jd_aka_monty
02-06-2007, 11:37 AM
You never know how long a trip really is until you take it alone. I drove out Thursday evening alone, and man did it seem like a long trip. I stayed around home long enough to watch Gavin’s (my son) basketball game, get something to eat, and headed out around 9:15 PM. I arrived at the hotel around 1:00 AM Arizona time, then stood outside for about 20 minutes ringing the bell in hopes that someone was still around to help me. An older woman finally appeared with a cast on her arm from a surgery she had two days before and was called into work because of some troubles. She was on some pretty strong pain pills and looked like she was struggling to stay on her feet. But, she took care of me and got me all setup in a room.
Now, here comes the strange or even funny part. The slip she pulled out for the room she was assigning me had Tomio Mack’s name on it, one of the players I sent out to the AWL, whom I have known since he was in High School (he just graduated from Whittier College). She crossed out his name and put my name, I asked, “Am I rooming with Tomio?” She of course gave me a prescription drug induced look of curiosity, she then said, “no, he has been moved to another room”. So, I took my key got my stuff and went to my room. It was strange, as I approached the room I noticed the window was open and the light was still on. But, I kept on. I put my key in the door and open it up, behold there is Tomio snuggled up just snoring away. He heard me enter the room and jumped up all startled, checked the time and then rubbed his eyes. I tried to explain the situation to him, as he was half asleep. Boy was he not a happy camper. I told him he could just go back to sleep and worry about things the next day, but I guess being woken up so rudely and then being lit with a bit of frustration, just wouldn’t allow that to happen, understandably. So, he took ½ of his things and left.
By this point, I was wiped out and just wanted to sleep. I hit the pillow and was out, not waking up until mid-morning, around 10:30 AM. Woke up, got cleaned up, went over to get a quick bite to eat and gave a couple of players a ride to the field. Once at the field, changed and went out to work with some players. Here we are, a little over half over and nothing has changed. Everyone is still working hard, giving it everything they have to win a job, and the coaches are still mentoring like it was the first day. It was great to see Garry Templeton, Les Lancaster, and Ozzie Virgil offering their time so freely to any player who wanted to take advantage of their expertise.
Game time came quick again on Friday. Garry allowed me to start and catch the whole game. I was there to give Tomio a rest behind the dish. He has been baring the majority of the work; the other catcher (Sutherland) had been having some back problems. Solano, a borrowed pitcher from Yuma, was to get the start. I was a little excited about this, since I had caught him the first weekend when I had played for Yuma; I knew that he has good stuff. We worked well together that evening, staying in sync; he hit his spots, and was able to keep the Falcon hitters off balance.
After the game, went back to the hotel room, called home and then talked to Kevin Spalding, who has strained something in his plant (left) leg. He came by the room; we sat and talked about baseball until about 12:00 AM. Hey, isn’t there some kind of curfew? If not, dang-it, there should be!
The next day the game couldn’t come quick enough. I was jazzed; Steve Smythe, Brent Porciau, and Joe Safkin were all supposed to be coming out to help out with the pitching duties. But, Joe could not make it; he was having some pretty severe car troubles. But, this night, Roberto Hernandez was the starting pitcher, we have worked together many times over the years in adult ball locally and I’ve known his family for many years (great people). This night his family was coming in to watch him play. He held Yuma scoreless through 2 innings and his breaking stuff was great. He hit just about every spot I called and it was fun catching him. He gave way in the 3rd to Steve Smythe, a good friend from the Dawgs, who has pitched in the show for the Cubs. He is usually electric and incredible to catch. Unfortunately, he was a little off this evening, mostly because he has had the last two weeks off not picking up a baseball at all. Yuma picked up 9 runs on 6 hits and 6 errors; it was not a fun experience for anyone. But, a bright spot was Brent Porciau came in the game relieving Smythe and worked very well. He worked 2 scoreless innings giving up just 1 hit, 2 base on balls, and a strikeout.
All in all, it was a great weekend of baseball. The weather was incredible and the crowds seemed to be a bit bigger. It was great to see some of the families that I knew, coming out to support their sons playing ball and trying to win a job. I wish them all the best of luck and I look forward to one more solid weekend of AWL Baseball.
Are you coming out Yuma to take in some great baseball, meet a great bunch of guys, and spend a little bit of time around the all-time greats of the game? It may be the last weekend, but there’s still plenty of time to make some plans.
See you there! :mrgreen:
Monty
Now, here comes the strange or even funny part. The slip she pulled out for the room she was assigning me had Tomio Mack’s name on it, one of the players I sent out to the AWL, whom I have known since he was in High School (he just graduated from Whittier College). She crossed out his name and put my name, I asked, “Am I rooming with Tomio?” She of course gave me a prescription drug induced look of curiosity, she then said, “no, he has been moved to another room”. So, I took my key got my stuff and went to my room. It was strange, as I approached the room I noticed the window was open and the light was still on. But, I kept on. I put my key in the door and open it up, behold there is Tomio snuggled up just snoring away. He heard me enter the room and jumped up all startled, checked the time and then rubbed his eyes. I tried to explain the situation to him, as he was half asleep. Boy was he not a happy camper. I told him he could just go back to sleep and worry about things the next day, but I guess being woken up so rudely and then being lit with a bit of frustration, just wouldn’t allow that to happen, understandably. So, he took ½ of his things and left.
By this point, I was wiped out and just wanted to sleep. I hit the pillow and was out, not waking up until mid-morning, around 10:30 AM. Woke up, got cleaned up, went over to get a quick bite to eat and gave a couple of players a ride to the field. Once at the field, changed and went out to work with some players. Here we are, a little over half over and nothing has changed. Everyone is still working hard, giving it everything they have to win a job, and the coaches are still mentoring like it was the first day. It was great to see Garry Templeton, Les Lancaster, and Ozzie Virgil offering their time so freely to any player who wanted to take advantage of their expertise.
Game time came quick again on Friday. Garry allowed me to start and catch the whole game. I was there to give Tomio a rest behind the dish. He has been baring the majority of the work; the other catcher (Sutherland) had been having some back problems. Solano, a borrowed pitcher from Yuma, was to get the start. I was a little excited about this, since I had caught him the first weekend when I had played for Yuma; I knew that he has good stuff. We worked well together that evening, staying in sync; he hit his spots, and was able to keep the Falcon hitters off balance.
After the game, went back to the hotel room, called home and then talked to Kevin Spalding, who has strained something in his plant (left) leg. He came by the room; we sat and talked about baseball until about 12:00 AM. Hey, isn’t there some kind of curfew? If not, dang-it, there should be!
The next day the game couldn’t come quick enough. I was jazzed; Steve Smythe, Brent Porciau, and Joe Safkin were all supposed to be coming out to help out with the pitching duties. But, Joe could not make it; he was having some pretty severe car troubles. But, this night, Roberto Hernandez was the starting pitcher, we have worked together many times over the years in adult ball locally and I’ve known his family for many years (great people). This night his family was coming in to watch him play. He held Yuma scoreless through 2 innings and his breaking stuff was great. He hit just about every spot I called and it was fun catching him. He gave way in the 3rd to Steve Smythe, a good friend from the Dawgs, who has pitched in the show for the Cubs. He is usually electric and incredible to catch. Unfortunately, he was a little off this evening, mostly because he has had the last two weeks off not picking up a baseball at all. Yuma picked up 9 runs on 6 hits and 6 errors; it was not a fun experience for anyone. But, a bright spot was Brent Porciau came in the game relieving Smythe and worked very well. He worked 2 scoreless innings giving up just 1 hit, 2 base on balls, and a strikeout.
All in all, it was a great weekend of baseball. The weather was incredible and the crowds seemed to be a bit bigger. It was great to see some of the families that I knew, coming out to support their sons playing ball and trying to win a job. I wish them all the best of luck and I look forward to one more solid weekend of AWL Baseball.
Are you coming out Yuma to take in some great baseball, meet a great bunch of guys, and spend a little bit of time around the all-time greats of the game? It may be the last weekend, but there’s still plenty of time to make some plans.
See you there! :mrgreen:
Monty