Big Win Today!!!

That big win, however, was for Mitt Romney.   Team 3-C-Cliburn only split two games (well a lot better than Newt's day in Florida.)    In the main stadium, we lost our morning game by a score of 11-3 to the team we beat yesterday 3-2 (that's baseball.)   Again, we didn't hit and we had poor fielding combined with some shaky pitching.  I pitched two innings and gave up 4 runs and was zero for two at bat.   My arm felt better than I thought it would after pitching yesterday, but I was inconsistent.  (I did strike out the owner of the Ponce league, so some measure of satisfaction.)  We turned it around in the second game, winning by a score of 15 to 8, again in the main stadium.  Highlights for me was that I finally(!) got a hit, going 1 for 3, and started a doubleplay from my position at second base to end the game.

I believe these four games have been the worst stretch of hitting for me since I started to play in Ponce 7 years ago.  Just bad swings, and lungeing at bad pitches.  But part of the value of being here for the week is that there is terrific instruction that can help us improve.  For instance, former Oriole great, Don Buford (74 years old) stations himself at the facililty batting cage each morning and noontime and gives individual instruction (with him pitching batting practice) to any player who goes by to work with him.  Today at noontime, I went to Dr. Buford's batting cage (8th in line) and got tips on how to change the positioning of my bat pre-swing, so that it will be easier for me to be "short" to the pitch and more able to wait for the pitch to come to me rather than starting my swing too soon.  As an extra plus this week, my brother Bill is sharing helpful observations about my pitching and hitting.

Today was also a revelation -- I personally benefited from the impact of advanced medicine, American entrepreneurship, and Chinese engineering -- my Chapstick Cosy was a life saver (or at least a lip saver) today.   I started the week with a cold, and with the 80 degree weather, hot sun, and drying wind, my lips have been in peril.  (I have liberally used sunblock, but lips are a different challenge.)  So I have hydrated regularly and been applying chapstick.  But what to do at the field?  A chapstick in a handy holster, clipped to my equipment bag meant I was able to apply chapstick at the merest hint of dryness.  For more information about the handy Chapstick Cosy you can contact Elaine or Colleen (or maybe Dominic, and he knows why.)

Finally, a big surprise for Bill and me at our hotel last night -- a delivery of Cheez-Its (who knew they came in so many different varieties.)  My colleague at Novo Nordisk, Jacqueline, conspired with her friend Patrick to have seven boxes of Cheez-Its and Kellogg crackers delivered to us -- a big hit for us and a hit for the Ponce players we are sharing them with.  Cheez-Its, nothing better (except, perhaps, a few hits on the field tomorrow -- and a Chapstick Cosy.)

Terry Park was a voting place today for the Florida primary -- precinct 8 and precinct 88 both at the park.  However there was not much action at the polls.  Sort of the Ponce of voting sites.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Signs perhaps were ominous as we got ready to play our first Ponce games on Monday.  Bill noted at breakfast that he saw "three of your campers getting into a van that was parked in a handicapped spot."  Overheard snatches of conversation in the clubhouse included, "my cardiologist said . . . " and "after the surgery on my ankle I got an embolism in my lung."  Everyone's definition of "being ready for some baseball" is different. Nonetheless 82 players on six teams took the field on a 75 degree, breezy day to play the first two sets of games for the week.  Stan Cliburn, former Twins AAA manager (and my coach two years ago) is the manager for Team 3-C, now to be known at Team 3-C-Cliburn (so people can figure out who we are.)  There were some disgruntled campers who were not happy that they and friends they came to camp with were assigned to different teams.  So pre-game was marked by Ponce officials moving a number of players from one team to another to calm folks down -- we had a couple of adjustments to my team but still have13 players.  The other coaches this year are Rick Knapp, former Twins minor league pitching coordinator, former Tigers pitching coach, and current Kansas City minor league pitching coordinator; Stu Cliburn, Stan's twin brother and pitching coach in the Twins (fittingly enough) system; Darin Garner, Mariners minor league infield and base running instructor; Arnie Beyeler, manager of the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket; and Floyd Rayford, former Baltimore Oriole and Victor Rodriquez, Red Sox minor league hitting coordinator -- who are teaming up to coach the sixth team.  Victor will be here on Wednesday -- he is reportedly in Boston with all the minor league instructors to meet with new Sox manager Bobby Valentine ("so he can tell the instructors everything he knows about baseball.")  Other instructors include former Oriole Don Buford, and Cincinnati Red organization pitching coach Tom Brown.  Camp Director is Steve Liddle, Twins 3rd base coach.  Steve and most of the coaches have been at the camp for each of the 13 years it has existed.

After skills instruction (I took outfield drills without one ball hitting me on the head!) Team 3-C-Cliburn won our first game by a score of 3 to 2.  Unusually low scoring for a Ponce game -- our pitchers gave up only one walk and we received only two from the other team. Two of our runs scored on sacrifice flies with close plays at home plate.  There was good, sharp fielding by both teams (also relatively unusual for Ponce.)  In the afternoon game in  the main stadium, we were shut out 6 to 0 -- our fielding took a noticeable dip, we made several base-running errors and did not hit (in either game) as well as we should -- or I believe will.  If Bill were not here I would neglect to mention my stats for the day, but his truth-ometer forces out that I was 0 for 4 at bat for the day and gave up 3 runs in two innings in the afternoon game.  I had bad at-bats all day, but was basically pleased with how I threw the ball from the mound (and my arm and legs felt good.)

I think our team will be competitive for the week.  We are the oldest team (by far) of the six, but we have at least 5 pitchers who threw today and four catchers -- depth which should serve us well as the week go on.  In my first three years at Ponce camp my teams' collective record was 1win and 26 losses; the last two years that turned around and we went 17 wins with only one loss.  This week should be somewhere in the middle.  And despite the ominous signs early in the day, it seemed that virtually all the players got through the day relatively unharmed.  More tomorrow.

Countdown to Game Time

The Ponce baseball players are here in Florida, and for the next week there will charges and counter charges, trash talking, and accusations of bias and unfairness -- but that will be coming from the Republican candidates for President who are also in Florida and dominating the news.   On the other hand, good sportsmanship and fun will mark the week at Terry Park in Fort Myers as 82 baseball players from the DC area  -- with ages ranging from mid-30's to 70 -- will be having fun playing 9 games over the next 5 days.  Tonight the kick-off dinner was held at the league hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, where team assignments were passed out.  In a typically chaotic "organizing" meeting I was assigned to Team 3 (which is also known on the schedule that was passed out as Team C.)  Coaches will be assigned tomorrow (drawing teams out of a hat.)  I have played previously with only one other person on my team (Steve Malinowski from my weekend team) and against only a couple of others that I know.  So I will get to know a bunch of new guys this week.  Team 3-C has 13 players -- ranging in age from 45 to 73 (6 of us are 62 or older - by far the oldest of the 6 teams.)

My brother Bill is with me here for the week to monitor play, get a few chuckles and make sure my blog accurately reports what happens without my usual exaggeration and self-promotion.  (So if you don't see any reports of my hitting and pitching you will know Bill has applied the truth-ometer -- no news will be bad news.)  Several folks have made suggestions for improving the blog -- including attaching some pictures.  We will see if, with Bill's help, I can get some shots and post them.  A couple of other suggestions were more far-fetched.  Mark K. suggested that I post a 5-minute video on YouTube with the highlights of the week's action -- probably not possible because it may take filming for whole week to compile even 5 minutes of "action."  Similarly Marc-boy suggested that I tweet from the field, but "keep your eye on the ball"  -- he may forget that the ball bounced off my forehead last year, so combining playing with tweeting would clearly be well beyond both my physical coordination and technical competence. 

Reports from the playing field tomorrow evening.

Occupy Fort Myers: The Geezer Baseball Edition - 2012

About 70 players from the DC area will be gathering in Fort Myers FL this weekend for the annual Ponce de Leon winter baseball week.  We will play 9 six-inning games from Monday to Friday at Terry Park, a Lee County baseball complex.  Team assignments are given out at a kick-off dinner on Sunday night.  This year my brother Bill, recently retired after 41 years of running the Park Department in Braintree MA (home of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Hancock, Gen. Sylvanus Thayer, and Lee Remick) will be joining me as an observer for the week.  Bill's job, apparently, will be to make sure I cut down on the lies I usually put into the blogs. 

Bill and I will start the weekend in Tampa visiting with Bill's son Ben and his wife Cristina, and Chloe and future Hall of Famer, Evan.  

I will post the first blog for the week after the kick-off dinner on Sunday night.