2005 Fantasy Camp Diary
Day Six: Last Day of Camp
(Sat., Feb. 5, 2005)
By Meg Goldsmith for Kerry and Craig
With the disappointment of Friday's game behind them, the Grizzlies set out to win the consolation prize. The faced off against Andy Etchebarren's team, the Thumpers, and won 8-3. Kerry started the game and got the win despite giving up three runs in the top of the first. He said he was being squeezed by the home plate umpire so badly that Wayne Gross was yelling at him, "This is fantasy camp! Those pitches are strikes!" After the first inning, Jim Palmer went over to Kerry and told him he was "flying open" which was causing his pitches to sail up and away. Palmer suggested that Kerry "close up" and stand slightly differently on the rubber before beginning his windup. Kerry went back out on the mound in the second, followed Palmer's advice, and nobody got on base from that point on. Kerry ultimately threw three innings giving up three runs, four hits, one walk, and getting two strikeouts. He played the remaining three innings at third where he fielded some routine chances but nothing spectacular. At the plate, he went 1 for 2 with a double and a walk. Craig continued his offensive binge going 2 for 3 with a double, one run scored and an RBI while playing five innings in centerfield and one in left. Amazingly he had no chances in the outfield the entire game.
The Trophy Game pitted the top two seeded teams from the regular season, with the Grizzlies having home field advantage over the Travellers (Glenn Gulliver's team). The Grizzlies won handily, 15-7. The Travellers took got off to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first but the Grizzlies answered with four of their own. The Travellers came back with four more in the top of the second but the Grizzlies responded by plating four more runs to take an 8-7 lead. They scored 6 more in the bottom of the fifth and the mercy rule kicked in. (Camp rules state that an inning ends if a team scores 6 runs in an inning except the final inning.) Kerry didn't get any hits in this game but walked in all four of his plate appearances and scored three times. Craig went 2 for 3 with a walk and had another RBI plus a run scored. Kerry spent the first two innings at short and the final four innings at third. He started both a 6-4-3 double play and a 5-4-3 double play while in the field. Once again Craig played the outfield. And John Reed blasted a triple with the bases loaded for 3 RBI's of his own. Kerry said that if he hadn't pulled a quad in the pro game yesterday there is little doubt that it would've been an inside-the-park home run.
As for Kerry and Craig, Kerry's strained hamstring was feeling much better today. He and Craig went in the whirlpool at the hotel before heading to the ballpark. Once there, Kerry had the trainers stretch and then wrap his hamstring and it was feeling significantly better by the end of the day. Craig was feeling a bit of soreness from shin splints during the day but it wasn't serious. All in all, Kerry thought they held up very well this year and will be heading home with little more than bruises and some scrapes.
As for The Ring game, Jack Voight's Vultures, the team David Berson plays for, faced off against the Buccaneers (Grant Jackson's team). These were the eighth and seventh seeded teams, respectively, playing for the camp championship and some hard feelings were felt by those on the Grizzlies and Travellers, the first and second place teams respectively. As it turned out, the Buccaneers beat the Vultures to win The Ring this year. Such is the nature of luck in a short (or in this case, one game) series.
Craig's Final Stats:
| Date, Game | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | TB | R | RBI | TBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | BA | OBP | SLG |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | |||||||
| 1/29, G2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.500 | |||||||
| 1/30, G1&2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | .800 | 1.250 | |||||
| 1/31, AM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | |||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | |||||||
| 2/1, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .500 | .500 | ||||||||
| 2/1, PM | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .500 | .500 | ||||||||||
| 2/2, AM | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.333 | |||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | .667 | .667 | .667 | |||||||||
| 2/3, PM | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | |||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .333 | .333 | .333 | ||||||||
| 2/5, AM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | .667 | .667 | 1.000 | |||||||
| 2/5, PM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .667 | .750 | .667 | ||||||||
| Pro Game | 1 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | |||||||||||
| TOTALS | 32 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 8 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .719 | .730 | .875 |
Kerry's Final Stats:
| Date, Game | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | TB | R | RBI | TBB | CS | SO | HBP | SH | SF | BA | OBP | SLG |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .500 | .000 | ||||||||||
| 1/29, G2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .333 | .000 | ||||||||||
| 1/30, G1&G2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 | .250 | .250 | |||||||||
| 1/31, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | |||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | |||||||||
| 2/1, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | ||||||||
| 2/1, PM | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .500 | .000 | |||||||||||
| 2/2, AM | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .500 | .750 | .500 | ||||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .333 | .500 | .667 | |||||||||
| 2/3, PM | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | ||||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | .667 | .667 | 1.000 | |||||||||
| 2/5, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | .500 | .667 | 1.000 | ||||||||
| 2/5, PM | 3 | 4 | 1.000 | ||||||||||||||
| All-Star Game | 1 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||
| Pro Game | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | |||||||||||
| TOTALS | 28 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 18 | 1 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .429 | .619 | .536 |
| Date, Game | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | HR | SH | SF | HB | TBB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||
| 1/30, G1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | |||||||
| 2/1, PM | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00 | |||||||
| 2/2, AM | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12.00 | ||||||||
| 2/5, AM | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6.00 | ||||||
| All-Star Game | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||||
| TOTAL | 10 | 3 | 18 | 16 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.67 |
Previous Reports:
Day Five: Luck Is the Factor of the Day