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| The sweet sound of competition |
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| Written by Marc Aceves / Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 04 June 2008 | |
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“Even though everyone is out here having a few beers and having fun, make no mistake about it: (My teammate) and I are in it to win it.” — Malo Grande, Horseshoe toss competitor With eyes closed, the cling and clang could bring to mind the rhythmic pounding of hammers swung by railroad workers in the days of yore. But the 120 participants in the 38th annual Apricot Fiesta Horseshoe Pitching Competition in Patterson’s South Park on Saturday were not hitting railroad spikes. They were nailing ringers. And many were doing it at a seemingly impossible clip. Competitors from all around Northern California arrived early in the day in record numbers, eager to sign up and compete in one of the fiesta’s traditional mainstays. “I used to have to go around and put up a lot of fliers to get the word out about the (horseshoe competition),” organizer Robert Garza said. “The publicity that the newspaper has given us, along with the city’s continuous growth, has really helped the event to explode in popularity.”  Oakdale's Onan Rice competes in the singles horseshoe competition Saturday in South Park. Photo by Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator The game itself seems easy enough. Taking the shoe of a horse and lob-spinning it through the air toward a stake in the ground — what could be simpler? Ring the stake and collect 3 points; land within 6 inches of the stake, earn one point. Hence the old adage, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” But throwing a horseshoe is harder than it looks. The cast-iron shoes, twice as large as those one would see on a real horse, weigh more than 2 pounds each. The stake is between 30 and 40 feet away — depending on the competition — and sticks out of a mound of dirt at the end of a raised wooden bed known as a “pit.” “This is a game that takes practice, just like any other sport,” San Jose-area competitor Malo Grande said. “Even though everyone is out here having a few beers and having fun, make no mistake about it: (My teammate) and I are in it to win it.” The overwhelming turnout Saturday forced Garza to examine the possibility of converting the competition to a two-day affair. “The word of this tournament is definitely out there already,” Garza said. “There were a couple of competitive clubs, one from San Jose and one from Dos Palos, that each brought about 25 members to participate alone.” As for the winners of the competition, Patterson and its surrounding West Side area were well represented. Newman’s Jose DeLeon took top honors in the singles competition. John Carrejo Jr. finished in second place, with Garza collecting a solid third-place finish. In the doubles competition, DeLeon joined with Patterson’s Victor Pineda to earn a first-place win. Travis Padgett and Michael Dunn chucked their way to a second-place nod, while Robert Stoker and Fred Loaam rounded out the event in third. “I feel fortunate to have finished third at this year’s event,” Garza said. “With as many people as there were, it gets harder and harder to get to the top each year.” To reach Marc Aceves at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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