Bad Sources, Bad Baseball, and a Bad Comeback

Day 1 is in the books here at the fantasy camp championship series at the Yankee Complex in Tampa, FL.  This blogger needs to fix (update) his previous blog posting of leading off the game.  Sources had told me (and this source was rock solid.....) on Weds I would be my leadoff hitter -- so I tweeted and blogged about it -- then....bam....it didn't happen.  The good part is the first 4 pitches of the game were not even close, so I would have walked and more importantly taken the first pitch (like I thought I would).  The better part is I was hitting 2nd -- so to clear up the previous post.....

10 AM Game - So our game was against one of the Yankees teams (they have 2 of them here) and we were ready to play them tough, we had our ace on the mound, LA, and a bunch of "all-stars" ready to play.  It was probably close to 90 degrees at first pitch and 80% humidity (at least) so it was a hot and sticky one.  We were the home team so we went out in the field first -- my stomach was in knots -- it took me until the 3rd or 4th inning to 'feel better'.  Nerves sometimes get the best of you and in reality -- sometimes nerves are good - so go with it!  LA gets through the first inning without any problems and we go up looking to plate some runs and get a lead -- well the plan worked, a leadoff walk started off our inning and I worked a 2-1 count to lace a line drive to right center - DH (a very good runner) was able to trot around the bases and I checked up at 2B to put us up 1-0 - bam, very exciting - fist pumps ensued at 2nd base.  I later scored and we tacked on another 2 runs to make it 4-0.  LA is cruising along but in the 3rd and 4th innings - the heat and humidity started taking its toll.  LA was laboring out there - I was worried early because the umpire was calling a very small strike zone, so I felt bad for both pitchers having to make a lot more pitches than necessary -- but the small strike zone should be a whole another blog post!  We get to the top of the 6th and the game is still 4-0 - the Yankees pitcher settled in after the 3rd inning and was pitching well - I had two other AB's - ground out to third and pop up to 2nd as he did a nice job of making pitchers' pitches.  LA was more or less gassed at this point and walked a batter, a slow roller base hit, and a HBP got the bases loaded up - a single brought home two runs and that was it for LA -- 4-2, big Will came in to shut the door down on the inning but the Yankees got 2 more runs to tie the game at 4.  In the bottom of 6 we had a 1 out walk and he was doubled off on a very strange call - the umpire said our runner did not "re tag" at 2nd base (he was stealing 2nd, then realized the CF caught it, touched 2nd and turned around and went back to first) -- the Yankees successfully lobbied he rounded 2nd -- he didn't, I was watching him the whole way, but the ump bought the story and we are out of the inning as the Yankees threw the ball to 1st for the 3rd out of the inning.   The 7th inning for the Twins was worse than the 6th, the dust settled and the Yankees got 7 runs -- we went quietly in the bottom half and it was over -- a well pitched game by LA (Yankees ended up only having 4 hits off of him, nothing hard hit) but the heat took its toll (and the small strike zone) and he couldn't get through the 6th inning - we had the game but our hitters couldn't muster anything after the 1st inning either.

Game 2 was against the Mets - we were really disappointed with our game 1 loss, so the idea of going 0-2 was not going to hit our radar.  I was awarded the honor of starting game 2 - we were playing in the "Big Stadium" - George Steinbrenner Field so this was a treat, we were supposed to get our faces on the jumbotron and 'walk up' music for our AB's -- so looking forward to that.
A clean first inning was followed up by both teams scoring 2 runs in the 2nd - so end of 2 we were all tied up at 2-2.  I felt ok on the mound, my legs were a little like jello, but the clouds rolled in and we had a big fan in our dugout to keep me from overheating -- so that was nice.  We couldn't muster any runs in the top of the 3 and we moved to the bottom of the 3 - if I remember I walked the first guy (and maybe the 2nd guy) -- I really struggled with my control in this game, a smallish strike zone (both ways) didn't help - these umpires were calling a "non" fantasy camp type zones -- so that didn't help either -- but the inning was extended a number of times by some very poor defense (which was a big surprise -- one thing I thought this team would excel at was the defense) but runners advanced bases - sprinkle a hit in there - the Mets scored 4 runs after it was all said and done, making the game 6-2.  We scratched a run in the 4th, I started with a hit, and the Mets helped me get to 2nd, 3rd and home via throwing the ball away and finally a wild pitch and I scored to make it 6-3 - I was really 'gassed' after that running and luckily the guys kept the inning going but eventually leaving the bases loaded without any other runs scoring.  We chipped away scoring another run in the 5th inning to make it 6-4 - we decided on a pitching change so Roiger came in (Boomer as we call him, he can wear a Yankee jersey representing David Wells and it works....) - he had warmed up as I ran into a jam in the bottom of the 4th - but I struck out 2 guys to get out of it without giving up any runs so it was time to make a change - Roiger pitched well in the 5th and gave up a scratch run in the 6th -- of course we could not manufacture any runs, so we head to the top of 7th down by three -- 7-4.  McMacken led off the inning by skying a high pop up, but it was in the 'bermuda triangle' right behind the mound, the pitcher called for it but it was just out of his reach and found some green, so we had the leadoff guy on base.  We got a hit and a walk (along with an out) but the bases were loaded and LA came to the plate - LA might be our best overall hitter on the team, he hit a triple earlier in the game - unfortunately he popped out to 2nd and we had 2 outs.  A base hit by Andy scored 2 runs and the Twins are in business - 7-6 now.  A passed ball advanced runners to 2nd and 3rd and Eric ripped a line drive single into RF to score those runners -- BOOM - Twins have the lead 8-7.  We go to the bottom of the 7th and Roiger shut them down -- 1, 2, 3 and the Twins got the win - going 1-1 was not in the plan, but much better than 2-0.

Here are some pictures from Day 1:

Field by George

Jumbotron Johnny - long hair and muscle shirt

I slid into home and dragged my elbow

We play the Red Sox at 10:00am and the Phillies at 1:00 pm -- winning 2 games would get us back on track to be playing under the lights at George Steinbrenner Field on Saturday evening.

The hot tub calls tomorrow morning and the cold tub will be calling post game....

~~ "You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra ~~