It's unofficial, pending lie-detector tests on Saturday, but it's looking as though Team Rehab will win the annual Bisbee's Black & Blue marlin tournament off Cabo San Lucas.
Also unofficial, but true, is that this was one of the more bizarre Black & Blue competitions in the 30 years they have been held off the resort town at Baja California's tip.
And for Mike Meredith, a crewman/angler that was part of the winning team, it was both scary and painful.
Meredith, a San Diego sportfishing captain, was shot twice and robbed Thursday night while walking to his hotel after dinner in town, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Meredith was released from a Cabo hospital Friday afternoon. He missed the last day of the three-day tournament, which is billed as the world's richest billfish competition and boasts a purse of more than $2 million.
Attempts to reach Meredith and tournament director Wayne Bisbee on Friday night were unsuccessful, but a spokeswoman for the tournament confirmed that Meredith was part of Team Rehab and added that he still has a bullet fragment lodged in his neck.
The Union-Tribune reported that the weapon was a .25-caliber handgun, and that Meredith took one shot to the shoulder and another to the jawbone, which ultimately lodged in his neck.
Meredith is not wealthy and it remains unclear whether the robber was targeting tournament participants, many of whom are wealthy.
According to one of my sources, who has close ties to Baja California Sur authorities, the incident occurred downtown just before midnight and an official complaint was not filed by Meredith.
The Black & Blue, which traditionally pays about $1 million to the winning team, would have been won by Team Great Escape, but an 800-marlin it caught on opening day Wednesday was brought to the scale nine minutes past the 9 p.m. deadline, and was disqualified.
Team Rehab will win, unlesss there is reason for disqualification, based on the catches of marlin weighing 560 and 347 pounds.
-- Pete Thomas
Photo of crowd gathered at scale for the final day of the Black & Blue tournament courtesy of Pisces Sportfishing
That is so weird because they called Mike up onto the stage to take photos with the rest of his team and said he had an accident. He had just been released from the hospital. They never did say why and actually joked about it quite a bit saying it was a skateboard accident with too many beers or something. His arm was in a sling but I didn't really see any other physical damage. I guess we will get the scoops tonight at the banquet dinner. Best wishes to Mike.
A shooting in Cabo San Lucas is definitely not a common thing. I would have thought with the amount of people at the weigh station last night there would have been a big attendance of police if this indeed occurred. Cabo doesn't seem to take crimes like shootings lightly ever. That is why I feel so safe living here.
Posted by: Kelina | Oct 23, 2010 at 11:43 AM