Day 1 sees a double dose of badness

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 gulf side of the state in Port Charlotte. 

The Mets moved to PSL in the spring of 1988, and I moved out of state in October of that same year. But that was then and this is now. And now, we delve into today's games.

We discussed the awarding of the gold and brown ropes which are given out at the morning meeting. The gold rope is for excellence in play from the previous day's game(s). I've been nominated for a gold rope twice in my previous 6 camps. Most recently at my last camp in 2019. I went 6-for-6 with 4 RBIs over two games on the same day. The brown rope is usually reserved for someone who may have had a better day if they had stood in bed. Past winners of said rope have done things like shown up at the field for a game wearing the opposite uniform from the rest of the team, be it home whites or road grays. Leaving one's glove on the team bus. Forgetting how many outs there were and leaving the field prematurely. And showing up to use the hot tub without wearing anything. AN-Y-THING. Tomorrow we hand out the first ropes of the week.

In game 1, my team, which is NOT known as the Do-Or-Dyers as reported yesterday but are known as "In Dyer Need" took on Hojo's BBs. After going down in order in the top of the inning we took the field. Their leadoff hitter, Dean Pflaum, on a 2-1 pitch fouled a popup into the morning sky that seemed playable by yours truly at first glance. I got a good jump and took off into foul territory near the fence. I ran it down just before hitting the fence and made the catch for the first out on defense. Amazingly this is exactly what happened on the same batter in my first game of 2021 camp. It was even the same field. 

And that, boys and girls, was the last point in the game when it in doubt as to whom the winners would be. Hojo's BBs are stacked. With guys like Phil Forman, Dean Pflaum and Tom Borowski on the roster I wouldn't  be surprised to see them playing Thursday at 5 at Clover Park. Pretty much anything that could go wrong went wrong. We gave up runs in all 6 defensive innings and the game finished with a final score of 17-2.  I had one of our teams' 4 base hits, the first one which was a fly ball just past the left fielder. I gave thought of trying to stretch it into a double but the game situation at the time dictated that I not make that attempt. Greg Cockrell singled home a run in the fourth to make the score 10-2 in the 4th inning.

I hadn't seen Phil Forman in a couple of years. We would be attending different weeks, but that changed this year. Phil and I met via e-mail in October of 2013.  He'd read my first blog "rodatfantasycamp.blogspot.com" and wanted to find out from the writer what I could help him with. He was planning to attend in 2014 and I told him more in-depth things about my experience. During our e-mail conversation Phil posed a "what if" question. How cool would it be if we were to end up on the same team and win a championship? Well, dont'cha know what happened.  We ended up being drafted on the same team. Our team was very good and by Friday afternoon we found ourselves and our team in the championship game. We were leading by a few runs and with just one out to go. The final batter hits a ground ball to Phil at short who vacuums it up and throws over to yours truly to end the game.  One of the coolest moments of my life. I still have the ball at home.

So with the memory of game one now in our collective rear view mirrors we looked forward to our afternoon game versus La Familia in the stadium. My team did not actually have an opportunity to play in the stadium during my camp week last year, so this was a chance to experience that once again. 

Once again we were victims of our own misplays and we dropped game number two by a score of 9-0. I drew a walk and doubled in the 7th with a runner on but alas we failed to 'put up a crooked number" as the saying goes. 

Tonight's evening event was the annual Casino Night which was held at Tuttto Fresco Restaurant. Those who have seen my now-infamous Mets suit had their chance to view it again in person as I wore it to the restaurant. The looks of amazement and questions as about how I acquired said suit were plentiful. Most everyone now knows that it was a 2am purchase on Amazon which landed me the garment made by a company called Suitmaster during my time off from Southwest during COVID. 

Tomorrow evening we will have dinner with our coaches and really get to know our teammates better. This is usually the event which happens on the 2nd night of camp but needed o be changed due to availability of the venue for Casino Night. It's a good group of guys and I look forward to sharing stories from my first nine camps with them. Tomorrow we get back to it with our first game at 9:30 am, and game two at 1:00 pm. As Yogi Berra once said, "The other teams could make trouble for us if they win".  THAT'S what we're trying to avoid.  Tune in tomorrow to see what happened.