Red Sox Fantasy Camp Sun Jan 31

I meet up with Lane, Mary and Al and Lane drives us over to the Lee County Sportsplex - home of the Minnesota Twins spring training camp. You enter the hallway and one side is the players' lockers and the other side is broken up into the coaches' and umpires'. There's a shower in between those. Also in the hallway are the breakfast foods, bagels cream cheese, cereal, milk, oj, and tons of donuts and coffee. The pictures that the camp photographer takes will be displayed on the walls. The men campers get the big locker room and the women, who are usually in the umpires' locker room are now in the Coaches' locker room. It's a lot bigger so we have an empty locker in between us - after we switched things around a bit. There are 7 women: Kim (23 year HOFer), Lisa (12 yr HOFer), Jen (Lisa's daughter), Janet (12 yr HOFer), Laura (19 year HOFer), Bridget (Dean Riley's daughter) and me. Another woman Marty Lavely is not coming this year due to retirement; she got inducted into the HOF last year. We've had a couple of other women come in past years but these women are the regulars. We also have a full cooler in our room, filled with beer, water and soda. The top shelf is empty. We still don't get seeds, gum and other stuff that the men get, but this is a nice addition. In our locker is a red t-shirt with the fantasy camp logo and a picture of all the pros who'll be at the camp. There is also the booklet on the HOFers. We get dressed in our Red jerseys so we have the names on the back. This is for the former Pros so they can watch us and take notes for the draft. The am session we split up and do fielding and batting. The rookies stick together so the pros can really get a look at them. The Pros know the veterans by now.

Bill Campbell leads us in a stretching routine. Then we split up. I'm with the end of the alphabet. We go to the OF first and Milt Cuyler hits us fly balls. I miss the first one by a mile - man can he hit the ball - it soars over my head. But I settle down and make the others. I notice a guy with a clipboard watching and taking notes and I don't recognize him so I go up to him and get his story. He's Bob Bernstein a friend of Rico's, they played college ball. He's had surgery on his wrist and can't play so he's going to help coach. After a bit, we switch to IF and Gary Allenson hits us balls while Rico watches and critiques our fielding. We are at SS then move to 2B. A couple of guys opt to play 1B to make the catches that we throw. After that cycle is complete some of us go to the pitching station while the rest of us go immediately to the batting, where Bill 'Soup' Campbell is pitching. While one person hits the rest of us field. Getting live pitching is great. I went to the cages at home but you have no idea how far you are hitting it. I play OF and SS and make some good plays. I feel really good so far. I need to use my hands more when I'm hitting says Soup. After we go to the cages and I go to Rick Miller's cage and get some pointers from him (keep hands in close to my body so I can get the inside pitch), then I go to Milt Cuyler's cage and he tells me to drop my right knee more to get more hip action. Both were good advice. I am hitting the ball with more authority and pulling the ball more.

Lunchtime! Subway sandwiches. Ugh! Luckily they have salad and I take a tuna sub, throw away the bread and put the tuna on the salad. Good enough. I mention to Jay if he can just get a tub of tuna for those of us who don't eat bread (Janet I know doesn't) so we'll see. I will bring PB&J just in case. In the PM session we split up into teams: the orioles play the red sox rookies, and we have 2 teams of veterans playing. I play with Dean Riley and his daughter Bridget Perry, Jack Dunn - a veteran HOFer from Twins camp, Charlie Wu, Vinny Savino, Charlie Ahles, Bill McLaughlin, Rob Watkins, Joel Weinstein, Steve Hardy and Wayne Masefield. I play Rf then move to SS and Joel, fielding a ball at 2b throws the ball to me and I turn a DP. That was fun! I hit the ball once and struck out once. I still need to get more comfortable at the plate.

After we shower, Mugsy (Allenson) wants to take me to get beer. The hotel has crappy beer selection and together with my taste for dark beers, well, I need to consider my own needs. The liquor store is heaven! They have such a huge selection, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Scott McGregor and Brian Daubach are with us. I offer to buy them their booze but only Scott takes me up on it. Meanwhile, we get back kind of late and Daubach is late for the draft. Mugsy and Scott don't care because their team is the Orioles and is pre-set. I meet up with Kim, Lane and Al and we play cribbage again until dinner rolls around. Jeff shows up at 4:00. People come by and it's hard to stay focused on the game. Jeff's working on his pictures from the men's baseball tourney he just shot on the other end of the long table. I'm glad he's here for the draft to get good pictures.

At dinner, we sit with Lane, Mary, Cooksey, LaDue, Al, Dana Rickard, Charlie Ahles, and Vinny Savino and new Orioles guy Bruce Steily (aka. Steely Dan). We eat first then the teams are announced. The Orioles team is announced first. Then Jim Corsi and Joe Azcue. they stick the names on Corsi's head. Then Jerry Moses, Gary Bell and Steve Lyons (who'll be showing up later). Then Rick and Rico, then Daubach and Rich Gale, then Stinger and Cuyler, then Steve Crawford and Tom Burgmeier, then finally by process of elimination, my team, headed by Campbell and Boswell. Team 3 'Soup and Nuts'. Lane Perrins, Mike Cooksey, Dana Rickard, the Willis' Scott and son Dan, Tony Basile, Mike Owens, Marty Kawadler, Al Venditti, Kim Fletcher and Jack Dunn. Good team! I think we will go far. The only players I have not played with are Dana, Dan and Jack. Lane, Cooksey and Owens and I played on the 2000 championship team. Now everyone is comparing teams trying to figure out who is the team to beat. Lane needs a new hip so he's playing first mostly but he will pitch too. Jack is already bothered by a pain in his side. Kim only likes to play 1 inning. Tony has back problems, Cooksey has a hurt foot, but playable. Could be interesting. I know I'm going to do a lot of running, but I am prepared. We already decide to do the team dinner Tuesday night as we have an option this year for doing then or Thursday. I like the idea of doing it early in the week to encourage team bonding. We head to the bar afterward and Jeff goes up to the room soon after to work on pictures. I head up soon after that. Jeff is fast asleep! Big day tomorrow - 2 games.