Category: Opinion

by AspiDimitrov

ON THE ROAD; ON THE BASES

Ho hum. Just another week. Just another see-saw nail-biter ending in heartbreak for the Herts Raptors. It had been three weeks since I pulled on my glove — the previous occasion was the one-run drama against Tonbridge. While I have grumbled on many occasions about the frustrations of long layoffs, they do make the playing experience more intense — it's always extra special to be back, and more fun to be with the team. And Raptors games at the moment all seem to be classics!

So let's have a whizz through the Jones performance on the road at Chelmsford. In centre field, it was pretty quiet. Although the Chelmsford Clippers scored 24 runs, they got remarkably few big hits. The only one they got while I was in the game went just over the head of Tom in right field. Moments before, Chris in left field had said to me “shouldn't he be further back?” I said “Nah, he's fine, they've not got any big hits”. I'll be listening to Chris next time!

At the plate I had a bit more satisfaction — a leadoff single up the middle to open the game; a close groundout to third; then I reached after being hit squarely in the ribs by a breaking ball which never broke; and finally a walk as the rally truly got underway. My average crept up to .333, my OBP to .625. I won't be winning any awards, but at least was swinging the bat with a bit more confidence and conviction.

On the base paths I made my most maddening out. On one occasion when I reached, it loaded the bases. Like any good players, we were alert to the possibility of a wild pitch, or a passed ball. And when a pitch did squirt past the catcher, Jeff Witter seemed to head off from third. I paused for a moment to check he was indeed going, and then set off for second. But Jeff stopped. Perfectly sensible, as he thought he couldn't make it – but I was now in trouble! The catcher looked at third, couldn't get Jeff. He checked second, as I tried to sneak back to first. But when he then checked my base and found it vacant except for a fielder, it sealed my doom. A good throw and a swift tag left Jones heading for the dugout looking pretty dopy. Logic suggests that aggressive running will sometimes lead to outs, but being tagged on the bases always feels like such a waste.

With plenty of new guys to get in the game I was benched and was able to enjoy the finale from the sidelines. Yes, of course I'd prefer to have been playing, but the experience was like being a particularly attached fan. It was tense and it was exciting and you felt as if you were taking every at-bat, fielding every ball. The Raptors were unlucky to lose after competing so hard.

My own process of “Going Through the Change” has perhaps stalled — as I must serve as a utility player when I can make it to games — but there can be no doubt that this set of Raptor players are going through a change of their own. It will be fascinating to see where they end up. 
 

by AspiDimitrov

RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

The head coach of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, Marv Levy, used to rally his team with a speech which ended like this — “Where else would you rather be, than right here, right now?” And that phrase rang though my head as the Herts Raptors' epic game against Tonbridge came to a climax on Sunday evening. Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two out. Tying run on third base, winning run on second. It had been an extraordinary game, lasting over five hours, and the day had waned from blazing sunshine to long shadows. Moments like this are why we play sports.

But it was to end in heartbreak. Tonbridge held on to take the game 31-30.

No matter how high the score, or how long the game, when it ultimately comes down to such a fine winning margin you can't help but wonder “what if”.  I know that our fearless leader, Ken — who fate dealt the final out — had plenty of them going through his head on Sunday night. But three quickly leapt into my own, showing how easy they are to find: what if I had swung away in the final inning, rather than taking the walk? What if, as third base coach, I had earlier helped keep my runner out of a double play when we had a man on third and nobody out? And what if I had caught a bloop which went over my shoulder as Phil tried to close out the top of the ninth?

I don't know the answers, of course, but I can have a good guess. Question 1 — very little would have been different (and he only threw me one strike anyway). Question 2 — very little would have been different (sometimes the ball just goes where you least want it to). And Question 3? You guessed it. Very little would have ben different (and I couldn't have caught it, otherwise I would have done so in real life instead of just in my head). A baseball game is a collection of tiny incidents and tiny confrontations which make up a rich whole. If you deconstruct it, it's just not the same any more.

 I personally contributed little to the game, to be honest, I was an enthralled passenger as much as anything. But at least I broke my duck at the plate, getting my first hits of the season. Actually, my best “hit” wasn't a “hit” at all. It was a line drive which crashed into the trees just foul down the third base line.  You don't score anything for how many leaves and branches you take out, and at the end of the day it's just another strike.  But I did get a couple in the right place later, and my batting average jumped dramatically from .000 to .286. Impressive, eh? I am still taking solace from my .583 OBP. But who's counting. I would've had another walk in my first plate appearance if I had kept my bat out of the way of a pitch behind my head! I haven't done that since my rookie season.

There were enormous positives for the team. Our three pitchers, all first-timers this season, battled fantastically and even threw up zeroes on the scoreboard. Simon was a rock at first base. And of course the players scored thirty runs, three times their previous best. Where would they rather be? Right now, they'd probably rather be celebrating a win. But — failing that — I hope they are happy to have been part of both history and drama.  

by AspiDimitrov

BIG DAY IN LITTLE HEMEL

Before I post anything more considered and coherent, I just want to say two things.

One, the Raptors put in a great performance in an extraordinary game yesterday. It was heart-breaking to lose but everyone there knows the team hit better than ever, fielded better than ever and — above all — competed  better than ever. The game was every bit the equal of last year's marathons against the Marauders. The players involved should pat themselves on the backs. And, of course, aim to go one better next time!

Second, the club as a whole should be proud to have opened up the second diamond this weekend. Big thanks go to Aspi, Marty, Jason, Tim and everyone who has worked on the project. To guys like Lee, and John who have been with Herts for about a hundred years and helped make it what it is. Yesterday was a fantastic day, with sunshine, music and cheering fans, and I understand we had lots of new kids at the Little League on Saturday. Fantastic job all round.

 

by AspiDimitrov

PITCHING IN

Let's face it — anyone who has seen baseball and enjoyed it even a little bit, wants to get up there and pitch.  For all the glamour of hitting home runs, the pitcher is the guy at the absolute centre of the game. He even gets to stand on a little hill, for heaven's sake. It's what everybody wants to know when you tell them you play baseball: are you a pitcher? And finally this season, several players — including your humble correspondent — have made their debut and got a taste of what it is all about. 

I always knew I wouldn't become a regular pitcher. I don't throw the ball hard, I am not a big, strong guy, and I don't have Timmy Lincecum's freakish ability to overcome a small frame with fantastic mechanics. But I never gave up hope! This year, in our Opening Day blowout by Southampton, the opportunity finally arose for me to tug the manager's sleeve and say “Hey, put me in”. And I enjoyed every second of it. Really, really enjoyed it. The game follows your rhythm, the fielders watch you, the runners watch you, the hitters watch you. The game is yours to win, and to lose. Maybe even Timmy remembers with fondness the first time he stood on the mound…

Although I enjoyed it, that's not to say I was happy with the results, not by a long shot. But it wasn't a disaster. I told the team before we went out that my aim was to throw strikes, and let the hitter earn his way on base — not to toss him BP, you understand, but not to get caught out by trying to be too fine. And I honestly don't remember walking anyone, although I assume I must have done. So I will count that in my favour. There were hits, certainly. I remember one strong double going into left field. But there were also three outs. The first was a ground ball to our infielders who had a a really good day at Southampton. The second was — oh yes — a strike-out. Why didn't I buy that ball off the Mustangs! I struck someone out!! And then I also helped make the final out — a towering pop-up which I lost about four times in the sun, then bobbled as it came down, only to be rescued by Phil Gover, alert on the infield,  standing next to me — he promptly caught it cleanly.  

I am happy to be my own toughest critic and so I can tell you that I singularly failed to ignore the batter. I did feel constrained, and ended up trying to place the ball into the zone, rather than throwing it through. That meant that more than one pitch bounced on the plate! I didn't focus enough on the glove, despite years standing in the outfield shouting to the pitcher to just “put it in the glove”. I never imagined it was that easy but now I know for sure.

The Raptors manager this year, Ken, has laudably decided that people should be given the chance to step on to the mound as well as stepping up to the plate. Jeff is our only “veteran” pitcher and so, as well as me, there have been first timers in Bryan Drummond, Jim Arnott, Ken himself and Phil Gover. I know they have all enjoyed it and will gladly go back for more, and I will be right there with them. Phil has been this week's phenom. “Such a great feeling” was how he summed up the experience. “Pretty stunning” was what the manager said. I suspect he, like me, will long remember the feeling when he took the game ball in his hand, and stepped to the heart of the action.

 

by AspiDimitrov

THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS

Beatiful spring sunshine; a shimmering green expanse of grass, broken only by the orange slash of a home run fence; the steady background hum of the motorway. This was Opening Day for the Herts Raptors, on the road in Southampton. This is where it starts.

Whatever history shows of the season, I can say that I scored the first Raptors run. And that felt good. Mustangs were clearly a more experienced and powerful side but, after falling behind, Raptors battled back. I led off an inning — maybe the fourth — with a walk and then a steal, before the batter and I telepathically went for a hit and run and I scored on a ground ball bouncing through the infield.

Overall my batting was a rally-killer, so apologies to the team for that. Regular readers of this blog — of which I'm sure there are many — know I spent much of last season moaning about my approach at the plate. It's one area where I feel I should do a whole lot better and I needed to be more aggressive yesterday. I shall console myself that I got better each time I had to swing, going from three watched strikes, to a foul tip, to a ground-out. Had I come up again, presumably I'd have got a hit!

My fielding was more successful. I had a couple of unnecessarily dramatic catches of infield pop-ups, and didn't drop anything that came my way at first base (you can tell I have such high expectations). For rookies, the Raptors were really solid in the field. Tom made an excellent debut behind the plate; Phil and Bobby made tough plays look easy from third and short; and Jim made a really good over the shoulder grab at second base. William was our second debutant catcher of the day and he did a fine job blocking my debut effort off the mound. But more of that another time….

No feeling could have been better than winning, especially winning against the odds, but there were plenty of smiles as the Raptors packed up for the day. We did not beat ourselves and, in fact, we made some really good plays. And perhaps more importantly, we had the same spirit that the team had last year — to play our best, and to have fun doing it.

 

by AspiDimitrov

WE JUST WANT TO PLAY

Much has been written over the past couple of weeks aboutthe excitement of Spring Training, as Major League players turn out in theFlorida and Arizona sunshine to renew their love affair with baseball. Thepossibilities seem limitless, the season ahead always looks bright andpromising.  But to enjoy all of that youhave to be able to play the game!!  Forthe Herts club, another week's training has been defeated by the bad weather,the second in a row. After a pretty successful pre-pre-season in the gym and onhard courts, the return to the grassy diamond has been something of a bust. Allwhen it seemed tantalisingly close. 

Like many Herts players I have to get my fix where I can. In this instance, asseen in this grainy photo, it was at work, in the middle of a night shift,throwing the ball against a handy wall. Not textbook training, perhaps, but thenext best thing if the weather doesn't want to co-operate. As long as you canput up with the odd curious security guard, and rats chasing each other aroundthe nearby bins, it's a great location.  No, really, it is.

To add insult to inconvenience, the day outside is clear and sunny as I writethis. That's no use now! We need the right weather at the right time. Lastseason we had good luck all summer. Let’s hope the recent burst of bad weatheris the storm before the calm.

by AspiDimitrov

THIS DOESN’T HAPPEN IN FLORIDA

As I stepped out of my house to go to my first training session of the year, it started to snow. Soft, white flakes drifted gently through the crisp air. I thought to myself  “This doesn't happen in Florida”.

Despite the temperatures of about 2 celsius — and what became, at one point, a thick flurry of snow — more than thirty guys turned out each of the last couple of weeks of our “Spring Training” programme.  The week before — while I was still resting on my winter laurels — there were more than forty.    Veterans and novices gathered on a concrete tennis court to go through hitting, pitching and fielding drills. It was an impressive turnout and a lot of the new recruits were impressive too — they will probably be forcing me out of the team before the end of the season!

After both weeks, my arms ached, my hip ached and my legs really ached. I had tried hard to keep doing exercise over the winter, but nothing that came close to three hours of running and catching. I hope that as the season goes on, the aches will become fewer, and the results of my practice will become better.

by AspiDimitrov

THE YEAR OF THE RAPTOR

They came, they saw, and no, they didn’t conquer, but they played hard, and they had fun. This was the Raptors second year in existence but there were only a handful of players from last year’s roster still in place – and many of those had changed positions — so it was a genuine band of rookies. There were personal triumphs — Jeff Witter was one of three first-time pitchers to record a win; Paul Curtis hit more RBI's than any other rookie in the entire Herts club. And the team as a whole came within a couple of whiskers of a .500 record, which would have been an amazing achievement.

The rollercoaster nature of the season was typified by the first game, at home to the London Marauders. The Raptors built up a substantial lead and looked on course for a comfortable win to kick off their year. Instead, a meltdown allowed the London side to score 16 runs in one inning and, improbably, overhaul the Raptors. Yet more improbably, the home side then came from seven runs behind to win in the bottom of the ninth. The game ended 35-34, in near total darkness.

Throughout the year the team would usually try to make a game as difficult and as exciting as they could. In Guildford, the Raptors raced out to a big lead which they held until the bottom of the ninth, only to be finally edged out 21-20. It was here that Jon Lewys hit two 3-run homers, and Steve Nippress took six catches in the outfield, but all to no avail. The second game against Marauders threatened to go awry several times. And the final loss to the Old Timers was a see-saw game – after finally holding the visitors scoreless, then putting up 9 runs in the sixth inning to surge ahead, the Raptors promptly surrendered 14 runs and went behind again. It was a miracle that the manager, Andrew Slater, had any fingernails left by the end of the year.

 

There was unwelcome drama during the season, too. Shortstop Ken Pike pushed his Iron Man credentials just a little too far at one training session, and got a really nasty injury which ruled him out of the rest of the season. Those players who were there will never forget what they saw. Just a week earlier, Iwan Evans had made his latest attempt to break himself apart with a steal of home plate. His back survived this audacious leap over the catcher (thankfully), and it didn’t put him off stealing everything which wasn’t nailed down for the rest of the season. The defeat at Richmond was so bad-tempered that the club’s top officials had to smooth things over with the game’s ruling body. The Raptors might be rookies, but they would not lie down and die for anyone.

That’s not to say they didn’t take a few poundings. Richmond visited Grovehill a week after the legendary win over the Marauders, and instantly burst the new boys’ bubble . They won by twenty runs, thanks to their aggressive base-stealing and some basic errors from the home boys. Bracknell’s team, peppered with  GB players, also overpowered the Herts rookies, despite what many saw as the team’s best performance so far. The nadir was perhaps a thirty run drubbing, at home, in the drizzle, by the Essex Arrows.

And so what can we say about the Herts Raptors now it's all over? First of all, they came. Rain or shine, thick or thin, they came and they kept coming. The enthusiasm was there from the first moments to the very end, and the team spirit was superb, which was a tribute to the manager. Secondly, they saw. By which I mean, they learned, and they improved. Rookie errors were far less common by the end of the season. Some players could point to the statistics to show their progress — Slater and Lewys were the other two first-timers to master the pitcher’s mound; Ilya Dimitrov developed patience at the plate to claim an extraordinary 19 walks.

And thirdly, yes, they did conquer. Not only did they conquer the London Marauders three times, but also the Dragons of Richmond, one of the other premier southern clubs. They were within inches of conquering Guildford. And they conquered any notion that the lowest of four teams, full of novices, could not perform admirably in a competitive league. The Raptors came of age, and showed the way to other members of the club and the baseball world.

by AspiDimitrov

THE JOY OF THE ENCORE

I went 0-4 at the plate, with two strikeouts. In the field, I muffed one of only two chances which came my way. And yet I enjoyed the whole thing immensely.

This was the Kyle Hunlock series, the tournament which pits all the members of the Herts Baseball Club against one another in a post-season celebration of the game we all love. It has gone from strength to strength since it was conceived as a tribute for our former team-mate, and thanks must go to the Commissioner, the managers and everyone else who made this year's event such fun. Crowds of players thronged the sidelines, many with families in tow, and the sun once again shone brightly.

My own performance on the field was pretty limp – neatly picking up a grounder then ballooning the throw over the first baseman's head; and being struck out twice (yes, twice!) by Marty's high heat. But this was a time when I simply didn't mind. The spirit of the event was greater than any individual failing. From my vantage point on the bench, I got some nice photos (which I recommend you check out on Flickr), topped up my suntan, and gently mocked my Raptors team-mates. Perhaps this was the perfect combination of being a player and a fan.

View images of Day 2 of the 2009 Kyle Hunlock Series

View images of Day 3 of the 2009 Kyle Hunlock Series

by AspiDimitrov

THE LAST WALTZ-ER

This was a last ride on the Raptors rollercoaster before the Theme Park closed for the season. There were a few screams, stomachs churned, hands were waved in the air — and when it was over, we wanted to do it all again. But we couldn't. Not just because it was now dark, and the Health and Safety people were itching to shut us down, but because this was our last game of the year.

It had been a classic see-saw battle with the Old Timers. And for me, it was a pretty busy one. An extraordinary number of chances seemed to come my way, even for a game at shortstop. The dramatic highlight was a pop-up which looked to be routine — until it disappeared in the blazing sun. I was just  shouting that I had lost it, when I suddenly saw a small black dot reappear and I was able to reach out and snatch it off the very tip of the grass. Slater had to take a few minutes to recover from his heart palpitations.

Of the grounders, I'm pleased to say that a couple were dealt with cleanly but, frustratingly, others got away — one took a bad hop and I could only stop it with my bare hand, others were blocked. As the game went on, I played closer and closer in, even on to the grass, and I think it helped. You lose some range, but for anything near me, it removed the danger of the bad hop as the ball goes on to the redgra, and mader my throw shorter. Most of the ground balls were not being hit that hard. Even this late in the season, you are still figuring out what works.

I have been highly critical of my own batting this season, and with justification. The batting title has long since gone west! At least this week, faced with the milder offerings of the Old Timers pitching, I was able to get bat on ball every time. But still I only hit shallow singles. Looking at the photos afterwards, it was clear that I wasn't generating any power from my legs. A little guy like me needs to use everything, and too often I was only swinging with my arms. As consolation for myself, I include a picture of me in a more successful at-bat — this was an RBI  single to the opposite field.

So the rides have all stopped now, the gates are closed, the candy-floss machine has been switched off. Somewhere in the dark is one of those scary-looking horses you see on the roundabout. Or maybe that's just one of the team who has had a rough night. This game had all the hallmarks of the Herts Raptors — both good and bad — and was a fitting finale. It would have been perfect if we had won of course, but dreams can't always come true. Even at the fun-fair.