Too much caffine

"I have a schedule which clearly says 12:30 on it."

"Oh," Milt says. "It's 12. When we play Baltimore either here or at home, it's always at 12."

"I didn't get this memo?"

"I didn't know you were coming over."

"I told David I was."

"Then David should have told you the game was at 12."

Mr. Bromberg is not going to tell me anything. I have him and Mr. Robertson trained well, they both think I am the fount of all knowledge. Therefore, they need not tell me anything.

So...I would have been there at 12:00 anyway, except I spent too much time playing the air pressure in the tires. Personally, I think I let more out than I put in, but there was something wrong with that airguage at the Speedway. In any case...

I missed most of the first inning, however, nothing much happened. One of the players got on base, but the other three didn't. Loek Van Mil recapped his first inning as "a strike out, a hit, and a couple of fly outs."

Sigh...

Deibinson (DJ) Romero, Rene (Tiny) Leverett and Rodolfo (Rocky) Palacios all ground out. Van Mil then proceeded to allow a double and a single, for the first score, before getting a pop out, a strike out and a ground out to end the inning.

J.W. (J-Dub) Wilson steps up the plate and strikes out. Kevin Herrington is next, and he singles. James ("Don't call me Jimmy") Beresford gets on base on a failed fielders choice. Harrington is not only safe at second, they overthrow the base so he goes to third. Esterlin De Los Santos singles and Harrington comes home. Yangervis Solarte pops out (lots of pop ups today) and MarK Dolenc flies out to end the inning.

(Harry's hit & subsequent action.)

Jim Shellenback comes by and says "You can have that chair."

"Which one? The little rusted out one?"

"It's really quite sturdy," he says as he chases David over to warm up. And it was, actually.

Van Mil walks to start inning but then gets two straight strike outs. It should have been three, but the guy calling the balls and strikes couldn't tell a sinker from a breaking ball from a ball in the dirt. Everything was "low". So he had to settle for a fly out to end the inning.

(Loek Van Tall Guy)

Lew Ford leads off with a single. Romero and Tiny both double, making it 3-1. Rocky grounds out and J-Dub flies out. Harrington gets plunked by a pitch. Beresford steps up to the plate. Harrington steals second. Beresford still at the plate. Harrington steals third. Beresford hits a single and Harrington comes home, making it 4-1. De Lo grounds out.

Harrington's a tall kid, 6'6". But he's fast. He's like a cheeta. Zoom!

I discover I can shoot sitting down in the little chair with the still camera. I probably could with the video camera too, but I left the mono-pod in the car. Must get a little chair. That was nice.



Bromberg stikes out to start the inning, but then gets into a bit of trouble, allowing a single and issuing a walk with an outfield fly in between. Then he gives up a double that drives in the two runners. He finally strikes out to end the inning. Coach Prada continues to argue with the umpire over the balls and strikes.

"Well, what about tomorrow?" I ask Milt. 12, I'm told. They're playing a double header against the Red Sox at home. Schedule is obviously good for nothing.

Yangervis (I need a cool nickname) Solarte fails to get on base. I was talking to one of the guys and not paying attention. Bad photog. Dolnec, Lewfie and Romero all go for walkies. Tiny hits a double and tries to stretch it for a triple. He gets taken out at third, but not before all the guys on base come home. The Baltimore coach starts screaming "Roll! Roll! Get those guys off the field." Awwww...we were just starting to have fun!

Bromberg goes three up, three down. Way to go Big Sexy. (David Bromberg highlight reel.)

Rocky doubles. J-Dub grounds out. Deciding at this point it's dangerous to allow Harrington ANYWHERE NEAR a basepath, Baltimore strikes him out. Jimmy ("Oh, sorry, James.") grounds out.

A Baltimore guy comes by with seeds and gum. Harrington stuffs his pockets with seeds before heading out to field. "Would you like some gum?" he asks.

"Don't feed them," I tell him. "They'll follow you home and you'll never get rid of them." He laughs. "I'm serious, we starve them at our complex. Starve them!" And do you have any idea who much those kids eat?

Winston Marquez takes to mound. He's one of the new kids, 6'1" 170 pound lefty from Tovar, Vz. He gets the first guy to ground out, but then gives up a single, a walk, and a single. The next play is at second, making it a fielder's choice, but the first runner comes home. It's now 7-4 Twins. I'm still reasonable comfortable with this lead.

We start getting the replacement players now. De Lo walks to start off the inning. Jakub (The Czech Kid) Hajtmar strikes out. Wang-Wei Lin (which sort of sounds like he's saying "wrong way" when pronounces it) hits a double. Lew Ford doubles to score De Lo and Lin. Romero singles and Tiny grounds out. "Tiny" is tiny in the way that Sidney Ponson might be called "Slim". He's 6'1" and 238 pounds. There's nothing tiny about him.

I should note that little chair or not, running from one side of the park to the other to take still shots of the batters and bouncing up and down to take video, I probably put in as many miles on as the kids to. And since I got there late and was trying to balance camera work with record keeping, I forgot my sunscreen. So now I look like lobster woman. Fear my claws!

Shelly tells Brad Tippett that "We're going to put (Danny) Rondon in, and if he has like a 20-pitch inning, then you'll go."

Winston allows three walks and an infield fly before the next one goes over the wall. Just like that, it's 9-7 Twins and nice little lead we had has evaporated. Meanwhile, Shelly has Rondon warming up in the pen. Winston hits the next guy with a pitch, and that's it for him. Brad Tippett, baseball assassin, starts pacing around behind me like a nervous tiger. I'd be afraid, but they'd given him no balls, so he had no amunition...yet.

Rondon goes in and induces the next guy into a double play. Nice...out... Tippett continues to prowl.

Rocky is replaced by one of the new catches, David Hernandez. I ended up calling him "Danny" the whole time and hope that he will forgive me. David is 6'2", 180 pounds and hails from Miami, Florida. Hernandez lines gounds out, J-Dub strikes out, and Juan Richardson fouls out.

Rondon starts off with double. He then strikes out the next guy and lines out the next. The last time I went to Twin Lakes they gave me a roster. This time they offer me gum? I'd rather have the roster. I like to know who I'm watching. The next guy doubles, making it 9-8 Twins. This is not looking good. The final out come on a pop up.

Kevin Harrington strikes out. He wasn't the only one. We waste the ninth inning.

"Go get 'em Tippy."

Loek comes over. "I'm taking over your job. This is Brad's camera." Nice, but I'm sure it doesn't double as an MP3 player. "I have it on continous shooting." Big deal. I'm shooting video.

Tippy did not get the memo on making quick trips to the mound due to the upload limits on Youtube.com. He takes his own sweet time about things. But we still win the game.

Brad Tippett (Part I)
Brad Tippett (Part II)
Brad Tippett (Part III)

We played 10 anyway. Lin and Beresford get runs in the tenth and Tippett closes down the game. He tries to kill one of the Baltimore guys, but luckily, the fence gets in the way. He's dangerous with a baseball.

Uppsy-Downsy Rose processed the still photos upside down again. I was going to say something but then I thought that would be rude...anyway, I'll probably put those up later. I've got enough trying to sort out the video.

We do this all again tomorrow...


Ice...


...and lots of it.