Diamonds on the Soles of our Shoes

A beautiful 80 degrees with blue skies as we took to the diamond today for our first two games.  The only flaw in the day is that Team A (the good guys) dropped both ends of our doubleheader -- the first game by a score of 7-3 and the afternoon game by a score of 6-5.  In the first game -- against the team coached by Stu Cliburn, Stan's brother -- we were a little shaky in the field, made some baserunning mistakes, and did not have timely hits.  I was 1 for 2 at bat with an RBI, and pitched two innings giving up three runs and striking out 3.  In the second game we fell behind early and struggled to catch up, and were behind by a score of 6 to 4 going into the bottom half of the last inning.  After one out, Jamie Bell got a hit and I walked.  Jamie scored on an infield hit.  Down by one with the tying run on third base and the winning run on second, Joe Cardi, a powerful hitter, hit a screaming line drive to right field.  It looked as if it would produce the tying and winning run, but the drive fell into the hand of the right fielder who then threw to second to complete a double play.  A tough loss to end the day.  I was 1 for 1 with two walks in the game.

The other coaches here this week in addition to the Cliburns are Jeff Smith - who was a catcher in the Twins and Rangers system and is a new coach this year at Ponce; Darrin Garner who is a coach in the Mariners system, Victor Rodriguez who has been promoted this year to assistant batting coach for the Red Sox and Arnie Beyeler the Red Sox new first base coach.  Victor and Arnie have spent a number of years in the Red Sox minor league system.  Also here this week is former Red Sox lefthanded pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee.  He is making the rounds among the teams to give pitching tips and tell baseball stories.  He showed me his grip for a curveball and tips for how to get the proper curveball motion (he trains young people for the curve by having them throw an empty soda can or water bottle end over end with the correct hand and wrist motion for a curve.)  He also pitched batting practice to us before our afternoon game -- great fun to hit against a pitcher I watched play many times at Fenway Park.  Bill harvests maple from his property in Vermont that gets turned into prime quality baseball bats at a factory in which he has a part ownership interest in Fall River, MA.  Robinson Cano of the Yankees is one of the players who uses his bats ("he won the All Star Game Home Run Derby using our bat.")

We start each day with announcements, some jogging, calisthenics and stretching.  The trainers stress the importance of hydrating well each day and stretching as much as we can to keep the back and legs limber -- Steve Liddle says "that way you will be able to bend almost all the way over, and run in somewhat the right path to a fly ball."  My former teammate Kirby Jones was known to say, "I can bend over and I can run, but not at the same time."  Takes more than stretching, I fear.

Extraneous Note:  Graceland has to be one of the all time great music albums.  Elizabeth, Elaine and I saw Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Friday night and Joseph Shabalala (age 71) is still going strong.  Not bad for a geezer.

Extraneous Note Correction:  James Taylor is 64 not 62.  Not bad for a geezer.