Travel Tips

Fantasy Baseball Camp: A Major League Experience

Locations in this article:  Atlanta, GA Havana, Cuba Pittsburgh, PA

Batter- Fantasy Baseball CampIt’s the bottom of the ninth, and Roy Berger has one more game to play at McKechnie Field. After an intense, week-long vacation from real life, is he ready for the Major Leagues, or is it time to leave the fantasy behind and return to the grind?

Saturday morning didn’t start too well for us, but we were better off than the camper who showed up at breakfast with his arm in a sling.

On Friday he dislocated his shoulder sliding into third base, got up, put the shoulder back in place, and proceeded to get into a collision at the plate trying to score. The shoulder came out for the second and (hopefully) last time.

Hey, these fantasy camp playoffs are the real deal.

Home plateFriday night was our team dinner where we take our coaching staff out as a thank you for their patience all week. One of the guys on the team is responsible for picking the spot and we made reservations for 18 at a place highly recommended by former Pirates, Sid Bream and Mike LaValliere.

Our manager, Bill Virdon, said he would meet us there as did one of our campers who lives in the area. The rest of us, including coach Jerry Reuss, left from the dorm at Pirate City.

As soon as we walked in we knew we had been punked by Bream and LaValliere. It was a coffee house of some sorts with an amusing but rather marginal female piano player and about six people eating dinner.

There were 18 of us expected in the party but only 15 showed up. Virdon and his wife and the local guy were no-shows.

Nobody knew how to get in touch with them as there were no cell phone numbers exchanged. We stayed; we ate; it was terrible. Fortunately, our catcher who banged up his knee needed to head back to camp to ice his wounds and I was a very willing volunteer to drive him back early.

Check out the complete series on PeterGreenberg.com:

I ran into Virdon at breakfast on Saturday morning and told him he made a wise choice not showing up last night.

Empty seatsHe said, “Are you kidding? I was at the right place and dinner was excellent.” Seems like our van driver confused the Havana Cabana with the Banana Cabana, where we were supposed to be, and we missed a great dinner enjoyed by Virdon, his wife and the local Bradenton resident on our club.

The other piece of exciting news (not) that morning was when the official stats for the week were released: We discovered we were no-hit in the championship game on Friday afternoon. We lost 4-1, never realizing we didn’t have a hit and that our only run scored on a walk, error and sacrifice fly.

For the week, while we finished 5-2 and made the title game, we were the second worst-hitting team of the eight in camp. We batted .340 as a team which only topped the .281 by a club that only won one game.

The Clementes, undefeated at 7-0, batted .514. Pretty darn impressive numbers.

Our defense was probably the best of all teams with at least one double play in each game and very strong up the middle comprised interchangeably of a human resources guy, retired police officer, family physician, and steel company executive.

Learn more about Roy’s team with: Fantasy Baseball Camp: First Day on the Diamond.

If you can’t hit you probably need to stop the other guys, and we did that pretty well. In fact, we were the best of any team in camp.

As the final stats were posted my week was a little better than I had thought. I was credited with eight hits in 19 at-bats for a .421 average and seven RBIs. It was sadly the second-highest average on the team next to our retired Pittsburgh police officer who hit .583.

McKechnie FieldSaturday was the day we returned downtown to McKechnie Field to play against the Legends. By finishing second we earned the right to be the second team in the morning to play with our game penciled at 10:30 a.m.

As we arrived at the McKechnie it was impressive to see a long line of people outside the stadium seemingly ready for the gates to open. We were a bit humbled. That didn’t last very long as we soon found out that tickets for the Pirates pre-season games went on sale at 10 a.m. and both the Yankees and Red Sox are coming to Bradenton this spring. Darn, but it good for about 5 minutes!

The Legends game was a fun one. Each of the eight teams plays three innings with everyone getting at least one at-bat against former major league pitching. The Legends inning ends when either the side is retired or they score three runs.

Probably a couple of hundred people did filter into the park to watch and try to get some of the ex-big leaguers autographs.

We played a simulated Major League game, including a PA announcer with introductions and regular umpires. It was pretty special to be standing at first base and realize Rennie Stennett was at the plate.

It got a bit scary when lefty LeValliere was at bat and downright intimidating when lefty Bream (6’4″, 220 pounds) came up.

Don’t miss the previous entry: Fantasy Baseball Camp: Playoffs & a Doubleheader.

At bat we faced Zane Smith who pitched all three innings for the Legends. Zane had 100 career wins in a 12-year span pitching for Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Montreal, and Boston.

PitcherHe threw fastballs down the middle. They hit speeds of 70-80 mph and in my at-bat all I wanted to do was make contact. His speed was tough enough but it didn’t help that I lost a half-second trying to pick the ball up off a lefthander.

I saw a ball and a strike on the first two pitches; on the third pitch I slapped the ball to third and in another bang-bang play at first I was out by a close 10 steps. I succeeded; I hit the ball. About half of our guys made contact on Smith.

We went 10 up and 10 down. None of the eight teams scored a run off the Legends all day. They scored nine runs in the three innings against us and I took the uniform off knowing I accomplished all that I hoped for the week.

My goal was not to be humiliated and by and large I wasn’t. I got a few hits, played OK in the field and now, after 42 years, I can put the hardball glove back into storage.

Frankly, I can’t wait to put on a tie and get back to the office!

Check out the Baseball Hall of Fame and more in Ask the Locals Travel Guide: Cooperstown, New York

The Pirates promised to deliver a Major League experience this week in 2010 Fantasy Camp and they didn’t fall short. While the present-day Major League version of the Pittsburgh franchise leaves much to be desired, the fantasy camp was something they could be very proud of.

Pirates logoThe present-day Pirates have had 17 consecutive losing seasons, setting a record for futility in all professional sports. They develop talent and trade them off or let them go as free agents before they have to pay the big bucks.

Pittsburgh did win three World Championships in 1960, 1971 and 1979, but nothing since then. Frankly, nothing appears to be in the cards for a long time forthcoming if they keep letting talent get away.

If the player personnel division of the Pirates were run half as well as Fantasy Camp, they might be able to compete with the other clubs in their division.

The experience was Major League all the way, from our lockers in the clubhouse to the clubhouse attendants; from the professional and efficient training room and training room staff to perfectly manicured playing fields with a grounds crew working it before every game; from two sets of uniforms to posting daily standings and individual stats to the stadium playing experience (twice) at McKechnie. Housing the players in a dorm on the grounds really led to compatibility and socialization.

Everyone wanted to play ball and win. It was as competitive as a mix of campers 40 to 77 years old could be, but everyone went out of their way to congratulate each other on a good hit, nice play in the field or a hard-earned win.

Of the 83 in attendance at camp this week, more than 60 percent have been here before. Those who have gone to other teams camps say this is run the best. After my experience I can see how this camp brings guys back year after year.

The former big leaguers who participated were part of the team: socializing, eating, drinking, kibitzing, smoking cigars on the lounge balcony, coaching, exercising, you name it.

Earlier today, I thanked Bill Virdon for putting up with us. He said, “Are you kidding? I enjoyed this much more than you guys did!”

I became a Pirate fan as a kid because of my Dad, but I never knew why he became one. I asked him last month.

He said he was a great fan of Major Leaguer Paul “Big Poison” Waner growing up.

Each dorm room in Pirate City is dedicated to a great Pirate of years past with pictures and memorabilia on the walls of the room. I was in Room 205. It’s the Paul Waner room.

Some weeks are meant to be.

By Roy Berger for PeterGreenberg.com.

Check out the other entries from the Fantasy Baseball Camp series: