Sunday Jan 26th - Day 2

First, introduction to my roommate.  Matt Laughland from Burlinton, NJ.  Matt recently celebrated the birth of his daughter.  Mom & daughter are doing fine.  What a sweetheart of a wife, as she encouraged Matt to attend, even though a newborn can be a challenge!

Weather - overcast, a balmy 67 degrees, little spit of rain now & then.

Breakfast - food, is awesome.  Had an egg white omelet, with all kinds of stuff & yogurt.  Ah protein.

First morning announcements were conducted by Steve Blass.  Absolutely hilarious, the kind of jokes that make your cheeks hurt.  No details, need to keep this G-rated.  Steve levies fines for all kinds of things that campers do.  If you think I do weird things, I was not fined on the initial day, thank god.  A fine is $1 and goes toward the Pirate Players Alumni fund.  Appeals that are lost, and you always lose cost you $5.  Take your lumps and move on...

Morning stretch, easy.  The P90X stretches are way better.  But it is fun to see 95 other campers stretching.

BP was a blast.  Shagging fly balls in January on fields with grass that are like putting greens - glorious!!  The crack of the bat, the pop of a glove, the smell of summer.  Amazing.  My timing was a little off, our BP pitcher was the Pirates rookie league manager - super nice guy.

The evaluation game was much more interesting, as campers comprise the pitching staff.  Needless to say their control is less than that of a major leaguer.  Speeds are different and the location adds to the confusion.  The result, you pound everything into the ground, due to over striding.

We have a decent team.  If you have pitching, and we have 5 guys who can pitch, your team has a chance.  We won our 1st game 8 - 4.  After taking a called third strike (on a curve ball I knew was coming, arggghhh) I followed with 2 singles, drove in 1, and scored 1.  Just tracking fly balls again and throwing to bases, what a thrill.   Glad to win the 1st one.  Nelson Briles, past Pirate pitcher, son Dave is on our team.  Very nice person - just like his deceased father, who loved the Fantasy Camp.  He loved the game and wanted to pass the major league experience onto the average fan.  Mission accomplished.

The little things.  The locker room staff, training staff, and groundskeepers are amazing.  True professionals, that make taking care of the field & players look easy.  Get this, you go out in the morning, get you shoes all dirty, go eat lunch - come back to the clubhouse where your cleaned shoes await your afternoon activity.  Yes Adam, the locker room products in the bathroom are as rediculous as at PNC Park.  They have everything.  The floss & mouthwash were nice after lunch!!

Enough for today, I should sleep well, I ran quite a bit & loved it...

Photos from the shoot where each camper gets an individual shot with each Pirate great.  Each camper also gets a team photo with all the Pirate legends - too cool!