2021 Mets Fantasy Camp

  5 November 2021 They were originally called Dream Weeks. To the best of my knowledge they were begun in the early 1980s by former Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley. They're available to fans of different sports and different franchises. They give fans a chance to live out dreams of taking the field, court or ice in the uniform of their favorite team. They are opportunities to leave the cruel world behind and revel in a place where time stands still, causing you to realize how short life as you know it really is. I had that opportunity this week. Along with about 110 fellow fantasy campers we collectively attempted to use our minds and varying levels of physical prowess to give us one more week of summer. Today marks the end of that attempt. The weather was totally uncooperative in that is washed out today's games versus the pros. Instead we shared stories with each other and players and heroes of Mets teams of the past 50 years or so. The ...

  4 November 2021 Day 4 started off a bit cloudier than the earlier days this week. The playoffs were reaching the second round after at least one upset in round one. The Waiting Room members were looking ahead to fulfill the promise they'd made to each other by playing hard and winning our final three games to finish 3-4 for the week.  Today's morning meeting had the awarding of the ropes. The gold rope winner was Izzy Kushner. I had the pleasure of being a teammate of Izzy's in 2016. His brother Shai was on that team with us. Izzy is a true class act in every way, and a great teammate. The brown rope went one again to a teammate of mine on the Waiting Room. That would be Chris DiLorenzo. Here's how my man earned his rope. When he made his way to the plate during Wednesday's afternoon game at Clover Park the umpire raised his hands to call time. I was standing at the railing of the first base dugout. It was quickly apparent that the play stoppage...

  3 November 2021 Day 3 began with a virtually cloudless sky over Port St. Lucie. After a quick brekky it was off to the tent for the day's morning meeting and awarding of the brown and gold ropes.  The brown rope went to my teammate Tim Heaney. Tim has just started a new job and really needed to be on a mandatory zoom call with his new employer. So he missed the first full inning of our second game. I was penciled in as the 10th batter in the order, but that changed immediately and before I knew it I was running to the plate as the game's second batter. It nearly worked to perfection as I didn't have any time in which to overthink the upcoming plate appearance. I laced a pitch down the third base line and was thrown out by a step by Rob Ranellone. The rookie who is age 40, 6'4"/235 lbs and looks like he stepped off of the cover of GQ magazine. But I digress.  The gold rope went to my friend Jim Forde who tossed a complete game...

  2 November 2021 Day 3 started with promising hopes. Today was picture day so we all made our way over to Clover Park for team pictures and pictures of ourselves in the middle of all of the coaches. Dr. Andrews' Waiting Room opened the day on field 5. We trailed early 2-0 but it could have been worse if not for a top-notch defensive play by Chris DiLorenzo to end the inning. Unfortunately, we lost Chris to a leg injury in the next inning. I felt even worse for him given that his lovely wife Kristen had only minutes prior arrived at the field to see him play. But Chris is such a gamer that while he couldn't play defensively he continued to take his at bats with a runner taking his place on the basepaths.  I've had better days at the plate. Seth Davis totally ate my lunch even though I hit two long drives, foul, down the left field line. I struck out on all three of my plate appearances in game 1 today, giving me the "golden sombrero" which is a ba...

  1 November 2021 Today was the start of on-field activities. I made my way to the complex and had a couple of pieces of toast and some bacon. I headed back to my locker to put on my home white uniform for this morning's meeting. We discussed the awarding of the gold and brown ropes which are given out at the morning meeting. The gold rope is for excellence in play from the previous day's game(s). I've been nominated for a gold rope twice in my previous 6 camps. Most recently at my last camp in 2019. I went 6-for-6 with 4 RBIs over two games on the same day. The brown rope is usually reserved for someone who may have had a better day if they had stood in bed. Past winners of said rope have done things like shown up at the field for a game wearing the opposite uniform from the rest of the team, be it home whites or road blues.  Leaving one's glove on the team bus. Forgetting how many outs there were and leaving the field prematurely. And...

  31 October 2021 It's Halloween. I don't really do much around Halloween most years. But this year it wan't even a thought. I flew out of America's Favorite Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul,MN) yesterday morning. I spent the night with my "son" in a town called Sebastian, Florida last night. It was a great visit and I made the 40-minute drive down to Port St. Lucie early this afternoon.   I first heard about PSL back in the late 80s. I was still living in the Tampa Bay Area at that time and the Mets were going to be leaving their spring home in St. Petersburg for what was essentially some undeveloped swamp land clear across state. The Mets had shared spring facilities with the St. Louis Cardinals and I attended as many spring games as I could during my Florida years. When I heard of this town my first reaction was, "Where the £¥€% is that?" I feared that I would need to drive nearly three hours due east to see my team during my months of March. But...