Thursday, January 28, 2016

A Picture Perfect Day - But No Games


No games today, so the post will be pictures and stories - and a few baseball lessons.  (Tip: I believe if you click on a photo in the blog it will be enlarged for easier viewing.)

Rain kept coming down in Fort Myers throughout last night and today - washing out any chance of playing today.  (The normal rainfall for the month in this area is 1.94" and through Wednesday of this month the total has been 12.54" with an addition 1 to 2 inches falling on Thursday.  Some may think there is no global warming but it sure feels like there is global wetting - at least in Fort Myers this week.)

I know weather reports in a blog are boring and even more boring than sitting out a rain delay.  I will try to keep today's post about baseball - and the baseball activity Ponce campers did in the down time.

In the morning, Arnie Beyeler and Victor Rodriguez stationed themselves at the covered batting cages and gave individual instruction and BP to anyone who wanted a session.  It is always a thrill to realize you are getting world class instruction from coaches who work all season with the likes of David Ortiz, Mookie Betts, Dustin Pedroia and other major league players.

Victor Rodriguez with batting tips
Victor was doing soft flips so batters could work on proper hitting technique and form.  One of my (many?) flaws when I hit is that I move forward too early and don't keep my weight back - ending up losing power by swinging too early and being "long" or lunging at the ball.  Victor said that most amateur batters - and many professionals - have the same tendency and gave me a drill to keep my weight back and hands waiting for the ball to come in deeper to the plate before swinging.



Vic said that Xander Bogaerts, the outstanding young Red Sox shortstop, got into the same habit of moving too soon toward the end of his first full year in the majors. Victor gave him the same drill he was showing me - to step back instead of forward to keep the weight on the back.  On the first day Bogaerts worked on the drill he was so successful and liked it so much, he did the "drill" in a game at Yankee Stadium - and hit a home run to center field his first at bat, went 4 for 5, and had 5 rbi's!  So look for some heavy lumber from me after (or if?) I perfect this drill.



Arnie Beyeler pitching BP to Chris Clark
In the next cage, Arnie was throwing BP so players could work on some of the advice that Victor had given them.  Arnie would pinpoint his pitches -- high, low, inside, outside -- and check us to make sure we were developing the new, good habits we needed to learn -- talking us through what we did right or wrong.  Get a good pitch to hit.  Only swing at your pitch.  Don't swing at a tough pitch you have a hard time handling, unless you have two strikes on you.  Don't chase pitches outside the strike zone. 

Steve Liddle was telling us that he thought he had a terrific group of coaches - most of whom have been at the camp for more than 10 years.  He said, "It does takes an incredible coach to teach you guys something"

Victor talking batting with Arnie pitching BP in the adjacent cage.
A typical Ponce day of play: 8am - report to clubhouse,get dressed, get into the trainers' room if necessary, and get ready; 9am - announcements on the field; 9:15 to 9:30am - stretching and calisthenics led by the trainers; 9:30 to 10:30am - skills instruction by position or onfield batting practice with your team; 10:30am to 12:30pm - first six inning game; 12:30 to 1:30pm - lunch in the clubhouse; 1:45 to 2:30 - skills instruction for those who had batting practice in the morning and onfield batting practice for the teams that did not have BP in the morning; 2:30 to 4:30pm - afternoon six inning game; 4:30 to 5:30p - postmortems, soda or beer in the clubhouse and by now a necessary trip to the trainers' room.  And report for more of the same the next day. 

A typical day this week:  try to get to Florida, report to the clubhouse to find out the weather report, try to get a game started (with no BP or skills instruction!), sit out the rain.  And report for more of the same the next day.  I know I sound bitter - but the camaraderie of the fellow campers and the obvious effort Steve Liddle, the coaches, and Ponce are making to maximize our time here helps and is much appreciated.

Instead of a skills session this afternoon in the rain, Steve gathered us in the stadium grandstand and conducted a skull session for us with the coaches - a baseball seminar.
Or flagging an airplane into the gate!  (photo strip by Chris Clark)

Some tips from the seminar:  1)  Most of us take a "false step" on the basepaths or in the field - moving the back leg first, instead of turning the hips and making the first step with the lead foot.  Especially for a player in their 50's or 60's - "you aren't going to get faster, you have lost your 'closing speed' so you need to learn how to be more efficient."  2) You can get better but that means you have to get smarter - you can't be stubborn and do things the same way as you lose your athleticism.  You have to adjust and learn new things.  Find a drill that helps and work on that drill until it is natural and you don't need to think about it.  You need to develop an approach that feels right and keeps you in balance - at the plate or on the mound.  3) A solid and steady lower half of the body is critical whether you are at bat or pitching.  "If you have a two story house and the second story is solid but the first story has termites, you need to call the Orkin man!"  Make sure your lower half is solid.  4)  At bat, the head never moves - it should not turn or go forward.  If you are opening up your front shoulder your head will move.  5)  At bat, "hands above the ball and the barrel above the hands."  6)  Get into a position of strength,  be ready to hit, and get a good pitch to hit.  As the ball is coming don't be, "wait, wait, wait, swing" - or you may chase a bad pitch.  Instead, be, "swing, swing, swing, and wait, if its a ball."

 Tonight was the Awards Dinner - but since there were so few games there were fewer awards.  Hard to give an MVP or announce a championship game when we played only 4 games and went from 4 teams to 6 in the week.  The most important award, however, is the "spirit of Ponce" award given to a player on each team who best represented the meaning and culture of Ponce De Leon baseball during the week.  Teammates of mine from my weekend team back home -- 48+ Cornwell - were winners on two of the six teams.  For Rick Knapp's team the award went to co-winners Peter and Gib Willis who struggled to get to camp from the snow in DC and rushed straight from the airport to the park on Wednesday afternoon to get into the game.  George Bedford, a Ponce legend and virtual captain of Team Cornwell and a coach of a 30+ team, won the award for Stu Cliburn's team.   This is George's 11th year at Ponce camp, but the first time he has been here with his son, George III (not to be confused with King George III of Great Britain who lost the American colonies.)

 Bill Lee, former pitcher for the Red Sox, is often at Ponce camp and made a brief appearance yesterday.  Wednesday was going to be "wood bat day" at Ponce, when every player would bat with a wood bat instead of the usual metal bat.  Bill Lee is part owner of a wood bat company and still plays a lot of baseball tournaments that feature wood bats. 
Bill Lee touting the value of wood bats.
It has been a difficult week for people back home in the snow in DC, for the people who had difficult trips to Florida to try to get the play, and for all of us to be frustrated from our goal of a week of playing baseball.  Nonetheless, it is an experience you go through with friends and teammates.  And in a week like this, every camper - whether on your team or not - feels like a teammate, sharing the same baseball experience.

The camp photographer -- Greg Wagner -- took a photo of all the campers on Tuesday to send back to Bob Duff, the owner of Ponce, who is not here this week while he deals with some health issues.  Greg graciously sent me the picture to share on the blog - both to give you a sense of who is here and also to send best wishes to Bob from all his Ponce teammates.  (Photos of Ponce week can be seen and ordered at www.wagnerphotography.com.  I got a wonderful poster several years ago that Greg made for me at a previous camp - you can see it in the thumbnail size at "about me" on the side of this  blog.)

Photo by Greg Wagner - www.wagnerphotography.com

Steve announced tonight that he will be at the park at 7:30am to, check the fields, talk to the grounds crew and the county, and to determine if we can play our final game of the the week tomorrow morning.  With the additional 1.5" of rain we got today the prospects of playing are slim.  But hope springs eternal.  I leave for the airport right after the scheduled end of the game at noon - so my final blog post for the year will be on Saturday.

1 comment:

  1. Steve Liddel didn't seem to be explaining the "finer points of running the bases," he seemed to be showing you where exactly the bases are. "There's first ... and then you run over there to second ... and, if you've really got up a head of steam, keep running over there, to third." (Perhaps the correct answer to where the bases are was: "Out there under those puddles of water.")

    One of my favorite things about baseball is that it often reflects society and its time. And, your weather-related frustrations this week have mirrored all of the snow-and-mud-and-ice-and-frozen-mud-and-there's-still-snow frustrations we've been feeling here up north. But, you got to hang out with Spaceman Lee and Victor Rodriguez (who was, you recall, once an Oriole) and we only got to hang out with snow shovels. You win!

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