The temps moved into the low 80s for the afternoon game with the winds blowing over 20 mph and the quads began to tighten up after the morning. We were paired up against the other division leaders with a record of 4 wins and a loss coached by former pitcher Zane Smith and catcher Manny Sanguillen. Sanguillen is a funny guy who still struggles with his broken English. This morning in the recognition awards he wanted to honor one of his players who went “5 for 4” on Tuesday. Steve Blass had some fun with that one.
We fell behind early and tried to come off the mat only to lose 9-5 and even our once perfect record of Tuesday morning at 3-3. Zane Smith, who was here three years ago during my last visit, coached first and is a delightful guy. Smith, 51, won 100 big league games, is retired and living in Atlanta. A good portion of our conversation centered around the weather moving through the southeast today. Zane also has recently resurrected the Atlanta Braves fantasy camp and just finishing its second year had about 70 campers.
As a team we have become flat and uninspired the same as my day at the plate today. Perhaps the worst camp day in four years with a 1 for 6 and a RBI. I’d love to blame the day on TheBat or even instructor Jarrod Patterson but the truth is after seeing nothing but heat yesterday from a former Division 1 college pitcher, today seemed more like a slow pitch softball game and I just couldn’t get in the groove. No excuses. Except I’m old. I will take a lesson from my wife’s book here. On the rare occasion she has a bad day on the tennis court Andi will come home and tell me “I don’t think I jeopardized my shoe contract.” Amen dear.
The good news is TheGlove continues to do its job game in and game out.~
