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, as things turned out, I moved to Minneapolis after their first spring in their new home.
I had shipped my equipment bag down via FedEx and drove to the Walgreen's location closest to my hotel to pick it up. I made my way to the Hilton Garden Inn where most of the campers are staying this week. I opted to stay "off campus" this year just to experience things a bit differently. After dropping off my liability release forms I headed over to the minor league complex to move into my locker. It's always a thrill to see my new locker location and new uniforms hanging up.
I sat in front of my locker, just soaking in the experience. I looked at my new stark white uniform and my new blue road jersey. The gift bag that we all receive has a pair of "41" patches in them. The patches honor the passing of Tom Seaver who passed away in August of 2020. I actually had purchased a pair earlier this year. I need to find out if they can be sewn on by the clubhouse staff or if I need to resort to my home economics days and sew them on myself. I'm going the former is the case, that's for sure.
As I moved my equipment into the locker I was greeted my many campers whom I'd played with and against in previous years. Some I had not seen in 4 or 5 years. They all seemed to remember my name, but I had to shuffle through my mental rolodex to recall some of their names. I need to get to work on those in a hurry. Luckily they have produced a "media guide" this season and it may come in handy in the next couple of days.
The happy reunions will continued as campers arrived, and along with it were those moments when my brain couldn't come up with the name of the guy in front of me. That's the moment when I fall back on generic terms like "bud", "pal", "bro", "kid", big-guy", "fella", "big pimpin'", "my man", "big man" "home slice", "home skillet" (my favorite) and the ever-popular "dude".
The optional workout pretty much concluded around 3pm, even though the schedule shows it to run til 5. I didn't even make an attempt to hit the field, as I will leave that until tomorrow morning.
I came back to my hotel where I checked out the NASCAR race. In fact, right after camp ends I flyback home for one night then fly to Phoenix for the NASCAR Cup Championship race on Sunday afternoon. My favorite driver secured a spot in the Championship 4 today so I'm hoping to make it a happy one-day trip to the desert.
Following the race I made my way to the St. Lucie Mets Conference Hall, which is a new venue for us . Within walking distance of the main hotel, if will allow the campers a chance to get to some events without needing to take the Academy bus to and from its location. That also gives our good friend "Fast Eddie" the Academy bus driver a bit of well-deserved down time.
I got to greet more guys and ladies whom I had not seen earlier while at tonight's event. The rookies introduced themselves and spoke briefly, individually, about how they had ended up being here in the first place. I sat next to two of them and told them that they are about to experience a week that will exceed any expectations which they may have arrived with. The opening banquet was tonight. In about 36 hours we'll be having the closing banquet. Well, not actually, but it will feel like it's only been 36 hours since it all began. Any veteran will tell you that.
As I close out the evening of day 1, I'm writing this entry whilst viewing both the 5th game of the World Series and the Sunday night NFL game which has my Minnesota Vikings hosting Dallas. At this point there have been nearly as many runs scored in the baseball game as points in the football game. But I am in high anticipation of getting onto the field tomorrow. I've got a brand new Rawlings first baseman's glove and it's ready to do great things. Hopefully the operator will be up to the challenge.
I am always humbled by the campers who read my blog and actually enjoy it. Tonight I saw one of my biggest fans in Eric Tartaglione. He's such a great guy with a great laugh and personality. So my first shout out goes to E.T. I hope I can live up to your expectations again this year. This is my 7th camp and thus my 7th blog as well. If you're interested in reading my blogs of prior camps, merely enter the year followed by ".blogspot.com. (e.g. 2019metsfantasycamp.blogspot.com) and see what previous years have brought.
It has been some 33 months since I've been at this slice of paradise. Man, it's great to be back.
Day Two is tomorrow of my week of fun. I look forward to reconnecting with guys I've played with and against over the last the past years. But if I call you "home skillet" then your name is not only lost in my memory bank, my memory bank account is overdrwawn.
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