Orioles Spring Training Report #4

March 11, 2006

OK, this losing crap is starting to wear on me. I know it’s spring training and the O’s had exactly ONE player in the entire game today who is a lock to be in the opening day lineup (Mora), but I still hate the losing. Today’s flavor of losing was shutout, 5-0.

I got to the park pretty early again, parked in the same lot for $7 and bought the same $8 lawn seat – but again, never quite made it out to right field where that patch of grass is located.

Mostly the same drills going on as yesterday. A couple more vets in camp today than yesterday – Mora, Millar & Hawkins. There were a couple of notable things in BP. First, Millar and someone else (maybe Tatis, but I’m not sure because he was wearing a warmup over his jersey so I couldn’t see a number) both hit balls off of the Marlins clubhouse building out in left field. There are no distances posted on the left or right field walls (covered with ads instead) but center says 400 ft. This building is way beyond that – these were truly prodigious pokes, folks.

All during BP, Duquette was talking with Sammy Perlazzo behind the batting cage. Later, Flanagan joined them, phone in ear, and then talked with them for a good half hour or more until BP was over. As they were all heading for the clubhouse, I asked Mike if he would have any time today or tonight to share his thoughts about the team with the Belfry. He explained that he “had brought some people to Jupiter with him” and they were all going to have a meeting during the game. He took my phone number and told me if the meeting ended early, I could come up to the press area and join him.

After BP Rick Dempsey goofed around with a kid who asked him for an autograph because he was wearing cardinal red. The kid tossed him a ball to sign, but it already had a Tejada signature (of course Tejada is not in camp, so he must have brought it with him). Rick looked at it and asked who’s signature it was. Embarrassed, the kid asked for the ball back (he had tossed the wrong ball) and Rick hung in there till the kid could get his stuff together, but Dempsey razzed him good while he did. All in good fun!

While Rick was waiting I took the opportunity to solve a little mystery from Thursday by asking him who the young fellow was whom Rich had been instructing in the finer points of catching – mostly technique on how to block balls in the dirt. Rick said, “it was Brian Ebel’s kid.” For those who don’t know, Brian is the assistant trainer for the O’s and has been staffing the “infirmary” down at fantasy camp many times with Kerry, David, John and me. Mystery solved.

The singer of the national anthem was a remarkably talented (and easy to look at) blond. She was clearly nervous or in a hurry, because after she completed it she quickly walked off up the third base line with players smiling like adolescents and stopping to watch her.

Cardinal Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst was at the game and in uniform. He had a small group of kids at home plate for the first-pitch ceremonies. He still looks quite good.

I sat in the third row just to the third base side of home plate. There was an older gentleman sitting next to me who was quite a baseball fan and we engaged in conversation through the entire game. In the first inning I was explaining that the O’s have a lot of folks playing in the WBC and that as a result nearly all of the players he’d see would not be going north with the club. Jeff Fiorentino was in the “hole” and I gestured to him and said something like, “this kid is going to be a good ballplayer, he’s kind of a throwback, he just comes here, works hard, isn’t flamboyant like some of these guys, and is just hoping to play his way onto the team. I like him.” At that point a man sitting in the seat immediately in front of me, turned around, looked me right in the eye and said – “Jeff is my son.”

So, for the entire game, I chatted with Jeff’s dad, (Phil III, and there is now a IV and V) older sister and nephew. Phil reminded me of the weathered Cal Ripken Sr. with a short white beard. There were 10 family members in all. These are family-first, working people who are really proud of Jeff. I fell in love with Jeff’s nephew (Neil, I think) who looked to be 8-10 years old, with a freckled face and a buzz cut. He knew baseball inside and out and watched intently. He rambled on about baseball situations and knew the batting order from his head. He burped, laughed freely, goofed with his siblings and ragged on fans who “can’t catch” foul balls hit into the stands. He looked and sounded like he could have just walked off the set of the movie “The Sandlot.” Of course he was a BIG Jeff fan. Jeff didn’t disappoint – several times he stopped in to give baseballs to the kids. Jeff’s dad said he too played ball constantly as a young man (with Steve Carlton) but had gotten hit in the eye by a ball and lost most or all of the vision in that eye, ruining his dreams of playing pro ball. Phil said Jeff has loved this game since he could walk – and it shows by the way he carries himself. I still think Jeff looks like a cross between Mark Fidrich and Fred Lynn. What a treat to have shared the game with the Fiorentinos.

Mr. Fiorentino also brought a bag of “Nike special contact lenses” for Jeff. Are these the same as Brian Roberts was wearing last April? Let’s home they do for Jeff what they seemed to do for Brian!

In the 7^th inning, just after Eddie Rodriguez turned in a truly impressive pitching performance (1-2-3 on 10 pitches and two Ks) I got a call from Mike Flanagan. His meeting still was not over, and he was going to be unable to meet. He invited me to meet with him tomorrow (Sunday) in Fort Lauderdale, but I explained that I was headed across the state to the minor league camp in Sarasota after today’s game. He promised to talk with me further on the phone in the coming weeks. We’ve done this before, so I’m confident he’ll follow through.

Oh yes, there was also a game played today wasn’t there? The only things of real note from my perspective were:

1. Very impressive outings from Penn & Rodriguez. The numbers you’ll see in the box don’t really tell the whole story. They both threw with confidence, worked fast and threw with impressive velocity. They threw strikes and kept hitters off balance. Penn threw 10, 17 and 16 pitches in his three innings. They were major league quality on this day.
2. Penn also made an unbelievable play on a ball that was just lasered back at him on one hop by the Cardinal DH Rodriguez. He flung his arm up and behind him, spun half way around toward third and caught Edmunds (who had singled earlier and went to second on a wild pitch) halfway between second and third with his jaw hanging at his chest in disbelief of the play. Penn simply jogged over and tagged him out. Three pitches later, he picked off Rodriguez from first to end the inning. Truly impressive!
3. Hawkins struggled with location and got hit pretty hard, though he escaped without allowing a run and with 2 Ks – but it took him 21 pitches to do so.

Darensbourg, Mitchell & Gracesqui, all got hammered and looked bad doing it. You know it ain’t goin well when you get yanked out of a spring training game after 2/3 of an inning and 28 (no typo) pitches as Gracesqui did! Britton came in with the bases loaded, threw 5 pitches and got a K to keep it from getting REALLY ugly. Britton has a body like David Wells, but pitched like him too.