dfroewrites

WE ARE...CRUSADERS...AND WE CAN’T....BE BEAT!

Let me tell you about my high school for a minute.

Long Island Lutheran, or LuHi as it is affectionately known, is a small, private school in the heart of Long Island.

One of the big benefits of going to LuHi is that you are guaranteed to see some of the best high school basketball New York State - and the country - has to offer. My senior year alone, we had the top 6 players all go on to play DI basketball and we also played against some of the toughest competition in the land. A highlight was the day we played Rice Academy, which sadly does not exist anymore, and their stars Felipe Lopez and Scientific Mapp.

Football on the other hand, was not so good. I believe we went 0-6-1 my sophomore year playing in the now-defunct Island Football Conference. That was also my last year playing football. I was too soft mentally at that time to continue playing, which is a shame because the coaches told me I had a future in college if I kept at it. But I didn’t. But boy I wish I had.

Anyway, one of the huge disadvantages of going to Long Island’s basketball factory was that there really wasn’t a true rival for the school. Basketball played a national schedule and football was in what would probably be considered a 1A or 2A conference these days. When I played volleyball we played all over Long Island, Manhattan and Staten Island. I’m not even sure what conference - if any - that was in. And the other sports? I honestly have no idea if they were in a conference.

To the best of my memory, I would say every sport had its own rival, and even that might be a stretch.

There were all the catholic schools on the Island, which if you aren’t from there you wouldn’t understand how big those are. There was St. Dominic’s, St. Anthony’s, Chaminade, Holy Trinity, Kellenberg and a handful of others. Our Crusaders treated them very un-religiously regularly.

The Island Football Conference was small-ish public schools and LuHi and, I believe, Friends Academy, a Quaker Pre K-12 school. Friends was probably five miles away from LuHi, but they were a bunch of Quakers! Quakers can’t be rivals with anyone, am I right?

So what does all this have to do with anything?

Well, having lived in the South for more than two decades now, I have seen high school sports in a different light.

When I was in school at South Carolina I went to my first high school football game where tickets were needed and there were more than the 50-100 friends and parents lining the field. Instead the crowd was well over 1,000 people.

Then during 17-years in Auburn I learned all about big-time high school football. Auburn High football is something totally foreign to this proud LuHi alum. And the salaries that go along with high school football...stunning, to say the least.

But again, where am I going here?

How about last night.

Jackson, a freshman, made the varsity soccer team at his high school, Pulaski Academy, here in Little Rock.

Apparently, Pulaski Academy and Little Rock Christian Academy are real rivals and last night they battled it out on the pitch at LRCA’s home field.

No, the crowd wasn’t big but it sure was boisterous.

When the PA girls scored the game winner with just over 2 minutes left in the game preceding the varsity boys game, you would have thought the Hogs had just beaten LSU.

And then when we got into the stands, it was cool to see so many of the PA students there to support their friends - and give the LRCA boys a good heckling.

PA came from behind to win, 2-1 (LRCA’s goal came on a PK after a TERRIBLE handball call in the box).

But what made the night so fun was being a parent in that atmosphere, cheering on “our school” and “our team” to a win, razzing the ref (Cole and I may have jumped in on that too) and just hearing the sounds of kids being kids.

A is back on the pitch tonight against Central, the largest public school in the city, so I am not expecting the dub. But we will be there anyway, cheering our guys on!

Let's go Bruins!

(Jackson is #14, second row from the bottom all the way on the right)

DAY 10 - NOW PITCHING FOR THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS

As you should know by now, I love baseball. The Mets are and forever have been my team. During my decade of working with the Auburn baseball team, I always wanted the Mets to come in and draft one of our guys. Sadly, that never happened.

Ironically enough, however, one of the head coaches at Auburn, Tom Slater, who I worked with for four years, is now in his fourth season as the assistant hitting coach for the Mets.

That, my friends, is pretty cool.

But this story is not about the Mets.

No, it’s about Spring Training, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Arizona.

To get to Glendale, let me give you some background.

Throughout my years of working baseball, I had become email friends with multiple big league PR people. Some I regularly exchanged emails with due to us having guys in their farm system or on the big league club. Most times it was just for photos but I feel like the baseball media relations fraternity, be it MLB, MiLB or college, is pretty accommodating to each other.

The Chicago White Sox was one of those teams.

Early in the 2010 season, we were playing at Arizona State and, as I did on every road trip, I tried to maximize my time in different cities.

Playing at night on both Friday and Saturday, I reached out to a couple of clubs with former Auburn players in their minor league systems and asked if I could get a credential to come out to spring training to see some of “my guys.”

The White Sox PR guy, who is one of the nicest people I have ever met, was happy to oblige and told me to come out on Saturday and he would tour me around the facility, Camelback Ranch, in Glendale.

Scott could not have been more hospitable to this college baseball SID that he only knew through emails.

- He brought me into the big league clubhouse where I got razzed by A.J. Pierzynski, a Florida fan, for my Auburn gear.

- He took me to the big league fields, where Harold Baines called Frank Thomas ‘The Big Skirt’ and laughed after seeing my Auburn shirt and asking me who played there that he would know. He didn’t laugh as much when I reminded him that Bo Jackson played there too. Or Jake Peavy, who happened to be throwing off the mound as this conversation took place.

- He dropped me off on the back fields, where one of ‘my guys’ was going through minor league spring training, and told me to enjoy the rest of my day and take advantage of the credential.

Two things here.

First, I have learned over the years that if you have a credential, you should always - ALWAYS - test the limits of that credential. You may end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame reception with every living member of the hall (yes that happened). Or they may stop you before you even get to an elevator that you are supposed to be on (has also happened - many times.)

Second, the White Sox share Camelback Ranch with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Now, back to March 13, 2010.

After Scott dropped me off and wished me well, I wandered through the back fields and made a trip to the Clubhouse Store to get a t-shirt for me and Jackson.

Then, as I was leaving the clubhouse I thought, ‘huh. I’m here. Let’s check out the Dodgers side.’

So I wandered over to the other side of the complex, hit the building where the front office was and asked if the PR guy I had emailed with there was in town.

Unfortunately he wasn’t, he was in Taiwan with most of the big league club for a three-game exhibition series with the Chinese Professional Baseball League. But, the woman at the front desk told me, since I had the pass from the White Sox it was good for the entire facility and I was free to roam their side as well.

Not knowing where to go and not having a player in their system, I found where the crowd was and went to that side field.

It was not all that exciting as it was mostly pitchers taking cuts in the cage. Clayton Kershaw was not there but Hiroki Kuroda and Jeff Weaver were.

I watched until they finished and then after they left the field I walked away too. Only, instead of walking with the fans I found myself ‘between the lines’ as they say, walking inside the ropes as if I was a player. No one asked for my autograph but I did get people looking at me wondering who I was.

Hey, my credential said I belonged!

Anyway, as it was clear their day was winding down I decided it was time to wrap it up and head back to the hotel.

On my way out, I found a back staircase and took it.

Wrong! (Or maybe it was right!)

After I got to the bottom, I was faced with three tunnels, one of which had a photog taking head and action shots of Dodgers players.

I avoided that one.

The next two seemed to have daylight in them so I picked one and headed out, thinking I was getting to the parking lot.

Wrong again!

This time, as I walked out, I was definitely in the sunshine.

But I was also in the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen!

You see, the White Sox were hosting the Brewers that day but fortunately, it was still about 60 minutes from first pitch, so I was actually the only one in the bullpen. [In Arizona, since the sites are so close, most teams just show up to play and don’t do the normal pre-game stuff at the field - at least that was the case 11 years ago.)

Anyway, there I was, alone, in the Camelback Ranch visitors bullpen, literally frozen in place.

What was I to do?

Surely, I could just turn around and walk back out the tunnel, up the steps and find another way out.

Or….

I could announce myself as coming into the game, walk out of the bullpen into the outfield - and then quickly hustle off the field before Scott from the White Sox saw the idiot he gave a pass to out in left field.

I think you know which option I chose.