Post-Workout Post

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

What a morning it has been so far in Florida! After breakfast at Peach’s–I highly recommend the sausage, egg, and cheese croissant with fruit as a side–we found what might be the best park in which we’ve ever played. Located in Central Park just west of I-75 on SR-64, we came across the Manatee Cal Ripken and Babe Ruth Baseball Complex. After taking a walk of approximately 1.5 miles around the lake, we donned our uniforms and broke out the ball bucket. Al was rattling the fences pretty good (no dimensions will be given) and I was rattling the backstop pretty good as well with fouls. Gotta keep my head on the ball!

Al tosses one homeward.

The groundskeeper came over to cut the grass on our field–that’s right, they were cutting the grass on March 5, BWA HA HA HA HA!!! I’ve seen Facebook photos today of friends’ backyards full of snow, and captions about how beautiful it is. It’s not beautiful. Shagging fly balls under the crystal blue Florida sun on a carpet of fresh cut grass, when other people have snow in their backyards, THAT’S BEAUTIFUL!!! . . . Sorry, I digress. While “our” field was being cut, we moved to another field to take grounders. The actual infield consisted of about an inch of fine red clay on top of 12 feet of Portland cement. Well, maybe it was just baked and packed clay under the fine stuff, but the ball took off like it was cement and if you dropped the bat, it sounded like cement. In any case, the ball acted like a kangaroo on speed; I haven’t slowed down that much from 54 to 55.

Al with his "Man of Leisure" Model Louisville Slugger.

Tonight we head out to Ed Smith Stadium to take in the Orioles against the Pirates. We’ll bring you that experience tomorrow at about this time because it will be too late to blog by the time we get back tonight, and we’re heading out to Central Park again for more practice in the morning.

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Valley League Baseball in Florida and Free Beer

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

Members of the Baseball Industry Network gather at McKechnie Field.

Today took us to McKechnie Field here in Brandenton for the Baseball Industry Network gathering, which was followed by the Pirates’ opening exhibition game against the Blue Jays. The Baseball Industry Network, started by Tyrone Brooks, Pittsburgh’s Director of Player Personnel has over 12,000 members, approximately 50 of whom gathered on a very blustery day by the Pirates’ clubhouse. We took some New Market Rebel programs to give out and naturally, “Scorecard Al” distributed every one.

The gathering included lunch, the eating of which was rather problematic. If you didn’t hold down everything on your plate it wasn’t going to be there when you went to take a bite. Lettuce was literally flying off my cheeseburger and at one point potato chips were flying about like confetti at a New Year’s Eve party.

Toronto won the ballgame 8-5. Erik Bedard started for the Pirates and in the fashion that I remember from his days with the Orioles, the Blue Jays had runners at 2nd and 3rd four pitches into the game. He did not have his best game, so much so that as we watched him warm up, I had to stop Al from grabbing a bat and taking a few swings off the lefty.

Erik Bedard warms for Pittsburgh.

Former Valley Leaguer Brian Bocock played several innings at third for Toronto, drawing two walks and getting caught trying to steal second. It’s always nice to see Valley League boys in the professional ranks and tomorrow we hope to see a couple more at the Orioles’ minor league complex.

During the game, we were given coupons that said we would receive 23 ounces of free beer by bringing in our game-day ticket. That was fairly appealing. Oh, and the restaurant was Hooters. That was doubly appealing. And the beer was to be served in a souvenir Hooters calendar cup. We thought it over, weighed our options, and decided to take up Hooters’ offer.

Aww, who am I kidding? We didn’t think at all and went straight to Hooters after the game.

Don’t forget that the Orioles will be on MASN tomorrow night at 7:00. Look for us and if you see us, call us on our cells. We want to make sure that our shirts were not worn in vain.

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Waving Hello to Florida

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

Our day was beachy keen.Al and I have had a very busy day and we haven’t even seen any baseball. As we mentioned yesterday, we were determined to make sure the waves at Siesta Key Beach reached shore safely. We supervised them from 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. and we’re happy to report that all arrived on time and in good shape. We are also happy to report that there weren’t many middle-aged men who had a physique that suggested that they were about to give birth, although one gentleman appeared to be on the verge of delivering a Santa-sack full of bowling balls. I’m not being critical by any means, I’m just observing. Besides, I like having those guys around because they absorb more ultra-violet rays that might otherwise fall on me. After all, the sun can only do so much.

We have completed our itinerary which is as follows:

3/4–We are attending the Baseball Industry Network lunch here in Bradenton, which will be followed by the Pirates v Blue Jays game at 1:00.

3/5–Orioles v Pirates in Sarasota. Look for us on MASN at 7:00. We’ll be sitting to the fair side of the left field foul pole!

3/6–University of South Florida @ 7:00

3/8 Orioles v Twins in Sarasota @ 1:00

3/9 Rays v Orioles in Port Charlotte @ 1:00 and Florida Southern College in Lakeland @ 7:00. We hope to hook up with former New Market Rebel, Jake Guengerich at FSC.

3/10 Tigers v Nationals in Lakeland @ 1:00

3/11 Braves v Blue Jays in Lake Buena Vista @ 1:00

3/12 & 3/13 to be determined

This schedule is subject to change without notice. That’s because it might rain without notice.

Finally, from the Always Behave Yourself Department, our hostess at Bob Evans this morning overheard us saying that we were from Maryland. It turns out that Peggy lived in Glen Arm on Long Green Pike. I grew up in Hydes on Long Green Pike. Now Glen Arm and Hydes aren’t towns; they’re former whistle stops on the old Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad. When I was a boy, Hydes consisted of the post office which was next to the general store, which used to house the ticket station. It’s not as if you’re likely to run into anyone from either place because there’s not a lot of place in either place.

We’re tired, wind-burned, and happy and eager to start on in on some baseball tomorrow.

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Poolside in Bradenton

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

Charlie, we were thinking of you.

This blog entry is 1,223 words long. The photo at right constitutes a thousand of those.

As I type this, Al is working on our schedule for the week, which I’ll post tomorrow. That’s the only day we won’t be watching baseball. Instead, we’ll be locating Ed Smith Stadium and McKechnie Field, as well as a place for us to play. Our most important task, however, will be supervising the waves at Siesta Key beach. We have to make sure thatthey reach the white sand in an efficient and timely manner.

As for today’s trip, we were quite impressed by the wide range of flowers blooming here in Florida as well as the wide range of barbecue places at which to eat. In fact, we ate at Dianne’s Old Time Barbecue for lunch and at Sonny’s Barbecue for dinner. Hey, we like barbecue.

We passed palmetto trees and trees with Spanish moss, we crossed rivers and swamps and we saw two billboards for Pro-Vas a medical practice specializing in vasectomies. According to the billboards, they have performed over 17,000 successfully. It’s kind of like McDonald’s only . . . oh, never mind. Yesterday, we passed a billboard advertising hysterectomies. I’m not making this up. You can’t.

We’re very glad that so many of you have joined us on our trip. We’ll supervise some waves for you tomorrow.

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Half Way There

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

The first leg of our Spring Training sojourn is complete and we didn’t so much go from Maryland to South Carolina as we went from early spring to early summer. Between Columbia and Orangeburg, we passed many blooming trees, a man with the top down in his convertible, and a guy running with no shirt. We saw redbud trees blooming as far north as Lake Norman, NC, which is about a month ahead of when they bloom in Maryland.

We also came across a lake named Wateree. Seems redundant, but who are we to question how Carolinians name their bodies of water.

We covered 529 miles today and the last 29 were the toughest. We were tired, but not so beat that we couldn’t play catch in front of Mirmow Field that was built in 1948. This ballpark will be included in an upcoming Off the Beaten Basepaths episode.

Gas was $3.65 Salem and $3.49 in Orangeburg and we only encountered two drivers whom we addressed as something less respectful, but far more colorful than “sir.” That’s a fantastic average for 529 miles.

Gas was expensive in Salem, but Lake Spring Park was beautiful as always.

 

We had lunch at the Jonesville, NC Visitor's Center, which is also the town hall and the police station.

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Spring Training Sojourn Starts Tomorrow

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

The suitcases and the bat bag are all packed and waiting to go to Spring Training! At least, I think I’ve packed everything. Of course, when you turn a certain age–I’ll be 55 tomorrow–the most important thing to pack is all your pills.

I’ve packed all the underwear that I own and I’m still short a pair or two of shorts. That’s the kind of thing however, that makes a trip adventurous! . . . Hmmm, I must be getting old if I think that running out of underwear qualifies as an adventure. . . . Well, in any case, I’m sure we’ll have more exciting adventures than that while in Florida.

We’ll tweet every day (@AustinGisriel) and I’ll do my best to post something to this blog every night. The official time will be kept on my official Oriole watch, so that you will know right down to the minute when our adventures occur, including the Wal-Mart run when we’re out of clean underwear.

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Off the Beaten Basepaths

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

It appears quite possible that the Hagerstown Suns, Bryce Harper’s home for the first half of the 2011 season, will be moving to Winchester, Virginia. The Suns of the South Atlantic League had hoped that the city of Hagerstown would either significantly renovate Municipal Stadium or replace it all together, but that hasn’t happened. The stadium was built in 1930 and at least for now, is the third oldest minor league park in use in the country.

For a video history of Municipal Stadium, please check out the new YouTube series, Off the Beaten Basepaths. This first installment, not only looks at Municipal Stadium, but at the nearby grave sites of two Hall of Famers, Nellie Fox and Hack Wilson.

There are many baseball sites and treasures throughout the country, many of which are hardly publicized at all. Off the Beaten Basepaths will do its best to find them and bring them to you!

P. S. Because I live in Maryland, these installments will be East Coast-centric–that is unless some wonderful sponsor wants to step up and increase my travel budget, which currently stands at approximately zero dollars.

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One Scrapbook Down

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

It took more than three weeks and resulted in over 60 pages of notes, but I finally made it through the first Boots Poffenberger scrapbook. The largest in the collection at 197 pages, this book chronicles Boots’ career from 1937-1940 and I think that I now know more about the 1940 Nashville Vols than I do about the 2011 Baltimore Orioles. Reading articles and clippings each day was more than just stepping back in time, it was stepping back into a different world–a world of train travel and off-season training regimens that consisted of bowling and billiards; a world of double-headers and players who entertained the fans with songs and skits between games of double-headers; a world full of boys before WWII turned them into men.

It was also a world of hyperbolic sports prose. For example, Fred Russell, sports editor of the Nashville Banner wrote the following: In tattooing his twenty-eight triumph of the campaign, Kid Boots was positively elegant. Never has he exhibited more mound mettle, more real courage in pitching himself out of numerous tough spots midway of the battle, then finished unusually strong.

Did I mention that there is quite a bit of material on Boots?

Past and present really became rather mixed for a moment when I came across a 1940 photo of Boots and his wife perusing the very scrapbook through which I was looking.

One scrapbook down and the rest of the tub full of material to go. I can’t wait to learn more about the life and career of one very fascinating Cletus Elwood “Boots” Poffenberger!

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Why Baseball?

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

Old friend and newly retired (as of today!) Al Smith and I are headed to Spring Training one month from today! It’s the time of year when the days are getting noticeably longer, hope is increasing, and the annual question “Why baseball?” rises. See my answer at Seamheads.com

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Lose Weight the Boots Poffenberger Way

Posted on January 22, 2012 by Austin Gisriel

A very popular New Year’s resolution is to lose weight. The day you hang that new calendar on the wall, you swear that you’ll stick to this diet or that exercise program; however I have come across a much simpler way to lose weight as explained by former Detroit Tigers’ hurler Boots Poffenberger  who hailed from right here in Williamsport.

Cletus Elwood Poffenberger, who was also nicknamed “Baron,” was a free-spirit; what polite people call eccentric. He reported to the Tigers’ spring training home of Lakeland, Florida in 1939, 10 days late and 25 pounds overweight. No matter how hard he worked, which apparently was anytime a Tiger official was looking, the weight would not come off. Boots, however, had a ready explanation. According to a newspaper blurb, “Boots Poffenberger says he’s overweight because the Tigers made him get up too early . . . Instead of letting him snooze, the Baron pointed out, they rolled him out at 8 a.m., and he had to eat breakfast, luncheon and dinner . . . By sleeping until 1 in the afternoon he would require only one meal.”

There you go, all you folks who have resolved to lose weight this year. Try the Boots Poffenberger “One Step” Weight Loss Program. It’s a “one step” program because you sleep to 1:00, then eat one meal. Simple.

My New Year’s resolution is to complete a biography of Boots before 2013 rolls around, I have been fortunate enough to have Boots’ family loan me all his scrapbooks, which amount to a large tub-full. I’ve spent a week reading about 100 pages–of the first one. I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress and I’ll keep passing along words of wisdom from one of baseball’s most colorful characters, Boots Poffenberger.

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