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.