Big Win Today!!!

That big win, however, was for Mitt Romney.   Team 3-C-Cliburn only split two games (well a lot better than Newt's day in Florida.)    In the main stadium, we lost our morning game by a score of 11-3 to the team we beat yesterday 3-2 (that's baseball.)   Again, we didn't hit and we had poor fielding combined with some shaky pitching.  I pitched two innings and gave up 4 runs and was zero for two at bat.   My arm felt better than I thought it would after pitching yesterday, but I was inconsistent.  (I did strike out the owner of the Ponce league, so some measure of satisfaction.)  We turned it around in the second game, winning by a score of 15 to 8, again in the main stadium.  Highlights for me was that I finally(!) got a hit, going 1 for 3, and started a doubleplay from my position at second base to end the game.

I believe these four games have been the worst stretch of hitting for me since I started to play in Ponce 7 years ago.  Just bad swings, and lungeing at bad pitches.  But part of the value of being here for the week is that there is terrific instruction that can help us improve.  For instance, former Oriole great, Don Buford (74 years old) stations himself at the facililty batting cage each morning and noontime and gives individual instruction (with him pitching batting practice) to any player who goes by to work with him.  Today at noontime, I went to Dr. Buford's batting cage (8th in line) and got tips on how to change the positioning of my bat pre-swing, so that it will be easier for me to be "short" to the pitch and more able to wait for the pitch to come to me rather than starting my swing too soon.  As an extra plus this week, my brother Bill is sharing helpful observations about my pitching and hitting.

Today was also a revelation -- I personally benefited from the impact of advanced medicine, American entrepreneurship, and Chinese engineering -- my Chapstick Cosy was a life saver (or at least a lip saver) today.   I started the week with a cold, and with the 80 degree weather, hot sun, and drying wind, my lips have been in peril.  (I have liberally used sunblock, but lips are a different challenge.)  So I have hydrated regularly and been applying chapstick.  But what to do at the field?  A chapstick in a handy holster, clipped to my equipment bag meant I was able to apply chapstick at the merest hint of dryness.  For more information about the handy Chapstick Cosy you can contact Elaine or Colleen (or maybe Dominic, and he knows why.)

Finally, a big surprise for Bill and me at our hotel last night -- a delivery of Cheez-Its (who knew they came in so many different varieties.)  My colleague at Novo Nordisk, Jacqueline, conspired with her friend Patrick to have seven boxes of Cheez-Its and Kellogg crackers delivered to us -- a big hit for us and a hit for the Ponce players we are sharing them with.  Cheez-Its, nothing better (except, perhaps, a few hits on the field tomorrow -- and a Chapstick Cosy.)

Terry Park was a voting place today for the Florida primary -- precinct 8 and precinct 88 both at the park.  However there was not much action at the polls.  Sort of the Ponce of voting sites.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

Signs perhaps were ominous as we got ready to play our first Ponce games on Monday.  Bill noted at breakfast that he saw "three of your campers getting into a van that was parked in a handicapped spot."  Overheard snatches of conversation in the clubhouse included, "my cardiologist said . . . " and "after the surgery on my ankle I got an embolism in my lung."  Everyone's definition of "being ready for some baseball" is different. Nonetheless 82 players on six teams took the field on a 75 degree, breezy day to play the first two sets of games for the week.  Stan Cliburn, former Twins AAA manager (and my coach two years ago) is the manager for Team 3-C, now to be known at Team 3-C-Cliburn (so people can figure out who we are.)  There were some disgruntled campers who were not happy that they and friends they came to camp with were assigned to different teams.  So pre-game was marked by Ponce officials moving a number of players from one team to another to calm folks down -- we had a couple of adjustments to my team but still have13 players.  The other coaches this year are Rick Knapp, former Twins minor league pitching coordinator, former Tigers pitching coach, and current Kansas City minor league pitching coordinator; Stu Cliburn, Stan's twin brother and pitching coach in the Twins (fittingly enough) system; Darin Garner, Mariners minor league infield and base running instructor; Arnie Beyeler, manager of the Red Sox AAA team in Pawtucket; and Floyd Rayford, former Baltimore Oriole and Victor Rodriquez, Red Sox minor league hitting coordinator -- who are teaming up to coach the sixth team.  Victor will be here on Wednesday -- he is reportedly in Boston with all the minor league instructors to meet with new Sox manager Bobby Valentine ("so he can tell the instructors everything he knows about baseball.")  Other instructors include former Oriole Don Buford, and Cincinnati Red organization pitching coach Tom Brown.  Camp Director is Steve Liddle, Twins 3rd base coach.  Steve and most of the coaches have been at the camp for each of the 13 years it has existed.

After skills instruction (I took outfield drills without one ball hitting me on the head!) Team 3-C-Cliburn won our first game by a score of 3 to 2.  Unusually low scoring for a Ponce game -- our pitchers gave up only one walk and we received only two from the other team. Two of our runs scored on sacrifice flies with close plays at home plate.  There was good, sharp fielding by both teams (also relatively unusual for Ponce.)  In the afternoon game in  the main stadium, we were shut out 6 to 0 -- our fielding took a noticeable dip, we made several base-running errors and did not hit (in either game) as well as we should -- or I believe will.  If Bill were not here I would neglect to mention my stats for the day, but his truth-ometer forces out that I was 0 for 4 at bat for the day and gave up 3 runs in two innings in the afternoon game.  I had bad at-bats all day, but was basically pleased with how I threw the ball from the mound (and my arm and legs felt good.)

I think our team will be competitive for the week.  We are the oldest team (by far) of the six, but we have at least 5 pitchers who threw today and four catchers -- depth which should serve us well as the week go on.  In my first three years at Ponce camp my teams' collective record was 1win and 26 losses; the last two years that turned around and we went 17 wins with only one loss.  This week should be somewhere in the middle.  And despite the ominous signs early in the day, it seemed that virtually all the players got through the day relatively unharmed.  More tomorrow.

Countdown to Game Time

The Ponce baseball players are here in Florida, and for the next week there will charges and counter charges, trash talking, and accusations of bias and unfairness -- but that will be coming from the Republican candidates for President who are also in Florida and dominating the news.   On the other hand, good sportsmanship and fun will mark the week at Terry Park in Fort Myers as 82 baseball players from the DC area  -- with ages ranging from mid-30's to 70 -- will be having fun playing 9 games over the next 5 days.  Tonight the kick-off dinner was held at the league hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn, where team assignments were passed out.  In a typically chaotic "organizing" meeting I was assigned to Team 3 (which is also known on the schedule that was passed out as Team C.)  Coaches will be assigned tomorrow (drawing teams out of a hat.)  I have played previously with only one other person on my team (Steve Malinowski from my weekend team) and against only a couple of others that I know.  So I will get to know a bunch of new guys this week.  Team 3-C has 13 players -- ranging in age from 45 to 73 (6 of us are 62 or older - by far the oldest of the 6 teams.)

My brother Bill is with me here for the week to monitor play, get a few chuckles and make sure my blog accurately reports what happens without my usual exaggeration and self-promotion.  (So if you don't see any reports of my hitting and pitching you will know Bill has applied the truth-ometer -- no news will be bad news.)  Several folks have made suggestions for improving the blog -- including attaching some pictures.  We will see if, with Bill's help, I can get some shots and post them.  A couple of other suggestions were more far-fetched.  Mark K. suggested that I post a 5-minute video on YouTube with the highlights of the week's action -- probably not possible because it may take filming for whole week to compile even 5 minutes of "action."  Similarly Marc-boy suggested that I tweet from the field, but "keep your eye on the ball"  -- he may forget that the ball bounced off my forehead last year, so combining playing with tweeting would clearly be well beyond both my physical coordination and technical competence. 

Reports from the playing field tomorrow evening.

Occupy Fort Myers: The Geezer Baseball Edition - 2012

About 70 players from the DC area will be gathering in Fort Myers FL this weekend for the annual Ponce de Leon winter baseball week.  We will play 9 six-inning games from Monday to Friday at Terry Park, a Lee County baseball complex.  Team assignments are given out at a kick-off dinner on Sunday night.  This year my brother Bill, recently retired after 41 years of running the Park Department in Braintree MA (home of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John Hancock, Gen. Sylvanus Thayer, and Lee Remick) will be joining me as an observer for the week.  Bill's job, apparently, will be to make sure I cut down on the lies I usually put into the blogs. 

Bill and I will start the weekend in Tampa visiting with Bill's son Ben and his wife Cristina, and Chloe and future Hall of Famer, Evan.  

I will post the first blog for the week after the kick-off dinner on Sunday night. 

The Boys of Winter

Some notes and observations from the week:


Here is the Championship team from the Ponce 2011 Winter season -- front row from left -- Joe Ciardi, Rich Petrassi, Nick Christianson, Tom Classick and Mo Werner; back row from left -- John Fernstrom, Jack Molenkamp, Jay Hedlund, Coach Darrin Garner, Bob Labelle, Chris Clark and George Manuel. (Clicking on the photos should enlarge them.) Final record 8 wins and 1 loss. Tina said she would order up the Duck Boats for the parade!

I have been to this camp five of the last six years. In my first three years, my teams had a combined record of 1 win and 26 losses; the last two years the record is 17 and 1. Every year the camp is great fun -- but, as always, its more fun when you win. This year the teams seemed more evenly balanced and games, across the board, were more even. However, I fear I will have to relive a dark part of the week for me all year -- Stuart Cohen from my weekend Ponce team up north was two for two at bat against me in our game on Monday. I am sure I will hear that once or twice during our upcoming Ponce season. Well done Stuart.

Part of the fun is getting insights into professional baseball from the coaches. The Red Sox coaches each spoke very highly of Ryan Kalish and expect big things from him. They also mentioned shortstop Jose Iglesias and catcher Luis Exposito as prospects to watch. Exposito apparently has great tools for a catcher, but still needs to mature. The Sox have a number of left-handed relief pitchers in camp who will be candidates to be the lefty specialist out of the bullpen. Lefty rookie Felix Dubront, who was in the majors some last season as a relief pitcher, will be worked as a potential starter in spring training. Whether he stays with the Red Sox as a reliever in April or goes to Pawtucket as a starter for the first part of the season may depend on whether one of the lefty candidates can earn a job in the bullpen or what starting depth Tito Francona wants available in Pawtucket in case one of the Red Sox starters gets hurt. Arnie Beyeler said that right-handed pitching prospect Kyle Weiland may be available to help the major league team later in the season. Victor said that a lot of the Sox up and coming prospects are very young and in the low-levels of the minors, so have a long way to go to develop into major leaguers.

I asked Steve Liddle which person in the major league organization works out the practice schedule (fielding, hitting, baserunning, which pitchers will be throwing each day, etc.) for spring training -- the manager, bench coach, a spring training coordinator? He said it is the manager's responsibility but that the Twins have done spring training "exactly the same way" for 20 years or more. Tom Kelly set up a system that they still use every year -- with what each player, coach, etc. will do each day in the spring training period before the exhibition games start. They have a 9-day, 10-day, and 11-day schedule on a spread sheet that they follow, depending on the number of spring training days the General Manager says they have before the first games start. The Twins are known to be one of the most fundamentally sound teams in the majors year after year -- and Steve attributes some of that to how consistent their training is and how much emphasis they put on fundamentals (pitchers fielding, base-running, situational hitting and fielding, etc.) each spring. Steve has been the Twins bench coach for some years but will switch to be third-base coach this season.

The team hotel was the Hilton Garden Inn on College Ave in Fort Myers. Later this month the Twins, who like the Red Sox train in Fort Myers, will take over all 126 rooms for the duration of spring training for their major and minor league players and coaches.

Rick Knapp is the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers and spoke very highly of Armando Galarraga, the young pitcher who last season had a perfect game taken away from him on the last batter when the umpire made a wrong call at first base. Rick said that Galarraga, who has been since traded to Arizona, showed uncommon sportsmanship in how he handled the situation and earned the respect of everyone involved. Rick also said that for each game Major League Baseball has an "authenticator" in the dugouts -- whose job it is to put an official MLB mark on any balls, bats, etc that are used in historic games. The authenticator in the Galarraga game started to collect baseballs in the fifth inning as people started to realize that the pitcher not only had a potential no-hitter but a perfect game in progress. Rick said that every Tigers player and coach got an authenticated game ball from that game -- which in many ways became more notable for the controversial last call than a straight perfect game might have been.

Rick also said that Galarraga is a terrific kid. He told the story of a game when Justin Verlander, one of the best pitchers in baseball, was pitching for the Tigers and Galarraga, who is good but doesn't have Verlander's stuff as a pitcher, was sitting on the end of the bench. Tigers manager Jim Leyland is famous for his intensity -- and as the game progressed Leyland kept shouting to Rick about Verlander's pitching. "Why did he throw that?" "What kind of pitch is that?" "Why isn't he attacking the plate?" And so on. Finally in about the fifth or sixth inning, after Verlander walked a batter, Leyland shouted at Rick, "Go out and talk to him." After Rick got back to the bench, Galarraga came over to him and said, "If he (Leyland) is like this with Verlander, it must be really terrible when I'm pitching!" Rick's comment (cleaned up), "No kidding."

Rick and all the coaches are terrific with all the campers. They all encourage us to come up and say hello to them when we are in the same city as their team (either DC or on the road -- minor league or majors.) Rick has even called campers' friends who are Tigers fans to say hello and talk about their team.

A critical part of the week is the training room where Larry Bennese, from the Twins system, who has been part of the camp for all or most of the 12 years, and Chris from the Rays system keep us together with baling wire, glue, and good cheer. They provide massages and Atomic Balm for sore hammies, quads, and shoulders; fix blisters and repair (drain?) bruised or broken toe nails; provide pain relievers; and help us ice down various body parts after the game. They are terrific and make it possible for a number of us to get through the week. It was also interesting to learn that the Twins have a comprehensive electronic medical record on each of the players in their system -- injuries, ailments, base-line physical information, treatments, etc. Health reform, meet baseball!

It was the most successful week for me physically of the five years I have gone to the camp. My quads were tight and I had some blisters on my toes -- but stretching and the trainers kept me going fairly uneventfully. I was generally happy with my hitting -- I got on base a lot early in the week without hitting the ball very hard, but had more drive to the ball later in the week. I pitched poorly in my first game on Monday but did better on Wednesday and Thursday. My base-running and fielding were terrible throughout the week. I don't know if it is because my physical ability couldn't match up with my "instincts" on the bases or in the field -- or if my instincts have withered to the point where no athletic ability could make up for bad reactions. In any case I need to do more work on those fundamentals.

The coaches and fellow campers make the week -- and you have a real sense of having a shared baseball adventure. Most everyone -- from all walks of life -- is quick to help each other out. For instance, on Monday, when I got hit on the noggin with the fly ball, right away other players came to help. The first person to reach me said he had an X-Ray equipment company, the next said he was an anesthesiologist and could help put me out of pain, and the third said he was a lawyer and could sue someone for me.

If you have any questions or comments, post them in the comment section here or email me at jayhedlund@rcn.com.

Can't wait until next year -- with a lot of Ponce and Red Sox baseball to come between now and then!

That Championship Season

The Ponce Winter season ended on a high-note for Team 3-C Garner with a come-from-behind 9 to 8 victory over Team 4-D Rodriquez to win the Championship. The two teams had split two games earlier in the week, with Team Rodriguez giving us our only defeat on Monday by a score of 7-4 and us beating them in a rematch on Wednesday by a score of 7-1.

The Championship game on Friday started in the main stadium with our opponents jumping out ahead in the first inning with two runs. From there the lead see-sawed back and forth. We took a 6 to 5 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when we scored three runs -- sparked by Joe Ciardi's 360 foot triple hit to the wall in right field to lead off the bottom of the 4th inning. (Joe, who severely hurt his groin on Monday morning and couldn't play in the field for the two games that day, is the player who hit one out of the ballpark for us on Thursday. Boy, were we glad he was feeling better.) In the top of the fifth inning, Team Rodriguez scored three runs -- aided in large part by a bad throwing error from centerfield by yours truly -- to pull ahead by a score of 8-6. In our half of the fifth, against the top pitcher for the other team, our lead-off batter got on base and scored on a double. Our next batter also reached base and a combination of a passed ball and a steal left the tying run on third and the lead run on second. Chris Clark -- our closing pitcher and our best hitter and player (and, I think, the best overall player in the camp) -- struck out for the second out. Joe Ciardi, a big switch-hitter batting left-handed, came to the plate with first base open. Ponce has a rule that there are no intentional walks (we all want to have the opportunity to play!) The other team did not "pitch around" Joe and instead pitched to him -- with a big shift of the fielders to the right field side. Joe proceeded to slam a hard double about 340 feet into left field to score the tying and lead runs. In the top of the sixth, and final, inning, our pitcher Chris Clark struck out the first two batters. Their third batter hit a ball into shallow right field, which our right fielder picked up and threw to first base before the batter reached there -- for the third out and victory for the good guys. We ended the week with an 8 and 1 record. I was 1 for 2 at bat (glasses on!)

Following the game there was a moving (?) awards ceremony -- where each player on the winning team was presented with a gold medal by coach Garner; and each member of the opposing team was given a silver medal by coach Rodriguez -- with team photos taken. For Chris Clark, Joe Ciardi, John Fernstrom, Mo Werner and me it was two Ponce winter championships in a row -- since all five of us were on the team that won in 2010. (I got "evacuated" out of the championship game last year by the blizzard that was approaching Washington, so I was glad to be present and active in this game.) Of the 11 players on our team only nine were left standing by the end of the game due to the accumulation of injuries during the week.

During the week, Joe Ciardi worked hard to be able to play despite hurting his leg badly on Monday -- and his hitting and fielding at third-base and catcher were outstanding and made a major difference for us. He caught the whole Championship game. John Fernstrom -- a pup, three months younger than me -- also hurt his hamstring and glute early in the week and was hobbled badly, but continued to play. He is a Hoover as a first baseman and was a very hot hitter all week (even if he couldn't get to first base on a double down the line!) At the Thursday night Awards Dessert, John was given the "Spirit of Ponce" award for our team and Joe was named the MVP -- both the absolutely right choice.

Following the game folks immediately scattered to make their way home -- with my flights to Washington (via Charlotte) carrying about 10 Ponce players back to DC.

For Team 3-C Garner, our great week was topped by the gold medal we won. "We don't play for the money, we play for the ring" -- or the cheesy medal in this case. (Many players, me included, would prefer a cheesy trophy instead -- as Elizabeth rightly says, "There's no medals in baseball.")

(If you double click on the photo I believe it expands so you can read the inscription -- and where it was made.)

I'll post final thoughts on the week tomorrow.

Late Breaking Sports Score!!!

Earlier today in Fort Myers, Florida the Team 3-C Garners scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to defeat Team 4-D Rodriquez by a score of 9 to 8 to win the Ponce de Leon Winter Spring Training Championship Gold Medal. Details at 11 (well, actually, on Saturday.)