fantasy baseball camp

Ten years ago I won a week at a fantasy camp. Picked the Cubs…I’ve been to Florida! Hanging out and developing relationships with the other campers was fun, but a good chunk of them were losers. Two of the campers worked in radio and took advantage of interview opportunities. Mike North was a character…his baseball card pose was a goof. They screwed up and put his pic on my card.

It was nice to be young enough (35) to run and actually play…they had to put older, less mobile guys at places like first-base. As a lefty, I didn’t mind playing outfield…Jimmy Piersall complimented a great running catch I made.

Spending time with the ex-players was also interesting. I had read about the antics of Moe Drabowsky, and it made my week to be on his ‘team’. Chain-smoker Glenn Beckert also went out of his way to get to know campers, as did an amiable ex-catcher whose name escapes me. Ron Santo, pre-amputations, had to leave camp early, so he sat down in the locker room and spun many tales before his exit. Randy Huntley ran his camp and did a great job, but was more business than pleasure. Joe Pepitone played to his image…still wore a wig and one day had a hangover. Told good stories. I had never heard of Larry Bittner, who homered in the big camper-player game. Bert Campaneris showed up for the big game, sporting an Angels uniform.

Jose Cardinal lockered next to me, and was the brunt of the other ex-player’s ethnic slurs, which Jose took in stride. Told me to look him up when he came to town with the Cardinals, who he was with at the time. I did…even wore my Cubs jersey to the Braves game, so he’d recognize me, but at the time he was more interested in making time with some ladies in the pre-game crowd.

The death of “Blue”, the old man character in the Old School movie, reminds me of Charlie, the 90-something year-old fantasy camper who actually left his old-folk’s home to come to camp. Wore his uniform with some old brown slip-on loafers. Too old to even put balls into the pitching machine (they were scared of line-drives back up the middle), he still took a few turns at the plate (got hit on the hands). We all took Charlie under our wing, but I couldn’t resist swapping my buddy’s jersey with Charlie’s. Charlie came in early and dutifully donned my buddy’s jersey…after all, it was in his locker. Then my buddy came in and discovered the ruse.

Here’s the web site for Joe McDaniel’s book on Willingham High…Noticed in the Sunday AJC that this was editor Jim Wooten’s favorite book. http://www.31206.org/default.aspx

I’m tired after staying up to watch the end of those last three bowl games. They sure missed Young’s knee hit the ground before he pitched the ball, but they probably would’ve scored anyway (but they might’ve lost a fumble or interception…ya never know!). And had they ruled that freshman’s “drop” as a fumble (the USC defender knocked the ball out), that would’ve taken away a field goal. But USC squandered a couple of opportunities, and they couldn’t stop Young. If they knew he was best at running to his right, it seems like they would’ve defensed that better. Young ran around that number 90 on three TD runs. It looked like 90 was supposed to contain, but was juked inside. Jim Volyes will be crushed.

There are a lot of decent writers out there! I gave that FoxSports.com next great sportswriter contest a go. You create a blog and post articles, but to be picked, they can’t be simple blogs, but well-written, thought-provoking opinion pieces…much harder than I expected. The site is well organized in that you place your post under the category it was written about…MLB, NFL, NHL, etc. This way readers are more likely to read and respond to your post. That’s how I stumbled across that guy who ranked Schuerholz as the #1 MLB GM.

I tossed a few columns out there, mostly related to my world…Braves, Hawks, GT, UGA, Clemson. Got a few comments, and one posting actually made it to the ‘most popular’ list, based on the number of comments generated. Theoretically you could post something, then add a bunch of comments yourself. The postings with juicy and sexy titles, and of national interest, tended to get more comments. Supposedly not a popularity contest, but being able to generate readership surely figured in. You’d think Fox would be looking to pick a youthful viewpoint, and my comments always come out sounding old school (though one of the most popular bloggers was past fifty…sleeplessinseattle).

So I stayed up late writing the last two weeks of December, getting into the habit of checking other’s blogs. The in-laws didn’t mind me hanging out on the computer for much of the weekend. They picked the final 12 or 16 on the 30th, and there were few surprises. The finalists had great opinions and content, and also posted a lot of material…and most were active at commenting on other’s postings. Some were better at adding photos, and some hinted at writing in other venues. The judges said that some point in the future there’ll be a second, similar contest.

Lately I’ve been busy catching up, going through all the accumulated mail and other stuff that piled up over the holidays. After two days I still have piles of stuff to do.