Johnson's Jackals Split Doubleheader

Adam and I arrived at the training facility around 6:45 a.m. today to beat the rush at the training table, workout areas and breakfast lines. We found our laundry hanging in our lockers, including the dirty undies and under shirts, which is a big relief because I'm pretty sure I didn't pack enough of those for the week. In any case, I got in a little bit of a workout on the exercise bike to warm up, had some breakfast and then hit the batting cages for some hitting off a tee. Unfortunately, that workout didn't translate to success on the field.

While I was standing around in my locker getting dressed, Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester walked right past me into the training room to get on an exercise bike. If only I had slept in and hit the bike later! He kept his head down most of the time anyway; I get the feeling these guys aren't big fans of a bunch of wannabes invading their space, but at least they're not rude about it. Kevin Youkilis also passed through my locker area. And later in the afternoon, Theo Epstein walked right through a little conversation Adam and I were having with a teammate, on his way to do a workout in the training area. Very busy day of star sightings, beyond the old-timers who are around for the camp, which is a nice bonus.

After the obligatory camp picture, we got on the bus to head over to City of Palms Park, which is an immaculate spring training/minor league stadium. It was definitely cool to have an actual dugout as opposed to sideline benches. Our manager, Ron Johnson, set up a rather random batting order based on how well he knew us, so Adam and I batted near the bottom of the order. Fortunately, the batting order picks up from the person who was on deck when the final out of the game is made, so we don't get screwed out of at-bats every time. I ended up rotating between right field and second base during the game and played fine in the field. Fielded a couple of routine grounders at second, no big deal, even though I had never played second base in my life and I was slightly terrified of the ball being hit to me and not knowing where to throw it in certain situations, but it worked out fine. The batting was a different story.

I only had two at-bats in the first game, which we ended up winning 4-2. My first at-bat was a check-swing grounder to the pitcher, which was really annoying because I either shouldn't have swung at all or I should have gone all the way with it; it was a good enough pitch to hit. On my second at-bat, I got jammed a little bit inside and hit a line drive to the pitcher, which he caught. I was pretty frustrated with my hitting, which continued to the second game.

The highlights of the game were the excellent defense played by Adam at third base, snaring a liner that almost certainly saved a run, and seeing Oil Can Boyd smoking a cigarette in the opposing dugout. It was also kind of fun to just sort of shoot the shit with Ron Johnson and our coach UL Washington while hanging out in the dugout or on the field. Oil Can was coaching third base for the other team and came over to Adam while he was playing third and gave him some pointers. More on Oil Can in a later post; he may require a whole other blog unto himself.

During lunch, newly-elected Hall of Famer Jim Rice made an appearance, signing autographs and posing for pictures. He is still a big strong man, though he wasn't quite as enthusiastic to do the autographs as Frank Viola had been the day before.

After lunch, we played a second game, this time at the regular training complex. In the afternoon games, the pros pitch easy batting practice pitches to us, whereas the morning games are pitched by the campers, which is fun, but also results in a lot more walks. Nobody walks when the pros pitch; everything is pretty much right down the middle, 45 miles an hour. I again rotated between second base and right field and played well enough without making any errors, which is nice. As much as I'd like to play some first base, we have some guys on the team who really shouldn't be playing a position where they have to run a lot, so I don't mind taking one for the team and playing the outfield. I may not be able to catch the ball, but I can at least chase after it relatively quickly.

Batting-wise, I continued my frustration, popping up twice, before finally smacking a nice solid single to the left-center. I felt good about that, finishing the day 1 for 5 between the two games, which isn't great, but at least I improved. Unfortnately, we lost 5-4.

After the game, Adam and I joined a couple other players to throw off a mound in a nearby bullpen, just to get some practice in, in case we're called upon to pitch, which we've been promised will happen. So far, I feel my value to the team lies in my relative health, since a few players went down with minor injuries during the second game, so I don't feel like I'll be sitting out too many innings during the week. There are 12 players, but only 9 can play at a time (8 in the afternoon games when the pros pitch), so there's a natural overflow on the roster, but it seems there will always be enough guys who are hurt that everyone who is healthy will get to play pretty much every inning. No matter what, I'm having a blast.