Tag: Corey Kimes

My final trip to Hammond Stadium in 2012

I made my final trip to Hammond Stadium today and I had kind of an empty and sad feeling as I drove into the stadium parking area knowing this was my last trip here this season. Empty in more ways than one as it turns out because the fan parking area had very few cars and because many of the fields were sitting empty, void of the normal sights and sounds of baseball being played. Most of the Minnesota Twins had left for Port Charlotte to take on the Tampa Rays and the Rochester and New Britain teams had packed their stuff and headed out for the airport bright and early this morning to fly to their home cities to start their 2012 seasons. It is kind of weird to see the minor league teams break camp before the parent club does. The Beloit team will break camp on Tuesday morning and our own household will check out on Wednesday morning and begin the trek back to Minnesota. It has been a great spring here in southwest Florida and we have been blessed with great weather and the temperatures have been in mid 80’s for the past month and we have had hardly no rain, sure we had a few stray showers now and then, but that is about it. But all good things come to an end and Spring Training 2012 is just about history.

What did I see at the park today? I was lucky enough to be able to watch two games, on field 2 Beloit took on the Fort Myers club and on field 1 the extended players had another inner squad game. Before the Beloit/Fort Myers game both managers met with their respective clubs in the dugout and explained to their players what their expectations were this season both on the field and off the field. It was fun to eavesdrop on the two meetings and listen to Jake Mauer as he explained his signals and how the players should respond to a signal to let the coach know that they received it. It was also interesting to listen to Nelson Prada as he told his Beloit players exactly what their schedule was for the next two days and some housekeeping details like that he expected them to make sure their incidentals were paid up before they checked out and what kind of clothing they were expected to wear when they traveled. Once the games started, they were entertaining and fun to watch. The Beloit and Fort Myers game drew the most fans and maybe that was because Joe Mauer hit for his brothers Fort Myers club while Trevor Plouffe used his stick to help the Beloit team. Both Mauer and Plouffe batted each inning and both had their share of hits, Mauer in particular was really stinging the ball, on one at bat he almost took the pitchers head off.

On the other field I enjoyed watching Max Kepler and his friends do battle as they continue learning the game and fight to move to the next level. I am particularly interested in following Max’s career because Max is from Germany, the same country that I was born in. I first saw Max out on the back fields early in February, long before spring training started and he and a small band of players have been out on the field day in and day out working to improve their skills. We all look at the players in the big leagues and see how much money they make and how easy their life appears to us. We forget the blood, sweat, and hard work that it takes to get there and how many players never achieve that final step to the major leagues. The Twins have some nice young players and I will enjoy following them as their careers move forward.

 

Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez

I am not exactly shy and one of the things I enjoy doing is talking to the players when I can and even more so with the fans that are there to watch these young athletes as they do their best to learn and master the game of baseball the Twins way. Today I had a chance to talk to some wonderful folks from Illinois who were there to see Corey Kimes pitch. Corey must have a boat load of relatives following his career because I have run into some of Corey’s other relatives last week too. How cool is that to watch a member of your family work his butt off to reach the major leagues? I talked to a family of transplanted Minnesotan’s that now reside in South Carolina and still visit Fort Myers each spring to follow the Minnesota Twins. Then I saw a person talking on a cell phone that I recognized as future Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. I took his picture of course and had a chance to ask Pudge if he would still play if someone came calling and he told me “no, I am done playing baseball, I am retired now”. Pudge was recognized by a handful of fans who asked and received autographs from this former All-Star catcher. Rodriguez was there to watch his son Dereck, a Twins 6th round pick in 2011 play in the extended game. Dereck is a 6’1″ 160 pound outfielder but if Dereck goes 160, it must be soaking wet with 10 pounds of rocks in each pocket. Pudge was watching both of the games and it was kind of funny listening to some of the fans as they talked amongst themselves and assumed that Beloit catcher Jairo Rodriguez was Pudge’s son. As Dereck batted, I tried to watch his Dad for a reaction to each pitch but I saw no reaction from Pudge what-so-ever, even after this swing and a miss for strike three.

Dereck Rodriguez swings at strike three

I also had an opportunity to run into JC from Knuckleballs.com and it was nice to chat with another Twins blogger far from home. It was sad though to think that I won’t see any more spring training until next year and I will miss that and the friends and acquaintances I have made at Hammond Stadium. See you again next year I hope! The 2012 baseball season is just about here, PLAY BALL!

As always I enjoy taking pictures and I have posted the ones I took today in my 2012 Spring Training pictures folder on the right hand side of this page. I will try to get the players identified tomorrow. There are over 700 pictures out there that I took this spring.

Three games in one day

It has been 11 days since I went out to the ballpark to watch spring training drills. I did take the family to a Twins/Pirates game a few days ago when the Twins got blown out but other that I have not been out to Hammond Stadium for 11 days because our son and his wife came down to Cape Coral for a visit and the time just wasn’t there.

I knew that the Twins were facing the New York Yankees in Tampa today and that I probably would see few if any of the actual Twins themselves but I wanted to see a little baseball on the minor league side. Not long after I arrived I watched as the Tampa Rays bus pulled up from Port Charlotte which is just 30-40 northwest of here and their advanced A Port Charlotte team and their A ball Bowling Green got off the bus and walked over to fields 2 and 3 for a 1:00 game against the Twins respective squads. At the same time, the Twins extended league players prepared for an inner squad game on field 1. The Twins New Britain and Rochester contingent had gone up to Port Charlotte to take on Tampa AA and AAA teams. As the Tampa teams took the field for warm-ups, the Twins teams were on their lunch break.

Mike Cubbage and one of Tampa's coaches

While I was waiting for the games to begin I was just sitting down jotting a few notes when who walks up but former Twins infielder and now Tampa Rays scout Mike Cubbage. I introduced myself and we chatted about the phone interview I had done with Mike back in February of 2010 and then we talked about the Twins and some of their players both in the majors and in the minors. I had a chance to chat with Mike off and on for over three hours and I really enjoyed it, he was both interesting, informative, and fun to talk with. I think our opinions of how the Twins will do this season are actually not that far apart and it was interesting to hear Mike tell me what the life of a scout is really like. Mike shared his schedule with me through the end of May and the man is on the road probably 25 days each month and it is not unusual for him to scout games in the afternoon and catch another one that same night. After Cubbage stepped away to talk with some of the Tampa players, I was joined at the table I was sitting at behind home plate of field 3 by Tampa pitcher Jeff Ames who was assigned chart duty on this day since he is scheduled to pitch tomorrow. Jeff was very nice and he told me what it was like to attend spring training for the first time since he was just drafted last year. I didn’t know it at the time and Jeff never mentioned it but my research indicates that Ames was drafted by Tampa last year in the 1st round as a compensatory pick (number 42 over-all) and according to scouting reports throws over 100 MPH on occasion. We talked a little about spring training and what the players do when they get some free time. According to Jeff, when he is not playing baseball or enjoying a little down time, you will find him and his friends at the local golf course. It just so happens that if you are a Rays ballplayer you get to golf free but that does not help me.  A little bit later we were joined at the table by a Twins player I did not recognize. I introduced myself and the player turned out to be catcher Phillip Chapman, a Twins 35th round pick in 2011. Phillip explained that he was on the DL and that he hurt his knee working out just before camp opened and had arthroscopic surgery on his knee just a week ago. I asked Phillip when he expected he would be back on the field and his reply was “I really don’t know, it has been a week since my surgery and I can’t run yet”. The man obviously has high expectations for a quick recovery, I am sure I would not be expecting to be able to run just a week after knee surgery. It has got to be extra tough to get back when you are a catcher, I wished Phillip a speedy recovery.

Once the game started I wandered between the three fields since they are so close in proximity and I was able to watch all 3 games and take a bunch of pictures that I have uploaded to my 2012 Spring Training pictures that you can find on the right side of this page. Enjoy the pictures and I will label them as soon as I can. In one of the games Jamey Carroll and Danny Valencia batted 2nd and 3rd in every inning trying to get more at bats against live pitching. Valencia hit a nice double down the line but I never saw Carroll get the ball out of the infield. Valencia hung around for a few innings before calling it a day but Carroll was still going at it when I left. Earlier I was standing just behind the screen getting ready to take some pictures as Valencia was walking up to get in the on deck circle and he glanced at me as he walked by and then turned around and said to me, “it will help if you take your lens cap off first”. We both got a chuckle out of that one and then he walked up and proceeded to hit that double down the line.

All toll I spent about 5 hours at the ballpark today and I had a great time. Just wandering around and talking baseball with everyone at the ballpark during spring training is more fun than you should be allowed to have. I saw a couple that sat and diligently watched the extended players playing their inter squad game and I stopped by and asked if they were enjoying the game. They said they were and that they were excited about watching their grandson play. Naturally I asked who their grandson was and they told me it was Corey Kimes, a LHP that the Twins drafted from Illinois last year. All they hope for Corey is that he does the best he can do. Is that cool or what? For all you baseball fans back there that have never attended spring training here in Fort Myers, I feel bad for you because you are missing out one of life’s great pleasures.