2024 Mets Fantasy Camp

  21 November 2024 I entered the clubhouse this morning in my custom New York Rangers hockey jersey to see what looked like a motion picture taking place in slow motion. Granted , I wasn't exactly moving as quickly as I was on Monday either.  After my now daily trip to the trainers room to get my back muscles pounded out, a little brekky was in order. Our first game was against the team which we'd beaten for our only win of the week thus far. The attrition rate was quickly rising on almost every team roster. Somehow we still had ten relatively able-bodied players on ours. To show how quickly players were going down, our opponents lost their first baseman for the rest of the game after our leadoff hitter of the game made what I thought was mild contact our opponents' first baseman. He unfortunately didn't get back on the field until the post game handshake line.  We played pretty well but again we had some physical lapses which contributed to our loss by the score of...

  20 November 2024 Wednesday arrived a little earlier than usual today. All of the morning activities were moved up an hour in anticipation of a possible weather delay. I started the day in the same fashion as yesterday. I was in the trainers room line for the ponding machine to be used on my back again. I opted out of having the same breakfast today because I just wasn't hungry at that time. So I went ahead and put my uniform on in a more leisurely fashion timewise.   The gold and brown ropes were handed out and the best performances of the day were announced as well. Somehow, my 3-for-3 with 5 rbi in the first game yesterday was overlooked and wasn't mentioned. But my teammates know so it's all good. Probably an administrative assistant error.  Our first hame would be the last game before the playoff format started. We opened against the Southside Slingers coached by Bill Pulsipher and Dennis Cook. After giving up a 3 spot in the opening inning we tied the gam...

  19 November 2024  "That's life.That's that people say". "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.""Every 24 hours the world turns over on the guy who was on top of it yesterday".  These are all phrases which sometimes define what we as carbon-based life forms deal with on an a regular basis. I have a story that bears them out. If I could have your attention for a few minutes......... I reached the complex this morning and did something which I had never done before, I visited the trainers room. I'd passed through it on the way to the hot and cold tubs, but this time I actually ended up on a table for the first time in my tenth camp week. I was having some tightness in the right side of by back. Head trainer Vanessa saw me and used the pounding gun on the area. When that was complete I felt rejuvenated. Next up, a little breakfast. Today was simply bacon...

A cloudy sky greeted me this morning as I arose in Port St. Lucie, Florida. I first heard about PSL back in the late 80s. I was still living in the Tampa Bay Area at that time and the Mets were going to be leaving their spring home in St. Petersburg for what was essentially some undeveloped swamp land clear across state. The Mets had shared spring facilities with the St. Louis Cardinals and I attended as many spring games as I could during my Florida years. When I heard of this town my first reaction was, "Where the £¥€% is that?" I feared that I would need to drive nearly three hours due east to see my team during my months of March. It became a city in 1961, but it had no "residents" because the city omitted the developed land from its charter. As far as I knew it was just undeveloped swamp land. And, Port St. Lucie.......has no "port" to speak of. "Port" was used in the early marketing by the land developers. They did the same thing on the gul...

  17 November 2024 My 10th Mets Fantasy Camp week began this morning across the state in Tampa. I had originally planned to fly there from America's Favorite Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St.Paul) yesterday morning. But on my layover in Chicago I received word that my eldest dog, Bella, was essentially telling the world that she was ready to "cross the bridge" so to speak. I hustled and got on the next plane back to Minny where she had waited long enough for me to spend some time with her and then take her to the local vet for us to say our final goodbyes to each other. She turned 20 years of age on September 23rd, mind you. So as much as I grieve her loss I also celebrate her longevity and the fact that she loved every single day that she spent at my home. After the vet visit I reassembled my thoughts and was able to catch a nonstop flight to Tampa which arrived at midnight. So Bella decided that she wasn't going to rain on her father's most-anticipated week of the ye...