. Rayford. The next year’s final saw fisticuffs between Kadena's fiery Robert "Bear" Brownell and the Rolling Stone's Bob Frisch, the enigmatic one who would go to any length to play at San Miguel. Those were the first two years the tournament’s title left the Philippines.

There was the 30-28 home-run war of 1986 between Querry's Clark Buccaneers and the Okinawa Brewskees. And there was that human redwood of a ballplayer, Gurney Holley, braving the high winds and slamming the only six home runs hit out of the newly expanded park in 1987 as his Hawaii Marines won the title, the first time the trophy had left the Western Pacific.

After the cancellation in 1988, Okinawa seized the title back under the banner of Okinawa Unknown Marines, later Pacific Force, with Holley and 1995 Marine Corps Athlete of the Year Ronnie Desmarais leading the way.

San Miguel’s MWR office was contacted by as many as 32 teams hopeful of the tournament resuming in 1989, but because official notification came so late in the game (Dec. 1, 1988), only 21 actually showed, including a record-low three women's teams.