One Camper's Fantasy

Day 5

The day started as had the previous three; an early breakfast in the dinning room, to the locker room to dress, and then out to field 2 for the morning stretch.  But today was double header day and so following the morning stretch, it was directly to field 1 for pregame hitting and fielding.  Our team was determined to stop the losing streak at 2, or at least make it respectable.  The first game was coach-pitched so that each team could save its pitchers for the second half of the twin bill later in the afternoon.

Having been the catcher in the last inning the day before, I grabbed my catcher's glove as well as my fielder's glove in anticipation of being called upon to relieve Neil.  However, when we arrived at the field, Yeager asked if I could handle shortstop, since Ron had bruised up his ribs yesterday and they were real tender this morning limiting his ability to throw.  I said sure, grabbed my glove and went out to field grounders as we began hitting practice.  I took quite a few grounders before it was my turn to hit and felt fairly confident that I could fill in but not replace our regular shortstop.  After we all took pregame hitting, we still had time for some outfield and infield warm up before our opponents arrived.  With a little help on positioning from Coach Monday, I was as ready for the challenge.

As the game got underway, our earlier determination quickly dissipated as San Bernardino was quite successful at hitting off their manager Torborg and we couldn't hit a lick off Vavra if our lives depended upon it.  And I was not prepared for the amount of activity that I got at short.  I was either moving to my right for a grounder just out of my reach, going out into left for the cutoff and relay on line drives into the gap, or moving to my left in a vain attempt to cover 2^nd on possible double plays.  And finally there was my big moment, a pop fly to deep short/shallow left.  I turned, I glided back, a little faster, I reached and then, pop, I felt my left hamstring, just above the knee give and I hobbled to a stop.  The ball fell just out of my reach.  I was done for the game at the very least and was immediately sent to the trainer for whatever patching up Charlie or Matt could do.  It was only the 5^th inning of a nine-inning game that had quickly and miserably gotten out of hand.  When the game finally ended, it was not close and it was not pretty.

Despite my good intentions to fill in at short, I couldn't help but think that I had let my teammates down even though I obviously had no control over the injury.  So I was determined that I wasn't going to let this get the better of me and I was going to try to be available for the second game if I could help in some capacity.  After lunch, I went back into the trainers, had my leg wrapped with an ace bandage and then headed over to Holman for the second game.  We were playing Albuquerque now for the second time.  They had beaten us in our very first game by a rather large margin, but we looked at this as the start of the second half of the season and a chance to turn it all around.  Albuquerque was 3 and 0, we were 0 and 3 but that didn't deter us.  Len was on the mound, I was ready to go in to relieve if needed, and as the game began our spirits began to lift.  We held the other team scoreless in the first two innings as we posted 2 runs in the bottom half of each frame.  Each team had scored once as we approached the top of the 7^th, the last inning of this shortened game.  Then the roof fell in, they rallied to score 4 and tie the game.  We were unable break the tie and we went into extra innings.  Finally in the top of the 9^th they scored once to take the lead.  We made a valiant try, putting runners on in the bottom of the 9^th but we couldn't bring them in and we suffered our 4^th loss in as many games.

Although this is a camp and we are all here to have fun, grown men can become a little competitive.  Did I say a little?  Anyway, remember that intro to the ABC Wide World of Sports, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat . . ."  Well we were suffering the agony all right and all the "it was a great game" comments were not helping the situation any.  The only thing left to do . . . head for the Lounge.  Maybe a couple of beers would help, . . .ah, make that a 6-pack, . . . no better yet, make it a case . . . .

It was Western Night and BBQ steaks, ribs, and chicken with baked beans, chili, and corn on the cob was on the menu for the affair.  Many of the campers were decked out in jeans and cowboy boots as straw hats and bandanas were made available compliments of Dodgertown.  Tradition calls for the BBQ to be at the pit area near the pool, but the weather in Vero the last two days has caused the nights to be down right cold.  So everything was moved indoors.  The judge returned to hold court and after the fines were levied, the daily awards were given out.  The evening ended with some entertainment in the Lounge.  Though Nathan junior was somewhat embarrassed, Nathan senior kept us laughing with his standup comedy routine; Then Nathan senior was somewhat embarrassed as Nathan junior preformed a rather unusual feat of magic which might qualify him for an appearance on one of those Guinness records shows. Silverman provided a dramatic reading of "Casey at the Bat" and the duet of Erskine and Smith provided a couple of tunes on the harmonica and drums. 

Tomorrow the Campers play the Instructors (talk about a losing streak, I'm informed that the Campers have never won), following yet another chance to end our teams losing streak.