Dream Week comes to an end

 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 underlying mild bit of sadness is that every passing minute places us one minute closer to the time we head back to our respective lockers to clean them out and make room for our week 2 brothers and sisters who will begin roaming this clubhouse in just two days. 

Tonight's closing banquet was enjoyable once again. Each team was introduced in ascending order of their finish in the standings. While finishing 3-4 for the week we were still ranked 9th given the fact that we did not qualify for the playoffs. After a couple of teams, their coaches and their chosen team mvps had been announced, the individual awards were handed out. Trophies for most hits, best defensive player, best batting average, best catcher, best pitcher and best positive attitude were given out. At the halfway point the newest inductees into the MFC Hall of Fame were introduced to the crowd. The three new inductees are all deserved of their inductions. As a matter of fact one of them was my teammate this year- Chris DiLorenzo.A well-deserved honor for a great man and teammate. We announced that our own team MVP this year went to my fellow University of Tampa Spartan Russ Bruno. Russ also won the Darryl Strawberry Award for most runs batted in for the week. Each camper received a team photo and a baseball signed by all members of the coaching staff.

As the evening came to a close the good-byes began between the players and coaches. It was obvious that no one wanted to leave and think about the normal day-to-day stuff which life throws at us 24/7/365. But ya can't outrun it. If you can, then contact me. Immediately. Seriously. 

Barry Lyons, a former catcher for the Mets, may have summed it up best. Mets Fantasy Camp is about brotherhood, friendship and a love of the New York Mets. He's exactly right. One of the beautiful things I saw tonight, and as I have at every camp, is as I looked around the room I saw people from all walks of life. Different ages, different races, different genders, different political views, different religious views, different health issues, and other differences too numerous to name here.  But the one thing that bonded us all is the love of the New...York...Mets.  We are dyed-in-the-wool Mets fans, some of us since birth.   But that is our common bond.  We live is such tumultuous times right now.  I just wish that the comraderie that I saw in the room tonight could carry on to everyone from far and wide.  To be able to talk in respectful tones and not need to shout above one another.  To want to be the part of the greater good and to be compassionate to one another in times of need and stress.  It was a great experience and I'm glad that I was here for it.

Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed this past week.  So I won't even attempt to do so here.  All I can say is that it was a dream come true.  The feeling of putting on the uniform of my favorite sports team is took me back to my youth.  It was as close to heaven on earth as I may have ever experienced.  For that I am truly grateful. 

If you have been following this blog since the beginning I thank you for taking this journey, albeit vicariously, along with me.  I hope you enjoyed it.  I certainly enjoyed bringing it to you.  Some of you have told me that it gave you an insight into who I am and you may have learned things about me that you never knew.  If you got anything out of it at all, then it was worth my efforts. 

Webster had a lot of words in his dictionary and Roget had a bunch in his thesaurus, but finding the right words to describe a week at fantasy camp is virtually impossible. A futile effort to say the least.  But I do know that saying that I loved every minute of it is a huge understatement.

I want to thank my fantastic teammates. Bruce "Big Fish" Fisher and his son Alex "Little Fish" Fisher. Phil Bottega, Rob "Gambo" Gambardella, Tim Heaney, Perry Pierce, Larry "A-Train" Ackerman, Chris "D-Lo" DiLorenzo and my fellow Spartan Russ Bruno. We had such a cohesive group and we all pulled for one another every single game. Our coaches, Pete Schourek, Rodney "Crash" McCray and rookie coach Josh Thole were great in their approach with us. Very supportive and positive especially at the beginning of the week when we sometimes resembled the 1962 Mets. 

Tomorrow is "getaway day" as the hotel will empty in the morning.  Many will catch the bus, driven by our good buddy "Fast" Eddie" down to West Palm Beach at 7:30 am. I will hop into my rented Volvo and head north to Orlando International for a flight to Minneapolis. I'll be home for about 12 hours before I hop on another plane to Phoenix on Sunday morning to attend NASCAR Cup Championship Race. I hope to see my favorite driver Denny Hamlin win his first championship. Only four drivers can possibly win it, so a 25% chance right now is just fine. I'm gonna need that extra hour of sleep for sure.

I believe that our lives sometimes have a soundtrack. I came up with the song that would play over the closing credits to my week. It's a song called "Souvenir" by Billy Joel. Not many people are familiar with this song. I, myself, had never heard it until last year. It's only about 2 minutes in length but it is a sweet and poignant tune which crystallizes some of the feelings all of us campers will feel.

I want to give special thanks to the person probably most responsible for me being at camp at all. Those of you whom I played along with in my first four camps may remember my wife Bryn.  After my first camp in 2013 she was actually more excited about returning in 2014, at first.  While I grew up near NYC, in Stamford,  she actually lived there for a number of years, on the upper West Side of Manhattan. 72nd and West End Ave.  When we first met I informed her that the best she could hope for in my list of loves would be third place, behind my mother and baseball.  She said she could be with that.  She became a Met fan because of me and now bleeds orange & blue as do I.  She watched me turn into the kid she knew always was inside of her husband during my first MFC.  She got to hear the New York accents of my teammates and it took her back to her fondness for the greatest city in the world.  In 2014 she was there when my team went 7-0 and won a championship. She got to meet one of my coaches, the late Anthony Young, who celebrated a birthday on the day we won the title. She also met Stacey Weiner, the wife of my teammate Lee Weiner, who is now her best friend. So not only can YOU make life-long friends at MFC, sometimes our significant others do the same. 

Bryn's health has been hampered for about 3 1/2 years now, but 2019 was a particularly tough year. It has been very hard on the two of us, as I am the primary care person even while working full-time for Southwest Airlines, and I chose to not attend MFC in 2020. But she gave me her blessing to make the trip this year because she wanted me to be able to participate after nearly 33 months since my last camp.  Many of you have asked of her and I appreciate that so very much. My goal, though it is a big one, is to have her in good enough shape for her to make the trip next November to see her husband's 8th greatest week of all time. So thank you Doc (that's her nickname because she's got 3 masters degrees and a PHD) for letting me play and visit with my old brothers and sisters both old and new.

I wish to pass along some words to the rookies for week 2: 

1)  Catch the earliest bus ride from Fast Eddie that you can.  Sit close to the front and listen to Eddie's stories.  He's a great storyteller and he is part of the experience which MFC is.  

2)  Get up early and get to the complex.  Trust me-sitting in front of your locker, even when the clubhouse is quiet and before the place fills up, is better than most things you will do all year.  

3)   The locker room is loaded with people who are just like you. They love this game and they love the New York Mets.  Don't be afraid to ask anyone for help or advice about things camp-related. They are brothers and sisters from another mother or mister, and many of them have names which you will be saving to your smartphone before you return home.

4)  Pace yourself.  The trainers' room line gets longer every morning.  I see too many players unable to play by day three because they pushed too hard early in the week.  

5)   You're going to forget to bring something.  You won't know what it is until you get there.  But don't worry about it too much.  You'll remember it next year.

6)   Relax.  We were ALL you at one time.  

7)   You will never see this great game the same way again.  It'll make getting old worth it.  

8)   Phil Foreman is the man.  Just ask him. (I loves me some Phil Forman, though).

9)  Don't forget to wear a hat to Kangaroo Court.  It's a rookie tradition.

10) As Crash Davis said, "This game is fun, dammit".  Now go have some.

I will close with one of my favorite quotes, which also appears in rotunda at CitiField:

"A life is not important except for the effect it has on other lives" - Jackie Robinson.

With this in mind, go out and have a positive effect on someone's life.  

That's what I'm gonna do.

Baseball. The Greatest Game Ever Invented.  

Thanks for spending the last few days with me.  I hope you enjoyed it.  

Do good, people.