La Vie en Rose

Post game handshake - a rare win for Team A

It was a wonderful week in Fort Myers for my seventh trip to the Ponce de Leon winter baseball camp.  The weather was great -- 80 degrees and sunny most days, a slight sprinkle Thursday morning and a cool wind on Friday -- but the snow, ice and freezing temperatures were left up north. As discouraging as our play was for the week -- we ended up 2 wins and 7 losses -- it is sweet to be in Florida in the dead of winter playing baseball and renewing friendships and making new friends.  As Jackie pointed out, Willie Stargell hit the nail on the head when he said, "No one ever said, 'Work Ball!'  They say, 'Play Ball!'  To me that means having fun."  Couldn't agree more.

In my first three years at this camp the collective record of my teams was 1-26; the next three years the record was 23-4.  I was hoping that this year I would get over .500 but instead now have a cumulative record of 26 wins and 37 losses.  So I'll just have to come back at least two more years and pretty much run the table to get over .500.  Steve Liddle says each year that "it is true at every level of baseball from the little leagues to the big leagues that teams that can throw strikes and catch the ball usually win."  And that was particularly true for us this week.  We had several capable and versatile fielders -- particularly Jamie Bell, Ed Confino, Tom Grubbs, Chris Clark and Joe Cardi -- but when they were sitting out or pitching or catching our overall ability to make plays suffered.  At the beginning of the week 8 players on the team said they played first base and 5 said they played second -- unfortunately only one person can play those positions at a time and, of course, the ball gets hit to other parts of the field.  So while I believe our overall pitching matched the level of pitching from most of the other teams, when the ball was put into play our defense too often didn't measure up.  While most of our games were competitive, we didn't have enough timely hitting or efficient fielding to win. 

Jay Hedlund and Flint Taylor - Brown Baseball- Class of '68

It was great to have Bill here with me again this year -- conversations about baseball well into the night, tips for my play, observations on the games and general catching up is terrific in the relaxed atmosphere of a baseball week.  An extra highlight was having Flint Taylor here -- he is to blame for me doing the blog in the first place, and there is no more ardent Red Sox fan - and a wonderful friend.  Flint only saw one game -- on Tuesday morning -- and it was one of our two wins for the week.  We should have kept him around for the whole week!


The coaches are unbelievably gracious and accommodating - both during the week and after the camp is over.   The coaches to a man say that what keeps them coming back is that everyone is here for the love of the game of baseball.  They tell us, "you guys want to learn and get better and you listen to us.  Too often during the year we are working with young, talented players who don't want to listen."  The coaches encourage campers to reach out to them whenever they are in the same city as the coach and his team.  Last summer, when he was managing the Red Sox Class AAA Pawtucket, Rhode Island team, Arnie Beyeler very generously gave me and my nephew and two great-nephews a pre-game tour of the PawSox clubhouse, workout room, managers office, batting cage and dugout -- where Nick and Chris, age 10 and 8 got to meet several of the players (and "shake Iglesias' hand!")  It was a wonderful gift from Arnie, and the boys (and their great-uncle!) were thrilled.  It was typical of the openness that Arnie and the other coaches have with the campers.

I was pleased with how I did physically all week with one exception.  My arm and shoulder were strong and flexible so I was able to pitch every day.  My hamstrings and quads tightened some but stretching throughout each day -- on top of my winter workouts -- and some Atomic Balm kept my legs and back feeling the best they have been for any of the 7 camps I have attended.  Even no blisters on my feet -- usually an annual occurrence.  The one exception was increasing pain and swelling in my right knee as the week went on.  I have some arthritis and cartilage and ligament damage in the inside part of the knee and had a cortisone shot for it last October.  As the week went on the pounding on the hard infield surface of our fields when I ran made the knee flare up quite badly.  Aleeve, stretching and ice helped only marginally.   It severely restricted what I call "my running" although it didn't bother me much while pitching or batting.  By Thursday I was using a pinch runner when I got on base - one of the liberal rules to accommodate the infirmities of the players.  I will have to have the knee looked at again by my orthopedist.

A couple of quick notes:  Don Buford was not at the camp this year -- last October he was appointed by Major League Baseball to manage the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California.  Floyd Rayford, a seven year major league catcher and third baseman -- mostly with the Orioles -- took over Don's post in the batting cages.

Floyd each year also conducts a terrific practice with the camp's catchers.  About 8 to 10 catchers went with Floyd to the middle of the field where he would hit them high (50 feet or more) pop flies directly over their heads for them to try to catch.  He is a magician with his "fungo" bat and can make the ball drift left, right, front, or back much like the foul balls catchers need to catch in a game.  (You don't see pop flies that high in a Ponce game.)  The catchers each had 10 or more chances and did quite well - with one of our catchers, Jeff Raymond, among the most successful.  I agree with an observation of one of my teammates that this was the most talented group of catchers at the camp since I started attending.

The pictures in this blog are courtesy of Flint Taylor.  If you would like to see more pictures of the week's activities you can go to the website of Greg Wagner, the professional photographer who covers the camp.  He estimates that he took 3-4,000 photos during the week.  The results are at:  www.wagnerphotography.com. Look for pictures for the Ponce de Leon week, and Team A.

Jackie Howell, who has posted some wonderful comments to the postings this week, writes the best baseball blog that I read, and which I recommend -- "Baseball, Yoga, Life.... (and me) the bliss of stillness & the game." You can find it at:  baseballzen9.wordpress.com.

Bill Lee said that he was there to give advice and condolences for the week -- and added, "the only advice I can give you is don't lose your day jobs!"

Arnie Beyeler said that his last name is pronounced "Baylor, like my cousin Don."

A foreign correspondent writes, "Overall the whole week reminded me of the hapless but lovable 1962 Mets.  And I found you to be something of a combination of Gus Bell and Roger Craig, a good hitter and a good pitcher, who some (not me, of course) would say were in the twilight of their careers."  As Victor Kosmo used to say, "it is better to be a has been than a never was."  (And hello to the Hedlunds AND Wetekams of Canada.)

Flint talked about the radar gun on my pitches showing a speed reading that matches the temperatures this week in Chicago.  A while back I told a younger friend who I work out with that my goal as a pitcher is to throw the ball at a speed to match my age -- he said, "what's that, 93?"  Let's just say that the speed of my "fast ball" is somewhere between that and the winter temp in Chicago.

While at Ponce camp there is a lot of discussion about plans for the coming seasons back home -- games start the first week of April.  Campers also talk about the other tournaments they have been to or plan to attend -- for example the Men's Senior Baseball League tournament in Arizona, Roy Hobbs tournament in November in Fort Myers (I was part of that one last year), the Legends Tournament in Cooperstown in September (Chris Clark, John Fernstrom and Joe Cardi have played there in the past and I hope to this year) and an International tournament in Florida held in mid-January.  Last year I played 59 games in a variety of seasons and tournaments -- and hope to add one or more of those tournaments to my regular schedule this year.  As someone once said, "Baseball is a disease that old age can't cure."

Jay and Bill Hedlund with Ted Williams

Last March, Bill retired after running the Parks and Recreation Department for 41 years in our hometown of Braintree, MA.  In April he started as an usher at Fenway Park!  "Living the dream!" he says -- getting paid to be at 80 Red Sox games during the season.  A nice connection this week was the chance for him to get to know Red Sox Coaches Arnie Beyeler and Victor Rodriguez who have been promoted to the major league team this year.  Bill sat with them for a while in the lobby of the hotel on Thursday and talked Red Sox -- among tidbits:  Jackie Bradley Jr., the 22 year-old outfield prospect, has all the tools and should hit for power; Xander Bogaerts, the 20 year-old minor league shortstop,  is the "real deal"; Travis Shaw, a big left-handed hitting first and third baseman, is a prospect to keep your eye on.  Both Arnie and Victor have told Bill to say hey to them when he sees them at Fenway in the upcoming season.  Camp is great fun for me -- and all the more to share the time with Bill.  We have been going to baseball games together for more than 60 years -- and we still saw some things this week that we had never seen before!

Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks!  Keep your Sox on! 

Extraneous Note:  La Vie en Rose is one of the all time great songs (yes, Mike, even though it is in French.)  There are many great covers of the song, but I think one of Elizabeth's favorites, and mine, is by Charles Aznavour, who is still singing at the age of 88.  Not bad for a geezer.  

Humility

At bat in Ponce de Leon game in Fort Myers, FL

Humility quickly follows hubris, and that's true today.  A quick report on the fading Team A - we lost our final game to Team F (managed by Arnie Beyeler) by a score of 5 to 4.  After beating Team F twice earlier in the week (our only wins of the week) we lost to them on Thursday ending the game with the tying run on second base.  Today, we fell behind early but Adrian Rosati held Team F in check and we slowly caught up.  Going into our final at bat we were losing 5 to 3 -- we scored one and had the tying run on third and the winning run on second.  However, with two outs, a ground ball was scooped by the third baseman and his throw was dug out of the dirt by the first baseman, ending the game.  So we beat Team F twice and they beat us twice, so we ended with identical 2-7 records and a draw in the four games between us.  I like to think we weren't in last place, but rather tied for fifth.  I pitched two innings, allowing 4 runs and striking out two, and hit one batter; at bat I was 1 for 2 with a walk.  (Victor Rodriguez' Team E won the championship in the main stadium.)

So from big hopes at the beginning of the week we fell far short of expectations. We were competitive in most games but a lack of timely hitting (leaving too many runners on base) and, particularly, weak fielding meant we too often frittered away chances to win.  It was a wonderful week of baseball, great weather and wonderful stories -- but it is always better when you win.

An interesting experience today while I was pitching:  my catcher was on base at the end of the previous inning so had to don his catching gear while I waited on the mound to warm up.  Former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee told me to throw my warm up pitches to him as he stepped into the batters box with a bat and he would hit them back to me.  I threw about 10-12 warm ups with Bill tapping them right back to me (like a game of pepper!)  I never saw anyone warm up like that before.  So this week I twice took batting practice with Bill pitching to me and today I pitched to him -- great fun for someone who saw him play so often in Fenway Park in the 1970s.

A couple of quick notes:  My brother Bill and I drove up to Tampa after the game to visit with Bill's son, Ben, and Ben's wife Cristina and son Evan.  On Saturday we take our flights north.  I will post my final thoughts on the week over the weekend once I'm back in DC.

Bill brought the new book by Tito Francona written with Dan Shaughnessy to read during lulls in the "action" during the games -- so he finished it in no time!  He thought it was a very interesting and engaging book with many insights to internal workings of the team.  He recommends it.

For the week I was 9-16 at bat with 5 walks.  I pitched all five days for a total of 13 innings -- and was very surprised that my arm felt as good at the end of the week as it did in the beginning.  It was much more pitching than I have done at Ponce camp in the past -- or, in fact, than I have done in 45 years -- and I was pleased, in general, with how I did.  I am sure that my winter workouts and throwing regimen were instrumental to having the strength to throw each day and to the improvement in my control and results.

Photos attached to the blog (except the one on Sunday) were taken by Flint Taylor, aka Leo Kiely.

More this weekend.

Hubris!

Team E Manager Victor Rodriguez and Bill Lee

Hubris will get you every time -- if the baseball gods don't.  Yesterday, I said thank goodness for Team F because we got our only two wins so far in the week while playing against them -- well this afternoon they turned the tables and beat us for their first win of the week.  Combined with our loss in our morning game, Team A now has a record of 2 and 6 -- earning us a playoff game tomorrow against ..... the 1 and 7 Team F. 

There was rain overnight and into mid-morning but the fields were in fantastic shape by 10:30am when we started our game against Victor Rodriguez' team.  (Steve Liddle said that the grounds crew told him the fields were pretty muddy and Steve replied, "do you think a little mud will affect the speed of our games?")  Joe Cardi started as our pitcher but his arm tightened up after the first inning - with us down 3 to 0.  I pitched the next three innings, giving up six runs and striking out 2 (a couple of players who are on my weeknight team back home -- I'll hear about that this spring.)  We didn't do much at the plate, were shaky in the field and were dispatched pretty quickly by a final score of 9 to 1.  I was 0 for 1 with a walk at bat. 

Arnie Beyeler Manager of Team F

The afternoon saw our third game against Arnie Beyeler's Team F.  Again with poor fielding and no hitting, we fell behind quickly by a score of 6 to 0 -- and then started to inch back to get to a 6 to 3 score going into fifth inning.  The scored three to go ahead 9 to 3 into our last at bat.  We rallied to score 4 runs and had runners on second and third base with two out when our rally fell short, losing the game by a score of 9 to 7.  I was 2 for 2 at bat with an rbi.  We will face Team F tomorrow to see who can stay out of the cellar for the week.

I pitched for the fourth day in a row today and my arm has continued to feel good and I am happy with how I have thrown this week.  Several people have asked what my earned run average is for the week and there is no good answer.  The number of errors and misplays make an accurate accounting of earned runs almost impossible.  For instance a player on another team said after one of their games that his team made more errors and misplays (14) than they had hits.  We had a play today where a 30' high pop-fly into the infield fell between the first and second basemen without ever being in danger of being caught.  It was a hit but in "normal" circumstances would be an easy out.  It is the nature of Ponce and makes it difficult to have precise or meaningful statistics.   As in all sports, the most important statistic is wins and losses.

A couple of observations on the day:  During our afternoon game our third baseman made a nice move to his left to spear a hard hit ground ball -- then he stood and kept searching around him trying to find the ball until our teammates told him that it was in his glove!  An example of so many errors being made that fielders can be surprised when they don't make an error.

During the early rain delay this morning, a player was swinging a bat in the locker room, worrying a couple of guys who were standing nearby.  Steve Liddle walked by and said, "Don't worry, you're okay, he hasn't hit anything all week."

Successful hitting is a combination of concentration and reaction -- it is important to execute the proper fundamentals but you shouldn't be thinking about too many things while you are at bat.  Overheard from one of the older campers who was 8 for 10 at bat, "I think its due to early-onset focus."

Bill was talking to Victor and Arnie before the Awards Dessert tonight.  Jackie Bradley Jr. is a highly ranked outfielder in the Red Sox minor leagues who Victor says has "all the tools."  They both think that Xander Bogaerts is an outstanding propect with a very high ceiling.

Steve Liddle said he understood why some long-time campers couldn't come any more -- one told him that Medicare didn't cover orthotics and another said a screw fell out of his hip.  Bill Lee said he thought Ponce campers were late bloomers -- like century cactus. 

Tonight at the Awards Dessert (a low-key Awards Dinner) Jamie Bell won the Team A most valuable player award for his all around play -- one of our leading hitters, outfielders and infielders (and a frequent pinch runner for me after I hurt my knee.)  Will Daugherty won the Spirit of Ponce Award for Team A.  Stuart Cohen, on my weekend team up north, won the Spirit of Ponce Award for his team, Team C.  Well done Stuart.

Extraneous Note:  Some people may be surprised to know that I am a big fan of Lady Gaga -- at least of her version of The Lady is a Tramp with Tony Bennett on Duets II and I look forward to the jazz album they are planning to do together.  Ms. Gaga (age 26) has got game .. but Tony Bennett (age 86) more than holds his own.  Not bad for a geezer. 

A World Baseball Classic....

Flint Taylor and me at the Ted Williams statue at Jet Blue Park (Fenway South)

Thank goodness for Team F -- we lost our first game today but came back in the afternoon to beat Team F, Arnie Beyeler's team -- so our record is now 2 wins and 4 losses with both wins coming against Team F.  Another beautiful 80 degree sunny day (is this weather report getting irritating to northern readers?  Probably not since it has been in the 70s the last two days in DC.)  The morning game started very promising against Team D -- one of three teams with a 4-1 record starting the day.  I started pitching and we were leading by a score of 3 to 2 after three innings.  They went ahead in the fourth inning and we went back ahead in the bottom of the fourth.  Going into the last inning we were tied 6 to 6.  Then the roof fell in on the good guys.  A blown call by the umpire at second base (calling a runner safe on a "bobbled catch" that even the opposing team manager granted wasn't bobbled) led to a long inning for our ace Chris Clark and consecutive hits and bloops that we couldn't field.  They scored 5 runs to go ahead by 11 to 6 - we loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning but couldn't score.  I was 1 for 3 at bat and pitched three innings giving up two runs (in part due to sloppy fielding.)  I didn't strike anyone out but did hit two batters -- so they were not digging in too firmly in the batters box.

I have now pitched 8 innings over the three days -- the first time I have pitched in games three days in a row since college.  My arm has felt much better than in previous years, in large part, I expect, because I have been throwing (and hitting) about twice a week since the end of November.  I have been able to strengthen my arm but also to work on my control and rhythm for pitching.  Much as Jackie Howell reports Pablo Casals said when he was asked why he still practiced 6 hours a day even into his 90s, "Because I think I'm making progress."  Not a bad attitude for geezers. 

In the victorious second game, we fell behind at the outset but went ahead by a score of 3 to 2 after 3 innings, following a strong outing on the mound by Adrian Rosati.  We bounced back and forth -- with our fielding steadier than it has been for most of the week.  Fred Kopatich once again had a big hit driving in a run -- I believe he has had at least 5 run-scoring hits so far this week.  Going into the bottom of the fifth inning it was tied 6 to 6 -- but we came up with three runs to go ahead by 9 to 6 and Chris Clark shut them down to hold onto the win.  I was 1 for 2 at bat with an rbi driving in the leading run in the 5th.  We now have three games left and need to win all three to end up with a better than .500 record for the week.  The pressure is on for tomorrow.

Several notes on the day:  I learn a lot on my visits to the trainers room (getting massage and Atomic Balm on my tight quads and on my right shoulder.)  Trainer Larry Bennesse (a trainer in the Twins system) said that the three key areas of the body to take care of are your teeth, lower back and feet -- if any of them feel bad, you will feel bad.  Makes sense to me -- it also is in synch with what I tell my nieces and nephews (and now the next generation) that the secret to life is flossing daily and the miracle of compound interest.

The WAVE!!!  Bill and two of our fans (spouses of players) do the wave on Tuesday afternoon after I hit a double (captured by crack photographer Flint Taylor.)  You just can't believe the excitement that ran through the "crowd.






Speed -- we don't see much of it.  Ponce games are generally played in what to the average fan would look like slow motion.  It is true that the younger you are the faster you are more likely to move.  This week we have had a batter thrown out at first base by the right fielder and by the center fielder on balls that should have been hits.  An exception today, Joe Cardi slammed a ball to deep right center field and turned on the burners and rounded third base intent on an inside-the-park home run, until he stepped into a hole on the third base line and hit the ground.  Too bad, it looked like he would have scored - and it is fun to watch someone who can really run.

Finally, there is no explanation for what people read on the Internet.  I found out in the past year that this blog program keeps stats on pageviews, origin of pageviews, etc.  I have done this blog a total of three and one-half weeks -- each week for the past three years I have attended the Ponce camp and four days this week.  In that time there have been 1923 page views of the blog!  Get a life people - don't you have more constructive ways to spend your time?  I ask that particularly when I learned that 1686 of those views were from the United States -- makes sense -- but the second most views have come from Russia and the top five countries include Germany (hi Christoph!), Canada (hi to the Hedlunds of Canada!) and Ukraine.  Seriously, Ukraine.  On top of that, people in France, Chile, Italy, Egypt, Brasil, Iran and Denmark are among those around the world who have "viewed" the blog (I almost said "read", but I'm a realist.)  It really does make you realize two things:  one, people waste a lot of time cruising the internet, and, two, if you write something that is on the internet, you can't predict where it will be seen. Fun for me, anyway, that anyone reads it.  I wonder what those Russians think "geezer" means.

Winning ..and losing..Ugly

It was a beautiful 80 degree day again and Team A finally won our first game this morning 10 to 9 -- but it wasn't pretty.  Sloppy fielding and baserunning (again we had two doubleplays turned against us - one on a fly ball like the final play in Monday's game) kept us behind most of the game.  Fortunately for us -- but too bad for baseball purists -- our opponents, managed by Arnie Beyeler, committed as many errors and mistakes as we did.  We fell behind early -- I started pitching and gave up 6 runs in the first three innings with two strike outs and a hit batter (three runs scored in one inning when the opponents didn't get a base hit.)  We pulled even and Chris Clark, our best pitcher, shut down the other team at the end.  In the top of the last inning Joe Cardi hit a triple to right field.  The next batter - Jody Zarbano -- drove in Joe with a grounder to second, and gave us a one run lead.  Chris kept them scoreless in the bottom of the inning for the win.  I was 1 for 1 at bat with a walk. 

It is better to win, even if it is ugly.  The afternoon game proved that losing ugly is worse.  We are getting thin at pitching -- there are four of us who have pitched regularly in the past: Chris, Adrian Rosati, Joe and me.  So this afternoon a couple of our teammates who haven't pitched much before started the game -- Steve Malinowski pitched very well in the first inning but hit two batters in the second inning.  If you hit two batters you must be taken out of pitching for the game.  He was replaced by Fred Kopatich -- who also pitched well and got us through the third inning.  Unfortunately Steve and Fred did not get strong fielding support and we didn't capitalize on opponents' errors and were behind by a score of 8 to 3.  We had a mild rally in the fifth inning -- adding two runs but the inning ended with a double play with our base runner doubled off on a line drive.  They got one more run and we were shut out in the last inning -- a 9 to 5 loss.  An ugly game much like the morning game but with a disappointing final result. I was 1 for 2 at bat with a double. 

Our record is 1 and 3 -- after tomorrow's morning game the Ponce officials will "re-seed" the teams to try to balance teams with equivalent records.  It looks like we will be in the lower bracket -- three teams have a 3 and 1 record.  We will have to tighten up our play - particularly in the field -- if we hope to be competitive later in the week.  In my first three years here my collective team record was 1-26; the next three years was 23-4 with two championships and a second place.  Our aspirations now are first to stay out of the cellar!

My college friend Flint Taylor spent the morning at the park - solving one problem.  At the beginning of the week, I was concerned about how my cheering section -- my brother Bill -- would be able to do the Wave by himself.  Mike Levy had a solution "one arm at a time."  Well today, with Flint here, an even better solution -- the two of them did the Wave after I got a hit in the morning game to drive in a run.  There may even be visual evidence of their Wave!

When Flint got to the hotel Monday night he ran into a Ponce player and asked him if he knew Jay Hedlund -- the player said yes, "he struck me out today, but we won the game."  A nice introduction.  After the morning game today Flint, Bill and I drove over to the Red Sox training facility - Jet Blue Park, a replica of Fenway Park.  We visited the gift shop, walked around the outside but couldn't get more than a peek at the field.  It was great to have Flint here -- he promises (threatens?) to post some of his impressions of the "action" in the comments section of the blog.

I spoke a bit today with Victor Rodriguez about his new assignment as batting coach for the Red Sox -- he said he got some very nice text messages from Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Will Middlebrooks and a number of other Red Sox players who were excited for his appointment.  Victor worked with them as they came up through the minor league system when he was minor league hitting coordinator for the Red Sox.  He said that a number of the new Sox -- such as Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli -- are very excited about joining the team and anxious to get going into the season.  Tonight Bill and I had dinner with Chris, Joe, John Fernstrom, Mo Werner and Arnie Beyeler who is the new Red Sox first base coach.  Arnie said that he is excited to be in the major leagues and will work with the infielders as well as coach first base.  He expects to work to help Daniel Nava learn how to play first base (he has been an outfielder to now) to increase Nava's versatility and be an extra asset to the team.  Arnie was at the Fenway Park celebration in memory of Johnny Pesky -- and took part in the ritual where players and officials signed their names on the Pesky pole.  Bill ushered at that event and was stationed by the pole to hand out Johnny Pesky commemoration baseball cards to every one who signed the pole -- including Arnie, who got one of the cards.

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.

You've Got a Friend....

Yesterday my flight was held up for 50 minutes in Washington to de-ice the plane before we took off for Florida -- down here 75 degrees and sunny -- let's Play Ball!  About 80 players from the Ponce de Leon senior baseball league gathered in Fort Myers tonight to get our team assignments and schedule for the week of play.  We will play 9 six-inning games for the week -- doubleheaders Monday through Thursday and a final game (and if, we are lucky, a championship game) on Friday morning.  Games take place at Terry Park, a county facility with four fields, that in earlier years hosted the Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates and other major league teams for spring training.   This is the seventh year out of the last eight that I have participated in the camp.   The camp director is Steve Liddle, former bench coach of the Minnesota Twins, and the managers of the six teams are all coaches with professional teams. 

This year the league has tried to form the teams to create a competitive balance for the week.  (In my first 3 years the record of the teams I was on had a collective record of 1win-26 losses, for the last three years the teams' record has been 23-4, with two championships and a second place.)  I was assigned to Team A, coached by Stan Cliburn, my coach from last year.  Stan, a long time coach in the Twins minor league system, now coaches in a professional independent baseball league.  There are 13 players on each team -- and I have played in the past with 7 of the players on my team this week -- either in Florida or back in DC.  Of the 80 players here this week I have played with or against more than half of them -- and many I consider good friends.   In DC the Ponce league has two divisions -- one for players aged 30 and over and a second for players 48 and older.  This week teams are mixed with players in their 30s on teams with players in their 40s, 50s, 60s and their 70s.  One of the great things about playing baseball as a geezer is the opportunity to make new friends while playing a game the love for which we have in common.  So this week I'll play with -- and against -- a number of friends -- and have the chance to meet players I haven't played with or against before.  But, balance or not, we all want to win.

Once again this week my brother Bill will be here to enjoy the action.  (The average age of the players is 58 so action may not be the right word.)  An extra highlight for me is that my college friend Flint Taylor is here on work for the beginning of the week and will be able to watch us play on Tuesday.  Flint is a civil rights lawyer in Chicago who has spent more than 40 years fighting police corruption and torture in Chicago and elsewhere in the country (google him to see the important work he has done throughout his career.)   Flint is the person to blame for this blog -- several years ago he suggested I write about my experiences at baseball camp and this is the fourth year I am writing it.

Games start tomorrow - Play Ball.

Extraneous Note:  James Taylor (age 62) didn't need to lip synch at the inaugural.  Not bad for a geezer.