First Practice of the Season

Barely a practice at that for my new baseball team. It’s a mish-mosh of guys, one I played with last year and then a few from other teams thrown together. It was up north, and early, so I left around 8:15, thinking it would be about 45 minutes.

It was closer to an hour and I arrived about 9:10 as people were warming up. I got to the field with my stuff as they started infield and I got a call from Tia. She'd pulled a muscle and couldn’t feed horses. I said I was an hour away and could Delaney do something to help. I felt bad, but I couldn’t help in the short term, and 45 minutes or so wouldn’t make a difference to the horses. I put the phone down feeling bad, but also wanting to get a little work in. I’ve missed 2 other practices and this was a good time to get some in since the first game is next week.

So I threw a bit, and surprisingly the arm felt good. I went left handed, and took my new first baseman’s mitt out for the first time. It was a struggle to catch balls, and I definitely need some practice with it. It’s stiff and hard to catch in, so I’ll work on that this week.

I took some infield, doing OK at first, and scooping a couple bad throws, missing a couple others. I tried to take it easy since I hadn’t warmed up the legs that much. I got some outfield as well, and misjudged the first fly, and then caught one. I also chased down a couple that were too far to catch. One was in front and I might have made it, but the first day of practice isn’t the time to go crazy trying to impress people.

Then the wind kicked up. We tried for some batting practice, but dust and dirt was all around. I managed to get up there, with the ball coming at me and jumping around. I did see the bp throws well and managed a couple good hits, but it was quick. 5 per person, which isn’t much. I’d definitely like to get out and hit the cage this week, or set up my pitching machine.

I left about 45 minutes in, or tried to. I had to write a check, and then took off, heading back to take care of Tia. Not much of a practice, but it felt great to be back out there.