Opening Day

The White Sox started the season at home against the Twins, in March.  What could possibly be wrong with that?

Not the weather, with temperatures in the windblown sixties.  Not Alejandro De Aza, the first Sox player to hit two opening-day homers at home since Minnie Minoso in 1960.  Not Chris Sale, who picked up the win pitching into the eighth.  Not Ronald Belisario, who made his White Sox debut on the mound by showing off a classic Chicago beer belly.  And not Cuban exile Jose Abreu, who had two line-drive hits and for a day at least looks like he can handle the hard stuff. 

No, the problem was Paul Konerko, missing his first-ever Sox opener in sixteen years.  Clare was six when Konerko played for the first time on the South Side, and now she’s 22.  Time is relentless. 

St. Augustine

St. Augustine

We stayed an extra day in Florida and drove to St. Augustine.  Standing on the ramparts of a 17^th century fort has a way of putting things in perspective, sort of.  Anyway, I kept an eye out for the Fountain of Youth, but no luck.  I would’ve shared a sip or two with “Sweatie” Freddy Garcia.  He was released by the Braves on Tuesday.   

Florida Finis

             It’s always nice to be proven right as a prophet.  A team that started 1-3 in Florida ends their stay at 8-4, winning the final two games by scores of 10-0 and 4-3.

With Tufts bumped from our schedule, the Middlebury game, our last here, emerged as an important measure of how good the Bluejays are; Middlebury went 26-11 last year in the same conference as Tufts.  I’ve been talking about defense helping out the pitching, but this time it was the other way around.  Tiffany, one of our two starters, hales from downstate Illinois, where Cardinal fans predominate; she certainly has a bit of Dizzy Dean about her.  The girl believes in good ol’ country hardball, the 12” version.  Despite three infield errors costing two runs, Tiffany was less fire-baller than magician, especially in turning a pitcher-to-home-to-first double play with the bases loaded and nobody out.  Clare had a hit and an rbi in each game.  Her 11 rbi’s are the most she’s ever had in Florida.  That’s nearly a pace of an rbi a game, which would give her both the single-season and career rbi records.

I was so caught up in the game and afterwards—doing stats and talking to Coach—I’d forgotten this was it: no more Florida for this player.  Clare knew and was pretty upset.  I did what a parent is supposed to and consoled my daughter.  I can only hope she’ll do the same for me when the time comes later this spring.

Keeping Count

Michele put it best:  “I could have spent all day watching Clare hit,” which is to say our daughter went 4 for 8 with three doubles, this despite a gale wind blowing in.  By my count, the wind cost her two homers, though the coaches, bless them, put it at four.

For parents, this is college sports at its best—their child doing well along with the team.  Elmhurst took both games, banging out 23 hits to push their record to 6-4 with two more games tomorrow.  The outfield looked like the vacuum aisle at Target, each girl a Hoover with her glove.  Our left fielder Ele recorded her second assist in six games while Clare made a nice catch on a ball the wind kept blowing away from her.  And, as ever, Megan in center fielder covered ground like a Hoover strapped to a Harley.

The other nice thing about the day is that Clare got two of her doubles against a junk baller.  That’s headline worthy, given that my daughter loves to hit fastballs.  Whether they come in fast or slow, Clare has six doubles and a triple among her hits, good for eight runs and nine rbi’s.

We could have watched all day, indeed. 

Half Empty or Half Full?

 

The remaining three days in Florida kick off at 9 AM.  Today, we walked in from the parking lot to “YMCA” by the Village People playing on the sound system.  Twenty-five minutes later, everybody was lined up for the National Anthem.   My two greatest thrills as a parent have been to watch my daughter hit homeruns and see her stand at attention during the Anthem.

Two totally different Bluejay teams showed up today.  They lost the opener 8-0 to a team playing its first game of the season, only to turn around and shut out their next opponent, 7-0.  So, is the proverbial glass half empty or half full?  Given that life is hard enough without being a pessimist, put me in the half-full camp.  Speed and defense will keep us in games we would have lost last year, and, if the pitching comes around, then we’ll surprise people.  Look, if I'm going to freeze my butt off starting next week, I have to stay positive.  The alternative is just too grim to bear. 

My personal contribution to the Elmhurst cause had a tough day, with one hit and an rbi for both games; worse yet, the clean-up hitter in the first game had two homers.  After nearly eight years, I now understand this to be part of some cosmic plan that has to play itself out.  Usually, Clare waits until I give in to despair before going on a tear.

Why should this year be any different?

Spring Training

The only spring training game that fit our schedule was Mets vs. Braves at the ESPN Sports Complex at Disney.  I am not a fan of the mouse.  Naturally, his dog Pluto helped throw out the first pitch.  The Braves’ season ticketholder selected for that honor must have needed help.

As luck would have it, both starting pitchers were ex-White Sox, Carlos Torres for the Mets and Fred “Sweatie Freddy” Garcia for the Braves.  I can still remember the day the Sox acquired Garcia from Seattle.  It was a Sunday in early June, the first day of practice for the summer high school team Clare was playing for; she just happened to be fourteen months away from starting high school at the time.  She asked me if it was a good trade, and I said, Maybe.

That will be ten years ago come Clare’s graduation this spring.  Time flies, even for a master of junk and deception.      

Answers

We played with a full roster today, which may explain the 5-1 and 6-0 victories over Oberlin and Rutgers at Camden, respectively.  If I know anything, this may be the best defensive Bluejays’ team of the past four years.  And fast.

Bella and Ele, the two missing players, are obscenely fast left-handed slap hitters.  They basically don’t exist in baseball outside of Ichiro Suzuki.  But in softball everybody tries to load up on fast lefties who can dink, bunt and slap their way on courtesy of the shorter base paths (60 feet vs 90 in baseball).  This is at the heart of the small-ball approach to the game.  Clare belongs at the other end of the spectrum, long ball.    

The other thing I know is my daughter is a streak hitter in the extreme.  Today, Clare went 3 for 7 with two doubles, four runs scored and an rbi; the single was headed for extra bases until the Rutgers right fielder made a great play just to knock the ball down and keep it from skipping past her.  No games tomorrow, so we’ll have to wait until Monday to see Clare if stays hot.

We get a nice off-day with a spring training game, Mets vs. Braves in Orlando.  But another softball family won’t be so fortunate.  At one of the other fields today, our conference rival North Central went up against Tufts.  The Tufts pitcher beaned a North Central batter, who went down, tried to get up and then appeared to pass out; she had to be taken away in an ambulance.  The games we play can bring joy or sadness.

They also carry a degree of risk either way.