Day 6 Friday Prior to Championship

After the cigar bar, some of the campers went out to additional pursuits.  I chose not to go and most of them returned early.  Some of the Jackals and Gulls went out with 69 year old Reg Godin.  Reg pitched a perfect game in High School and in one season he was the winning pitcher in 9 of their 10 games.  He still can throw that 12 to 6 curve, but he lamented it didn't have the same oomph as it did 50 years ago.  Imagine. Here's Reg sitting with Bob "Monty" Montgomery.  Bob played catcher for the Red Sox from 70 to 79.  Some said he had the "perfect job" as backup to Carlton Fisk.  Monty had a .258 average in 387 games with 23 home runs and 156 RBI.  He was the color commentator for the Red Sox from 82 through 95.  His voice is awesome.  Monty told us that he was surprised to be let go by the Sox.  That year, there were 7 openings for Major League broadcast types.  The front office kept telling him, "don't worry; you're in for the coming season."  So he did not pursue any of the other opportunities.  When the day came that he was told they were not renewing his contract, it was too late to land any of the other jobs.  But he's not bitter; he blames himself for getting complacent and not looking out better for himself.  Monty was a great asset to the camp.  His Mavericks finished 6th overall.

So on Friday, the Gulls played at City of Palms Park against Bill Lee's Lefties.  This is my roommate Paul Best's team.  Again, the coaches pitched.  This allowed me to say that I have caught Bill Lee in a baseball game, as I actually did catch one.  Rich Gale pitched to us.  Although a few of us, including me, got a hit off Rich, we didn't manage any runs against him.  UL Washington, our coach, did "worse", giving up 6 to us.  The Lefties took the game 13-6.  On my second at bat I popped up.  On my third, I barely got the ball out of the box and had to sprint to first.  Here you see the sore quad results of my efforts. I can now see how former players can be hobbled for life.  Almost all the pros had some kind of lingering problems.  Our camper legs were sure beat up after a week.

Friday morning's game marked the end of the regular season and our record was 2-5.  The playoffs worked like this.  There were two divisions, Yaz and Williams, each with 5 teams.  The 1st place finisher of Yaz would play the first place finisher of Williams.  Second would play second and so on.  We finished 4th in the Williams and would play Johnstone's Jets to determine 7th or 8th place overall.  All the runner-up teams would play at 12:30 at the PDC complex and the champion contenders Jackals and Trolls would play at 3pm in front of everyone at the City of Palms Park.

In our consolation game against the Jets, Dale Toce, 30 something cardiologist from Windsor, CT started for the first time and pitched well.  Gale was kicking himself for not starting him sooner.  Adams made a great stab and throw at second.  I went 1 for 2 and played the outfield.  I did hit my first extra bagger, a double to left center.  Fank Malzone's advice had helped.  We won 5-3, making our record 3-5 and finishing 7th of 10 teams over all.  Back at the PDC, I compared notes with Rich Gedman about catching Bill Lee and UL Washington holds court by his locker.  I am actually Rich's younger brother.