Sunday, January 12, 2014

The Luckiest Man Alive

I think I was thinking about that quote on the last day.   We conclude the long week of baseball with an award and final banquet night.  I really do think I am a very blessed (lucky – I suppose you can say that) man.  I get to spend a week in Florida with a bunch of good guys playing baseball – all the while my wife is at home taking care of our two boys (who are 10 & 8) and putting in her 40 hours of work as well.  I am amazed at her patience and willingness to let me continue to go on this adventure every year – I guess I have the defense of I am not a not a hunter guy or fisherman who spends many weekends away so I just take my week in Florida and go with it.  I usually don’t make too many comments about the awards – but earlier in the day I was discussing who might win what award with a fellow camper and for the first time I was really perplexed as to who should win what awards.  Most years a few players come out of the woodworks and bat .800 or just pitch a couple shutouts awards are somewhat known – but going into this evening with so many campers and the fact I only played everyone once and one entire team we didn’t even get to play not sure who was shining and who was not – I was, however, pretty confident that my roommate would find his way to some hardware.   The Rookie of the Year was definitely something in the running for DS and quite frankly he should garner some camp MVP votes as well – DS had a very solid week – hitting about .600, pitching 2 complete games (giving up 0 earned runs mind you), played two full games at catcher, played third base and shortstop and maybe had one throwing error (I think it was intentional to get a guy on the other team a hit too) – truly a week worth some take home hardware.  The over 50 Cy Young went to our 81 year old teammate Curt Sampson – that was fun.  I was nominated for the Cy Young and MVP this year – I have been lucky (that word is a theme here) to have been nominated a number of times and blessed to win three different awards over the years – yep, really lucky – so to be honest I was fine with not getting any awards this year (let alone I played well this week but not enough to get any camp hardware).  I was very surprised during the Rookie of the Year as DS didn’t even stand up – I was thinking this was a good omen, meaning – DS will win another award instead, as another guy won the ROY (he seems very shocked, surprised, humble, and happy), DS was nominated for the the under 50 Gold Glove – didn’t come his way, in fact the 2013 Camp ROY took this home.  Nothing against the 2013 ROY but I am not sure what positions he played to get this award – I was told his knee was bothering him all week (when he pitched against us this is what I was told).  Now it came down to MVP – both DS and I were nominated to stand up – I was waiting to hear DS as the winner but it went to another camper who is a great baseball player in Will McMacken.  That was a shocker – I think my roommate got robbed, but DS is a great guy and I am sure it rolled off his back – I have been around camp 5 years and his play this week was worthy of some camp hardware – I guess the votes/nominations didn’t go his way – rant over.  The awards are fun and from year to year I think it is a good thing to spread around the awards since year after year we have some very good ball players that come back and truly play very well out here.   Certainly not a big deal but when you get to write a blog you can type about anything – so that was my soapbox for the week.   I also know a few other campers had weeks like DS that didn’t get the recognition – a tough year for the underdogs.
Back to Minnesota we go – I look forward to seeing my wife and kids – I really do miss them the first few days are nice but boy about day 4 or 5 I miss being home.  The bed at home will be super comfy and then Monday back in the office will bring everything in perspective.  Until next year – this camper needs a break – about 51 weeks – the good part is this year I am as healthy as I have ever been after a week of camp – so no walking around like an old man and no post camp surgeries for this camper (I think I heard of at least 3 guys where this is not the case) – so in one more instance, I am pretty lucky.  I’m not even Irish (at least I don’t think I am).

One last note – I got an email from Seth Stohs from TwinsDaily today (Sunday) and he recommended that I put something together on their site – so I think that will be my homework this evening – look for that if you dare on TwinsDaily.com

If you have any questions please email me at bennep@hotmail.com – send me a twitter message @fantasycamper or find me on facebook – facebook.com/bennep

Til next year!

~~ "You can observe a lot just by watching." - Yogi Berra ~~

1 comment:

  1. Paul- Thanks for the camp udates and for another great week playing on your team. I also can't believe Dave S. didn't get some hardware. I figured he was a shoe-in for ROY and in the mix for MVP and Gold Glove.

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