We've been away for nearly three weeks, glad to be home, though it's a dreary day here.
January is "baseball week" for me, I still try and play some, I have a lot of fun. We first went to a condo in Orlando so I'd be somewhat assured of weather in which I could run and workout some more. It started getting cool of course, and when we got to North Port it was bordering on chilly, but we had no rain like last year. We had 63 players at Camp "B", the second of two, 6 were new (rookies) and 57 of us were returnees (vets), some like me with more than ten camps.
The coaches (ex-pros, neat guys) have an "eval day" where we go through stations, they look at pitching and hitting mostly (off a machine). I had not hit nor caught a thrown ball since last year's camp. I wondered how my new "eyes" would function, which turned out to be "better but still not great". I need some time on a hitting machine before I go, I tend to pull off the ball.
I got on what turned out to be a fun group but we lost both games the first day which basically cements your fate, two teams ended 6-1 so we were already out of the CG in effect. I mostly played first base and did fine, at least I'm a tall target. The runners mostly are slow so at 1B you can pull of the bag usually to catch a short hop etc. and get back in time. The average age is around 50, three guys are older than me, some are in the 30s and can still play and run pretty well. We went 1-1 the next day and then won the rest of our games. We played a night game in the main stadium which was pretty neat, I got to pitch some and did "OK", I was less happy with my efforts than my coaches claimed they were. I struck out the first batter than then things kind of went to pot a bit, I made a throwing error trying to lob the ball to first, stupid play on my part.
In our final game, I got a hit and the next batter hit a "gapper" and I had to run hard first to home and twinged a hammy a bit rounding third. I kind of shook it off, but the last day everyone is hurting, me less than many. Probably ten percent of players by then are unable to run at all. My next at bat I swung hard and missed and the hammy went kind of "sproing". I backed away and tried to take a swing and basically couldn't, so I begged off, but there is no rule apparently, so I said I'd stay in a take pitches. The game was tied with two men on late in the game and two out, maybe I'd walk. The pitcher, who is a cool dude, saw this and told me he'd throw a cookie down the middle which he did and somehow I roped one down the RF line (I'm left handed batting). I had a courtesy runner, so I didn't have to make it to second myself. So, we won, I felt pretty good about that and thanked the pitcher for the cookie. It was my best hit of the week. The harder hit balls I had before that were mostly "atem balls".
So, it's akin to hitting a great tee shot on 18 after a frustrating day at the links. I'll be back next year. Ha. It's my incentive to "stay in shape" year round. If you like playing baseball, I highly recommend the experience. A lot of teams have camps before spring training and they all are fun I hear.
