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Day 5: They decided to have a tournament. The obvious thing would have been for each team to play all of the others once, then have a three round tournament, but they didn't think of that until Friday, so /shrug. We were the 7th seed, so we were the third seed in the losers' bracket. We won both of our games handily to finish 5-5 after starting out 0-4. I asked Jody Davis for some hitting tips and he said I was shifting my weight and getting onto my front foot too early, so I should try to hold back a bit more. I don't know if it helped a ton but it's something I can keep working on. I got my usual array of infield hits and short line drives, and I participated in three or four double plays without fucking any of them up, which was a nice feeling. I even caught a popup to end the last game, which was a depressingly rare thing for our team, though I was 2 for 2 for the week. There were a bunch that landed between the pitcher's mound and short/third, largely because the pitcher's mound has the pitching machine and its power cord on it, and the one inning I "pitched" there was a popup and I looked down and realized the obstacle course I had with that stuff plus the umpire and decided not to go for it.
By the end of the day I could barely bend over to field practice grounders, though in game the adrenalin made it possible. After the game I changed into my street clothes, got my lower back iced, and caught a ride with some other campers back to the hotel to change for dinner. I went with a father and son that I hadn't met before and we didn't really introduce ourselves, which is probably good since about halfway through the ride my pants started feeling real wet. By the time we got to the hotel the seat was pretty wet too and my pants were soaked, but they were black jeans so it wasn't noticeable and I just said "Thanks for the ride!" and scuttled into the hotel. It was a rental car and there was only the two of them so I doubt they noticed, but if they did and they somehow read this and they got in trouble, um, sorry.
Friday night each team takes their coaches out to a nice dinner. Pete LaCock bartends at a nice resort nearby and we went there. Dinner was great, I was at the table with the coaches, and we got to ask a lot of questions. I asked about Pete playing in Japan and Jody about how it works being a minor league coach - he got fired from the Padres org when a new GM came in and brought in a new farm director who fired basically everyone, and fortunately the Reds asked him to come in, but it sounds like it mostly comes down to knowing the right people. I also asked if he thought Mesoraco will be able to catch again and he said not from what he'd seen. Oh, and he said he's going to be working with Winker on developing his power more but that he looked like a real good hitter already.
Day 6: We got changed and I noticed that Eddie's locker was already cleaned out, so I doubt I'll be able to invite him to a BAVBB game, but I'll see if I can get him a message over the Internet somehow. We had the usual pregame meeting and then went out to Sloan Park to warm up and play the game against the coaches. They allow basestealing and all that stuff in this game, but unfortunately they also take the five campers who've been coming to camp the longest and let them play an inning with the coaches, and in the inning that my team was batting we had a camper who wanted to catch, so that meant the pitching wouldn't be quite as interesting and I'd feel guilty about trying to steal.
I got the announcer to call me Bearcat in both the initial introduction and when I batted, and also when I made what was apparently a good play on a hard grounder by Ryan Dempster he said something about me. It was too fast to notice if I did anything particularly well but I got him, so whee. I batted against Bobby Howry and got to a 3-0 count but wasn't that interested in walking because of the aforementioned issue with basestealing so I started swinging and ended up with basically a swinging bunt that probably would have worked if it wasn't, you know, a pro athlete who's actually younger than me who fielded it and threw me out at first. At least it was a close play.
At the closing banquet they had a drawing for a ton of signed Pearl Jam stuff that Eddie left (I didn't get any) and then announced all the teams and we were given a ball signed by all the coaches. I sat next to Jody at the banquet and he slapped me on the back and said I looked lost at the beginning of camp but by the end I was a lot more confident out there at the end, both fielding and hitting. That felt good.
Day 7: Went home. Ron Santo Jr. was behind me in the skycap line at the airport and recognized me so we chatted a bit.
Overall it was exhausting and it's taken me most of the week to feel decent again. Things I learned for next time:
* Rent a car. I'm trying not to be elitist, but the strip mall nearest the hotel contains a Salvadoran restaurant, a hookah shop, a tattoo parlor, a place that buys gift cards for money, and two title loan stores. I walked about 1.5 miles each way for a semi-decent dinner, defined as "not fast food", except for the night I took an Uber to Pizzeria Bianco (supposed to be one of the best pizzerias in the country; the caprese salad was great, the pizza crust was great, the actual flavor was decent+), so having a car would have given me access to much better dining options and would have let me have a bit more flexibility in when to leave the park at the end of the day (i.e. not having to stand around outside asking other campers if they had room in their car).
* There's medical supplies in the trainer's room, so it's ok if you forget the painkillers.
* If you actually want coaching, ask for it. The coaches are happy to give it but other than one day where we took some grounders and flies in the outfield, there wasn't any organized coaching. I would have been happier if I'd asked earlier so I could try to show some progress over the course of the week.
* Wear light colored underwear. The clubhouse guys wash all your stuff every day but if your underwear is black you can't write your name in it so it doesn't end up back in your locker.
* Like alcohol. They had a hospitality suite with a lot of free expensive-ish alcohol that was available until about 2am every night but I didn't get any value out of it.
I'll have a bunch of photos and videos eventually. This is the only one I have of me right now.
IMG_20170128_213503.jpg
By the end of the day I could barely bend over to field practice grounders, though in game the adrenalin made it possible. After the game I changed into my street clothes, got my lower back iced, and caught a ride with some other campers back to the hotel to change for dinner. I went with a father and son that I hadn't met before and we didn't really introduce ourselves, which is probably good since about halfway through the ride my pants started feeling real wet. By the time we got to the hotel the seat was pretty wet too and my pants were soaked, but they were black jeans so it wasn't noticeable and I just said "Thanks for the ride!" and scuttled into the hotel. It was a rental car and there was only the two of them so I doubt they noticed, but if they did and they somehow read this and they got in trouble, um, sorry.
Friday night each team takes their coaches out to a nice dinner. Pete LaCock bartends at a nice resort nearby and we went there. Dinner was great, I was at the table with the coaches, and we got to ask a lot of questions. I asked about Pete playing in Japan and Jody about how it works being a minor league coach - he got fired from the Padres org when a new GM came in and brought in a new farm director who fired basically everyone, and fortunately the Reds asked him to come in, but it sounds like it mostly comes down to knowing the right people. I also asked if he thought Mesoraco will be able to catch again and he said not from what he'd seen. Oh, and he said he's going to be working with Winker on developing his power more but that he looked like a real good hitter already.
Day 6: We got changed and I noticed that Eddie's locker was already cleaned out, so I doubt I'll be able to invite him to a BAVBB game, but I'll see if I can get him a message over the Internet somehow. We had the usual pregame meeting and then went out to Sloan Park to warm up and play the game against the coaches. They allow basestealing and all that stuff in this game, but unfortunately they also take the five campers who've been coming to camp the longest and let them play an inning with the coaches, and in the inning that my team was batting we had a camper who wanted to catch, so that meant the pitching wouldn't be quite as interesting and I'd feel guilty about trying to steal.
I got the announcer to call me Bearcat in both the initial introduction and when I batted, and also when I made what was apparently a good play on a hard grounder by Ryan Dempster he said something about me. It was too fast to notice if I did anything particularly well but I got him, so whee. I batted against Bobby Howry and got to a 3-0 count but wasn't that interested in walking because of the aforementioned issue with basestealing so I started swinging and ended up with basically a swinging bunt that probably would have worked if it wasn't, you know, a pro athlete who's actually younger than me who fielded it and threw me out at first. At least it was a close play.
At the closing banquet they had a drawing for a ton of signed Pearl Jam stuff that Eddie left (I didn't get any) and then announced all the teams and we were given a ball signed by all the coaches. I sat next to Jody at the banquet and he slapped me on the back and said I looked lost at the beginning of camp but by the end I was a lot more confident out there at the end, both fielding and hitting. That felt good.
Day 7: Went home. Ron Santo Jr. was behind me in the skycap line at the airport and recognized me so we chatted a bit.
Overall it was exhausting and it's taken me most of the week to feel decent again. Things I learned for next time:
* Rent a car. I'm trying not to be elitist, but the strip mall nearest the hotel contains a Salvadoran restaurant, a hookah shop, a tattoo parlor, a place that buys gift cards for money, and two title loan stores. I walked about 1.5 miles each way for a semi-decent dinner, defined as "not fast food", except for the night I took an Uber to Pizzeria Bianco (supposed to be one of the best pizzerias in the country; the caprese salad was great, the pizza crust was great, the actual flavor was decent+), so having a car would have given me access to much better dining options and would have let me have a bit more flexibility in when to leave the park at the end of the day (i.e. not having to stand around outside asking other campers if they had room in their car).
* There's medical supplies in the trainer's room, so it's ok if you forget the painkillers.
* If you actually want coaching, ask for it. The coaches are happy to give it but other than one day where we took some grounders and flies in the outfield, there wasn't any organized coaching. I would have been happier if I'd asked earlier so I could try to show some progress over the course of the week.
* Wear light colored underwear. The clubhouse guys wash all your stuff every day but if your underwear is black you can't write your name in it so it doesn't end up back in your locker.
* Like alcohol. They had a hospitality suite with a lot of free expensive-ish alcohol that was available until about 2am every night but I didn't get any value out of it.
I'll have a bunch of photos and videos eventually. This is the only one I have of me right now.
IMG_20170128_213503.jpg
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