Winter Training Ends

Last night completed my semi-rigorous preparations for Red Sox Fantasy Camp. Adam, Mike and I met up at the illustrious Astoria Sports Complex, humbly billed as the "Madison Square Garden of Queens", and did a final round of batting practice in the cages. Predictably, I regressed from the last session. I couldn't get my legs to work in concert with my upper body, just leaving my arms to do all the work, which isn't a recipe for success. The real wild card in this endeavor is what kind of pitching we're going to see at the camp. Will the pitches come in at 55 mph? 75 mph? All fastballs, or will someone break off a curve ball that will either freeze me completely or result in a wrenched back? As Brandt in The Big Lebowski would say: "Well, dude, we just don't know."

After hitting, we drove to the East River Park to meet up with Carl, ostensibly to do some base running, fielding and throwing. Once we saw that most of the field was covered in a sheet of ice, that plan changed to just throwing, which was further complicated by bright stadium lights in our faces. In any case, it was good to practice throwing further than 40 feet and I felt pretty warmed up by the end, with very little soreness today. Coincidentally or not, our session ended after I unwisely decided to kick a wayward baseball into a nearby soccer goal, promptly slipping on the ice and landing on my face. More accurately, it wasn't the goal that caused the fall so much as it was my failed Brazilian celebration. It just a minor spill with a little bit of a turned ankle that feels fine today.

Speaking of soreness, I can't recommend highly enough the heatrub gel Arnica, more commonly found in drug stores under the name Arnicane. I've had it rubbed on my lower back and thighs and woken up the next day good as new. I picked up an extra tube each for me and Adam today. I have a feeling we'll need it.