2006 Minnesota Twins Fantasy Baseball Camp Days 3 - 5

We had a bye on Tuesday morning and won our game in the afternoon. Record so far 3 wins, 0 losses . So far so good!

Below is former Twin pitcher, Lee Stange. "Stinger" was one of my coaches last year, but is with another group this year.

On Tuesday evening, Joan and I drove down to Naples, FL and visited Paul and Betsy Koller. Paul was one of my bosses during our tour of duty in Moscow in the early 80s. Paul has retired from Caterpillar and they have built a beautiful house near the beach in Naples. Most evenings, they join a group of friends for 'wine on the beach.' There were few clouds, so the sun just sort of disappeared into the sea with little residual color.

Betsy is an accomplished artist and you can find her paintings on UNICEF cards and Nestle chocolate candy boxes.

We played another game on Wednesday morning and won again to stay undefeated. As a result, we are seeded #1 for the tournament starting Thursday. The best thing about this is, as the #1 seed we have a bye and can rest our pitching.

Wednesday afternoon is free time for the campers. Some go to the beach, some to the pool, some sleep, and some of us golf. A scramble is organized for interested players at Crown Colony where our camp organizer is a member. Pros are assigned to each group of campers and for the second year, Joan and I played with former Twin pitching great, Bert Blyleven. Bert is a great golfer (Hdcp 2) and with his length and the combined talents of the rest of us, we finished at minus 7. Unfortunately, that was not good enough to beat the group including former Twin catcher, Tim Laudner. Tim (Minnesota State Amateur and State Match Play qualifier last year) might be a -2 handicap and his team finished at minus 9. Shown below is Joan, Bert, and Jim Hustvedt, a fellow camper.

After our bye on Thursday morning, we played in the afternoon and won again. Our undefeated record to this point seeded us into the Championship game on Saturday, regardless (or for you English majors, 'irregardless') of whether or not we win our Friday game.

During the camp I played 3rd base, 2nd, outfield and pitched. My summer team manager calls that "opportunity!"

Our goal is, of course, to win the camp championship, but also to stay undefeated in doing so. Friday we will play one game in the morning and then participate in the 3-inning Camper - Pro Games.