In my years with the CLPB, this is always the most fun day of the summer. We take the two selected All-Star teams to the main stadium Spring Training field of the Nationals and Astors and they are able to live the life of a professional baseball player for a day. The best hitters and pitchers square off against each other in this game with professional baseball scouts coming to watch for any potential professional baseball talent. All of our interns are here and working this event so once I got all of them squared away with exactly what they would be doing then I just had the ability to sit back and watch the show and enjoy the game. We did end up having a Yankees scout that showed up to watch our hardest pitcher in the league and in his outing in the All-Star game he was throwing 98-100mph. It was really cool to talk to the scout and watch the process of him wanting this kid be a Yankee. The big issue for him was that the pitcher, Colby, was only 20 years old and at a 4 year school so he wasn't draft eligible and he legally wasn't able to get him to the Yankees. They exchanged information obviously and had some very basic conversations but from my understanding the Yankees will be all in on this kid come next year.
0 Comments
Today was a very hot day weather wise. Not like it was any hotter than it had been so far this summer but it rained very lightly this morning and early afternoon so that made our late afternoon game very steamy. After the first few innings of the game I had noticed that the starting pitcher for the Jupiter Wave was looking a little sluggish and was having some trouble moving around. After his third inning of pitching his coach decided to take him out because his velocity dropped a lot and he just wasn't looking very good. I talked with him and it seemed off so I called over one of the interns that was studying to be a physical therapist and after a few minutes of talking with the player he said we needed to take him to the hospital because he is extremely dehydrated. Another player grabbed the pitcher and drove him to the hospital and I drove myself and that intern to go and make sure everything went smoothly. We were there for a few hours but he ended up being alright in the end.
This was a very interesting day as I received a phone call from Jeremy Plexico this morning letting me know that the head coach of the Jupiter Wave would no longer be coaching in our league the rest of the summer due to some unforeseen circumstances. This being the case and it being half way through the summer, we were put in a bit of a situation to find a new coach. The initial talk was for me to be able to coach the team the rest of the summer if we couldn't find anyone, but that conversation would come about later. What we needed to figure out was a plan for today because the team had a night game. For this game Jeremy Plexico and myself took on the coaching duties for the evening. I had never been a "head coach" for a game before so it was a really cool experience and it also helped that we ended up winning the game as well. Now the question will be figuring out what to do with the coaching position moving forward.
Another day where there were only to be three games played with it being two early games and then one afternoon game. Looking at the forecast the night before and in the morning it was very clear that there was a very high chance of a big storm coming our way. It was originally supposed to get here around noon so we were hoping that we could finish our two early games, but then the radar was showing that it was more likely going to be around 2pm. With the afternoon game being scheduled to start at 2pm, I talked with both coaches around 1:15 and told them to prepare for a delayed start to the game and I will get them a new update with the weather and what we wanted to do with the weather looking nasty for a 2pm start. When 2pm came I had a phone call with two of the owners of the league, Jeremy and Aaron Braithwaite, and the lightning was around 7 miles away and the radar was showing that the storm was very close to us. We decided to tell the coaches the next update will come at 2:20 with the hope of still playing this game. I got a call from Jeremy again at 2:17 and the lightning got down to 5.7 miles which would have already technically put us in a lightning delay. However, with looking at my radar, having Jeremy and Aaron look at their radars, and what I was seeing at the field we decided that the safest course of action would be to cancel the game. The grounds had also told me earlier that if there was one drop of rain they were going to automatically tarp the field and that decision was out of our hands. The toughest part of the whole situation is that there was no rain yet. So, when I told both coaches the game had been cancelled they both were not happy due to the fact of no rain. I tried to explain to them that the storm is very slow moving and that would already be in a lightning delay and you could clearly see in the sky that the storm was almost there, but both coaches still chose to throw a fit about it. Interestingly enough, right around 3pm when the lightning delay would have been lifted it started to rain extremely hard and we would’ve had zero chance to play that game. So, the decision we made to cancel and get everyone out of there before the heavy rain came was the correct call.
Today was set for a three game day at the usual times of 9am at Lilac and 10am and 2pm at the Cressey field. At the start of the day up until the last game I was getting alerts that there could potentially be a storm come through the area and we could possibly have a weather issue for the last game of the day at 2pm. The first two games ran smoothly and didn’t have any issues. When that last game at 2pm started the wind started to pick up and the clouds began to get dark. My phone was showing that there was a big storm coming but the projected future radar was showing the storm should move north of the field and miss us. However, the lightning still got closer and closer to our field and in the top of the third inning we ended up getting into a lightning delay. The lightning delay continued for an hour before we were able to start the game back up again. The storm did end up moving north of us and we didn’t get any hard rain, the issue was that the lightning was still within the six mile distance so we had to keep restarting the delay clock until there was a strike outside of the six mile distance. Like I said, that happened after an hour long delay and once we started play again it did start to sprinkle for about ten minutes but after that the clouds cleared out, the rain stopped, and the game was able to be completed.
Today was scheduled for one of the full days with a total of four games between Lilac park and the Cressey field with a 9am game at Lilac and a 10am, 2pm, and 6pm game at Cressey. There was a little issue in the first game of the day at Lilac at the end of the game. We run a three hour time limit for our games but if we start a new inning before the time limit is up no matter what we are going to finish the inning and if the home team is winning going into the bottom half of an inning with a little time left on the clock we are still going to finish that inning even though the game will be over at the completion of the full inning. So for the early game the home team was winning 9-2 in the bottom of the 8thinning with ten minutes remaining on the clock. So we started the bottom of the inning and a few base runners got on with one out and there was a count of one ball and two strikes on the batter in the box, and the time limit hit and the umpires just stopped the game and called it final. They said when the home team is winning, the game is in the bottom half of the inning, and time limit is up they just usually end the game right then and there. So that game just ended in the middle of the at bat and it didn’t look very good so I called Evan to double check how we handle this kind of situation. I was very confident it was to finish the current inning no matter what unless the ten run rule hit or a walk off is hit. Evan confirmed that we are supposed to finish complete innings just like I thought so he ended up sending a text to the umpire chief of the league so that they all know that for the rest of the summer even though it should’ve already been communicated. The only other issue I had to deal with for the day was with the 10am game at Cressey when I got done with the Lilac game. I went over to that field and there was a new player for one team out on the field. The coach had talked to me a few days ago about getting a new player and I told him that it was fine but the player has to get in contact with Evan to get all the paperwork and a contract signed. So when I show up to the field and see this new player and I call Evan to make sure his stuff was done and he said he hadn’t received anything or heard from the kid at all. So he made a phone call to Jeremy really quick and called me back that I have to go take the player off the field because it would be a huge liability issue for the league if that kid were to get hurt when he hasn’t signed a contact. So I went and talked to the coach and the player and we got him out of the game and I got him Evan’s number and hopefully he gets his contract done and sent to Evan before his next game so he can play and there isn’t another issue.
Today was another day with only one game at Lilac Park at 2pm. There was no rain in the forecast and it was looking to be another hot day and I would finally get to see some sun for the first time in awhile. The interns are still doing a great job of getting everything set up prior to game time and not having any issues. I had one of the coaches come talk to me about if I could try and find any additional pitchers to put on his team because he has had a couple kids go down with injuries and couple also leave for a week or so for a vacation. I didn’t have anyone for him right there so I told him I would be on the look out for any extra pitchers around the area or training at Cressey wanting to throw some innings this summer. There also is a player on the other team for the game that I have been watching closely and he is a really good player and was interested if he has anywhere to play college ball next year. I went and talked to him before and after the game and he told me that he didn’t have anywhere to play so I immediately got his contact information and I wanted to try and help him find a place to play because he is very talented on the baseball field and I think he could be a really good player. So I’ll try and work on that a little bit this summer and see if I can help him in any way because the goal of this league is to help guys get better and in any other way as well. After the game I had to email our graphics employee the new pictures for the player spotlight articles our announcer interns are writing up this week so we can get banners made for the website and social media.
Today had only one game scheduled and it was going to be a very short day compared to normal. It did end up being close to five hours but compared to other days it was so much shorter. Today was the first day that the sun came out in a few days so it was very hot for the game. When I first arrived at the field the press box was locked so I had to call the grounds crew chief for the field and he said he couldn’t get the door unlocked because he was out of town so I then had to call Jeremy and he got in touch with the owner of the field and he had someone come unlock it for us. We then took the tarps off of the mound and home plate and it was very clear that the mound dirt was very soft and pitchers were going to be sliding around when they pitch. I didn’t have access to any conditioner or even a rake to do anything to it so both teams just had to deal with it the entire game. The starting pitcher for one of the teams is a kid who wanted to work with me over the summer on his pitching. He only pitched two innings and didn’t do very good so after he got taken out we went down to the bullpen and worked on some of his mechanics and he ended up making some big improvements which was good to see. The goal of the summer is to have these kids go back to their colleges better than when they came in so to see a big improvement just in a short bullpen session after a bad live outing was really great to see. We ended up getting a ten run rule for the game so the day ended a little shorter than it would’ve if the time limit would’ve ran to the full time which was nice because of how hot the weather was.
Today we were back to a full schedule of games for the day with a total of four games. One of them being at Lilac Park at 9am and then the other three games being at the Cressey field at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm. Looking at the forecast for the day it appeared that we should not have to deal with any rain or lightning issues for the day but as I have learned working for this league the last three years that you never know what is going to happen in Florida as far as the weather is concerned. The entire day we did not have one drop of rain fall which was an absolute blessing considering we have had to cancel five games in the last few days. It was a big sigh of relief to get all four of the scheduled games completed and over with for the day. There were no major issues I had to address for the day. We had one coach arguing with the umpire during the 2pm game at Cressey pretty much from start to finish. They were getting into some pretty intense arguments and this coach has already been thrown out of one game this year so I had to go over and give him a warning from the league saying that if he was to get thrown out of the league twice already this early he is in jeopardy of getting a big suspension from the league. After I told him that he started to calm down and we really didn’t have an issue the rest of the day. The other issue I had to take care of was with the batting cages at the Cressey facility before the 6pm game. The Cressey facility has three batting cages under a roof and we have a verbal agreement with them that from an hour and a half to a half hour before the game at Cressey both teams are able to use those cages. However, if the hitting coordinator for Cressey has the cages locked for any reason or has his own personal lessons or clients in there he has every right to not let the teams hit. It is a little unfair but at the same time he never had to let us use it in the first place so it’s a very nice benefit whenever we can use it. Anyway, one of the coaches had his players go in there and the hitting coordinator, Max Rios, kicked them out because he was having a private lesson. He apparently didn’t understand that our relationship with Max and the cages was very circumstantial, so I had to explain that to him and he was angry but I told him there’s nothing we can do and we could not have it at all so he’s just gonna have to deal with it. So I directed his players to the little league fields across the street so they could get some hitting in before the game. Other than those two little issues the day ran very smoothly and very long.
There was a ton of rain yesterday so the two games that were scheduled for today were already in question because it was going to be interesting to see if the fields would be ready. I had a phone call last night with both Jeremy and Evan about getting to the field even earlier around 6:30 to see what the fields look like and to talk to both grounds crews at Lilac and Cressey to see what they are thinking about making the game times of 9am and 10am. As soon as I got to each field both grounds crews told me we were pushing both games back to noon. So I had to stay at the fields and send out texts to all the coaches and umpires letting them know about the delay. As 10am rolled around I made my way back to on the field talking with both grounds crews and they then said we have to push back to 2pm. There was no sunshine and a constant sprinkle and both fields were just not drying up. The Cressey field was so soft on the infield and the grounds crew over there didn’t think it was safe for the guys to play because they’ll be slipping and sliding everywhere and someone could get hurt but they were going to put some conditioner on the field and hope that it could dry up before 2. When it 1pm I got word that Lilac Park is going to be playable at 2pm so we started to get set up and both teams warmed up for that game. I headed over to Cressey and the grounds crew told me they strongly suggest to not have the game because of how soft the field is. I went and checked and it truly was very soft and I didn’t feel comfortable letting guys play that game because there would definitely be injuries. So, I decided to cancel that game because of field conditions. One of the coaches for a team playing at Cressey completely agreed with me to cancel the game because it wasn’t safe and the other coach was blowing up my phone complaining that the field could’ve been played on and was also blowing up the grounds crew. I had to call him and explain that the grounds crew gave a strong suggestion about safety for our players and I evaluated myself and made the call and that was final. Once I talked to him he seemed to understand. The game at Lilac ended up taking close to four hours because we had to pull teams off the field for a lightning delay in the fourth inning. Other than that the game at Lilac went by smoothly and no rain which was nice for once.
|
|