One Camper's Fantasy

Day 3

Friday began bright and early as that annoying buzzing of the alarm went off at 7.  I rolled out of bed expecting my body to ache from the workout the day before.  Surprisingly, although my mind was saying, "it's too damn early" my body was fine.  So it was up and over to the dining room for a light breakfast and on into the locker room to dress for the morning stretching.  Since yesterday was an optional workout, and not everyone was here, today was the official start of camp.  And naturally the activities had to begin with camp introductions.

We met at Holman Stadium and were greeted by Nancy Gollnick who introduced the Dodgertown staff.  Then Guy Wellman, the camp director, introduced the instructors.  Everyone was there from the night before, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Reggie Smith, Jay Johnstone, Jerry Reuss, Rick Monday, Steve Yeager, Jeff Torborg and Davey Lopes as well as the other coaches Dodger bullpen coach Travis Barbary, John Shoemaker, Jim Stoeckel, and Joe Vavra.  After the intros, we took the field for our morning stretch.  Now I felt those aches as my muscles begged me to stop.  But I figured if I can just get through it now, tomorrow things will be better.

After stretching out those aches, we split up again with the 25 rookies going over to the batting cages and the veterans staying at Holman for an inter-squad game.  It was scouting time or rookie tryouts.  All the coaches met us at the cages and watched as we "took some cuts."  While the other coaches took notes and rated us, Duke and Jay gave us some pointers.  Duke pulled me aside and though I was making decent contact, he told me I wasn't following through and finishing my swing.  When it was my turn again, I got back in and, what d' ya know, the hitting got stronger.  After thanking Duke for the batting tip, I also thanked him for something else.  See, back in 1958, when the Dodgers first came to L.A., my grandfather used to take me to the Dodger games at the Coliseum (b.d.s. - before Dodger Stadium).  After one game, we were leaving late (we always stayed until the end of the game, but this time we were among the last to leave) and there by one of the tunnels was the Duke surrounded by a few fans.  Now I was just a kid of 9 and I don't know if my grandfather knew that this was where the players came out or if it was just luck, but we went over and I got Duke to sign my baseball glove.  That glove sits on my bookshelf today with a lot of fond memories.

After hitting, we were directed to the pitching mounds.  Before we started throwing, Carl Erskine, Jerry Reuss and Clem Labine gave us some instruction in the basic elements of pitching, consistency, balance, ball movement, and most importantly, mental preparation and concentration.  To paraphrase that oft heard quote, pitching is 90% mental and the other half physical.  Well, a big part is certainly mental.  With the quick instruction concluded, we got on the mound.  As I started to warm up, even before I really started to pitch, I must have been doing something right, because I could hear my name being passed back and forth between some of the instructors.  Then after only 10 - 12 pitches, mostly in the strike zone and with that popping sound coming from the catcher's mitt, Carl came over and told me that that was enough, don't throw too much because I'll need it tomorrow.  So I stopped, stood and watched as the other rookies threw and a couple had pretty good arms.  When everyone had a chance, or rather when the instructors had seen enough, we moved on to practice field #2 for catching instruction and infield and outfield work anyway.

Jeff Torborg and Steve Yeager talked about proper catching positions for giving signs and receiving the pitch.  My thighs were a little too sore to hold the catching crouch for a long time and although I said I would put on the tools and help out if needed, I was real glad that I didn't have to then.  Davey Lopes met us at second base and went over what he knows best, the finer points of fielding ground balls, especially those hard ones up the middle.  From the instruction we went right into taking some of those grounders.  I went to 2^nd base and worked on the short throw to 1^st and the even shorter toss to the shortstop on the double play.  The last thing I wanted to do is hurt my arm trying to make the long throw from deep short to 1^st, and miss pitching tomorrow.  Then from Lopes it was out to center for fly balls with Rick Monday and Jay Johnstone.  Pretty easy stuff there, the balls were shot at us off a converted pitching machine, we just had to get under it.  Good time to practice the form.

Before we knew it, it was noon and time for lunch.  We were all looking forward to lunch, not just to eat but because the instructors were going to meet and assign us rookies to teams so that after lunch, we could have our first game, though it would be with our coaches pitching. I took the opportunity to grab a sandwich and visit Charlie in the trainer's room.  Oh, I didn't mention that while hitting, I fouled one off my left foot. Charlie said there wasn't much that can be done but put ice on the bruise so there I was with an ice bag strapped to my foot with an ace bandage for 15 minutes.  (Charlie was right though; it still hurts when I walk.)

So we're sitting around waiting for lunch to be over and the team assignments to be announced and I got to know a little more about my fellow campers.  It turns out that there are three attorneys (excluding myself), an optometrist, a couple of venture capitalists (money guys) and a guy that sells fire engines (turns out he is the clown of the camp).  There are also three fathers with their sons.  Two of the fathers brought their sons as birthday gifts and it made me think of my own son and whether I'll be up to this when he is 30 so that maybe we can do it together.  Well that's only 12 years away, I'll be 61, we can hope . . . right?!.

At 12:45, the list came out.  I was assigned to the Vero Beach team with Monday, Yeager and Vavra as my coaches.  Our first game was at 2:30 against San Bernardino headed by Davey Lopes, Carl Erskine and Travis Barbary and which had on its roster the only actor in camp, Jonathan Silverman.  But first we were going to take some live BP (that's batting practice against a pitcher not a machine).  A quick change of uniforms (we were the visiting team in the game so we had to put on our away grays) and on to field #2 for hitting.  Vavra threw to us just as he does to the pros at Dodger Stadium.  I did better, at least no foul balls off the foot.  Did I mention that we all use wood bats?  There's no aluminum here and it is great to feel a good solid hit off of a wooden bat. We hit in groups of 5, each hitter getting 2 rounds of 5 hits each and a third round of 3 hits. Then it was off to field #1 for the game.

We played a rather uninspiring game.  I started in left, batted 6^th with a pop up and a ground out until the top of the 9^th when we finally started to rally. With bases loaded in the 9^th, I got a single up the middle for an RBI. We scored 5 runs that inning but the rally was too little, too late and we lost 11-5.  More importantly, though, we all had fun. 

From the game to the showers and then back to the room for a couple of hours relaxing and writing.  The dining room opened at 6:45 but most of us didn't start straggling in until 7:30.  With dinner comes some camp rituals.  First Ralph Branca, who was a municipal court judge after his playing days, holds court and assesses fines to campers who have screwed up during the day.  This being the first court session, fines were passed out to one camper who came to Dodgertown wearing a Boston Red Sox T-shirt, and two others who came wearing Tampa Bay Devil Rays hats.  Other fines went to guys in the dining room with hats on, one guy who had his hair in a poor example of a pony tail, campers and coaches who were caught smoking (and those who fessed up to it before being caught so the fine was less), and another guy (the camp clown) just because.  It was all in good fun and the money all goes to this year's camp charity, the Volunteer Action Committee of the United Way.

When the judge ended his session, we went into camper awards.  Each team's coaches selected a camper for his outstanding play in his respective game and that camper got a Mr. Potato Head as his trophy. One camper received an award for the outstanding play of the day, in this case a diving catch of a fly ball to center. With the awards handed out it was now time for the talk of the night and tonight's subject was on Umpiring in the Big Leagues.  It was really just some reminiscing by Dutch Rennert and Bruce Froemming, two of the best National League umpires.  We really got to hear it from the umpire's side and got to hear how some of the players stuck it to the umpires, all in jest.  In fact, Bruce told us how Jay Johnstone really got Bruce with a rather elaborate practical joke.  He had Bruce convinced that he was going to put on an umpiring clinic in Japan for really big bucks.  The story was great.

Well, I am back in my room, my roommate is really sawing wood (snoring) and it's time to turn in.  Another big day tomorrow.