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.