2006 Fantasy Camp Diary

Day Five - The Playoffs Begin!

Friday, February 3

by Meg Goldsmith for Kerry

Today was a combination of games.  The All-Star teams were announced and they played a game; the game against the Pros took place; and the play-in game for the championship tournaments took place.  On top of this, Kerry got his second gold rope of the week.  He had earned one yesterday morning because he had a good game.  Today he got one because he went 4 for 6 at the plate and drove in a bunch of runs.

For the first time since Kerry broke his hand, he did not make the All-Star team.  And while he said it didn't bother him, it clearly did because he noted that this is the best camp he's ever had due to the fact that he has more pitches to throw when he's on the mound and he's hit the ball hard in every AB.  (It was merely ironic; I've made the All-Star team at the camp four or five times previously, but had clearly inferior years; this time around, I have my best camp and don't make it.  Oh well.)  The way it worked is that each camper was supposed to name one member from his own team plus one camper from another team.  The top 18 vote-getters got the All-Star honors.  In past years it has been 24 players but they decided to have staff members pitch to both teams this year so they cut back the number of campers on the teams.  Only one person from his team made the All-Star squad.

Kerry's team and another team combined forces to play in the pro game.  They faced Tippy Martinez (Mike Cuellar, Ken Dixon, Dave Johnson, Bill Swaggerty, and Dave Ford pitched the other games) and played a competitive game, losing 5-3.  Tippy didn't throw particularly hard and the campers smacked him around pretty hard.  Kerry doubled to right centerfield in his first at bat but was left stranded at third.  In his second at bat he lined out to second, which was being manned by Jack Voigt.  Kerry played second for this game and had four chances in the field.  He fielded groundouts by Jack Voigt and Floyd Rayford.  He also caught two pop ups, one of which required a long run to the outfield grass for an over the shoulder catch because the infield was in on the play.   

For the play-in game, the winner would advance to The Ring Championship series while the losing team would play for the trophy.  The Thumpers lost 3-1 to Voigt's Vultures in a well played game.  Unfortunately the three unearned runs that the Vultures scored in the second were enough and Kerry was saddled with the loss since he pitched the first three innings.  He said that the third run came on a disputed call and it was definitely a blown call by the umpire.  (Of course, it should be noted that the other team was just as certain that the runner was safe.  --K.L.)  He said he was standing 5 ft. from home plate when the runner hit the plate and he saw the tag applied before the runner got to the plate.  As for his pitching, he didn't have much in the way of velocity due to his arm being sore.  He gave up one walk, three hits, and got three strikeouts (one of these was David Berson, who struck out on some off speed stuff (I caught him guessing fastball and got lucky--K.L.)).  At the plate Kerry singled sharply to right his first time up, grounded out to third in his second at bat (he said he stumbled going out of the box or he would've beaten the throw).  In his final at bat he hit a 6-4 fielder's choice but they tried to get the double play and the throw got away so Kerry wound up on second.  They ultimately had the bases loaded in the top of the sixth but the final batter flied out to end the game.  When he wasn't pitching, he played third base.  He made one good play, backhanding a ball behind the bag and throwing the runner out at first.  He also fielded a swinging bunt and made an off-balance throw to first to get the guy.

At the morning meeting someone on another team got a gold rope for hitting a grand slam.  Wayne Gross' team surrendered the grand slam  after their pitcher had walked the three previous batters.  Wayne gave a brown rope to Dave Ford because he had Ford go out to "talk to the pitcher" after the third walk and the next batter hit the very first pitch out of the park.   So Ford turned the tables on Gross and gave him a brown rope because he was the one who told Ford to "tell him to throw a f------ strike!"  On hearing this, Jim Palmer called Earl Weaver up to the front of the room and gave Dave Ford a gold rope for doing what his manager had told him to do.  Then he awarded a brown rope to Earl for a similar move.  Back when Palmer was trying to come back from what is now known to be a rotator cuff injury (at the time it was just a "shoulder injury"), he had walked the bases loaded while playing for Earl in the minors.  (This was at Niagara Falls in 1967.)  Earl came out to the mound and told Palmer "throw this guy a strike because he can't do anything with it."  Well, that batter was Johnny Bench and he hit the ball 475 ft.  (It's the only grand slam Palmer ever gave up playing baseball-- at the professional level or even in youth ball.)  

At this point, Etchebarren put both Palmer and Weaver on the stools at the front of the room and related the following story:  They were playing Kansas City and Ed Kirkpatrick came to the plate.  He was a left-handed batter with a bit of pop.  Palmer was just learning to throw a slider and because he wasn't confident in the pitch he only threw it when he was well ahead of the count to right-handed hitters.  Earl whistled from the dugout, which was his signal that he was going to put a play on, and he signaled for the slider.  Etch put down the sign for the slider and Palmer shook him off.  Another whistle from the dugout followed by the signal followed so Etch put down the sign and then pointed to the dugout with his thumb to mean "Earl is calling this pitch."  Palmer commented that now everyone knew what was coming.  And sure enough, Kirkpatrick hit the ball off Palmer's knee and the ball ricocheted into the dugout.  Etch gave Palmer a gold rope for doing what he was told to do and he gave Earl a brown rope for calling the wrong pitch.  Then Earl spoke up, telling everyone that he'd actually called the right pitch and that Etch had gotten the story wrong.  According to Earl, the ball actually ricocheted to Belanger who threw Kirkpatrick out at first, which meant Earl had called the correct pitch and actually deserved a gold rope for getting the out!

STATS

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Day Four

Day Three

Day Two

Day One

Veteran's Tournament Day Two

Veteran's Tournament Day One

Preparations