Tuesday, January 29
Kerry was awarded a Gold Rope at the morning meeting today for yesterday's offensive prowess-- three times on base with three runs scored. During camp, at the beginning of the day during the morning meeting, each manager awards gold ropes to players who have had a particularly good game. For those players who have performed badly, a Brown Rope is given. This mimicks the Kangaroo Courts that most major league teams have. (They do try to give campers the full big-league experience.)
One note about the games they play. Games played against divisional opponents are considered more important than those against non-divisional opponents. In the event of a tie, these are used as the tie-breaker. So if a team has a choice, they will opt to beat a divisional opponent and lose to a non-divisional opponent. This plays out in terms of the pitching schedule. Today, Diamond's Jim's played Rocky Johnson's team in the first game and they are a non-divisional opponent. In the afternoon game, they were playing Andy Etchebarren's team which was a divisional opponent. Since Kerry is the second-best pitcher on Gentile's team, he was slated to start game two. This put him at third in the first game.
They lost the first game 9-4, using four or five pitchers (he said he lost count). He said the game itself was ridiculous because they couldn't find a pitcher who could get the ball over the plate. They had a great defensive team on the field but their pitchers gave up 15 walks and hit two batters. Since there's no way to defend against walks or hit batsmen, they wound up on the negative side of the score. They took the lead in the top of the first, 3-0, but promptly gave up five runs in the bottom of the inning and it went downhill from there. They faced a guy who used to be one of the best pitchers in camp history but he's been absent the past three years because he's had three rotator cuff operations. Kerry said he didn't pitch well in the veteran's tournament and they were expecting a similar performance in this game. In his first AB, Kerry ripped a double to left and scored. But after the first inning the guy settled down and actually got stronger as the game went on. One veteran camper commented that he was "pitching like he used to." In his second AB, Kerry fouled off the first pitch, the pitcher then snapped off the biggest side-to-side breaking ball Kerry said he's ever seen. The pitch started behind his knees and wound up over the middle of the plate for a strike. Kerry fouled off the next two pitches and then struck out on a high fastball. This ticked him off because he never strikes out and he admitted that it's a point of pride to him that he doesn't strike out. In his third AB, he took a pitch on the tricept but was stranded at first. This guy ultimately struck out between 8-10 batters for the game. Fortunately, they won't face him again. One of the long-time campers is going to talk to someone about this because there used to be a rule that a person can't pitch if they hit more than two batters during camp so they're going to try to get the rule enforced before anybody else is hurt.
Game Two resulted in another injury but they won the game, 4-1. This puts his team at 2-1 in the tournament and 2-0 in divisional play. Kerry pitched three innings and was removed because Gentile thought he was getting tired. Kerry said it was more a matter of getting disgusted with the umpire who, he thought, was squeezing him in the strike zone. He gave up one run in the first, struck out two, walked three, and allowed three hits. They brought in their SS to pitch the remaining three innings and Kerry moved to short where he helped turn a 1-6-3 double play and almost turned a 6-4-3 double play except the ball took a bad hop and they could only get the lead runner. At the plate, he grounded out to short on a close play in his first AB and flied out to left in his second AB. He was hit by a pitch in his last AB. This is noteworthy because the pitcher was a rookie who hit four batters in Monday's game and had hit the batter ahead of Kerry in the order. In Kerry's AB, he fouled off the first pitch so hard that Jim Spencer, the base coach, had to skip rope to avoid it. The second and third pitches were way over Kerry's head and the fourth pitch hit about three feet in front of the plate and bounced up and hit him in his right knee. Kerry dropped like a shot but waived off the trainer and went down to first where he was stranded. He spoke to the orthopedic surgeon, who was playing for Etchebarren's team and this guy told him the swelling was normal and that he'd be stiff. Kerry plans to talk to him and the trainers tomorrow before deciding whether or not to play tomorrow. Since this is the knee without the ACL, he's concerned about compensating for the bruise and doing serious damage to the knee. But he did note that it wasn't huring tonight. Of course, he's also been icing it like crazy and staying off the leg as ordered by the orthopedist.
Kerry also noted that injuries are becoming a problem for his team. One guy pulled a quad in today's action and another guy jammed his foot. They're starting to run out of people. I told him he could be the "Cal Ripken of fantasy camp" but he said he wouldn't play if there is a question about it. So we'll just have to wait to see what the story is tomorrow. On the good news front, the pad that the trainers gave him for his injured left knee really did the trick today. While he didn't have to slide, he did dive for a couple of balls in the field. The bandage itself slipped but the pad stayed in place and the raspberry on his knee didn't open up.
Kerry had some comments about Jim Palmer. He said that as long as he's been reading stories about Palmer, he's heard that Palmer is considered to be aloof. But Kerry hasn't seen that. Instead, he's noticed that Palmer goes out of his way to engage others, volunteering pitching advice to some of the pitchers in camp. And today, Palmer played a game of pepper with one of the camper's kids for a long time despite the heat and humidity. He said this kid had Palmer running all over the place and Palmer seemed to be enjoying himself. He also noted that Palmer is in remarkable shape. Despite the fact that Palmer is now 56 yrs. old, he looks like he's in his early 40's.
Kerry also related a story that Jim Gentile shared. Gentile commented that there comes a time in every major leaguers life when they know their days are numbered. For Gentile, he had a breakout year in 1961 that really put his name on the map. This has been forgotten because of Maris and Mantle's HR chase that season, but this was Gentile's best year. He was productive for the Orioles the next two years but not as productive. In 1963, the Orioles brought Boog Powell to camp. At the time, Boog was quite young and 6'5", 220 lbs. (he's now 320 lbs). The Orioles wanted both Boog and Gentile in the lineup so they put Boog in left while knowing he wouldn't play left forever. One day during the season, prior to a game against the Senators, Gentile came down with the flu. The Orioles sent him home so the rest of the team wouldn't catch it. The game was on TV so Gentile watched it. Boog played first and hit a HR in his first AB. Gentile commented, "good job, Boog." In Boog's second AB, he hit another HR and Gentile said, "That's enough." When Boog hit yet another HR in his third AB, Gentile told his wife, "Better start packing. I'm not going to be here much longer." And sure enough, the Orioles traded him to Kansas City the end of the season.
One other story... Last night, while waiting in the hotel bar for the karaoke session to get underway, Kerry was talking to a few of the guys and Wayne Gross came over and told him, "You played a hell of a shortstop today. Don't take it the wrong way, but I didn't think you had it in you." I asked Kerry why he said that and he said he thinks it's because of how small he is. But Kerry commented that while he's never gotten to know Wayne Gross he's always come across as a really good guy. The fact that he went out of his way to go over to Kerry while they were off the field spoke volumes to Kerry. He also mentioned that Gross was the only non-camper besides Steve Freeman to actually participate in the karaoke session. He said Gross had a pretty good voice too. I asked what Gross is doing these days and he said he's working as a carpenter.