Staying Ahead of the Competition

A big day in Fort Myers for Team 3-C-Garner as we took two games and moved into first place with two-thirds of the games played. We took the first game by a score of 9-4 against a team coached by Stu Cliburn, and in the afternoon we won 7-1 against Victor Rodriquez' team, the only team to beat us earlier in the week. Our record now stands at 5 and 1, with the Rodriquez, Beyeler and Knapp teams at 4 and 2 in the standings. If we win one game tomorrow we ensure a place in the championship game on Friday. At bat, I was 1-1 with a walk in the first game and 0-2 in the second game.

Barry, the ace pitcher of my weekend Ponce team up North, asked how come I had reported on my batting and not my pitching? My answer to him was that I was hitting better than I was pitching this week (it's my blog and I can control what I put in it!) I pitched two innings on Monday and gave up 5 runs in the game we lost -- so thought I would "forget" to mention that. Today I pitched three innings and gave up no runs and faced only 10 batters -- so now I'm ready to talk about pitching. And, actually while I have been getting on base a lot, I am not hitting the ball hard -- a lot of bloopers and seeing-eye ground balls, that all look like line drives in the box score (or blog score, as the case may be.)

People wonder about the level of competition for the week -- and there is no easy answer. When someone asked me how hard the pitchers throw, the answer was some of them throw as hard as anyone I have ever faced, it's just that the ball doesn't go very fast. Based on speed of pitches I have observed before with radar guns and at batting cages, I would estimate that this week, "fastballs" range from a low of the high 40s mph to about mid-60s; the fastest pitcher here this week may throw up to 70 mph. In general the pitches are probably in the mid-50s. For comparison, the Red Sox' Tim Wakefield throws his knuckleball -- perhaps the slowest pitch in the major leagues -- at a speed ranging from the mid-60s to the low 70s. (And, as Jim knows, Aroldis Chapman has thrown his fastball as fast as 105 -- about twice as fast as what we see.)

The age of players on my team range from the youngest who is 33 to two of us who are 64 -- the rest of the team are from their mid-40s to their mid-50s. There is one woman who is a regular at this camp (and in the league up north) -- Susan is a researcher at the National Cancer Institute. This week she is playing for Arnie Beyeler who told us that although Susan doesn't have the strength and overall athletic ability of the men he thinks she knows as much about baseball and how to play as any of the men -- she is a very fundamentally sound player (who pitches, and plays first and second base.)

Rules are designed to move the game along and to protect players. If a pitcher walks four batters in an inning, he (or she) must be removed from the game but can return in a later inning; if a pitcher hits two batters he is removed and cannot return in that game. There is a 3-run limit per inning, except for the last inning which is unlimited. The umpires are encouraged to have a big strike zone to encourage hitting (and minimize walks) and are generally lenient about applying the rules. Today I was on third base and we had another runner on first base -- the other team's pitcher was on the pitching rubber and turned to throw to first base, but stopped -- a clear balk that should have allowed both runners to advance. The umpire made no call and said, "I haven't called a balk all week and I'm not starting now!" Then he instructed the pitcher about the rule and what he must do if he makes a move toward first base.

Nephew Billy reminded me that my extensive instruction to him when he was first playing baseball was to "keep your elbow up and your dauber down." We are getting better instruction here. This morning I had a one-on-one session in the batting cage with former Oriole Don Buford who (on his birthday) was showing me how to strengthen my top hand through the hitting zone and also how to get my hips into my swing to generate more power. It really helped and I was pounding the ball in the cage -- however, I didn't get the ball out of the infield in my two games after my hitting lesson. So, tomorrow, do I go back for more instruction -- or do I clear my head and just "see it, hit it"?

Victor Rodriguez said he believes highly touted Red Sox Cuban shortstop prospect Jose Iglesias, who played last year at AA Portland at 20 years of age should be able to be a very good big league hitter and perhaps ready to play in the majors by sometime in 2012. He is already a big-league caliber fielder. Victor said he spoke to Jose this morning and that he has been working out in Miami with Alex Rodriquez.

I am not taking pictures here, but there is a professional photographer who takes pictures each day and posts them on his website in the hopes that campers will buy them (I have in the past and you can see what I bought attached to this blog.) If you are interested in seeing any of the "action" this week you can go (with no obligation) to wagnerphotography.com and click on the Ponce 2011 button on the top of the home page. My team is Team C on the photo site.