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| British Baseball Academy Team in Arizona: Part 2 |
Nineteen members of the British Baseball Academy left the UK on Tuesday, March 18 for the Easter Camp of a lifetime – two weeks at MLB Spring Training in the USA. Their adventures during their first few days in Arizona have already been chronicled on the website, and the story resumes below:
Friday, March 21
The morning began with the packing and clearing of rooms and loading up the vans for a journey south. Before starting down the Interstate, the Academy group spent 90 minutes at the Milwaukee Brewers’ camp. They were able to watch Ben Sheets pitch against Yovani Gallardo in an intra-squad game while Jeff Suppan pinch-ran for everyone who got on base. Charlie Greene Sr and Jr, who led the first ISG Coaching Clinic in Twickenham three winters ago, were both there – Junior as the spring training field coordinator and catching instructor, Senior as a special advisor to the pitchers. Coach Dempster also introduced some of the boys to a Canadian minorleaguer and one of the senior scouts.
Then the Academy team hit the road, driving 120 miles south to Tucson, Arizona. The players quickly dropped their bags at the hotel and went directly to the batting facility run by Tom Waddell. Tom was born in Scotland and played for the Cleveland Indians in the 1980s, and he has provided a great deal of support for this tour, arranging games and transport while providing daily use of his facility.
An hour later, the boys trekked across the road for their first game of the tour, against a 14-year-old team in a local Wooden Bat League. The British Academy jumped out of the gates early, scoring four runs in the first inning en route to a 12-11 win in a seven-inning game. It was the first game under lights for most, and a well-played game at that. Most of the runs came down to pitchers struggling to throw strikes and catchers allowing the ball to get to the backstop as the game wore on.
Saturday, March 22
Piling back in the vans, the group drove another 60 miles south to Nogales, Arizona to face a traveling All-Star Team of local kids from both sides of the border. There was a hill beyond centre field with a fence running across its peak – and on the other side was Mexico.
In two well-played games under an intense sun, the British Academy team lost by 8-3 and 12-9, with seven pitchers sharing the workload and everyone getting significant playing time. Michael Trask had two extra-base hits in Game One. In Game Two, Chris Ostler banged out three hits and Gordon Sheppard had a triple and a single.
The two teams shared a traditional Mexican meal after the game, trading shirts (in translation, the opponents’ name was Watermelons, matching their pink and green uniforms!) before heading back to Tucson for the night.
Sunday, March 23
Easter Sunday was a day of rest after playing three games in a span of 24 hours. The boys devoured a couple of buffets around an afternoon in the hotel pool. There was a solid practice at Tom Waddell’s cages in the evening, with a few blisters developing as each player got in a few hundred swings. The night closed with a closely contested tenpin bowling matchup.
Monday, March 24
With a game scheduled for 1.00 pm, the Academy team visited the Arizona Diamondbacks’ practice for 90 minutes before beginning their own pre-game preparations. They saw the tail end of the D’Backs’ stretching routine, then a series of position-specific drills. And the reaction was repeated numerous times: “They are doing the same things we do!”
Following a brief workout and lunch, it was game time – seven innings against a high school team, free because of their spring break. Callum Woods led off the game with a triple and didn’t slow down from there, reaching base all six times he batted, five of them hits. Tom Clark pitched three shutout innings to start the game and Sam Sproule added a 1-2-3 inning of relief. Gordon Sheppard reached base four times and Max Flajsner got three hits to go with a sacrifice. Ben Davis had a run scored and an RBI as he got on base in both of his at-bats. The British Academy pitchers struggled in stretches to find the strike zone, but otherwise the team played a sound game, winning 16-9.
The group quickly showered and raced to a local mall to take advantage of the current pound-to-dollar exchange rate!
Tuesday’s plan includes a Colorado Rockies v Chicago White Sox game and an evening practice. Wednesday and Thursday will bring Games 5, 6, and 7 on the tour, with a trip to the Desert Museum and a game between the University of Arizona and UCLA on Friday. More details to follow….
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