The Baseball Solstice

According to baseball meteorologist and Ponce player extraordinare -- Gib Willis on my weekend team in Washington, DC -- we are now past the Baseball Solstice, the mid-point between the end of the World Series and the start of Spring Training.   Gib is right -- and the harbinger of baseball for 75 players from the Ponce de Leon League in DC is the annual trip to Fort Myers for the weeklong Ponce Spring Training.  I left Washington with teammate Frank McAuliffe this morning with temperatures not out of the teens and landed in Fort Myers this afternoon in 72 degree temperature.

This will be my eighth year participating in this rite of spring.  I considered not coming this year because of several bothersome ouchies with my knees and feet that hindered me last fall, but my friend George Maden made the excellent point that if I didn't plan on coming I wouldn't work out like I need to, and that would lead to a rapid downhill slide for me physically.  Good advice (although I may be blaming George come Wednesday or Thursday as I hobble my way through the end of the week.)

The Ponce camp is not a fantasy camp like the Red Sox and other Major League teams hold each winter (except for the fantasy that the Ponce players -- ages ranging from 30s to 70s -- have about still being able to play this game.)  Instead it is a five day session with daily skills training and a round-robin tournament of 9 games - double headers of six innings each on Monday through Thursday and a final playoff game on Friday morning.  Our coaches are all affiliated with major or minor league professional teams with the camp director Steve Liddle, a former bench coach of the Minnesota Twins.  Two of the coaches this year -- as in the past -- are Victor Rodriguez and Arnie Beyeler -- batting coach and first base coach of the World Champion Boston Red Sox (just thought I would sneak that in for you Yankee, Orioles, Tigers, and Cardinals fans.)  All Ponce players attribute the Red Sox Championship to the fact that Arnie and Victor joined the major league staff for the 2013 season -- as one player said, "If they can help us they can help anybody."

Tonight was the organizing dinner and team assignment and Frank and I are on Team D, coached by Stu Cliburn, a pitching coach in the Minnesota Twins minor league system.  I have never played for Stu before, but have had his brother Stan as a coach several times in the past.  Team D has several players I have played with in the past -- Frank McAuliffe, with whom I play on my weekend team;  Chris Clark, Jamie Bell and Rick McLaughlin from my spring and fall weeknight DC team; and Walt Lynch and Adrian Rosati with whom I have played in Florida and on summer teams.  Several others I have played against -- including Paul Basken, another Red Sox fan originally from Massachusetts -- or will be playing with for the first time.

A number of people emailed me in the last few days and wished me luck, encouraging me to "have fun and don't get hurt" -- the same as Elizabeth's refrain before all my games up home.  So my goal for the week is to have fun, not get hurt, and, of course, win more than we lose.  The weather forecast looks great.  We start tomorrow at 9am.  Let the games begin!