Random Thoughts Part 2

     I been re-watching Ken Burns Baseball documentary. I haven’t seen it in years. I have a buddy who’s a Civil War buff who told me he didn’t care for his Civil War documentary because he considered it Northern biased. (My friend is from North Carolina.) That may be true, the Baseball documentary is definitely east coast biased. Of course due credit was given to all those great Yankee teams and Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey. No problem with that. But when I reached the part of the 70’s and the classic 1975 series, it was more about Boston losing it than the Reds winning it. I do believe Ken Burns is  a New York  guy.

     Speaking of baseball viewing,  last weekend I started watching my collection of baseball movies. I usually do this in late March of every year to get up for the season. For some reason I’m doing this in January. I wonder why?  In no particular order, here are my 10 favorite baseball movies. Major League, The Natural, Field of Dreams, Pride of the Yankees, Bull Durham, Eight Men Out, Long Gone, For love of the Game,  The Rookie, It happens every Spring.

      

     I’ve using google maps street view to see my way around Goodyear and Avondale. It’s pretty slick technology. We will be renting a car that first weekend. It’s nice to be able to virtually “look around” the area.

     We have batting practice tonight at Miami Lakes. Looks like another adventure on the roads to get there. I do enjoy the practice though.  Middle of January and I’m  gearing up to “rake”!

     

     The main reason I’m doing this blog is to document this whole experience.  This may be the only time I get to do something like this. Also for my family and friends can keep track of my doings out in Goodyear.

Random Thoughts Part 1

With less than 3 weeks to go ‘til camp here are some random thoughts about this whole experience.

Last night at the Gametime workout fellow rookie Donnie Glass said that Saturday at GABP got him pretty psyched about the camp. I couldn’t agree more……

I’ve always looked forward to my vacations. Anticipation is half the fun as they say. Karen and my  trip to Maui for our honeymoon comes to mind. The first time we took our girls to Disneyworld was a great experience.  I distinctly remember as we walked in the Magic Kingdom and walking towards Main St. and seeing their faces as they saw Cinderella’s Castle for the first time. I will never forget that. 

But this Camp thing is something else. Part of me still can’t believe I’m going to do this. I guess this anticipation is much greater because I’ve been preparing for it for months. I’ve never worked out for a trip before.

It’s been great to meet some of my fellow rookie and veteran camp mates at these workouts.

As my man Satch Coletta said “The more camps I attend, it’s more about the friendships than baseball”.

I can see what me means. I’ve met a bunch of nice folks. I’m certain they will be my friends a long time.

Now with that said, the baseball is very important to me.  I haven’t played organized baseball since I was 13 years old. All my many years of softball do not count.  I know I won’t be the best out there. I know I won’t be the worst. I do know I will have a blast.  More to follow………

I just heard about Keith Adkins, I didn’t know him personally, but my thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Humor has it these guys were asked to coach at camp but for reasons declined.

Mini Workout /GABP Tour

Today was one of the perks of Fantasy Camp. The mini workout and tour of Great American Ball Park. What a great event. They had us rookies come down early for what amounted to  a "mini interview" on our reasons for attending camp and our expectations for the camp. I'm guessing they will use them at Kangaroo court or the highlight video? The ballpark tour was informative and very interesting. Hanging out in the Reds clubhouse was neat as well. We had a good batting practice session that was a combination of machine and live pitching. Always good. We also had a talk with one of the Reds trainers as far as conditioning and what to expect from our bodies during camp. Can anyone say "Silver Jesus" ?!!!!! Afterwards a lot of us had a great lunch at the Holy Grail. Karen and I went for a quick tour of the Reds Hall of Fame as well. It was a great day!

Clubhouse

Press Room

Radio Booth

In the Cage



Stretch!

Weight Room

Fantasy Camp Coaches

The Camp's Professional Coaches for 2014. Click on the name below the baseball card to view their stats on Baseball-Reference.com .



Herm Winningham

Jack Billingham



Doug Flynn



Pat Darcy



Ted Power

Tom Browning

Joe Price

Tommy Helms



Ron Oester

Jim Maloney





Billy Hatcher



Danny Graves

Bobby Wine








Reggie Sanders

Eddie Taubensee







Ken Griffey







Joe Oliver

Chris Sabo







Rawly Eastwick



Dimitri Young









 

Tom Hume

Todd Benzinger





 

Burrrrrr! It's TOO Friggin' COLD!!!!!

I always wear a ball cap into work. Mainly a Reds or some sort of golf hat. In the fall a Bengals hat. (I don't wan't to talk about them today. It's too much like the Reds wilcard game of a few months ago!) I do this because I have no more hair! Anyway last year I  acquired a new "Reds" hat just for the winter. The warmest hat I've ever had,  believe me. On mornings like today It comes in very handy!!! Goodyear can't get hear soon enough!!!!

If I wear this at camp, I'm sure some kangaroo court fine would be levied against me?

Happy New Year! One Month to go!!!!

Reds' Goodyear Complex!

Happy New Year everyone! One Month to go! I can't slack off now, gotta go row, an awesome cardio workout. Sometimes I must admit I feel like this guy!

How many miles to Goodyear?