Veteran's Tournament, Day 1 (Sat., Jan. 31)

(Written by Meg Goldsmith on behalf of Kerry)

Rain was a concern throughout the first day of the Veteran's Tournament today, and wound up suspending their play in the second game.  Kerry noted that it may end up cancelling play entirely tomorrow because the forecast wasn't good.  At the time I spoke to him, it had been raining steadily for at least seven hours and the weather maps showed rain over the entire state of Florida for the remainder of the night and into tomorrow.

He was drafted to play on Steve Geppe's team.  He noted that Geppe is a minority owner of the Orioles (with approximately 5% stake in the team) and has been a repeat camper over the many years the Fantasy Camp has been in existence.  He also said that because there are so few people in camp, they are only playing 5 inning games rather than the usual six because each team only has ten players on it.  They are hoping to add another player to each of the six teams when the remaining campers show up on Sunday's flight from Baltimore. 

Moving on to the game action, his lack of batting against live pitching reared up in a big way in the first game.  Kerry said he had a hard time reading the ball out of the pitcher's hand, no doubt due to the fact that he hasn't faced living pitching since the reunion game last June.  He's hitting second in the lineup and took the first two strikes, with the second one being "right there" and then foul-tipped the third pitch into the catcher's glove for his first ever strikeout at Fantasy Camp.  In his second at bat, he swung at a bad pitch for strike one, then took a called ball, hit a long foul down the LF line, and then managed to work a walk.  His third AB was pretty interesting.  He was playing against Dave Berson's team (this is davidwb on the message boards) and they were trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth.  The bottom of their lineup was due up.  The other team's closer, a sidearm thrower, had been put into the game but he was struggling with his control so everyone on the team stressed that the batters should take at least one strike.  The first batter walked, the second batter struck out, and the final batter in the order got hit by a pitch.  The leadoff batter came to the plate and walked causing Kerry to come up with the bases loaded.  He took two called balls and the other team then pulled their closer and brought in Dave Berson.  Tough spot-- bases loaded, one out, 2-0 count on Kerry.  Dave threw two more balls to walk in the tying run.  They brought everyone in to protect the plate but the third batter in the order hit a single to center.  Kerry noted that this probably would've been caught had everyone been playing at normal depth but even that wouldn't have mattered because they would not have been able to throw out the runner on third.  So Kerry's team won their first game! 

In the field, he played the first three innings at second, then pitched the fourth inning where he got  all three batters out.  Turns out the first batter Kerry faced was Dave Berson.  He went 0-2 on Dave, then got him to hit a comebacker to the mound for the out.  He struck out the second batter on three pitches, showing him the 2-seam fastball, the 4-seam fastball, and a curve that was off the plate but the batter had to swing at just to protect himself.  Kerry gave a similar sequence to the third batter of the inning with equally good results as the guy popped up between the mound and the plate and Kerry fielded the ball.  He played the fifth inning at short when their shortstop went in to pitch and he fielded a grounder to his right.  He said he was able to get in front of the ball so didn't have to try backhanding the ball, which is something he prefers not to do if he can avoid doing it.

The second game turned into quite a mess.  Kerry's team was the visiting team in this game.  They scored a run in the top of the first and then took the field.  He said the rain was coming down quite steadily and their pitcher ran into trouble because he couldn't get a grip on the slick ball.  Their opponents managed to get three runs across the plate and the rain let up a bit as Kerry's team came to bat.  They didn't score but the rain picked up again as the other team came to the plate.  Their pitcher managed to get a couple of guys out and then ran into the same kinds of problems their first pitcher had.  He allowed three runners to reach base but managed to get out of it.  The umpires conferred and finally called the game.  Kerry said that with only one groundskeeper around, nothing was being done to the field and the pitchers were not taking a full stride because they were concerned about pulling a groin muscle.  They were given tongue depressers to scrape the muddy muck out of their cleats but this only did so much.  He thought the game probably should've been called in the first inning.  The hope is to get this game in early tomorrow morning and then continue with the regular two games scheduled for Sunday.  However, this is weather-permitting.  If that doesn't happen, they'll likely get the games in on Monday and try to play the championship game on Wed. night if they can get permission to turn on the lights to the field.

Off the field, Kerry had a couple of interesting things to relate.  He spoke to someone in a position to know about what was going on regarding the minor league system.  This guy told him that Don Buford never really had a chance to control the minor league operations.  Rather, Syd Thrift was making all the decisions and then informing Buford as to what was to be done and what wasn't to be done.  (Just as all of us thought and as the Post reported late in 2002.)  This guy also told Kerry and a couple of the other campers who were around at the time that the minor league system came a long way last year.  They now have an actual plan that makes sense, instead of a having a plan just for the sake of having a plan. 

The Stat Line--Batting

The Stat Line--Pitching

Previous Reports from 2004 Fantasy Camp:

Fri., Jan. 30 -- Preparing for Camp