Category: Going Through the Change

5 May 2013 by Rob Jones

The first cracks of the bat

It was a bright, cold and sunny Monday morning. I had slept like a log, but another four hours of sleep wouldn’t have gone amiss. That’s what a couple of weeks of baseball can do to you. My arms ached and my pride was wounded but I had certainly had an interesting start to the 2013 season, writes Rob Jones.

The two games could hardly be more different. In the first, I was with the Raptors as they ran up a football score against Leicester 2Sox. In my second game, I was on the receiving end of a similar thumping as the Eagles were undone at Hemel by the Tonbridge Bobcats.

There was a consistent thread in both games — and that was my bat making lousy contact with the ball. I hit infield dribblers, comebackers, pop-ups and all sorts of rubbish. Horrid. It was crowned by a strikeout in each game, which is galling as two strikeouts is usually my total for a season, not a fortnight! Both were on third strikes which I considered high — especially the first of them — but I guess you live and learn.

Your correspondent Rob Jones hits a sac fly in the closing stages of the Tonbridge game (pic: David Ames)

The bat-on-ball contact did get better as each game went along, so I take solace in that. I hit one decent single at Leicester, and then a single, double and sac-fly in the run-fest against Tonbridge.

My overall performance in the field was of a better standard. OK, yes, I dropped a pop-up on the infield against Tonbridge, and yes I should have been slapped for it. It was a classic lesson in not thinking about the people around you, and not thinking ahead to the impending double play. I failed to close my mind to these things, and paid the price. Duncan, who was pitching, also paid the price, as he had to go through it all over again. A lesson for us all.

Otherwise, I fielded all the ground balls which came my way, and I had put away a couple of outfield catches in my first-week outing. It feels good when you can slip back into baseball smoothly, after a long winter break. Training both indoors and back on the Grovehill diamond really help, but it is satisfying when any good work continues during a competitive game.

I felt that the fielding performance of both Raptors and Eagles was actually pretty good. There was some sloppiness which could be put down to rust, particularly with the Raptors, and to the first “game-time” situations of the year. But there were few howlers. The Eagles are fielding a lot of genuine rookies, who will learn fast, and Raptors eked out a tough win against the Old Timers in week 2, so must have improved!

There is just room for a quick word on my pitching debut for the year. I haven’t taken the mound since 2011, but I felt quite comfortable up there. Apart from walking the first batter, I did stick to my usual mantra of not giving away free passes. At this level, I have often seen walks eat away at a team and while I know I can’t blow away hitters, I also know that I can throw strikes. Unfortunately a hot-hitting Tonbridge team rather teed off on me.

I did get two outs — one thanks to a good stop by Mike Cresswell — and nearly got out of the inning. But we made some fielding errors, and missed fly balls. This isn’t a grumble against my team-mates, as one of the errors was by me when I picked up a bunt cleanly but threw high and wide to first base. But you do really feel the effect of those errors when you are the man on the mound.

I threw one or two curve balls that I was happy with, but probably stayed away from it too much for fear of walks. If the coach lets me get back up there, I must try to work batters more.

So that’s how 2013 opened for me. Barely days after becoming a big money transfer to the Herts Eagles, I found myself all suited up for Opening Day with the Raptors. Life’s full of surprises. And I headed up to a new venue for me, Leicester. Western Park is a nice little diamond. As undulating as most British ballparks, and with its batting circle and bases having the consistency of a slightly pebbly beach. But with a permanent backstop, a decent amount of cover from trees, and an overall good feel.

Milton Keynes and Haverhill will also be new experiences. And I am still looking forward to the year. Although I still need more sleep. It’s hard to tell what the season will be like, or what the story will be when summer fades away. But I like the opening chapters.

16 April 201316 April 2013 by Rob Jones

The Art of Training

The Spring, having finally arrived in the wake of the snow, is now almost over. The National Leaguers and the Double-A Hawks have kicked off their baseball season, and Triple-A will follow shortly after a weather-induced postponement, writes Rob Jones. The Herts Raptors and Eagles will start on Sunday, and as the league action draws closer, I felt it was time to reflect on the pre-season training period.

I made it to three or four indoor sessions this year. It was great to have the help of a conditioning coach, working us out and teaching us new exercises. I’m not sure I have fully grasped the idea of plyometrics, but I learned something. And in a slightly perverse way I enjoyed making my body ache. In the last session, I started off a bit badly and actually felt quite ill. But a break and some water helped overcome the effects of intense exercise early on Sunday morning.

Indoor Training — This was how it all started, indoors in January in Berkhamsted

Many of my erudite followers will also have read the excellent baseball novel which was a minor phenomenon last year, The Art of Fielding. In many ways, it’s not really about baseball — like any novel it is, in fact, about love, frailty, friendship and frustration — but the baseball setting speaks to us players more than it does to the average British Joe.

However, one of the biggest things to strike me was the way the shortstop phenom Henry Skrimshander would physically push himself — “working til you puke” — running up and down the football stadium steps, and doing endless reps with weights. It might be going too far to say that it inspired me, but it did make me want to do more and work harder.

That combination of early morning runs, protein shakes, and constant practise is part of the overall vision of being a professional athlete, which most of us reach for with our involvement in baseball. It’s not the glamour part, but it’s an element in the whole.

Perhaps, as I share Henry’s slight build, I saw it as an example of what work could achieve. And honestly, I have tried to put in some extra hours. That meant running round Regents Park in the snow in my dinner breaks whenever I could, and remembering to do my Powerball exercises at home of an evening. There has been no Skrimshander-like transformation, but I did feel better and brighter. And even more keen for the baseball season to start.

But this masochistic passion for personal pain was never going to last. “Running til you puke” is not really my style. Don’t get me wrong — especially if you are a likely opponent this season — I will give a game my all. But I am not one to drive myself over the edge in pursuit of physical perfection. I’m just too rational, too common-sense. And I often did my Powerball exercises with a glass of red wine on the go. Which may have defeated the object slightly.

And so, in the first weeks of March, we were back at the diamond. A couple of cold and grey sessions were the best we could manage here. But even if you don’t arrive at the field to see its glowing emerald green stretch out before you, like a Major League ballpark, it still lifts the heart a little to be at Grovehill.

And I felt pretty happy with these workouts. Just getting to throw the ball freely was good, and playing the rough hops of the diamond instead of the smooth predictability of a gymnasium floor! I felt I was throwing well, and the masterful Darrin Ward gave a large squad of would-be pitchers excellent tips.

In one session, the equally excellent Geoff Hare taught me a base-running technique I had never heard before. Which impressed me, I can tell you. It’s not that I thought I knew everything about baseball, but that after ten years or so you do assume that further things you learn will be on the next level of the game — wheel plays, hit and runs, delayed steals. But this was something you can use in every situation. Obviously, I can’t reveal it here, it’s top secret, but suffice it to say it was fine advice.

The training part of the year ended on Sunday, with a few final drills and a scrimmage game between the Single-A rivals, the Eagles and the Raptors. I’m not sure I made a dramatic case for getting a second baseman’s job ahead of Raptors’ manager Arnie Longboy (who also likes to play there!), as I distinctly remember bobbling a ground ball which should have been the final out of an inning. But fortunately I became the first of three players involved in getting the last out at home plate instead!

I have hardly swung the bat this year so perhaps should not be surprised that my two at-bats led only to a groundout to short, and a pop-up to third which, luckily, was dropped. At least the first AB went to a full count, which is normal service for my batting! I did manage to hurt my back swinging for a low pitch, but I am trusting that is just the rigours of old age.

The most important thing was to take part, and to feel the ball in the glove after weeks snowed off, rained off, and dominated by weekends of work. Hopefully I — and the other Single-A players — will now be set up for Opening day. The Raptors are away in Leicester. Yes, Leicester. This game can take you places. Some places you never dreamed, some that you always dreamed of…. See you there.

17 February 201317 February 2013 by Rob Jones

2013: A New Hope

The Herts club’s occasional blogger, equally occasional player, and former Chief Correspondent Rob Jones has returned for another year of baseball. Here he offers his random views, glimpses and hopes for the coming year.

The sound echoed around the hall. It was of a loud slap, a loud snap, not unlike the report of a gun. It was a baseball hitting a leather mitt. Baseball season had begun.

Fifty or so players were there on the first week of indoor Spring Training, and the fact that a cavernous sports hall seemed crowded showed how far Herts has come in the past couple of years in expanding its reach. By the time I was there — barely even a few minutes late, which is excellent by my standards — there seemed hardly room to throw. On the second week there were slightly fewer of us, but still dozens of players, all turning out on a cold Sunday morning. The first excellent result of the season.

Never fear, though, about the apparent lack of space. Once the session had got rolling and the coaches had stepped in to organise, every inch of the hall was well used. At the second session, the club’s new strength and conditioning coach made his first appearance and worked the players into submission. Crouching like crabs, jumping like grasshoppers, lunging like refugees from Python’s silly walks sketch. The Herts media department kindly used a photo of the event which showed me as the only player bent double trying to recover from the exertion!

I am by no means a hardcore devotee of exercise. But I do love to play, and the last thing I want to do at a session is stand around waiting for stuff to be sorted. And that doesn’t happen here at Herts. It hasn’t for years now, and we have reaped two benefits from that. Number one — passionate, hard-working club staff. Number two — better players.

Those players include some of the top names in British baseball — Robbie Unsell, Ryan Bird — who now turn out in a Herts uniform and helped take the club to the NBL final in 2012. It also includes some excellent youth players who have begun to pull on the jersey for our adult teams, and who could take us even higher in the future. Guys who already had great talent going for them — Kyle Lloyd-Jones; the Caress brothers — seemed to have grown a foot taller over the winter and to have filled out. They will be an imposing presence on whichever diamond hosts them this season.

Caros Casal argues his case during the Hunlock Series in 2009 There are plenty of new faces, as well as some which have returned from the past. The Casal family, who always play with fire and passion, will be a shot in the arm for the club on the field after a successful sojourn at the Harlow Nationals. A return is also on the cards for Ross Asquith, the King of the Bunt, the Fastest Thing in the South from the early days of the Herts Hawks, I think it was. Because we now have a fifth adult team, we will need a deep bench, but that seems to be a luxury we are developing. Last weekend was the first of many sessions which I will miss this year. Work often keeps me away from Herts baseball, but like so many others I keep coming back. Last season was a bit of a low ebb for me, in terms of playing time. I only made it to five games, I think, and one of them was incomplete. I never really got my swing together and batted only about .440, disappointing after previous seasons. But my OBP remained high, and I felt I was contributing to the team and to a few victories. Who knows what 2013 will hold for me, and for Herts. But that is one of the great things about Spring Training. Anything seems possible. Everything is out there to be worked for, and aimed at. The grainy photos of Herts part-timers in a cavernous sports hall are the equivalent of those sun-dappled pictures from the MLB’s Spring leagues. But although the visual image is rather different, the spirit is the same. It is about hope, and about what it can bring.

5 October 20126 October 2012 by Rob Jones

Heading for the Hunlock

My regular readers — of which I know, there are literally several — will know that I like to write a paean to the Hunlock series every year. One of those articles referred to it as an encore, an extra flourish once the season is over, and something of an added bonus. This year’s event is slightly different for me, as I didn’t have much of a season at all. So it’s not an encore — it’s almost the main event.

Rob Jones in action — Your correspondent, Rob Jones, legs out an infield hit against the Blue Dogs

The Hunlock Series brings together players from all the club’s teams, both youth and adult, and spreads them around in a way which creates four new evenly-matched teams. That makes for great competitions, and you should have no doubt that a friendly series can be genuinely competitive! There is a great atmosphere to the event, but if you think Greg Bochan wants you to get a hit off him, or if you think Glen Downer is after anything less than a home run, you’re mistaken.

One of the best things about the Hunlock is that you get to meet up with players you might not have seen all year. There are guys turning out who were already part of the club when I joined up a decade ago, and in that sense it’s a bit like a class reunion. Rod Naghar has been doing his thing successfully for the Hawks this year — after doing it with various teams over the years — and it is fun to play alongside him for the first time in a long time.

Old faces return, too, including Carlos Casal Jr and Snr who both did so much to make the Herts club a force in British baseball. And for lower league guys like me it is good to play alongside the best that Herts can offer. I’ve never really seen Kevin Niedringhaus play baseball before, but it was a revelation to watch somebody work like that on the mound, and to turn their hand to so many skills so well.

Another fine thing is to meet new talent, and to see guys who could do great things for Herts next year. You can read elsewhere on the site about Guv Bhangal’s exploits, and I think he got one of those hits at the expense of my Red Roosters. Matt Cox — whose surname I admit I only knew after I read the match reports — made a great impact for us, and I know I would want him for any future team. Great speed, good hitting, and great exuberance. All of those contributed to the inside the park home run he notched up against the Black Widows. Straight out of the box, he was clearly going to stretch it as far as possibly could, and it was a perfect example of putting pressure on a defense. A well deserved feat.

My own performances were rather less dramatic. On the couple of occasions I have turned out this autumn I have played like a 40 year old who has barely played any baseball this year. So, no great surprises, but I’d rather be able to make a more flattering comparison! I did actually get a couple of RBIs, but I think there was only one proper hit in there. The rest were luck and nonsense. As for fielding, I missed both of the balls which came my way in the course of the day. On a routine ground ball, I singularly failed to “get my ass down”, and it went right by. I have a clear mental image of myself as that stiff 40 year old, tightened up further by lack of game time. No excuses, really — I always marvel at those guys who just show up and just do it, whether they be young or old — but instead a fresh determination to try to get the most playing time I can.

Maybe this coming week will find that I have worked some of the old man stiffness out of my system. That’s assuming the coach even dares put me on the field this week! This year has been disrupted by weather, work, and family issues, and the plan to get lots of playing time before moving my old legs into management needs a bit of rewriting. Whatever turns out, I shall hope for another good day at the diamond this Sunday, definitely my last of 2012. For the real beauty of the Hunlock is that the good parts of it far outweigh any grumbles about results or booted ground balls. It’s about playing for the fun of the game and whatever else happens, it’s always fun.

22 July 201222 July 2012 by Rob Jones

The true value of the cliche

It’s been a rich and varied baseball season for me so far — but only when I have had the chance to play baseball, writes Rob Jones. And because those opportunities have been rather sparse, I have had far too much time to simply mull over the beautiful game, instead. Games that I have played in have had highs and lows, swings and roundabouts, and plenty of talking points. To that end, I have been considering the validity of various truisms — some might call them cliches — about baseball, and about life.

Pitching and defense win ball games

I can’t claim any great insight in this one – any coach will tell you it’s true. Perhaps it’s the greatest cliche of all for anyone who plays the game. But it is worth highlighting, and here’s why. You often think about the differences between baseball at the Major League level and where we play it, at the nether reaches of the British game. Stealing a base is a very different proposition, for example. And the positioning of fielders is far more sophisticated – think about how often you have seen an MLB outfielder stand patiently to receive a room service catch, having already assessed the matchup and the situation.

Falcons v Mustangs — The Falcons defense comes up trumps against Southampton - but only by an inch

But this one is a truism which is equally true at all levels of the game. The fewer mistakes you make, and the more strikes you throw, the better your chance of getting a win. Even in a high-scoring league like ours, it is the defense which will make all the difference. In this year’s game against the London Marauders this was particularly true. Our first three hitters got bat on ball, but their fielders made every play. None was spectacular, perhaps, but they could all have gone wrong, and they didn’t. On the other side of the coin, we failed to make a succession of close plays.

We were undone by walks too — in a previous year I remember us opening a game with six consecutive walks. You just can’t do that and get away with it. When the average viewer watches Major League pitching, you don’t appreciate how hard it is. Watching guys like us makes it abundantly clear! I should point out that I am not just criticising from the sidelines here — in my only pitching start last year I walked two of my first three guys, and I have always made it my special purpose on the mound NOT to give free passes. Once you are up there, it’s a different scenario.

Young pitcher Zack Longboy has been a boon for us this season with his tremendous consistency. More of him later, but let me give this final thought about pitching and defense. No matter how good the man on the mound is, he will need help. When the San Francisco Giants’ Matt Cain threw his first perfect game last month, it was made possible by Gregor Blanco making a phenomenal diving catch in right field, and by Joaquin Arias making a series of excellent plays from third. Pitching and defense go hand in hand if they are to succeed.

It’s a game of inches

It’s been said that the set-up and measurements of the baseball diamond are perfect, and that this can be seen in the way a close play fifty years ago is still a close play today — even as fitness and strength and equipment improve, the margins of success and failure remain consistently small. Once again, this truism can be neatly transposed onto the rough and ready amateur game. We may be consistently less fit and powerful than Major Leaguers, but that means we end up just as close!

Stealing bases against the Essex Archers, I was often an inch from being out. My second time on base, the pitcher knew I was going to steal. He threw over four times, and the third time I was only just able to dive back, safe by an inch. An inch away from embarrassment. (I would have been more comfortable, except that I caught the peak of my helmet in the dirt — there are lots of reasons that the inches count!) Later, as a runner at third base, I was pushing my luck as far off the bag as I could, and when a grounder went back to the pitcher, he looked at me, and I looked at him. He waited, just a few heartbeats, then went for the out at first. As soon as he did, I was off, going for home. I slid in, clattering into the catcher and scraping skin off my arm. But, by an inch, I was safe. As it was, a vital run scored. Had I failed, it would have been a foolish wasted out.

The cliche isn’t just true of base-running, either. A pitch which paints the corner can be given either way, depending on how the umpire sees it. How many times have you seen a pitch which just needed to be an inch higher, an inch lower? And it’s true when batting. Against Essex, Glen Downer just missed out on a couple of big hits, because a potential homer becomes a pop-fly because the contact is just an inch further up the bat. In the same game, Gilberto Medina hit a beautiful drive out to left field. I was running from second, and stopped half way down the line to watch what happened to the ball. It carried past the fielder, onwards towards the fence, onwards, and then — by just inches — it fell short of being a homer. I think it was only a single. I am delighted to say that, since then, Gilberto has deservedly hit one all the way out.

Young stars — Longboy and Caress - two rising young stars for the Raptors

Age ain’t nothing but a number

Herts has some tremendous veteran players, and the Falcons have picked up some with golden track records this year. But the club is perhaps best known for its youth set-up, and the youngest stars have been some of the biggest for the Raptors this year. Zack Longboy has been a revelation on the mound. The league-leading Essex Archers marveled at his poise and accuracy, after he had pushed them close to defeat for the first time this year. He has secured key strikeouts, thrown a variety of pitches for strikers, and fielded his position calmly. His perfromance belies his years, and he has put a lifetime of preparation to good use.

And Zack is not the only young star in the ranks. Brodie and Jake Caress have made the step up to adult baseball, with Jake closing out the win against the Old Timers with the game on the line (the Raptors had never beaten the Old Timers, and the come from behind victory was vital to playoff hopes). Both have performed well with the bat, while Jose Morillo has matured enormously as an offensive weapon, and the team also had a little pitching help from GB’s Tom Everex-Armstrong in the win over Tonbridge. These players have shown a fearlessness and a technique which we can all look to emulate.

Winning isn’t everything

This was an issue I began to chew over as I considered the contrasting experience of winning at a stroll against the Tonbridge Bobcats, and then losing by a narrow squeak against Essex. Winning is a wonderful thing, don’t get me wrong — I am not here to extol the virtue of the gallant defeat! When we thumped Tonbridge last season I thoroughly enjoyed it, as my first victory for two years. But whether you win easily or lose disastrously, you can come away with a similarly empty feeling.

It’s the competition which gives life and meaning to a win. It’s one of the reasons we always want to see a World Series go to seven games, or a Wimbledon final go to five sets. Winning a tough game is the best feeling of all. In that sense, I suspect the Raptors’ defeat of the Old Timers was an absolute corker. Sooooo sorry to have missed that one. The Eagles victory over the Essex Redbacks was the best game I have had this year, coming from behind to take a late lead, then clinging on for an 18-16 win. Those are the most exhilarating games. Just winning isn’t enough — we want to win with style, and after a battle.

24 May 2012 by Rob Jones

If you build it, Herts will come

In the United States, there are baseball diamonds in most parks and at most schools. In the UK, you find them in the strangest of places. Such as the Essex Redbacks new field in Billericay. Yes, it’s next to a football club, so that’s not so strange.

But it is in fact in a farmers field, bordered on two sides by rapeseed crops growing so high you fully expect the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson to emerge from them at any moment. The recent weather and its farming heritage combined to make the surface look pretty lumpy and threatening, but once the game got started there were absolutely no complaints about it. It’s great that Essex, just like Herts, have been able to expand their facilities and provide more chances to play ball.

I blame rust

I can’t blame the surface for any of the fielding mistakes I made, certainly. The most glaring bonehead play was dropping a routine pop-up in foul ground having called off Theo, who had been playing a blinder. I can’t find any reason for that one. More generally I will blame rust, and a lack of baseball this year.

Rob Jones at bat — Rob Jones, poised at the plate. He doesn't actually look TOO skinny in this picture...

Definitely I am going to blame rust for me missing out on a sliding catch in the outfield. I had started in right field, and had a pretty quiet time. Essex got very few big hits, and those that did make it to the outfield headed for left and centre. But finally a batter shanked a ball into the air in my direction, and it was time for action…

I think it was always going to be a tough one, falling in the in-between zone that separates infield and outfield. But at first I thought it was carrying pretty well. Then, maybe held up by the wind, maybe by its spin, I realised it was dropping very short and I was nowhere near it. At least that left me in no doubt that I had to run hard. So I did, and slid at the last moment in a way which has produced catches in the past. Not this time, though – it got away.

Huffed from a pea-shooter

It wasn’t my only “nearly spectacular” moment of the game. Having moved over to third base, I attempted a goalkeeping dive towards a line drive which came through at a good height. I think I was just a bit too slow on that one, because it felt like I got close. I did finally manage to get something to show for my diving around — in the eighth inning, I think, I slid to my left to snare a sharp ground ball. It was one of those where you aren’t sure the ball is in the glove until you look but, when it is, you feel pretty satisfied.

From a position on my backside, I alertly looked to second to force out the runner who had been on first base. Somewhat bathetically I capped off this moment of athleticism by giving Duncan a throw which bounced three times before rolling the last distance like a pea huffed out of a pea-shooter. But the runner was out, so I am looking on the bright side.

The big pluses

My batting showed perhaps a slow improvement on last week. It all started off with another walk, predictably enough. But after that there was sometimes too much enthusiasm to hit. The umpire had a pretty big strike zone, so I felt it would be risky to count on getting the calls you want – and I also came up with men on base quite a lot, when a walk is of more limited use.

I popped it up twice — once to the catcher and once to the pitcher — which might suggest I was swinging at high stuff. But I got a couple of hits, and scored a couple of runs. My best contact was a fly ball out to centre. I got on base, but since it was clearly dropped by the outfielder I really have to admit that I reached on an error.

There were many things I should have done better, but once again I felt good for having been in the game. Even if I was not crucial – Adrian’s home run and Theo’s pitching were the big pluses — I felt that I had helped the team win. I won’t be able blame rust for much longer! There is a good spirit in the Eagles, relaxed but competitive, with constant ribbing and a good chatter to keep guys focused. And that makes it fun to show up. The aches and pains — even my fingers ached, for heaven’s sake — did little to encourage me back, but I am definitely looking forward to the next game.

24 May 201228 May 2012 by Rob Jones

Back to the ballpark

It was a cold, grey and wet Monday morning as I took the children to school. It was like many other days for the past month (not all of them were Mondays, though a disproportionate number felt like a Monday!) But I was sure that just hours before, I had been playing baseball at a sun-dappled Grovehill ballpark. Was that just a hallucination? A mirage?

Maybe not… The evidence is there to back up the mental images. There is the uniform, smeared with red dust, piled in front of the washing machine. There are my aching legs and arms. And there is the typical collection of bumps and grazes. Yes, it was real. Finally, for the first time in 2012, I had played baseball.

After a cancellation and a couple of washouts, this was –in effect — Opening Day for the Raptors. The resurrected south coast franchise, Hove Tuesday, was coming to visit Hemel Hempstead. And Arnie Longboy’s men were ready to meet them. So prepared were they, that most of the players had chosen their own songs to boom out of the PA as they walked up to bat. This was Major League, baby.

Rob Jones archive — Rob Jones pops one up in his younger days

I started my tenth season of baseball positioned out in left field, amid the daisies and buttercups which still festooned the playing field. It started pretty quietly, but in due course an arcing fly ball came my way. The alert centre fielder shouted me back, but part-way through my retreat I slowed, thinking I had gone far enough. I had not. When I headed backwards again it was too late and the ball went past my despairing glove.

A frustrating start, then, and I hope that my weeks of inactivity don’t do too much damage to my rusty “skills”. Not long afterwards I was able to securely catch another hit to the outfield which, as a line drive, was probably much harder to judge. But there you go — this game doesn’t always make sense.

I hadn’t got as far as choosing an At Bat Anthem for 2012. When Arnie suggested it I thought jokingly about “He’s Not There”, or “The Invisible Man”, since I had never showed up to training or pre-season. But instead I left it, so against Hove I came up to bat listening to someone else’s random selection of heavy rock.

And I made my traditional start by getting a walk. In fact, my batting season started by receiving eleven straight balls — adding up to two walks and a 3-0 count. After the pitcher finally grooved a strike, I then made an error by swinging at the next offering, which would probably have been ball four high and away. I had put myself in a hole which I duly finished digging by striking out. Respect to the pitcher for his recovery, but as I said earlier, baseball doesn’t always make sense — and neither did my batting line of two patient walks, and then a flailing strikeout.

This was an odd game. The Raptors started badly, giving up a stack of runs. But they immediately got them back, with both starting pitchers giving up a lot of walks. Raptors were ahead after the first, but bit by bit Hove took control. The Herts bats were unusually quiet, and there were some unwise choices on the base paths. Perhaps the weeks washed out by rain had affected other players too, and I fully expect the machine to click into gear as the season gets going.

I had to leave before it was over, but it had been an enjoyable start. There were some good points, both for me and for the team. There is a lot of will to win, a lot of creativity in how to achieve it, and I think this will be a very interesting year.

30 March 201230 March 2012 by Rob Jones

Looking bright, looking up

by Special Correspondent, Rob Jones

Every dawn breaks with a new hope. At this time of year, every beautiful Spring day makes you dream of baseball. And there is a lot of hope linked to baseball in Hertfordshire this year. The new season has brought another successful and competitive Herts Spring League, and good tidings for the year ahead.

We were blessed with sunshine for the HSL, after an opening weekend of rain. The Falcons were able to put down a marker for the National League, with a big win over the reigning NBL champions, the Harlow Nationals.

The addition of players like Michael Osborn, Ryan Bird and Robbie Unsell fills us all with excitement. Critics of the Herts club have in the past conceded that its youth and and community set up is fantastic — but have worried that Herts can’t attract the big players. Now that can be put to bed. The arrival of not only former Richmond players, but also guys like Cristobal Hiche and Jake Michels from New York — who pitched a complete game in that win over the Nationals — means the Falcons can bounce back in a big way from a disappointing 2011.

The club’s long-term plans are also progressing well. That much-admired youth set-up is feeding more players into the adult teams in 2012. If last year’s experience with Zack Longboy, Jose Morillo and Liam Green is anything to go by, this will be another fillip for Herts. And the recent BSUK grant will help to further upgrade some of the best baseball facilities in Britain.

If all of this sounds like a big puff for Herts… well, there is a bit of that. But your correspondent is simply reflecting the wholly justified spring optimism here in Hemel Hempstead. And I also believe that this is emblematic of the big strides being taken by baseball across the UK.

Torbay Barons in the HSL — The Torbay Barons are joing the British baseball leagues for 2012

New clubs have joined at many levels of the game. Teams are generating chatter not only on Twitter and Facebook, but on their local radio stations and in their local newspapers. Essex, Bristol and Liverpool have all been achieving great coverage. This can only help baseball to grow.

In the past few days, there has even been the suggestion of Major League Baseball following the example of the NFL and bringing a game to London’s Olympic stadium. Many of us felt the disappointment when baseball was removed from the Olympic roster just moments after the Games were awarded to London. Now it seems the five rings could bring us a diamond after all.

The balancing note for all this positivity is that my own connection with baseball this year has been at best, semi-detached. Despite the sunshine, I have had barely a sniff of action. Take for example, Herts’ all around good guy and totem Andrew Slater. This year I have seen him in my local supermarket as often as I have seen him at the ballpark. And he doesn’t live anywhere near me. I’ve been to practice once, and even then I was so late that I missed all the fielding drills!

It’s nobody’s fault but mine – family reasons, medical reasons, and work commitments all play a part. I have done my best to get down to the park and throw a ball against a wall to try to stay involved. But it means that my sun-kissed optimism has a cloud of frustration. Watch this space for news that I have returned if not to my dominant best, but that I have, at least, returned.

See you at the ballpark.

10 December 201110 December 2011 by Rob Jones

“A warm Caribbean Sea”: reflections on 2011

Major League players appear in about 150 games a year. I appeared in ten. How do you think I feel about that? Bloody delighted. Because that’s a huge jump from my usual six games a year. It’s a quantum leap, and it means that I don’t have the frustrated feeling which usually accompanies the end of a year’s baseball. That’s not to say I am happy of course! In the quest for my baseball dreams, I would prefer to have had more innings, more at-bats, and more moments of brilliance. But there are at least things I can look back on fondly.

The first must be the fact that — for the first time since 2009 — I was involved in a win! In fact, I was in on two of them. On a sun-baked day in Tonbridge, the Raptors piled on the Bobcats and beat them 35-23. We had suffered a long hard season with big defeats by vastly more experienced sides, such as Southampton and Cambridge, so that was an immense relief to get the victory. Like a warm wash of Caribbean sea, after a long British winter. The Raptors had also faltered during some close games and given up big innings, such as against Guildford and the London Marauders. So that meant it was doubly satisfying for us to win much closer games to wrap up the season – a second win over Tonbridge, and a defeat of the Braintree Rays.

So to break the Jones year down into the three constituent parts of baseball — hit the ball, throw the ball, catch the ball.

I hit a smidgen over .600, so I can’t be anything but happy with the performance at the plate. My regular collection of walks boosted my on-base percentage over .700 and, unusually, my slugging was even higher. I am very much a singles hitter but managed to throw in a couple of doubles and even triples this year. Some of those came from an ability to hit by choice to the opposite field, which was also satisfying. Of course, like everyone who was there that day, my average was boosted by the trip to Tonbridge, so I am grateful to the Bobcats for that. But I was also there when the Raptors lost big, and I managed to stay respectable there too. There is always work to do — on driving the ball more, and not topping ground balls down to third, or popping up to the infield. I have plenty of room to be more aggressive, and for that I must be prepared to see my average drop, maybe to even see a few of the walks turn into outs. Like anyone, I guess my hitting is only as good as the pitching I face. But I think the future must involve me doing the same stuff, but doing it a bit better.

Throwing the ball is the area where I must do the most work. Earlier in the season I had a couple of games at third base — which I really enjoyed actually — but they did confirm that I need to put a whole lot more mustard on the ball to be fully effective. There are times over this year — and over my previous career — when I have made perfectly good throws from short, and in from the outfield. But I need to focus every time, and put everything on it every time. Blog entries from my time at third show that I finally decided the problem was not that I couldn’t make the distance, but that the ball just wasn’t travelling fast enough. That requires some wrist work over the winter (stop sniggering). I have the best intentions, but I can’t promise anything.

The other element of my “throwing” the ball this year was pitching. I made another baby step onto the mound, logging about six innings, and one start. I can’t imagine that even single-A teams are quaking in their boots at the idea that I could do more pitching next year, but overall I definitely advanced from previous seasons. I threw at least two, and probably three, curveballs that I was completely happy with. One of them appeared to entirely bamboozle the hitter, and whilst Slater was doubtless boosting my confidence by shouting “Yes! He didn’t know what to do with that!”, it worked, and I am grateful to him! After some experimentation, I have found a curveball grip that I am happy with and I hope I can put it to good use next year.

My first ever start — against the Old Timers in the second half of a double-header — was an interesting moment. Usually I have come in as a reliever in a game which is already lost, so it is hard to judge how successful you have been. For example, hitters might swing away at pitches they would normally leave. My two scoreless innings to close the game against Southampton — whilst I do not write off the wonderful feeling that gave me! — were perhaps misleading. On the flipside of that same coin, when I came in as a fire-fighter against Guildford, I was guilty of focusing too much on throwing straight strikes, and not ‘working’ the hitters enough. That didn’t turn out well. So, the start against the Old Timers was the most “pure” pitching experience I have yet had. I enjoyed it enormously. Three walks and nine runs in three innings actually isn’t too bad at this level. Bizarrely, I seemed to resume a bad habit which I hadn’t really shown since my first appearance last season, namely pushing the ball off to the right, either at or behind the batter. If I had been throwing heat, I probably would’ve been ejected from the game! We will see where 2012 takes me, but if I continue to make progress I might be a passably decent pitcher in about four years.

Catching the ball takes in a variety of skills and sins. I don’t think I ever dropped a ball in the air which I should have caught, so that’s a good thing, and I might even have caught some which I shouldn’t. But I definitely logged errors on the infield. At least two of them were failing to pick the ball up! They were bare-handed plays on dribbling balls when runners were advancing, and I found it was far too easy to rush yourself and fail to get a clean grip before trying to make a play. Other errors were from bad, rushed throws.

But I think I made mostly sensible judgements about when to throw and when to hold the ball, and about where to get the out – on several occasions I helped force a lead runner at second, and made sure of that out. In our final game against Tonbridge, Zach Longboy was bossing the infield brilliantly, and with his help I was in on great defensive plays, including cutting down two runners at the plate. I’m not too proud to learn from a teenager! And I must not leave without mentioning the fact that I did turn a relatively unassisted double play, so my year did have a defensive highlight! It was against the Guildford Mavericks, a man on first, nobody out. The batter hits a sinking liner to me at shortstop. It looks for all the world that it will get through, but I am able to reach down and make the catch off my shoelaces. All those years of playing must finally have sunk into my brain, as I instantly knew that the runner who had confidently set off from first was now a dead duck. One simple throw to the first baseman and it’s now two down, bases empty, and we got out of the inning without conceding a run. Man, that felt good!

So, to sum up all this self-obsessed rambling? It’s been a pretty good year. Getting so much time at the diamond was a huge plus point for me, and playing in two victories was a welcome bonus. The raptors were a fun team to be part of, especially in the second half of the year. I felt that I made some progress in all areas of the game in 2011 so whilst there is much more progress to be made, I feel pretty good about things. The club as a whole is strong, and the youth players coming through have a lot to offer. I don’t know whose team I will be on next year, but I do know one slightly strange ambition for the year — and that is to suit up in the tools of ignorance! Might never happen, but having now played third base and starting pitcher, the only position I haven’t played in proper, competitive league games, is catcher. Managers, take note…

26 September 2011 by Rob Jones

What it’s all about

There are two reasons why I play baseball. One is that it is a great game, requiring hand-eye coordination, technique, strategy and a smidgen of athletic prowess. The second reason is the geographical accident that I play for Herts Baseball Club.

Blue Dogs team talk — A round of applause for everyone

When I first considered taking up the sport eight years ago, it turned out that Hemel Hempstead was the easiest diamond for me to get to. And what I found there was a club which was welcoming, relaxed and fun — and yet serious about doing its best on the field of play. Never did I feel anything but welcomed by the guys there, some of whom had already forgotten more than I would ever know about baseball.

And it is that spirit of friendship which reaches its apotheosis in the Kyle Hunlock Series, our post-season intra-club tournament which throws all the players into a melting pot and creates something new. The competition is bigger and possibly better than ever this year. Four sides, evenly matched, playing a round robin for the final title.

There is a dwindling band of Herts members who actually took the field alongside Kyle Hunlock, the former player who died in an industrial accident back home in the USA. I won’t pretend that I knew him well at all, but I did share a diamond with him when he wore the Falcons uniform, and I can vouch that his effervescence was of a type that can lift a team, a club and an event. I think he would have enjoyed the atmosphere at the first day of the 2011 Series which now bears his name.

The games were mostly pretty tight, with several one-run differentials. National Leaguers were alongside and against Little League players, and Raptors rookies. It’s great fun to play. I can’t say I have ever actually performed that well in a Hunlock Series — too rusty, too cold, or some other excuses — but I have never really minded. I’m not saying that I didn’t try hard — when I beat out an infield hit in our game against the Roosters I was running as fast up the line as I could. But winning isn’t what this is about.

There were some great plays by other guys, though. There were fantastic outfield catches by Ilya Dimitrov, diving to his right, and by Ken Pike, sliding in to grab a shallow bloop. On the infield, Reagan Wood and Kyle Lloyd-Jones both showed their soft hands to snare ground balls which looked as if they were about to dart past them… in fact they were just watching like a hawk for their moment to scoop it up and make the play.

The morning after, I am aching. And I am already sad that baseball is over for another year, as I can’t make weeks 2 and 3 of the competition. But I am happy that I was there for a last hurrah to my season and for an event which always affirms the beauty of the game.