The end is near. Dammit.
One day closer to the end of camp. Easily the saddest opening of all of my posts to date. But true nonetheless. The day started like the last two did. After the morning meeting I made my way over to field 6 for our first game. It was the second round of the playoffs. They started yesterday but my team, the Jackson 11, did not qualify for them. The odd thing about the playoffs is that there were so many upsets in round 1. The eighth-place team beat the leading team. The seventh-place team defeated the second-place team. The sixth place team topped the third seeded team. Only the fourth seeded team defeated a team with a lower seed.
We dropped our first game today. After last night's Kangaroo Court where one team member stated that we were an awful team we were noodling with ideas as to how to inflict revenge. Someone brought up the hot foot possibility but none of us has all of the necessary items to make that work. My suggestion was that we duct tape Mr. Mapes to one of the flag poles in front of the clubhouse. That didn't win anyone over, but I thought it was funny. He might be 4'10" in his shower shoes so it wouldn't have taken very much duct tape. I was the starting pitcher and I was pitching fairly well for the first three innings. As a matter of fact, I was involved in practical joke in the first inning. The opposing manager, Wally Backman, asked that our pitcher throw an apple wrapped in cloth and with stitching drawn on it to his third batter, Mike Aranzullo. So, after pitching to the first two batters my catcher, Lynn Spuler, came out to the mound and she handed me the apple. I went back to the mound and immediately had to figure out how to throw this thing. How do I grip it? Then I wound up and threw a pitch on the inside of the plate. Aranzullo crushed it! Instant applesauce! I'm just glad I got it over the plate. It was fun to participate in that bit of theatre.
We kept the game close after I was done pitching. The strike zone disappeared on me again after I got hit by a pitch while batting and the pain in my hand was pretty bad. We dropped another 1-run game, unfortunately. After lunch we played game two. A light mist fell for the entire game. The sun never really did come out today. We were a coach short so Dwight Gooden helped coach the team. I singled to left to drive in two runs in the first inning. It was mega cool when after the third out was made Doc high-fived me as I ran off the field and said, "Nice hit!".
I started the game in left field and then moved over to first base. Since we were losing potential pinch runners due to hamstring issues with many runners I actually ran a lot on the base paths. I drew a walk late in the game and while I was on first base the next batter tripled into the alley forcing me to run first to home. That was a very long 270 feet, kids. But it felt good to make it without asking for oxygen. We dropped yet another 1-run game. We finished at 1-6 but we had three 1-run losses. We could just not put it together on any consistent basis.
After the game it was time to stop in the conference room to take a look at the photos that had been taken during the week. We will be receiving our own baseball cards in the summer at CitiField. Having done that it was off to the hotel to shower and prepare for the awards banquet.
The story of that and the final day of camp lies ahead in my next posting.
No comments:
Post a Comment