Gettin Ready
January 22, 2009I had a flash back this morning. Sometimes it still happens to me. I’ll wake up in a cold sweat or have a dream that I’m not ready for the season or can’t find my cleats and they need me to pinch hit or something. I think it tends to happen around this time of year cause If I were still playing, this would be the time I’d be grinding it out, getting ready for spring training. Let me tell you something, I don’t miss getting ready for spring training one bit. It’s kind of like a kid going from summer back to school. Generally, I’d roll out onto the field around the beginning of the year and start the process of getting back into baseball shape. In an effort to stay ahead of the competition and keep myself engaged, each off season I’d try to pick something dealing with the game to work on. One year it was my eyes and improving my vision. One off season it was yoga and stretching. It might have been diet. Every off season was filled with weight room time and an effort to gain weight. Keeping weight on was always a challenge and it was important to me to try my best to start the season around 200 lbs so I could finish around 185.
I never really did a lot of live catching work in the off season because I felt like the 8-10 bullpens a day for six weeks of spring training would get me more than ready for the season. It also never seemed like I could do enough during the off season to miss that intense soreness that you got from the first couple weeks of spring training. It’s kind of like surfing in that there’s really no way to get you in surfing shape except by surfing. You can run 10 miles a day, lift as many weights as you want and stretch all day long, it doesn’t matter. Some weaselly kid who surfs a lot will paddle circles around you if you haven’t been surfing. Same goes for baseball. You can be in the best shape ever but it doesn’t matter cause you’re still gonna be sore for the first couple weeks, especially if your a catcher. There just isn’t any way to get in baseball shape except by playing baseball.
So now when I have one of those dreams or have a thought that I should be working out and getting ready for the season, I just roll over and smile. There’s some things about the game I don’t miss.
Surely you miss those powdered eggs and french toast sticks and triangle hash brown patties while Joe Jones screamed at you at 7:30 a.m. in the “State of the Art” complex at Baseball City…
Ah the memories. Don’t forget his chevy caprice cop car.
Rumor had it that he was going to Haines City one night to patronage the local Wal-Mart (probably to buy new hub caps) and the signal turned red, he reached up and out the driver window, slammed the little red cherry flashing light on the roof and never slowed down…
Did you ever eat at World Class Chili inside Pikes Public Market in Seattle?
I’ve been all over that market, but never eaten there. I’ll put it on my list of things to do in Seattle. My main haunt in Seattle (and one of my favorite restaurants in the league) was the 13 Coins. If you haven’t been, go. Open 24 hours and the later it gets, the weirder the place gets, and it’s weird to begin with. Great grinds, great atmosphere. Like no place else.
I never had a spring training in Florida, but an Arizona rite of passage that won’t be missed is finding a scorpion in your spikes in the morning. Had to remember to shake those out before putting them on. I also won’t miss Marty Martinez barking at his infielders all day long.
Florida spring trainings were the sweet smell of sulfur from the water ( no soap) in your uniform and undergear after they washed it; the odor intensified as you worked up a good lather during PFP.
I did strap it on at 13 Coins, totally forgot about that place! My first appearance was at about 2:30 a.m. one of the best freak shows in the American League. Is it just me or do you think Seattle has the most polite and well organized homeless people in the country? Spent some quality time talking to a few many times walking back to the hotel from The Kingtomb.
Saw Mike Connors ( Manix ) one night there at The Metropolitan Grill; a highlight for a 70’s T.V. junkie!
P.S. was with a guy from our club the first time I stepped into 13 coins and actually shared a booth with Brent Mayne!
Huh? Are you saying we dined together?
And what about Joe Jones? Where did that guy come from anyway? Do you have any idea how he got into baseball? I’m curious. What an unbelievable character of the game! Love that guy. Salty.
Could possibly be a John Boles connection there or now that I think about it his origins go back to the old Royals academy in Sarasota. I think Joe Jones had a big brother that slapped him on the back of the neck everyday the first fifteen years of his life. Really knows the game but may be the evil version of Jeff Cox. I heard he was getting all over Bo Jackson one day in the clubhouse during spring training and Bo told him to chill, he kept it up and Bo stuffed him upside down in a big garbage can.
Hey did you ever eat one of those spicy veggie dogs from the street venders in Toronto?…now that might even be better than a late night Krystal gut bomb!
13 coins was not the first nor the last time I shared groceries with a Mayne Family member!