Chapter 1 - Introduction

Well, its happened. I first published my introduction the other day and mentioned that was not sure what was more daunting, setting up this blog or getting ready to go to camp. Based on my first edits of the blog its the first as I have deleted my initial post. So let me try again.

Recently I celebrated my "39th birthday" and recieved as my present from my wife a trip to the RedSox Baseball Fantasy Camp come Febuary 1, 2009 in Fort Myers at the RedSox Spring Training Complex. I had mentioned to her a few years back that this would be a neat present to celebrate this milestone. She reached out to my friend in Atlanta, Brent, and the two of them got together and signed not only me up for the camp but also Brent.

This is truly a dream come true. My baseball playing experience has been somewhat limited. I remember playing organized "softball" in our church league and was a pretty good shortstop. For one reason or another, there was no baseball in the area. Fast forward to 1989 with the first opportunity for my oldest to play T-Ball I signed up to assist my son's team.
We moved to Franklin, MA in 1989 and signed him up for the Spring 1990 Franklin youth baseball league. I volunteered to be an assistant or Coach and found out that they assigned me the managers position. That started over 18 years of volunteering. This included coaching my oldest through Pony League, my middle son through little league and my youngest all the way through Babe Ruth. It including many summer all star stints as manager as well as coaching at the Senior Babe Ruth age (16-18). I also was the coordinator of many of the age divisions and finally the President of the League for 8 years seeing it grow from 750 kids to over 1,200.

My last organized coaching ending with a heartbreaking loss in the finals of the Senior Babe Ruth league in 2007. I formally retired from all coaching in 2008. So the thought of actually particpating in the camp is a real thrill. All the years of coaching and instructing will hopefully all pan out for me as I get ready to go to Camp.


My goal of this blog is to keep my friends and family up to date with my experience. Having known about this for the last six months, I have not made to many strides to get my weight in check but have been fine tuning my baseball skills. I have been playing catch when weather permits and been going to see my personal instructor Jeff at Extra Innings in Wrentham.

Many have already read my first attempt at the blog and have expressed encourgement and lots of suggestions regarding stretching and the such. My lovely wife is looking for someone to set the line on my first injury. Please stay tuned for my postings as I get near to checking in. So with the help of the Almighty and a big bottle of ibuprofen I will survive this wonderful experience