One Camper's Fantasy

Day 4

A new day and I am really looking forward to it.  This afternoon we have our first camper only games and everybody's excited and anxious to get them started.  But first, we have a few hours to fill.  Instead of stretching first thing, we are having another, more in depth, catching seminar from our resident catchers, Torborg and Yeager.  Only one problem, it's kind of cold and windy this morning. But that was not a real problem for the Dodgertown staff, they just pushed back the netting in the indoor batting cages and we got our instruction in there.

You have to understand, there is some instruction.  We got about the same info, maybe a little more, as yesterday's session, but what really makes the session are all the stories.  Who was good at picking off signs and how do you stop them.  Or if the sign stealer was on you team, how did he relay them to the rest of the team.  Better yet, we get some real insight into either how smart some of the great pitchers were and also how dumb others were.  For me, and many others, it's those stories we want to hear.

Well we wrapped up the catching session and went right into stretching.  It might be my imagination, but as I told myself yesterday, it was actually getting a little easier and, of course, it's good for us.  Fifteen minutes of stretching and then we split into our teams for batting practice.  Vero Beach stayed in the indoor cages and in just a few minutes the netting was put back into place and ready to go.  Two of the cages had machine pitching and in the remaining two we got to hit off Vavra and Smith.  Reggie gave us some breaking pitches and as we were to later find out it was good that he did.

Lunch followed by a quick change into our white uniforms and out to Holman for the afternoon game.  In the locker room before leaving, Yeager and Monday confirmed that I was going to start on the mound. Though I figured that I was going to be the starting pitcher in today's game from what the guys said yesterday, this just confirmed it.  I was already excited and now the excitement level increased 10 fold.  And for me that is saying some because I am generally a subdued kind of guy.  Just ask my wife.  Anyway, this was going to be my first competitive start since High School and I wanted to get going so bad, I left the locker room without a wind breaker and more importantly my belt.  I discovered the lapse when I got to Holman Stadium and began to do some light stretching. 

Now it wasn't that my pants were not going to stay up or anything like that.  With the food we have been served while here, I am positive I won't have that problem.  But I certainly didn't want to be caught out of uniform for fear that I'd have to face the judge at dinner later.  So, I jogged back to the locker room and "killed two birds with one stone" as the saying goes.  I completed my uniform while getting warmed up.  I was back in no time and no one noticed I was even gone. 

The game started promptly at 1:30 and since we were the home team, we were in the field first.  For my first effort in quite some time, the start of the game went fairly well as I allowed only a single in the inning.  Unfortunately that was not going to be the case for the rest of the game.  We got touched up for 4 runs in the 2^nd and 4 more in the 6^th before I came out.  The team was a bit more supportive emotionally then on the field but hey, I had a great time.  We ended up rallying again in the 9^th but it came up way short as we lost the game 15 to 3.  Oh, I did go back into the game in the 9^th as Neil and I switched positions from the way we started the game.  That's right, I ended the game catching while Neil pitched.  Good thing I went to the Yeager/Torgborg clinics!  I ended the game pitching 6 innings, giving up 8 runs and hitting 2 for 3 ( 2 singles and a fielder's choice). After the game and in the locker room I was feeling great as Peter, Len, Neil, Hatch, Todd and the rest of my teammates stopped by to compliment me on my pitching. 

Following my shower, I stopped by to see Charlie in the trainer's room and iced my shoulder.  Just about everyone else was in there too as Lasorda had come in today, had watched our games and was now giving us his special kind of critiques.  Fifteen minutes under the ice pack made my shoulder feel great.  I was ready for another 6 innings - what the heck, why not the whole 9, but that was for tomorrow.

Before dinner, I stopped in the lounge and reviewed the video tape from the day's game.  It was the first time I had actually seen myself pitching.  The form needs a little work.  As we began to leave for the dining room, I heard a "Stoney" from the doorway and there was the skipper, Lasorda, waving for me to join him, Bill Buhler, Dodgers traveling secretary Billy DeLury and Jonathan Silverman at dinner.  After dinner, as we did yesterday, we had the daily camper awards.  But first we were filled in on how the Mr. Potato Head award came about.  It seems that this was a LA Dodger tradition as the team, in earlier years, would award the little toy statuette after each game to the player who had the best game that day.  Well, to my surprise, I was the one to get the award for our team this night and "Hutz", my 2^nd baseman from today's game got the "Play of the Day" for his great backhanded grab of a fading line drive that kept me out of some trouble.

With awards handed out it was time for tonight's speakers - Jerry Reuss and Jay Johnstone who, in their playing days with the Dodgers, were known to stir things up a bit and we weren't disappointed as we got some great laughs hearing about some of their pranks and practical jokes. The evening ended after a game of Dodger trivia (not one of my better games) and a few more stories about some of the older players and days gone by.