Day 5 Thursday

Some were out late Wednesday but I went in early.

The morning routine is ride to the clubhouse and eat breakfast (cereal and fruit).  The equipment team has washed all your stuff over night and hung it back in your locker.  You go to your locker and get dressed for the 8:30 meeting. You douse yourself with SP45 and head out to the fields.

In our morning game, pitched by the coaches to speed things up, we beat Johnstone's Jets 9-5.  Manager John Johnstone is an outfielder who played for various teams over a 20 year career.  My buddy Roy Kaplan from Suffolk, VA, a 5 time camper, played on the Jets.  He had an injury that didn't slow him down much but sure looked like it should have. Victor Lee from Brockton, MA was also on Roy's team.  Victor is 50 plus, has sight in only one eye and 4 stints in his heart.  Victor collected his first hit, a shot to the right center gap.  Johnstone was brutal in the exhortation of his players when they were behind and not hitting well. "Swing the [flying] bat! You swing like a [girl]!" I went 1 for 3 against UL and Gale.  The reason we had coach pitch in the morning insead of the afternoon was to speed up the games to make time for Carl Yastrzemski's appearance.  He sat behind a table and signed 2 items each.  Yaz was my childhood hero.  And from the number of campers who chose 8 as their uniform number, I imagine he was popular with a lot of us.  Yaz did not engage with us campers as Dewy did.  His line breezed along as people got their signatures.  The best item I saw signed was a 1967 cover of LIFE magazine with Yaz on the cover (Haber).  Yaz put on a brief hitting clinic after the signings.  It was so brief, I missed it.  They said he told us to be relaxed.  One of the pros said, "yeah, that stance he used with his arms stretched way up sure looked relaxed."  We chuckled at that one.  I got a PONY baseball signed (I coached in that league 12 years).  My ball probably won't be worth much on the open market but that's not where it is going!

In the afternoon game we lost to Monty's Mavericks 19-8.  This is where I got my pitching debut and swan song all in the same game.  When I came in, we were down 13-6 due to some errors.  I hit three guys and walked a ton.  The players were gracious about it but everyone on the field was frustrated, especially me.  When I looked to Rich Gale for relief, he came out to settle me down. "Are you hurt?" "No, that's the problem; I have no excuse,"  I replied.  He said, "Then just throw it to the catcher.  I've seen you throw.  You're accurate and have plenty of arm.  Don't aim it; just throw it.  You're fine.  Now finish it up."  I did and when the dust settled, we lost 19-8.  After the game I thanked the umpire for his patience.  He kind of grumbled.  Tim Cyr from Brighton Mass said he'd never heard that one before.  The loss left us with a 2-5 record as we headed to the clubhouse for the daily hot dogs and beer.