Day 2 is a good one

 Day 2 looked rather bleak when I opened the curtains in my hotel room at 6:30 or so. Dark clouds overhead and intermittent rain falling was when I witnessed. I prepared for the drive to the minor league complex and arrived about 7:45. I grabbed a quick bit of breakfast and began to plan out my uniform for game one. 

As I told you yesterday I could not recall the name of my team as introduced at the dinner last night. Well, this morning I picked up my phone from the nightstand and took a look to see if anyone had commented on my last posting. My friend Shayne, who works on the ramp for Southwest in Minneapolis had commented. His comment said, "Touch 'em all, Rod!" Now, I appreciated the comment to be sure. For those of you who are not Twins fans, "Touch 'em all" was the catchphrase for one John Gordon who was a Twins radio announcer for decades. He would add the name of the Twins player following the word "all". I smacked myself on the head, gently, and said out loud, "THAT'S the name of our team! So that mystery was solved before I got on the field today. 

To further add to how I got here, the following information is for your reading.I reside in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember. I grew up in Stamford, Connecticut as a fan of the New York Metropolitans, known by most everyone as the Mets.  I was born in 1961 on the same day on which ground was broken for Flushing Meadow Park. Flushing Meadow Park was later renamed Shea Stadium, which closed following the 2008 Mets season. This being said, you now know why I am referred to as "Sheakid".

I first heard about MFC in my 30s and thought about how cool it would be to attend such a thing.  I quickly found that the cost of such a venture would prove to be somewhat prohibitive to such an event taking place.  I always kept it in the "bucket list" category, however.  

Now, I love baseball and I love the New York Mets. I lived and died with them for so many years while growing up. I followed them when I moved to Tampa to attend college and was lucky in that a local station, WTOG, channel 44 carried Mets games on Friday nights on over-the-air television.  Remember, this was pre-satellite tv and the sports packages which they afford to subscribers.  

I also followed them when I moved to Minneapolis in 1988 to start the next chapter of my life.  It was tougher because of regional coverage and the fact that the local nine were in the American League, while the Mets reside in the National League.  I arrived just after the Twins had won their first World Championship in 1987, firm in the belief that it would probably be the ONLY world championship in their history.  But, before I knew it, I had gotten a part-time job with the team and was standing on the field while the Twins celebrated right behind me after defeating Atlanta in the fantastic Fall Classic of 1991. I could never have foreseen such an event. I eventually got a full-time job in the front office of the Twins which got me closer to the game than I could ever have imagined. Heck, I got to be the mascot for a couple of years. I got to hang out with players who were marginal at best and others who were hall of famers like Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett. My dreams of playing professionally were replaced by my later occupation. Nirvana reached.

Good fate has given me another opportunity to attend this year as I south to Florida once again for one more chance to push the sun back up in the sky and add to the memory bank which I will withdraw from when I get old and am unable to play this game that I love so very much in the uniform of the team that I love so much.

Today, Touch 'Em All got out to a 2-0 lead in game one. I singled to left and scored on my second trip to the plate to make the game 3-0 which is how it ended. After lunch we got a lot more output from our bats and we won 15-11. There were two players on our afternoon opponents with whom I played last year. The game was made a bit closer thanks to Seth Caridi, one of those two players. The man Nelson Figueroa refers to as "6-1/2 feet of muscle" launched a ball into the stratosphere. It should have landed by now. A gentle giant to be sure. I call him Sarge because he is a sheriff's deputy for the New State highway patrol. But we played well defensively and find ourselves with a 2-0 record. 

Tonight's camp activity was taking our coaches Mookie Wilson and John DeBus (pronounced dee-buss) to dinner. While we had originally been planned to go to a local hibachi restaurant, it was going to be a very long wait for a table. So we opted for the Outback Steakhouse across the parking lot from us. It turned out to be nearly perfect out what our purpose was. 

A very nice gentleman on a team called the 69ers (coached by 1969 World Champions Ron Swoboda and Duffy Dyer- get it?) introduced himself to me at the hibachi restaurant tonight and told me of how much he enjoys my blog writings. I am so humbled when I hear those accolades. Bryn used to tell me how cool it was to hear people tell her how much they enjoyed her writings. Now I know what she means. 

Tomorrow's weather looks like we should be able to get our games in without too much trouble. Wednesday looks kinda sketchy and Thursday doesn't look good at all. But we'll worry about that down the road. 

I need to get some sleep now as I anticipate Day 3 at the greatest place on earth.