Morning meeting, evaluation & drills

I got a good six hours of sleep last night. First day of practice did leave me sore but I woke up feeling good. We jumped on the bus at 6:30am and headed to the clubhouse. A nice breakfast of eggs, sausage, a banana and some juice. Then I sat down at my locker and put on my uniform. Today was evaluation drills and we wore our white home jerseys for the first time. Every morning at 8:45 we had a meeting in the tent led by John Stearns. Here he explained what the day's events would consist of. At 9am we headed out to the fields for warm-ups with the Met's conditioning coaches. 120 guys and gals dressed in Mets pinstripes jogging to the fence and back, stretching, playing catch and getting ready for the day of drills.

Stretching my old body was not easy

We split into four groups for outfield drills, pitching/catching drills, a talk about hitting, and infield drills. Afterwards some more on-field batting practice in the cages. For the outfield drills they split our group up into right, left, and center field. Of course being the Willie Mays fan I am, I ran out to center field. They used a pitching machine to shoot us fly balls and it is not very accurate. The first one I took was way short and as I ran in to get it, the ball hit me in the right wrist and gave me a 50 cent piece sized welt. Nice start to the day. I did better when the other flyballs were a little more catchable. I had gotten my annual haircut in the weeks before camp. My hat size changes with the amount of hair hanging down. When filling out the camp forms I listed my hat size as 7-5/8 which is great when my hair is long. But with my shortened hair my hat size is 7-3/8. This made my hat a little too loose on my head. Willie Mays used to wear a hat size too big so that when he ran in the outfield or on the base paths, his hat would fly off giving the illusion of running out from under it. For me, when my hat came off chasing fly balls, I just looked inept.

This was the non catch that bruised my right wrist

Our group then went to the pitching/catching station of ten pitching mounds all lined up side by side. I just stood back and stayed out of the way. I did not want to pitch. I did not want to be a catcher. Valiant efforts were given by those campers whose fantasy was to be Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, or Matt Harvey. Many did well throwing strikes, others well, it was their fantasy to pitch. I just observed their efforts while standing about ten feet from one of my favorite all time Mets players, Dwight Gooden. I did not talk to him but hope to some time during the week.

From there our group got hitting instruction from Todd Pratt, Ryan Ellis, Duffy Dyer, and all time pinch hits leader Lenny Harris. Lenny briefly talked about Todd's playoff game winning walk-off HR against the Diamondbacks. He was playing third base for Arizona at the time. I got a chance at the welcome dinner to tell Todd about my coming home for lunch and seeing his walk off Home Run.

Todd talked about confidence while hitting and the other pros agreed with his assessment. I had a little confidence from my two hitting sessions with Chris back in Modesto but I still did not know how I would do with live pitching. I was still just hoping to make contact and not go O'fer Camp.

Next our group went over to the infield drills. I took up position at first base with a few others. We rotated around the infield taking grounders and turning double plays at each position. Afterwards we all got another chance to swing the bat. When my turn came up, former shortstop Doug Flynn was pitching. I took about ten swings, hitting two decent flies to left field. I heard my friend and locker neighbor Phil yell from shortstop "Nice one Skid". He has been very encouraging and we are having a ball at camp and we haven't even played a game yet. On the last pitch I tried to load up like Chris Butterfield had coached me and I fouled it off. Doug Flynn smiled and said "That was one to hit" and I had missed it.

I can't hit everything

Unfortunately the sky was getting dark and looked like rain. We went into the clubhouse and out to the meeting tent for a great chicken lunch. Then the rain started coming down. This was not good because it was not a typical fifteen minute shower and then sunshine like I see on TV. It looked like it was here to stay.

Coaches draft [in private]

While we finished lunch the coaches did their team draft in private. We could hear them in there laughing and being loud at times. Meanwhile it was still raining. When the pros finally came out, they posted their draft lists by their lockers. I was drafted by Mackey Sasser and Bobby Wine. Bobby was sitting at his locker while I was reading the list above him and he says: "We drafted Kenny Rogers!" Not that I had not heard that before. I had made a half dozen or so friends so far in camp but none of them were drafted to my team. I didn't mind too much as that is what camp is all about, meeting others that share the passion of being a New York Mets fan.

Since it was still raining, I went around the locker room to meet some of my new teammates. We were supposed to have about an hour or so practice, then play game one. Because of the rain, John Stearns yelled out "Get out there and get game one in now". Only problem was it was starting to rain more and the wonderfully manicured fields were getting soaked. I walked out to my assigned field in the rain, following Todd Pratt. Only he and I made it to the dugout as the rain got heavier and everyone else stayed in the clubhouse. We retreated to join them. After about an hour, the game was called. Some campers took extra batting practice in the cages and others went back to the hotel. Bummer. The veteran campers said that they have only had one day washed out before. So the decision was made to play THREE games tomorrow. Oh boy! That's if it doesn't rain. We will have back to back 6 inning games then a 7 inning game after lunch. Depending on the weather.

Evening dinner with my team

I almost did not go to this as I wanted to rest and update this site. I changed my mind and I'm glad I did. Nearly all of our team went to a Japanese restaurant, I had never been to one before where they cook your food right in front of you. It was a great meal, I had a steak and shrimp. Coach Bobby Wine and his wife Fran joined us campers for dinner. Bobby played for the Phillies and Expos from 1960 to 1972. He started telling stories about Rusty Staub and Richie Allen. When he asked where we were all from and I told him Modesto CA, he said he played there in 1958 while playing for Bakersfield in the California League. I read on Wikipedia that Bobby once pulled a hidden ball trick on Willie Mays! I got to have him tell me the story behind that. What a great evening with Bobby and Fran and my new teammates. I got to know everyone on the team a bit more and was feeling comfortable around these guys.