2006 Fantasy Camp Diary

Veteran's Tournament Day One

Saturday, January 28

by Meg Goldsmith for Kerry

Today was the first day of baseball action.  Prior to heading down to camp, Kerry was asked if he would like to manage one of the veteran's teams but he declined.  He told me he really didn't want the responsibility of telling people when to sit out or where to play in the field.  As a result, there were no rookie managers for the four team veteran's tournament.  Kerry was drafted by Carl Vizzi, who he and Craig played for last year.  He said there are 12-13 players on each team.  His team has 13 players but one guy opted to sit out of all the action in the veteran's tournament because he has a pinched nerve and his hope is that sitting out this weekend will make it possible for him to play during the upcoming week.

Unfortunately their team didn't do very well in either game today.  They were shellacked in their first game.  Kerry said he lost track of the exact score but it was something like 17-4.  The second game was a more "normal" loss, 6-2.  As a result they are out of contention for the Veteran's Tournament trophy and have been relegated to the consolation game in the afternoon on Sunday. 

Kerry sat out an inning in each game and he pitched an inning in both games.  He mostly played in the infield (short and second) but he saw one inning in right field in the first game.

In game one he gave up two hits but neither went out of the infield.  He walked one batter and gave up 3 runs, only one of them being earned.  In the second game he didn't give up any runs and struck out one batter while walking one. 

At the plate he walked to lead off the game and came around to score one of their four runs.  In his two subsequent at bats he popped out to third on a high pitch and grounded out sharply to third with a one-hopper that the fielder caught.  In the second game, because they pick up the lineup where they left off after game one (to give everybody an equal number of chances at the plate) he walked and scored in his first at bat and doubled to left in his second at bat.  Kerry noted that there was a slower runner ahead of him on the bases or this would've been a triple.

He did have a spectacular play in the field which he acknowledged being proud of.  He referred to it as "one of my best players ever at camp."  In the third inning of the second game he was playing shortstop and they had their best pitcher on the mound.  There was a runner on first with one out and the batter hit a Texas leaguer over Kerry's head.  He said he took a straight path back to the ball, turning his back to the infield and ultimately dove for the ball and caught it 30-40 feet back on the grass.  But he hit the ground hard, landing on his sternum which knocked the wind out of him.  He jumped to his feet to try to throw out the runner but he had already turned around and was headed back to first so Kerry held onto the ball. 

On Sunday there will be a reception and the results of the player draft will be announced.  I asked Kerry who he most wanted to play for and he said it really didn't matter although he noted that he had a lot of fun on Wayne Gross' team last year. 

Off-field highlights for the day:  Mo Drabowsky will be in camp even though he has two chemotherapy treatments scheduled this week.  Since he lives in Sarasota, this is possible.  Andy Etchebarren will be in camp despite suffering injuries falling off the roof of a relative's house.  Apparently he was helping put up Christmas lights/decorations when he took the tumble, resulting in two broken ribs and a punctured lung.  He is scheduled to manage the Aberdeen team this year and if he hasn't completely recovered the Orioles may assign an additional coach to assist with on-field activities since right now Andy can't throw batting practice or do other things of that nature.

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