There's a scene in the movie, "The Rookie", starring Dennis Quaid where he's in the bathroom area of the clubhouse of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In this scene he looks in the mirror and says to a teammate standing next to him, "Ya know what we get to do today, Brooks?............We get to play baseball." It's one of the coolest lines in film, as far as I'm concerned.
2018 New York Mets Fantasy Camp is now underway. I'm playing catch-up right now, as I have not had an opportunity to give any pre-camp information. My trip to camp this year has seen me change weeks from week 1 to week 2. The group of campers has changed almost entirely, excluding a half dozen or so who are here for, believe it or not, BOTH weeks.
I arrived in the south Florida area on Saturday evening. The drive north on I-95 was fast. How fast? How about 100 miles in 80 minutes-fast. Even for me, that's a brisk pace. I saw a couple of players in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn and then checked in to my room. I was pretty beat and looked forward to getting to the complex on Sunday afternoon to really have it all get real to me.
Sunday afternoon arrived and I made my way to the Mets' spring training complex. My locker had actually moved from its original location of week 1 to a different section for week 2. I saw my new uniforms, this year showing a new number, 10, on the back. I changed to 10 this year in honor of now-former Mets manager, Terry Collins, who retired following the 2017 season. Since players can only show their actual last names on the backs of their uniforms (no nicknames allowed) I would be the only one who could actually display the name "Collins" over the number 10. So that's what I've done. I also added a Minnesota Vikings jersey as my favorite NFL team will be playing in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday following the Minneapolis Miracle win over New Orleans just the other day.
I made my way out to the fields where I did some fielding practice and two rounds of batting practice before I left around 2pm. I needed to get to the hotel in order to prepare for a drive north to Kissimmee for the memorial service for my cousin, Kimberly, who passed away after a 17-year battle with breast cancer on December 17th at the age of 58.
This would prevent me from attending the welcome dinner for the campers this year. Given the facts that the welcome dinner is really designed for rookies and that my brother would be arriving from San Francisco, I couldn't let the opportunity to see him pass me by.
I left the hotel this morning about 7:30 and made my way to the dining room for a little brekky. I was disappointed that there was no bacon on today's bill of fare, but settled for sausage patty, grits and toast. For those of you who have not had grits before, they're a southern thing, but I had them fairly often as a kid in Connecticut. I once heard a comedian say that grits, if left too long in a bowl, will multiply. I'm not sure this is true, but it's not that far-fetched of a theory.
I put my uniform on for the first time this year and headed for the tent for the morning meeting. After a rundown of the day's events, it was time to head out for some stretches and exercises. Usually referred to as "the morning drag", it was much more enjoyable in my current weight class. From there we moved to the fields for evaluations which would form the information needed for this afternoon's player draft.
After the lunch break, the draft results were announced. Unlike previous years, the draft results were real aloud to the group, with each coach taking the mic and reading his list of players and announcing the name of his respective team. I awaited the calling of my name and found myself on the team coached by Kevin Baez and Lenny "All-Time" Harris. He's called "All-Time" as he is the all-time leader in pinch hits in major league history. If you don't think he's proud of this distinction, think again. Deservedly so, however.
Our team is called Lenny's Brides, as he was actually absent from the aforementioned draft as he needed to attend a wedding ceremony here in the state. We quickly assembled the group along with Kevin Baez, introduced ourselves by name and where we are from. We reconvened at the field where we prepared for game 1 versus a the team known as Fair & Honest.
We jumped to a quick 5-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning. From there we pretty much coasted. Our number 1 and 2 batters went a combined 8-for-8 with two walks. It's far easier to score runs when the top of your order produces like that. I went 1-for-4 myself and my only hit traveled about 88 feet in length. It was a swinging bunt down the third base line, essentially, but it scored a run and I reached base. I scored one run and we went on to top our opponents by a 13-3 score.
Tomorrow's games should be more of a challenge.
Tonight we had dinner in the hotel's restaurant as a team with our coaches and it was nice to learn more about my teammates. My team is predicted to finish 6th in an 8-team camp. We probably have more veterans on one team (6) than any other team. But our goal is to prove our detractors wrong and make them eat their words. And tomorrow that goal will be foremost on our minds.
I walked out to the field for game 1 with "Beautiful Day" by U2 in my head. Because that's what it was. The weather back home in Minneapolis is dreadful but here the temperature is in the low 70s. There's rain in the overnight forecast but nothing for the remainder of the week.
While I was playing first base today I thought that if this place were a scene from "Field of Dreams" and Shoeless Joe Jackson asked me if this were heaven, my response to him would be, "You could say that, Joe. You could say that".
2018 New York Mets Fantasy Camp is now underway. I'm playing catch-up right now, as I have not had an opportunity to give any pre-camp information. My trip to camp this year has seen me change weeks from week 1 to week 2. The group of campers has changed almost entirely, excluding a half dozen or so who are here for, believe it or not, BOTH weeks.
I arrived in the south Florida area on Saturday evening. The drive north on I-95 was fast. How fast? How about 100 miles in 80 minutes-fast. Even for me, that's a brisk pace. I saw a couple of players in the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn and then checked in to my room. I was pretty beat and looked forward to getting to the complex on Sunday afternoon to really have it all get real to me.
Sunday afternoon arrived and I made my way to the Mets' spring training complex. My locker had actually moved from its original location of week 1 to a different section for week 2. I saw my new uniforms, this year showing a new number, 10, on the back. I changed to 10 this year in honor of now-former Mets manager, Terry Collins, who retired following the 2017 season. Since players can only show their actual last names on the backs of their uniforms (no nicknames allowed) I would be the only one who could actually display the name "Collins" over the number 10. So that's what I've done. I also added a Minnesota Vikings jersey as my favorite NFL team will be playing in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday following the Minneapolis Miracle win over New Orleans just the other day.
I made my way out to the fields where I did some fielding practice and two rounds of batting practice before I left around 2pm. I needed to get to the hotel in order to prepare for a drive north to Kissimmee for the memorial service for my cousin, Kimberly, who passed away after a 17-year battle with breast cancer on December 17th at the age of 58.
This would prevent me from attending the welcome dinner for the campers this year. Given the facts that the welcome dinner is really designed for rookies and that my brother would be arriving from San Francisco, I couldn't let the opportunity to see him pass me by.
I left the hotel this morning about 7:30 and made my way to the dining room for a little brekky. I was disappointed that there was no bacon on today's bill of fare, but settled for sausage patty, grits and toast. For those of you who have not had grits before, they're a southern thing, but I had them fairly often as a kid in Connecticut. I once heard a comedian say that grits, if left too long in a bowl, will multiply. I'm not sure this is true, but it's not that far-fetched of a theory.
I put my uniform on for the first time this year and headed for the tent for the morning meeting. After a rundown of the day's events, it was time to head out for some stretches and exercises. Usually referred to as "the morning drag", it was much more enjoyable in my current weight class. From there we moved to the fields for evaluations which would form the information needed for this afternoon's player draft.
After the lunch break, the draft results were announced. Unlike previous years, the draft results were real aloud to the group, with each coach taking the mic and reading his list of players and announcing the name of his respective team. I awaited the calling of my name and found myself on the team coached by Kevin Baez and Lenny "All-Time" Harris. He's called "All-Time" as he is the all-time leader in pinch hits in major league history. If you don't think he's proud of this distinction, think again. Deservedly so, however.
Our team is called Lenny's Brides, as he was actually absent from the aforementioned draft as he needed to attend a wedding ceremony here in the state. We quickly assembled the group along with Kevin Baez, introduced ourselves by name and where we are from. We reconvened at the field where we prepared for game 1 versus a the team known as Fair & Honest.
We jumped to a quick 5-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning. From there we pretty much coasted. Our number 1 and 2 batters went a combined 8-for-8 with two walks. It's far easier to score runs when the top of your order produces like that. I went 1-for-4 myself and my only hit traveled about 88 feet in length. It was a swinging bunt down the third base line, essentially, but it scored a run and I reached base. I scored one run and we went on to top our opponents by a 13-3 score.
Tomorrow's games should be more of a challenge.
Tonight we had dinner in the hotel's restaurant as a team with our coaches and it was nice to learn more about my teammates. My team is predicted to finish 6th in an 8-team camp. We probably have more veterans on one team (6) than any other team. But our goal is to prove our detractors wrong and make them eat their words. And tomorrow that goal will be foremost on our minds.
I walked out to the field for game 1 with "Beautiful Day" by U2 in my head. Because that's what it was. The weather back home in Minneapolis is dreadful but here the temperature is in the low 70s. There's rain in the overnight forecast but nothing for the remainder of the week.
While I was playing first base today I thought that if this place were a scene from "Field of Dreams" and Shoeless Joe Jackson asked me if this were heaven, my response to him would be, "You could say that, Joe. You could say that".
With that in mind we take a look at the day that was- Tuesday, January 23rd.
The day began much like yesterday's did. There indeed WAS bacon on the bill of fare this morning. After the usual (remember, baseball players are a very superstitious lot. You stick with what works until........until it no longer works).
We had team photos over at First Data Field (formerly Thomas J. White Stadium, formerly Tradition Field, formerly Digital Domain formerly Mets Stadium). On the way over, my group of about 15, including Dwight Golden, noticed that there were some guys working out in the cages next to the stadium. He recognized that one of them was Yoenis Cespedes. Dwight wandered over in an attempt to have "La Potencia" meet us. Cespedes graciously came over to see us for a short visit. He shook hands with about a dozen or so of us, myself included. After that excitement, team photos were taken and it was off to the fields for Game 2 of the week.
Our game against Mookie's Monsters was a see-saw affair. We held the lead for most of the game, but the Monsters would not let up. The game was tied at 8 when the Monsters had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the 7th. With the infield in, looking to convert an innings-ending double play, the batter strokes a pitch high over my head into the right field corner, clearing the bases and scores himself to go up 12-8. Another insurance run scored to make the score 13-8 as we came to bat. We knew that we had our work cut out for us but we pieced together a few walks to start our half of the final frame. The second batter walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no out. I pinch-ran at 1st base and as I took my lead I said to coach Lenny Harris, in the same jingle-tone as Peyton Manning in the Nationwide insurance commercials, "Epic comeback starts right here".
I was forced out on a ground ball and returned to the bench, but we had kept the inning alive with a few clutch walks and some timely base hits. At one point the score was 13-11 as I came to the plate with one out. I got ahead in the count 2-1 and looked for a pitch to drill. I got one but hit it on top and hit a a ground ball toward the hole between third and short. I literally stepped on the handle of my bat as I headed toward first base. The throw to the first baseman was low and skipped past him and rolled to the side fence as I took off for second base. The tying run had just scored and I was now on second base. The winning run was now on third and I was merely a spectator with a great seat for the end of this ballgame. Our next batter, Gary Pincus, got a pitch to hit and laced one over my head and the game had been won. I touched third and ran home to be part of the celebration. We had come back from a 5-run deficit and were now 2-0 on the week!
We had but little time to revel in our success as the afternoon game, game 3, would start after lunch, in about 90 minutes.
Game 3 was tight from the start we actually led most of the way but never were in control of things in a comfortable fashion. A couple of fielding mishaps by yours truly did not help things for the Brides. Once again in the late innings we found ourselves trailing by, you guessed it, 5 runs.
In the top of the 6th I batted with one out and the bases loaded. I got a good pitch to hit and popped it up to the pitcher. I had wanted to hit in that situation and had the opportunity, only to come up short and not even advance a runner. The seventh inning started with the score 8-3 in favor of our opponents. We once again strung together some good at bats which produced a couple of runs to get us closer. The beauty of this game is that, like life itself, you get a second or even third chance to redeem one's self and this game would be no different for myself. I came to the plate with the score 8-5 and runners on second and first . I wanted to crush a pitch so badly that I could taste it. A 2-1 count produced a crushable pitch and I did just that over the head of the left fielder. The lead runner scored and was closely followed by the trailing runner. The arrived at home plate almost simultaneously, with the lead runner scoring on a slide but preventing the trailing runner from scoring as now home plate was no longer accessible for touching. I stopped at second, even though I should have kept onto third during the confusion, but we were now down 8-7. Once again Pincus hit a ball in the hole that was not fielded cleanly and I scored from second to tie the score at 8! Incredibly, we had once again come back from 5 runs down! We were ecstatic, but we still had work to do.
The bottom of the 7th was a nail-biter. The Saber-Met Tricks got the first two batters on but we got two outs without a run scoring and looked to move on to inning number 8. But that was not to be the case as our opponents managed to score the game-winner with two outs and our attempt to "repeat the feat" had been put to rest. The games showed that this team, no matter how beaten up and no matter our talent level will not give up under any circumstances and that we will be a force to be reckoned with as we head toward a potential playoff run.
Tomorrow Lenny's Brides are right back at it bright and early. We issue this warning to our future opponents. A 5-run lead isn't gonna be enough to make us go away. It's gonna take at least 15.
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