Giants-Fantasy-Camp

9FPF= JLDD<I )+C<OLJD8>8Q@E< Jgiè^kiXèè^]fik_\JXe=iXeZ`jZf >`XekjXkJZfkkj[Xc\JkX[`ld% 8=8E=@E;J?@J8ID8K98J<98CC =8EK8JP:8DG% 9FPF=9PD@:?8<CJ?8G@IFs G?FKF>I 8G?P9PJ?<CCPJKI 8Q@J JLDD<I “NOW BATTING, NUMBER 7, MIKE uniforms are identical to the ones worn by the One by one, we stand with some of the game’s Shapiro,” booms the announcer as I stride to pros (well, maybe a little smaller as many of greats for a quick snapshot. Next we take bat- the plate at Scottsdale Stadium, the San Fran- the pros top six feet and some have filled out ting practice and shag fly balls as the veterans cisco Giants’ spring training ballpark in the a bit since their playing days). watch us and take notes. Arizona desert. I’m looking out to a glorious When I see my locker, with the uniform “Let’s see what you got,” Hackman says. emerald field, a center field wall that’s 430 feet bearing my name in an arc across the back, the The pros are evaluating us for an upcoming away, and thousands of forest green seats. feeling is electric. I dress from cap to high socks draft—there will be eight teams, each with 11 or Playing first base for the opposing team is in professional gear, making sure I don’t miss 12 players and two managers. Ex-pitcher Dave Gold Glove winner J.T. Snow; at third is the a belt loop or leave a pocket out, infractions “Tuna” Heaverlo tells us we have a rigorous week former Giants slugger Darrell Evans. Patrolling that would get me rung up in Kangaroo Court ahead and advises us to pace ourselves. “There are left field is the imposing Jeffrey “Hackman” (more on this baseball tradition later). no pro scouts here,” Tuna says, noting that one Leonard. This is no childhood dream: this I’m dressing across from legendary pitcher participant in last year’s camp hoped to make Vida Blue, who was almost unhittable in his the leap from fantasy camp to the big leagues. prime. “Hey Vida, I saw you beat the Cubs in “No one here is going to sign a pro contract. So 1986 at Wrigley Field,” I tell the still-fit pitcher, take it easy; the object is to make it to Saturday,” recalling that he only gave up one run on that the final day of the weeklong camp. perfect summer day in Chicago. And he hit I’m assigned to a team coached by J.T. Snow, a home run—a rarity for a pitcher—in that two years removed from his big-league career, game. “You remember that homer!” Vida, now and Mike “Tiny” Felder, a speedster who was in his late 50s, exclaims. “Down the line, baby. one of baseball’s stolen-base leaders in the late Down the line.” ’80s and early ’90s. Most of us campers are in Dozens of my fellow campers and I lace up our 40s and 50s, but our catcher, Brooklyn our turf shoes and head to the batting cages native Steve Schiffman, is in his 60s. One of our behind the right-field wall for instruction from outfielders, Scotty MacVicar, was the Giants’ veteran Giants infielder Joel Youngblood. As head groundskeeper in San Francisco for many bats crack against machine-pitched balls in the years. Some campers play regularly—others cage, he tells us, “Hit horizontal to the ground. haven’t picked up a bat since childhood. But You want a straight ball to give fielders the everyone wants to win. Someone observes the least time to get there. If you hit it correct, first game doesn’t count towards a tournament you always hit the ball hard. If you try to hit and Schiffman glares: “They all count.” it hard, you won’t always hit it correct.” I watch baseball on TV and go to a few games Darrell Evans, whose nickname is “Doody” a year, so I think I understand the game pretty due to his facial resemblence to Howdy, strides well. Wrong, so wrong. At camp I realize how in front of the batting cages next. “I don’t intricate baseball really is. And how much understand a thing he just said,” jokes the harder it is to make the right play in the heat burly third baseman. “You always hear, ‘Keep of the moment. your eye on the ball’—the guys who say that, Unlike at some other fantasy camps, we’re they couldn’t hit either!” playing real baseball: we have pitchers, not is the annual San Francisco Giants Fantasy As we circle Evans, now in his early 60s, pitching machines; wood, not aluminum bats; Camp. For a week, I’m playing ball with—and he takes a poke at the conventional wisdom and steals are allowed. After I line a single over being coached by—men who were once my of hitting up the middle: “Who are the best the second baseman’s head, Felder coaches me childhood idols. fielders? The shortstop and center fielder. And at first base. He advises me to watch the pitcher where’s the deepest part of the park? Center and steal second base as the ball leaves his hand. THE FANTASY BECOMES REALITY EARLY field,” he says. “So why the hell would you want I slide in and beat the throw. on a Monday morning as I walk down a long to hit it up the middle?!” His final targets are TV Felder, a veteran outfielder, shows me how to flight of stairs, past framed action shots of announcers who say a batter swung too hard. follow the trajectory of a ball when looking into Giants greats Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, “You never hear them say that when they hit the sun. Use the glove to shield your eyes, he says, and into the Scottsdale clubhouse. In a row of it.” Two guys driving a garbage cart out of the and position your body sideways so you’re view- lockers hang our tailored uniforms: a cream- stadium roll by: “Those guys couldn’t hit,” Evans ing the ball at an angle. That day his coaching colored jersey with matching pants for the cracks, “and look what they’re doing!” pays off—while playing right field a ball is hit days we’re on the home team, and a black uni We (90 or so campers) jog over to center over my left shoulder. I glide back about 40 feet, with orange outlines for “road” games. The field to get our picture taken with the pros. shield my eyes, and hear the ball pop into my )-C<OLJD8>8Q@E< MAGAZINE Q308 LXS29 P26 04-10-08 | FIRST PROOF COMMENTS DUE 04-21-08 =FI8N<<B# @ËDGC8P@E> 98CCN@K?D<E N?FN<I< FE:<DP :?@C;?FF; @;FCJ% Fggfj`k\gX^\1G`kZ_è^èjkilZk`fe]ifdk_\c\^\e[Xip M`[X9cl\%K_`jgX^\#ZcfZbn`j\]ifdkfgc\]k1XeXlkf$ îXg_]ifdZfXZ_KB2k_\ZXdgËjgif]\jj`feXc$îX[\ YXkjXe[le`]fidj2J_XgìfXkk_\YXk2kXcbè^jkiXk\^p Y\]fi\^Xd\fe\2^Xd\knf[\cXp\[feXZZflekf] iXè%E\okgX^\1K_\Xlk_figfj\jn`k__`jk\XddXk\j c\]k Xe[_\X[jf]]kfk_\j_fn\ij% mitt for the third out of a 1-2-3 inning. I come is pooled with those of other player-violators Sure, it was fun playing baseball for a week in to high-fives and backslaps from old pros. Bill to benefit school rec programs. with old pros. But it was something more: see- Laskey, the former Giants pitcher who runs the The intensity ratchets up a notch that day as ing Hackman in left field, the fleet-footed Brett camp, calls it the “catch of the day.” I wonder if our tournament begins. Schiffman, whose hand Butler in center, and Vida on the mound created it can get any better than this. has swollen after getting hit by a pitch on day a field of dreams that transported me back to my The next day we prepare to meet the enemy: two, still catches. After a close loss in the morn- youth, an idyllic time when anything was possible our eight teams are facing eight clubs from the ing, we race to a 7-0 lead in the afternoon game. and all that mattered was the game. rival Chicago Cubs camp. We drive about a But then our bats go silent, and our pitcher, who half hour to the Cubs’ Mesa fields and have to looks like a just-retired pro but doesn’t play like adjust to hitting against pitching machines. I one, loses command. We’re defeated 9-7. @=PFL>F¿ hear Felder approach the Cubs’ manager and “You get oh so close, then you’re so far back,” K_\JXe=iXeZ`jZf>`Xekj=XekXjp:Xdg`j_\c[ say, “Hey Sweet Swinger!” I recognize the face Felder says. “Now you know how the real Giants XeelXccpèAXelXipXkJZfkkj[Xc\JkX[`lde\Xi from my boyhood baseball cards: it’s Hall of feel.” G_f\eò%@kËjfg\ekfd\eXe[nfd\efm\i*'% Fame outfielder Billy Williams, still appearing Schiffman finally gets his hand examined— =fi)''0[Xk\j#Z_\Zbk_\n\YgX^\ regal in the Cubs’ royal blue jersey. the X-ray shows fractures at the base of two fin- jXe]iXeZ`jZf%^`Xekj%dcY%Zfd&j]&]XeV]fild&]XekX$ We don’t hit well against the machine and gers—and his camp experience is over.

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