Sunday, January 24, 2016

A Guilt Trip - But, Still, Baseball in January!

It is great to be able to play baseball at any time - and particularly in January in what my friend and teammate Gib Willis refers to as the "Baseball Solstice" - halfway between the World Series and Opening Day.  So here I am in Fort Myers Florida - "put me in coach I'm ready to play." 

Except life is not always as easy as that, is it?  The Ponce De Leon Florida baseball camp is scheduled to start tomorrow with a registered 75 to 80 players from our senior baseball league in the Washington DC area.  Unfortunately the grande umpire - Mother Nature - called a foul ball this weekend and dumped 30 plus inches of snow - Snowzilla - on Washington.  Fortunately I was able to twice change my original plane reservation and leave early on Friday and get to Florida that night, but the storm has kept about half of the players due in Fort Myers still looking for a way to get here in time to play.   While Elizabeth encouraged me to go play baseball, I must say I feel guilty about leaving her in DC to deal with the storm.


But, I woke up today under the Florida sun ready to play baseball. The weather will be a theme all week (which would you pick - snow or sun?)  Nevertheless, the league will try to get in as many games as possible for as many players who can make it to Fort Myers.

This is the 17th year that Ponce De Leon has had a January camp in Florida, and the 10th year I have come to the camp since I started playing in the league in 2005.  The normal schedule has us playing nine 6 inning games from Monday to Friday noon.  Players are from the Ponce De Leon League in Washington and range in age from those in their 30's to players in their 70's.  The teams are formed with a mix of ages, abilities and an attempt is made to balance enough pitchers and catchers for each team to try to keep all the teams competitive for the week.  The camp is run by professional coaches who all have major or minor league coaching experience.  The Director is Steve Liddle, former bench coach for the Minnesota Twins.  Team coaches are: Arnie Beyeler, former Red Sox first base coach and current manager of the Miami Marlins AAA team, the New Orleans Zephyrs; Victor Rodriguez, assistant batting coach for the Red Sox; Stu and Stan Cliburn, who have both coached in the Twins minor league system; Rick Knapp, former Detroit Tigers pitching coach; and Darrin Garner, a minor league coordinator in the Seattle Mariners system.  Team assignments were given out tonight and I (and my Ponce weeknight teammate Chris Clark - photographer of the Sanibel Sunrise photo above) are on the team managed by Darrin Garner.

The games will be played at Terry Park - a Lee County baseball complex used in the past as a major league spring training facility for the Pirates, A's and other teams.

Due to the late arrivals because of the storm, camp will start tomorrow at noon with whatever players are here instead of the previously scheduled 9am - and we will play with four teams instead of the expected six.  The plan is for each team to play an afternoon game tomorrow, followed by an evening game.  Then it is anticipated teams will play three games on Tuesday to try to beat an expected rain storm predicted for Wednesday.  Weather and the arrival of delayed players will shape the schedule and teams for the balance of the week.

A bit of a chaotic start for the week - but a common refrain each year in Ponce is that even the worse game of baseball we play in Florida is better that the best day at work (or shoveling) in DC. 


2 comments:

  1. Terry Park ... the same hallowed grounds where Roberto Clemente played! Are you taking any field trips? Can you find: 2764 Lime Street in Fort Myers (it may be in a Dunbar neighborhood known as “The Bottom.”) Throughout his spring trainings in Ft. Myers, Clemente would stay with a family there while the other (white) players stayed at the Bradford Hotel. He later stayed at a home at the corner of Mango & Evans Streets.

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