Field of Dreams

Connie Mack-Field 3-Terry Park

First day of the week on the field of dreams - not in the cornfields of Iowa but near the seagrass of the Southwest Florida Coast.  Terry Park hosts baseball weeks for senior leagues like Ponce de Leon, as well as high school and college tournaments throughout the year.  It has also been the site of spring training for Major League Baseball teams going back to Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics (aka Kansas City Athletics and the Oakland Athletics.)  Everyone who steps on the field is thinking of his (or her) version of baseball glory.  This week it is the Stu Cliburn Team D against all comers.

That sounds a bit over the top because Team D, under 80 degree sunny skies, started the week off hot -- a 9-3 win over Stan Cliburn's Team C in the morning followed by an 8-5 win over Arnie Beyeler's Team F in the afternoon.  Strong points for Team D included good fielding in both games (including 3 double plays in the morning game), timely hitting, and efficient and effective pitching.  I pitched the first three innings in the morning game - giving up no runs (starting two of the double plays on balls hit back to me) and going 1-2 at bat with a run batted in.   Chris Clark and Adrian Rosati finished up pitching and Kevin Bousman and his nephew Elliott Sledd led the batting honors with triples for each of them.

A unique element of our team is the triple generation of one family in our lineup -- as Kevin's father and Elliott's grandfather, Bob Bousman, is playing with them on Team D.  Bob is in his mid-70's, Kevin in his mid-40's, and Elliott is 16 years old.  Ponce gave special permission for Elliott to play (official Ponce rules require you to be 30 to play old-man baseball!) so the three generations could play baseball together.  Elliott is not allowed to pitch, catch, or steal bases - but nonetheless impressed everyone with his talent, speed and good spirit in meshing in with the geezers.  He made some nice plays in center field including a diving shoe-string catch, which if the rest of the Ponce squad tried the same catch would have had a hard time just getting back on their feet.  And we calculated that if you add Bob's, Kevin's, and Elliott's ages together and divided by 3 you would have a 45 year old player -- well within the rules.  We are glad we have all three of them.

Bob Bousman added a hit in our afternoon game where Adrian Rosati, Chris Clark and Bob Willoughby worked effectively on the mound as Team D led the whole game.  An iron man performance also from our catcher Walt Lynch who caught all the innings in both games -- I wouldn't be able to straighten up if I tried that (and may not be able to straighten up anyway tomorrow even after a comparatively easy day!)  I was 2-2 at bat in the second game with 2 runs batted in

Each day starts with camp director Steve Liddle giving announcements and advice to the campers and making observations.  Today he reminded us that the umpires -- universally disdained throughout baseball by players, coaches and managers when a call goes against them -- are not always deserving of blame.  "If you swing at the first

Steve Liddle with morning announcements

two pitches in the dirt, don't blame the umpire if he calls you out on strike three on a pitch on the outside corner."  Sometime during the announcements I lost my cellphone out of my equipment bag.  I guess if there are "Drama Queens" there can be Drama Kings and I was one for the next 5 hours.  Imagine the sinking feeling of thinking my Iphone with everything on it was gone.  People helped by calling the phone to see if we could locate it, nothing was turned into lost and found, and announcements at lunch didn't turn it up.   I called Verizon to cancel the phone service and to make sure it hadn't been used in the interim.   In the afternoon Steve Liddle used the Find IPhone app to locate my phone in one of the dugouts in the Terry Park complex -- mystery solved, my anxiety calmed down, and the curtain drawn on my multi-part drama.  (And we won two games in the interim!)

A couple of notes on the day:  Stu Cliburn's coach in college -- at Delta State University in Mississippi -- was former Red Sox great pitcher Dave "Boo" Ferriss, who was also the Red Sox pitching coach in the late 1950's.  Stu said he talked to Boo just yesterday -- and that at 92 years of age, Boo and Bobby Doerr are the only two players still alive from the 1946 Red Sox World Series team.

Victor Rodriguez and Arnie Beyeler were universally congratulated for their wonderful World Series winning Red Sox season.  Victor told me that he saw and talked to my brother Bill (an usher at Fenway) on the field before the Duck Boat parade celebration.  Arnie said the parade was an incredible experience -- and couldn't believe the turnout which was estimated at 2 million people along the parade route.  Bill -- and the other ushers and support staff at Fenway -- were able walk along the parade route with the Duck Boats (Bill adjacent to Manager John's Farrell's boat) through downtown Boston from Fenway to the Charles River.

It seems like a little thing -- where a pitcher stands on the pitching rubber on the mound while he is pitching -- first base side of the rubber, in the middle, or on the third base side.  This afternoon Stu Cliburn, Tom Brown (a pitching coach in the Cincinnati Reds system) and former Red Sox pitcher Bill Lee gave a fascinating clinic during skills session for pitchers on the different theories of where a pitcher should stand on the rubber -- to increase control over the middle of the plate or to hide your pitches from the batter.  For such a simple action -- there were considerations and nuances that I -- and I think it is fair to say other Ponce pitchers -- had never entertained.  It shows how a professional who has devoted a full career (or life) to a topic really does know yards more than the rest of us who dabble.

Another day tomorrow and another double-header (just don't try to call me on my cell phone!)