TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2017
It is warm, but overcast today. The Weather Channel on my phone says it will reach 75. The crowd is smaller, probably because the kids are back in school. The team didnât come out until after 10 and then talked for 15 minutes before doing anything. While I was waiting, I couldnât help but notice the tee shirts on the spectators. It seems to be mandatory to have something printed on the shirt. Many have a school , teams and dumb sayings, and bars. Most have Phillies stuff printed on them. I personally favor bars and restaurants. Today, I am wearing a Hogs Breath shirt from Key West.
The team followed the same warmup routine that they have used all spring, stretch, long toss, and base running . Then they split the squad into three groups. Two of the groups were position players and some of the pitchers. The third were about half of the pitchers. The other pitchers continued with the long toss. The drill started with the pitcher throwing home, then the catcher would try to throw out an attempted stealer. The fielder would attempt to throw out a runner coming home on the catcherâs throw to the fielder. This was a fielding drill , the base runners werenât running at a break neck speed. Nobody was chancing getting hurt. One thing about this spring, they have spent a lot of time on base running drills and how to defense base running situations.
At one point, I looked up towards the short field at the front of the stadium and saw a bunch of red hats doing something. I think it was the pitchers and they could be doing fielding drills, or practicing their pickoff play.
They then went to live batting practice. I happened to be standing at the field that Vince Velasquez was pitching. I decided to stay there. The hitters in the group were Logan Moore, Howie Kendrick, Michael Saunders, Freddie Galvis, Tommy Joseph and Cameron Rupp. Velasquez was throwing very hard and he had wicked movement and he was having a hard time getting it over. Not much hitting going on there. He was followed on the mound by Jeanmar Gomez. There wasnât much hitting going on with him either. The third pitcher of the day on that mound was Luis Garcia. The hitters made a little better contact with Garcia, but none of the hitters impressed. The pitchers seem to be far ahead of the hitters at this point.
The practice ended with the infielders being divided up on two fields and the outfielders going to a third. The infielders were divided up by pecking order with last yearâs regulars and a couple of spares on one infield and the lesser regarded on the second field. The coaches then hit ground balls to each of them. The coaches were hitting mostly fly balls with a few grounders to the outfielders on the third field. The pitchers started running.
I left at about 11:45 to head for the beach. A word to the wise. The beach crowd that is not staying on the beach, but driving there is a late crowd. Locals jokingly say they are out partying so lat that they then start late. In traffic to the beach and parking, there is a big difference between 11:00 am and 12:30. Well, tomorrow is the last day on the lower fields before the games start. It all seems to have gone very fast.