Good
morning.
This is a
tough week for me. Pitchers and catchers are reporting to camp and I had to
travel to the Daytona Beach area of Florida to spend time with my ailing
mother-in-law.
In the past,
I would drop my bride off, go to sleep, and get up early the next morning to
drive the less-than -100 miles more to Port St. Lucie. I’d drive directly to
the stadium, go to the administration office and pick up my press pass, and
head directly to the fields.
Sadly, spring
training just isn’t in the cards anymore for me.
I especially
loved going during the period when pitchers and catchers reported. There were
far less politics to deal with and you could concentrate your time on your own
evaluation of the pitchers.
All the action
evolved around the minor league complex, not the main clubhouse where the St.
Lucie Mets play. You actually drive past the main parking lot of Tradition
Field and turn right just past the stadium. Go down the block and you will see
the entrance on the right.
Jay
Horwitz, the Mets media head, still had his hands
filled because the amount of press doesn’t change just because (technically)
only pitchers and catchers have reported. Actually there should be even more
positional players in camp early this year what with all the players attending
the Mike Barwis camp.
I have all
sorts of memories about Spring Training, be it early when the pitches report,
or late, when the team breaks for the trip north, but my number one memory
continues to be the ST prior to the 2010 season.
There was a
particularly chilly morning that we all left the clubhouse to watch some of the
pitchers that were lining up on the mounds just outside the St. Lucie Mets
clubhouse. This was the real spring training so all the activity began in the
main clubhouse, though some of the pitchers featured that morning did come over
from the minor league complex to strut their stuff.
I
particularly wanted to see how well Oliver Perez pitched
that morning and I stood just about next to Mike
Nickeas that was catching him that morning. I noticed someone a couple
of pitchers down that I didn’t recognize and asked a few of the beat guys
around me if they knew who he was. They all said no and one commented on how he
didn’t realize that the Mets had someone in the organization that threw a
knuckleball.
And that was
all he threw. One knuckleball after another.
I always
prided myself on knowing the Mets system well, but I just didn’t know who this
guy was. I smiled and just assumed that he was someone they signed the day
before (he was signed on January 5th that year).
Well, we all
know what happened two years later. R.A. Dickey won
the Cy Young Award and eventually was part of a trade that might go down as the
best the Mets have ever made.
5 comments:
R.A. Dickey = The gift that keeps on giving
Good memories. Hope somehow you can swing by there again. I loved RA while he pitched for us, still remember seeing the televised. Buffalo game where he gave up a hit. In the first and was perfect the rest of the way and knew we had something unique. And what a trade for Thor, d'Arnaud and Becerra.
Morning Mack,
Yeah,R.A. was some story, the stuff movies are made from. And the great thing about it is that he is still paying major dividends for the Mets. Just another gift that Omar left, one that keeps on giving. Harvey, deGrom, Matz, with Syndergaard, TDA, and Wheeler acquired via his picks or assets.
TP -
I agree on Omar's contribution to this team which is still higher than Sandy and Company.
Post a Comment