2005 Fantasy Camp Diary

Day Four: Final Day of the Regular Tournament

(Thurs., Feb. 3, 2005)

By Meg Goldsmith for Kerry and Craig

This morning started with Craig earning a gold rope for his play in yesterday's game.  Way to go, Craig!!!  

Today's games marked the end of the "regular season" (if this were a true baseball season and not simply fantasy camp).  As it turns out, the Grizzlies ended the season with the best record in camp, sporting a fantastic 7-1 mark and the top seed for the playoff rounds.  They'll open the playoffs against Voight's Vultures, who finished the regular tournament with a 1-6 record.  Dave Berson (a Belfry board member and part of the hardcore sabremetric crowd) plays for the Vultures.  But at least they managed to get one win this year.  And Buc's Buccaneers won both of their games today to finish the camp with a 2-5 record.  

They won their first game in a 7-6 squeaker against Jim Gentile's Diamond's Jims.  John Reed (a Belfry board member) started the game for the Grizzlies but couldn't find the plate and walked the bases loaded.  Gross took him out of the game and they got out of the first inning giving up 4 runs (only 2 of which were earned).  The Grizzlies answered with 2 of their own in the bottom of  the inning, making it a 4-2 score.  Diamond's Jims scored two more in the fourth to make it 6-2 but the Grizzlies chipped away at that lead, scoring 4 in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game heading into the sixth and final inning.  (There is a provision for one extra inning should the score remain tied after 6.)  Kerry pitched the top of the sixth giving up one hit, one walk and striking out one.  In the bottom of the inning, he led off with a walk after a tough at bat against Alan Rifkin (Alan is outside counsel for the Orioles, btw, and a tough pitcher in camp).  The next batter doubled and they walked John Reed to load the bases.  The cleanup man crushed a ball over a drawn in outfield and Kerry came across to score the winning run.  When he wasn't pitching, Kerry played centerfield for three innings, where he caught a line drive, and second for two.  Craig played two at second, three in left, and sat out one inning.  However, Craig was involved in a memorable play.  With his team still behind, Craig managed to get thrown out at third for the first out of the fifth inning, potentially hurting their scoring chances.  He had gotten on first and the next batter hit a grounder to shortstop.  They should've had Craig at second, but the second baseman couldn't hang onto the ball and it got away from him.  Craig took off, thinking it had gone further away from the fielder than it actually had.  Kerry said the entire dugout groaned as they watched Craig chugging around to third while the fielder retrieved the ball and threw it to the third baseman.  Craig tried to go around the third sacker but couldn't hold onto the bag so was out.

Between games there was a Home Run Derby.  Neither Craig nor Kerry took part in it, however. 

In the afternoon game, the Grizzlies beat Swag's Stags (managed by Bill Swaggerty) 7-0.  Wayne Gross was trying to preserve his top four pitchers for the playoff tournament so none of them pitched in this game.  Kerry wound up playing five innings at third and sitting out the final inning.  Kerry said that Wayne came off the field in the bottom of the fifth and saw Kerry on the bench.  He asked Kerry what he was doing on the bench and Kerry told him someone else had asked to play third.  Kerry said Wayne told him, "It makes me nervous when you're not out there."  I asked what that meant and Kerry said Gross likes Kerry's defense.  At the plate, Kerry went 2 for 2 with a walk, an RBI and scored a run.  Craig played five innings in left and made a really good play on a ball hit almost all the way to the warning track even with the wind blowing in.  Craig went 2 for 2 with 2 walks and 3 runs scored.  If you're keeping count, Kerry and Craig accounted for four of the Grizzlies seven runs!  

Both guys are still feeling pretty good.  Craig has some soreness in his right hip flexor while Kerry had some soreness in his left abductor muscle.  He took some Advil when I was on the phone with Craig and it was already feeling better.  Advil is regular part of the landscape at Fantasy Camp.

The plan for Friday is that the campers will play their first playoff game in the morning.  With the #1 team seeded against the #8 team in camp.  Kerry thinks the Grizzlies should have the home field advantage in all of their games given their regular season record.  In the afternoon, they are going to fit both the Pro Game and the All-Star Game into the mix.  The All-Star game is something new this year.  Every team will have three representatives, and Craig was guessing that Kerry might make the team from the Grizzlies.  

Tonight was the first night that all of the former pros were present.  They had an organized Q&A followed by an autograph session.  Kerry and Craig got there late because they went out to get dinner.  Some of the questions they thought were interesting included asking Earl why he started Palmer in Game 1 of the 1970 series.  Earl explained the most powerful hitters on that Big Red Machine were right-handed so that's why he tapped Palmer.  Someone else asked about memorable at bats by pitchers and Mike Cuellar's ALCS grand slam against the Twins was brought up but they couldn't remember which year it was-- 1969 (Earl's guess) or 1970 (Palmer's guess).  Someone had the bright idea to ask the guy who hit the ball and Cuellar responded that it was 1970.  

Craig's Stats:

Kerry's Stats:

Previous Reports:

Day Three: A Short Day

Day Two Action

Day One with the Grizzlies

Veteran's Tournament Day 2

Veteran's Tournament Day 1

Preparing for Camp