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".
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