Tuesday night featured the Official Welcome Dinner which was held at the PGA Country Club. Campers made their way to the Country Club and found that whatever table they were sitting at chances are so was one of the former Met players. I had the pleasure of sitting with Bobby Floyd, Duffy Dyer and Buzz Capra.  There was no shortage of conversation ,no awkward silence, just great baseball talk. Bobby Floyd is what they call in the trade “ a lifer” He made his Major League debut in 1968 with the Baltimore Orioles and witnessed first hand the Miracle Mets defeat his Baltimore Orioles in 1969. He later went on to play for the Kansas City Royals from 1970-1974, but his impact on the game has been over the last 30 plus years in the minors and more importantly from a Mets standpoint since 1987. Bobby is keenly aware of the Mets farm system as I asked him about second baseman Reese Havens, without hesitation he said “if he stays healthy he will be a good pro”  We spoke about a few more of the Mets Single A and Double AA players and without hesitation Bobby offered up scouting reports on each. He is particularly impressed with Danny Muno. We talked a little about the MoneyBall way of scouting, and he said hadn’t read the book, hadn’t seen the movie and said it might work in small samples, but scouting is much more then just numbers,” I might see a guy totally raking, but maybe he takes a n 0-for, his on base percentage would be low, but I like his swing, I can work with that, sure if a guys on base percentage is good chances are he is a good player, but there is a lot more then just stats to the game.” I also asked him in all the years and all the players he saw in the system which is the guy whose talent never fully reached it’s potential in the bigs, and he said “Gregg Jefferies without a doubt”  While Jefferies had a nice career over the span of 14 seasons ending with a lifetime .275 average with two all-star appearances, we only saw glimpses of what could have been. Many of these types of conversations could be overheard at the other tables during the night.

    John Stearns then welcomed the campers and laid out the week as well as introduced the players who would be running the drills and the teams. The players who are here in camp represent a broad range of Met History, Ed Kranepool, Bud Harrelson , Ed Charles ,Duffy Dyer Ron Swoboda and Joe Pignatano from the Miracle Mets, Felix Millan and Bob Apodaca from the Ya Gotta Believe Mets, Wally Backman and Tim Teufel from the 86 champs , Turk Wendell ,Benny Agbayani  and Lenny Harris from the 2000 NL Champs, fan favorites such as Lenny Randle,John Stearns, Buzz Capra and Doug Flynn as well as many others. John also pointed out the hardware that the campers would be in pursuit of starting the next day. As everyone headed back to the hotel you could sense that tomorrow is the day everyone, coaches and players have been looking forward to, evaluations, drills and the draft.

     Wednesday morning was grey and overcast but the mood at the Mets minor league complex was bright and sunny. Campers gathered around the cages where Kevin Baez was busy throwing flips, challenging the hitters to knock down his coffee, not only did a camper make good on the challenge but Kevin couldn't even get the ball out of the cup as it became wedged, lucky for him he was almost done with it anyway. As I watched the campers take BP they encouraged me to grab a bat. I did so with a little hesitation  as I am scheduled to have my right hip replaced in April.  I am here to blog about the experience of fantasy camp, so what better way then to jump in. A few swings in the cage, with the rest of the campers cheering you on, and it is very easy to see why there are so many repeat campers.Baez was very helpful to the campers offering pointers as far as stance, position of hands, balance, rotation of the hips and always giving positive reinforcement. It did not come without an ulterior motive though as Kevin also had his handy clipboard full of the campers names. Baez clearly was trying to get the upper hand when it came to the draft.

  At 8:45 AM all the campers reported for the morning meeting, where John Stearns laid out the days events. John also went over the Brown and Gold ropes. The Brown rope gets awarded daily for such acts such as running to the wrong base, or putting catchers shin guards on upside down. The gold ropes are awarded for maybe going 7-8 in a double header combined with striking out 10 batters in a 7 inning game. John then mapped out the way the morning evaluations would work and each of the various stations.First up was the stretch for all campers led by Doug Flynn and Bobby Wine, then the players would rotate to a middle infield drill, outfield drill, pitching and hitting stations,followed by full batting practice.

  I headed over to the middle infield station and watched Doug Flynn and Kevin Baez instruct their group on fielding. They showed the footwork and glove work necessary to turn the double play. After demonstrating the drills, Lenny Randle better known as the HUMAN 5 HOUR ENERGY DRINK ran the drills pushing each player to be better. Bud Harrelson , Bobby Wine, Wally Backman, Tim Teufel, Ed Charles, Doug Flynn and Ed Kranepool observed and evaluated.

   Next up was the outfield drill run by Daryl Boston, Ron Swoboda and Rodney McCray,

Swoboda made one of the most remarkable catches in outfield history,as his diving catch of the Brooks Robinson liner in the 1969 World Series is still remembered as one of the best ever. Rodney McCray came within in inches of making the greatest catch ever as he literally crashed through an outfield wall chasing down a shot of the bat of Chip Hale.The players alternated catching balls in Left and Center field, each showing range and the ability to track a ball once again all under the watch full eye of the staff.

    The pitching and catching station was manned by Duffy Dyer, Turk Wendell, Bob Apodaca, John Stearns, Guy Conti, Pete Schourek, Eric Hillman, Anthony Young and Joe Pignatano. Some pitchers struggled to reach the catcher, while others throw nothing but strikes. My son Josh who is here doing the video and photography was a pitcher in High School and got a chance to throw. When Joe Pignatano and Turk Wendell noticed he was throwing a decent knuckleball they came over to give some pointers. Once again the staff was busy doing evaluations of all 96 campers.

    Over at the hitting station Benny Agbayani, Lenny Harris, Bobby Floyd and Bobby Wine were going over the nuances of hitting.Shortly after it was a round of Batting Practice for the campers, their last chance to impress before the draft.

   The entire staff made it’s way to the war room. I wasn’t sure what to expect. While I was granted inside access I was also warned by Kevin Baez that the war room is Vegas, whatever happens in the War Room stays in the War Room. Without giving out details of draft position and who went where, I will tell you that the staff respects each camper, as a group the entire staff knew about all 96 campers. Each team was serious about drafting the best possible team for themselves. Eric Hillman was about to tell Buzz Capra about a player but Lenny Harris was standing there and Eric stopped himself not wanting to risk Harris from stealing a player out from under him. The draft moved along at a pretty good pace the one added obstacle in this draft is that some campers come in groups and request to be on the same team, and the camp is more then happy to accommodate that request. What that does sometimes as the groups could be comprised of three players is it freezes that team for 3 rounds. Two things came through during the draft, the first being that a professional athlete no matter how far removed from playing doesn’t like to lose, the evaluation process was taken very seriously. Secondly while I was jumping around from station to station and did not get to see every player, from what I did see and from the way the draft went, they pretty much were dead on.

    In the end eight teams were made up today, game play starts at 2:30 PM. I will be down at the fields tomorrow covering the 10:15 AM game, and hopefully starting to talk to more of the campers as well as players.

   So far the experience has been great, so much so that I am hoping to come back again once I have my new hip and my son turns 30, as even though we are on the periphery , having a catch with him ,watching him pitch or take batting practice is still a thrill. Reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from Field of Dreams.....

John Kinsella: Well, good night Ray.

Ray Kinsella: Good night, John.

[They shake hands and John begins to walk away]

Ray Kinsella: Hey... Dad?

[John turns]

Ray Kinsella: [choked up] "You wanna have a catch?"

John Kinsella: I'd like that.