2005 Fantasy Camp Diary

Veteran's Tournament Day 1

(Sat., Jan. 29, 2005)

by Meg Goldsmith for Kerry and Craig

As luck would have it, Kerry and Craig wound up playing on the same team in the Veteran's Tournament this year.  Because only 53 veterans showed up, four teams were picked and the team they are on wound up with 14 players.  All of the other teams had 13 players.  The downside to such a large number of people is that everyone has to sit out two innings a game.  When you're paying to play, that hurts.  

Their team split the games in today's action.  They won the opener 5-1 but lost the afternoon game 6-5. 

Craig had a really good day at the plate.  Overall, he went 3 for 3 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored.  Both the RBI and the run scored happened in the first game.  He played the outfield and first base and wasn't involved in any remarkable plays.  On this day, Craig let his bat do the talking.

Kerry wasn't so fortunate at the plate.  He went 0 for 3 for the day with two walks.  No runs scored, though.  I asked him about stolen bases and he reminded me that they don't steal bases in fantasy camp.  Kerry did a little bit of everything defensively, playing short, centerfield, and pitching (more on this in a moment).  In the field, he had a couple of good plays.  He said that while at short, there was a ball up the middle that took a bad hop.  The ball hit him in the wrist (no bruise as of midnight when he called me) and it was scored an infield hit.  While pitching, he had to cover first base on a grounder.  The first baseman flipped the ball to him and it went behind him.  He managed to pick it and tag the bag before the runner got there.  He said this turned out to be a big play because a couple of batters reached after that.  Despite his poor performance at the plate, he had a good day on the mound.  He threw both the fourth and sixth innings in the first game.  (Players are allowed to throw two innings each day during the Veteran's Tournament.)  In the fourth inning, he faced the meat of the opponents lineup and gave up no runs, no walks and no strikeouts while allowing only two hits.  There was an error behind him as well.  But this was a key inning.  Their team went up in the top of the fifth inning, giving Kerry the W for the game.  In the final inning he didn't give up any hits, struck out one, gave up one walk and no runs.  Had it been a save situation, he would've been credited with a save which would've meant he won and saved the same game.  But since it wasn't a save situation, he didn't get that statistical anomaly. 

The big news of the day is the problems they may face tomorrow.  The rookies, along with some of the pros, are supposed to fly from Baltimore to Tampa Sunday morning.  However, winter weather conditions cancelled their flight late this evening.  Kerry said the camp coordinator left the get-together organized for the veterans so he could try to make arrangements to get everyone down to Florida at least by the end of the day tomorrow.  They typically do rookie evaluations on Sunday and then start the regular tournament on Monday.  If the rookies don't make it down early enough tomorrow, Kerry isn't sure how the regular camp will procede.  Stay tuned to this same Belfry channel to find out the answer to this and other questions.

As for the weather in Sarasota, Kerry said it was "fine."  When asked for specifics (for those of us trapped in snowy winter weather), he said it was in the low 70's, breezy in the morning but calmer in the afternoon, and partly cloudy.  All in all, it sounds like perfect baseball weather. 

Craig's Stats:

Kerry's Stats:

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