Nice weather to close out 2010

Extra special thanks to John, one of my co-workers, for going out with me for a while today to play catch.  The good news is that my arm still works. The bad news is that I do not know how I am going to be able to play for 6 days in a row.

Hopefully John and I can go out again tomorrow if the rain holds off, and then the temperatures unfortunately are going to go back to the bitterly cold marks that we have been having this winter.

22 days to go...

Oh what a relief it is

Well, I am glad to say that I was able to get through the CAHL Wednesday C East hockey season without injury.  Brad from Applied Performance Technologies called me to ask me if I would fill in for their regular goaltender who was out with an injury, so I covered for him for a couple of months. Despite my declining skills, the team managed to win the league championship with a tight 4 to 3 victory over the Eagles.

The winning team got CAHL sweatshirts, which are actually the nicest CAHL championship gift I have yet received.

30 days to go...

Yellow balls appear to move much faster when they are dirty

Just another day at the batting cage.  I spent the whole session in the fast cage, and made decent contact.  As the post title says, sometimes it is harder to pick up the dirtier balls coming out of the machine, but all in all a good time at the Big League Baseball School.

The only problem for the day was that I have to cross over railroad tracks on Worthington-Galena road heading to and from Big League Baseball School, and as luck would have it, I hit a train each time.  The first train had only 40 cars, but the return trip train had over 100 cars.

36 days to go...

Fantasy Camp meeting

The 2011 Fantasy Camp get together was held today at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, and I drove over in the morning for the meeting. I should have known right away that the day would not go super smoothly, as there was some kind of race going on there at around the same time as I was arriving, so there was much traffic and pedestrians.

But at least the meeting and batting practice session went pretty well. Teke and Steve Blass were very amusing, and Joe was very friendly and informative. (I forgot to ask Steve if we could pre-pay our fines.) I guess that for some reason, we were only able to use two cages for the whole group instead of four, which meant that there were a lot of people waiting to use only two cages. As a result, I kind of fought my way to the front of the queue so that I could get in my cuts and take off, since I had a reasonably long drive to get back home.

And then, of course, when I was leaving there was a tremendous line in the line waiting to pay for their garage parking tickets. And then, after getting through that line, there was some kind of snafu with the two exits for the garage. And then, the road construction on I-79 is always messed up hugely.

43 days to go...

Awesome day

Today was an awesome day for me.  For starters, in the morning I went over to Big League Baseball School here in Worthington and made some good contact, and my arm didn't even hurt after the session.

Then, I went over to the Columbus Veteran's Memorial for a sports card show in the afternoon and picked up some vintage Pirates baseball cards that I can hopefully get signed at the Fantasy Camp.

And for the hat  trick, the Penguins were playing at Nationwide Arena, and I was expecting to see a big rebound for the Jackets as they put away the Penguins.

Oops.  I guess my day came to a bit of a thud at the end.  49 days to go...

Maybe I need Sammy Khalifa's bat

I went over to the Big League Baseball School again this evening because I was unable to go over the weekend on account of being out of town visiting the folks. I did a shorter workout this time than last, but my arm was still a bit sore after the session of half medium and half fast. I wouldn't think that a 33 inch, 30 ounce aluminum bat should be causing any problems, but maybe it is because I am swinging too hard to make contact.

In about 2 weeks we have the get together at PNC Park, I will have to ask Joe to see how hard the pitchers will be throwing at the camp.  Maybe I am doing all this work for nothing.

54 days to go...

More contact

I went over to the batting cages at Big League Baseball School again today, and spent about half of my time in the medium speed cage and half of my time in the fast cage.  I was a bit sore after the session, but I did make good contact almost every time.  There is a get together session at PNC Park for the fantasy campers coming up here in early December, it should be interesting to see how well I do in their cage.

62 days to go...

Preliminary itinerary

Well, I went to the batting cages again today at the Big League Baseball School here in Worthington, and I must say that the swing is coming together quite well.  I just hope that they do not throw any curve balls.  In the words of the immortal Pedro Cerrano, straight ball I hit very well.

Also, I received the preliminary itinerary from Joe Billetdeaux of the Pirates. Somehow I have to improve my throwing before the camp, as I don't think they have any openings for DHs.

70 days to go...

Fast is fast

So I went back to Big League Baseball School today to get in some more cage time. Luckily, there were lots fewer people there than yesterday, so I was able to get right into the medium speed cage and did pretty well. Just for kicks, with my last token, I went into the fast cage, and believe it or not, actually made some good contact with a few of the pitches.  Will wonders never cease?

76 days to go...

Family day at the batting cages

So I went over to the Big League Baseball School to work on my hitting, and unfortunately go there at the same time as a huge group of youngsters. They had turned down the speed of the medium cage to slow for the younguns, and as a result I cut the session short due to boredom. It is a good thing that my buddy Chad took me to the medium speed cage in Dayton a few weeks ago, it showed me that I can actually catch up to mediumly fast pitches. I will try again tomorrow.

77 days remaining...

Finally

Well, the wife has graciously agreed to send me to the Pittsburgh Pirates Fantasy Camp in January of 2011. This will be the 40th anniversary of the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates team that won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles.

In preparation, I found a Cooper glove on eBay that is similar to one I had as a young man, and bought some used cleats and an aluminum baseball bat.

Also, a former co-worker of mine that played minor league baseball has offered to help me get ready so that I might not be too embarrassed. I went over to Dayton to work with him for a little while, and it is clear that my throwing, fielding, and hitting need lots of work.

But I predict it is going to be an awesome week of baseball and camaraderie in Bradenton. Only 86 days to go...