2006 Fantasy Camp Diary
Day One Action
Monday, January 30
by Meg Goldsmith for Kerry
Today was the first day of the regular tournament. Kerry came through o.k. although he did "tweak" his left hamstring ever so slightly. He plans to have the trainers stretch it out in the morning. He was also involved in some "contact plays" in the first game. They were facing Jack Voight's Vultures, the team David Berson is playing on, and they won the game 11-2 with Kerry getting the win. But the notable action occurred when Kerry was pitching. He said someone hit a high popup just to the third base side of the mound. He called for it and went to catch the ball. Apparently the third baseman called him off "because pitchers aren't supposed to catch the ball" but the call came so late that Kerry didn't have time to get out of the way. Instead the guy "flattened" Kerry, leaving him with a bruised ribcage area. He said it didn't inhibit is play, which is evidenced by the fact that he only sat out one inning of action in the two games. The other "contact" play occurred on the basepaths. Kerry walked to lead off the game and he tried to score from first but the ball beat him to the plate. Kerry slid into the catcher, knocking the ball loose, and scored but he got a banged up a bit doing so.
In his subsequent AB's, he singled sharply to left and came around to score, then he grounded out to first, and in his fourth and final AB of the game he doubled to center and scored. He noted that the extra hitting he took is clearly paying off because he's hit everything hard.
On the mound, he threw the middle two innings, striking out three and giving up one hit but no runs. Because of how the scoring went, he got credit for the W in this one. He said he's been changing speeds a lot, throwing no more than one or two fastballs to each of the batters he faces and mixing in the curve with the changeup. The changeup he was throwing today was a straight change which he likened to a "BP fastball." They used all four of their pitchers in this game but this wasn't a problem.
In game two they faced Gulliver's Travelers, a team Kerry considers to be one of the best drafted in the camp. Gary McGrane is a veteran Kerry knows but he missed camp last year due to a serious injury. Today he saved the day by pitching a complete game shutout. Kerry noted that this means their team actually has five pitchers on it which is a rarity at Fantasy Camp. Kerry said that while they lost the game 7-0 (it should be noted that the Travelers won their first game 14-0 meaning they've scored 21 runs and given up none) the game was actually much closer than the score. Apparently there were a lot of errors because Gary McGrane only gave up two earned runs. Kerry came to the plate twice, lining out to short the first time and breaking his bat in the process, and he flied out to deep left field in his second plate appearance. He sat out the fifth inning of this game.
In the field, Kerry mostly played short and third. He played SS the first two innings of Game 1 and five innings of Game 2. He played third for the final two innings of Game 1. Nothing dramatic in terms of plays in the field but he said there were a lot of chances, particularly in the first game.
Before the tournament began, Mo Drabowsky met with the team. This followed a morning clubhouse meeting in which he was in his usual prankster mode, putting shaving creme on the hats of those campers not paying attention. (Kerry has commented that he always keeps an eye on where Mo is and what he's up to.) Mo left to go get his chemotherapy but returned in time for the afternoon game. He plans to be present for all the games except the Thursday morning game due to another round of chemo. Kerry said that between innings of the second game, Mo gave Gary a pitching lesson and Kerry sat in on it since he figured he'd learn something. (Mo is a minor league pitching instructor for the O's.) Mo spoke to Gary about his changeup and then showed him how to throw a three finger change. Kerry said he was flipping the ball with his fingertips which put backspin on the ball. The most impressive thing about this is the fact that Gary was able to utilize this in their game. Kerry thought it was amazing that the lesson "took" that quickly. It says something about both the instructor and the pupil. And Kerry wound up helping by catching the ball as Mo demonstrated the pitch.
STATS
| Date, Game | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | TB | R | RBI | TBB | CS | SO | HBP | SH | SF | BA | OBP | SLG |
| 1/28, G1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .000 | .333 | .000 | ||||||||||
| 1/28, G2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | |||||||||
| 1/29, G1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .333 | .000 | |||||||||||
| 1/29, G2 | 2 | 1 | .500 | .500 | .500 | ||||||||||||
| 1/30, AM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | .667 | .750 | 1.000 | |||||||||
| 1/30, PM | 2 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||
| TOTALS | 12 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 | .500 | .500 |
| Date, Game | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | HR | SH | SF | HB | TBB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA |
| 1/28, G1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6.00 | |||||||||
| 1/28, G2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||||
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0.00 | ||||||||||||
| 1/30, AM | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 4 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
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