Monday, February 4, 2013

Final recap

I have had a couple of days to reflect on my week, and it was a great week. Team Waner came together when it counted and played very good baseball. It was a real fun time even though I could not seem to get much going either at the plate or in the field.

Let me give a quick shout out to the members of Team Waner. Thanks to Richie Hebner and Bob Walk (our pro staff), Scott May (staff assistant), Dick Davis (Bradenton Booster), and fellow players Paul, Ty, Matt, Jerry, Jack, Nick, Mark, Laurie, Marty, John, and Julie. Everyone gave it their all and I hope that the team can reunite more or less intact for the reunion game coming up on June.

Here were my final batting statistics for the week:

8 games played
.524 batting average
11 hits in 21 at-bats
3 runs scored
1 double
9 runs batted in
2 walks
4 strikeouts (ouch!)
3 hit by pitch

And some additional statistics:
26 plate appearances
.571 slugging percentage (12 total bases in 21 at-bats)
.615 on base percentage (16 times on base in 26 plate appearances)
1.187 OPS

I'll be signing off for a while to try to recover from my myriad of injuries, unless something really important happens. Go Bucs!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Day 6 and travel day

It was nice to play the second pro staff game of the day for a change instead of the eighth game of the day as I did in my first two camps, it left most of the day free. We didn't expect to do very well against the pros, and as it turns out that was exactly what happened. I played a couple of innings in the outfield and unfortunately dropped a fly ball hit by Omar Moreno, and at bat, I face Zane Smith who was really dealing. As per usual for this camp, I had the hardest hit ball of our game against Zane, but it was right back at him, and he flagged it down and threw me out at first.

Getaway day was pretty uneventful, and as I close out the narrative part of the blog for this year's camp, I am back amidst the snowy plains of Ohio.

I will post some camp summaries after I get a chance to recover a bit.

Day 5

I was not sure what to expect heading into my first playoff game in 3 Fantasy Camp tries. Would we fall behind early and come back late as per usual in all our wins, or would be not sharp in the field or at bat and get drilled?

As it turns out, the answer is neither. Our morning playoff game was against the other division's first place Team Clemente (5 wins and 1 loss) on field 1, the team that we had lost to on Tuesday. The game was a well played game this time, as we opened up a 6 to 2 lead in the first half of the game and closed them out in the last half of the game to win by a score of 6 to 4 to advance to the Championship Game. At the plate, I had a single with 1 RBI, a ground out with 1 RBI, and another ground out. In the field, I played 4 innings in right field with no chances.

So in the afternoon, the Championship Game pitted Team Waner vs. Team Cuyler managed by Steve Blass and Bill Mazeroski. Unfortunately, our overachieving team fell short to a team with vastly superior talent, and lost by a final score of 11 to 4. At the plate, I had a single, a hit by pitch, and a strikeout, and in the field, I played 3 innings in right field with one running catch. For our final defensive inning, they put me in left field, but I did not make it through the inning, as I injured my finger trying to make a catch and had to leave the game.

Friday is the game versus the pro staff, which only lasts 3 innings. Which is good because I am not sure how much more my body can take.