Blass also hasn’t lost his sense of humor evident in his court each morning. The Pirates (as did the Tigers) maintain a reasonable fine structure of $1,$2 or $5 depending on the transgression. The Yankees, because they are the Yankees, were $10-$20-$50 per incident. All fines are donated to the respective team children charities. Over the years I’ve paid my fair share of fines for anything from wearing the wrong attire (three times) to standing in the wrong place during court to not settling down my pitcher when he got in trouble to talking back to the judge to giving poor base running instructions to being on a team that sucked. When you total my fines and consider they are going to charity I can probably move into a different Obama tax bracket!
Over the last couple of days Blass has fined campers for catching a ball with his ear; one guy got slapped because his wife went up to his coach and suggested a better position for her husband to play; another caught an entire inning without a chest protector; another wears shin guards under his uniform pants to stop a ground ball.
Another made 11 errors and Blass said “ironically enough he works for the Department of Defense.” Eight guys got fined for being in the cold tub together. Coach Bob Walk was fined for actually walking up to home plate as a member of the Phillies in 1980 to hit and not bringing a bat with him and 84 year old former Pirates relief pitcher Roy Face was fined for ” still driving a 1989 Lincoln and wanting people to think he was a pimp.”
Blass also fined anyone that called home last night $1 clearly stating that “this week is meant for booze, broads and baseball not worrying about what was going on at home.” He then fined anyone that didn’t call home last night $2 for “not giving a damn about your family.” He gave a $1 credit to any camper wearing #28- his uniform number.
As much as I thought I would save money this camp I got zonked as well. I was fined $1 for going to Detroit fantasy camp and $2 for going to the Yankees camp last year. And the mere mention of Yankee camp drew a hearty round of boos from the other campers. It’s so much fun being a Yankee fan.
Finally game time for the single contest on the day’s slate. Was surprised to find out our band of nine was the only undefeated team left in camp at 3-0; not bad for a group of guys held together by glue and band-aids. Our opponent today was formidable- the team of Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski and Blass. Blass has a reputation among the other coaches of wanting to win every year and the team he drafted probably was the pre-camp favorite to win it all. Maz on the other hand wants to sit and enjoy his cigar no matter the time of day.
