The Arrival in PSL

One day closer.

I put in my last day of work before camp begins today at the airport.  I work for Southwest Airlines and I have been in the industry as a gate agent/ticket agent and trainer for just over seven years.  I enjoy the heck out of it (the vast majority of the time) and today was a fairly easy day.  Last week I managed to experience the worst four days of my career ALL IN A ROW! In order of pain level, the days would be Friday, Thursday, Sunday, Saturday.  4-day runs like that are what turn airline employees into FORMER airline employees. 

But I digeress.

I leave Monday for Fantasy Camp, as I have stated before. The reason I leave a day early is much like the same logic which should be used by travelers when they are going on a cruise. My logic is that you should NEVER, EVER travel to your cruise destination on the same day which our cruise leaves.  Things happen, planes are delayed because of weather or even de-icing processes.  With this in mind, I leave for Atlanta on Monday afternoon.  Atlanta is a good stopping point as it allows me to have dinner at a soul food restaurant called Big Daddy's Dish.  It is some of the tastiest fare that I've ever had.  I don't get there very often any more as I don't have trainings in Atlanta like I used to when my paycheck was given to me by AirTran Airways.  It also allows me to not be concerned about a missed transfer and get my brain squared and ready for the week ahead.  I will get up on Tuesday morning and catch the first flight to West Palm Beach and that should get me to Port St. Lucie around noon.

The fields are open on Tuesday afternoon from 2-5 pm. This allows players to go to the locker room, see their locker locations and new uniforms.  From there I will go out to the fields and try to blend in. Last year I was totally scared by this process. Many of the players had met in prior years and were hanging out after greetings had been exchanged.  Last year, when I hit the field I was wearing my softball jersey from home.  I am the player/coach of the Bugtussle Rockets.  I started playing for this team in 1989.  I took over as coach in 1994.  The jersey I wore was our newest incarnation at the time.  Gone were the days of simple t-shirts with logos screened on and standard numbers.  I had taken the jerseys to the next level.  We had fully sublimated jerseys that were pretty cool-looking, to be honest.  Some of the coaches saw this and took a liking to it.  One coach said. "You must be a good team to look that good on the field". Well, we had won our first championship in 19 years the previous summer.  I was pretty proud to tell them this. 

THIS year I plan to do the same thing, but this year's jersey is even cooler than LAST years. We won another championship in 2013. That aside, the fact that I will know some of the guys at the field already will make this opening meeting much more fun. 

Oh yeah, why Bugtussle?  Well, the team was once known as the Bad Axe Red Dawgs.  Bad Axe is a city in Michigan, believe it or not. Roughly 600 miles from where I live.  I first heard about it on the David Letterman show back when Dave was funny and on NBC. When the team went BACK to the Rockets nickname the team "moved to"Bugtussle, Kentucky. Bugtussle sits on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. It is also the town where the Clampetts lived prior to their relocating to Beverly Hills.  Yes, it's from the Beverly Hillbillies.

One thing is new today. Apparently my body is in the process of trying to stave off a cold.  I get a cold about once every five years.  The fact that it's trying to manifest itself just before I leave for Fantasy Camp is more than a little aggravating. But no matter what happens with it, it's not going to make my enjoyment of the week ahead any less than it would normally be.

At the end of the week I drive up to Orlando and will visit my aunt Bea.  She's the Typhoid Mary of my Mets fever.  It will be great to talk to her in person.  During my last visit with her she talked about the early days of the Mets.  She recalled the 1969 season and the fact that she was at game 5 against the Orioles.  Her long-term memory is superb to this day and I once got a baseball signed by her which is proudly displayed in a case in my office next to balls signed to me by Hall-of-Famers and former players who are personal friends of mine.  SHE is the first inductee in MY hall-of-fame.

Tonight's post comes to you from Dixie. A smooth flight from Minneapolis has landed me in the home of the Braves.  I've had a tasty dinner at Big Daddy's Dish, which was just as good as I'd hoped. I need to get some sleep as the flight to West Palm Beach departs Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at 8:55 a.m.  Or so says the schedule.

Touchdown in Florida is approximately 10:45. An hour's drive north on I-95 should put me in PSL by 12:30. A quick change and some greeting time with my hosts, Bob and Michele Skinner and off to the field I go. I spoke with Bob about an hour ago and there's rain in the forecast for the early part of the day tomorrow. Hopefully things will clear up in time to get some swings in and maybe throw on the side.

My man Phil leaves from New York in the morning. I would call him now, because I'm guessing that he's not going to get more than 30 minutes of sleep tonight. It's not that I'm not excited myself, because my sleep will be minimal as we'll, I'm sure. It's Christmas Eve for all of us!

I'm excited to see guys and ladies whom I met last year and to welcome this year's rookies.

Tomorrow, Santa pays off to a bunch of Walter Mittys wearing baseball gloves.

 I'm just glad to be one of 'em.

Well, my week at the happiest place on earth is underway. I arrived at the airport this morning to catch the 8:55 flight to West Palm Beach. In the line next to mine were two guys wearing Mets caps. They figured out that I MUST be headed to camp. Why else is anyone 1) wearing Mets gear, 2) in the Atlanta airport, 3) in mid-January. Obviously they were correct in their assumption. I extended my hand and introduced myself to Kevin and David who live in the Atlanta area. They were to be on my flight and I explained that I was writing a blog this year as I did last year. We exchanged pleasantries and I said I would see them on the plane.

I saw them again on the plane and decided to offer them a ride up to St. Lucie in my rented car. They graciously accepted and we made our way to the Alamo center. The nice folks there looked at the bags to be transported and offered a free upgrade to an SUV. I graciously accepted that offer and we jammed the back of the Dodge Journey and hit the road north.

We arrived at the hotel and I dropped the guys off. I had arrangements with my friends the Skinners (Bob and Michele) during my time in town. The Skinners are a great couple whom I met during my early time at AirTran. I hung out with them for a while then made my way over to the complex. Nearly everyone was on the fields at the time of my arrival. I walked into the clubhouse in anticipation of finding out who was going to be in attendance plus where my locker would be this year. I found my locker to be in the center aisle. I saw Phil's number 4 jersey and then saw the number 11 cream-white jersey with "COLLINS" on the back at the locker immediately to the left of Phil's. They HAD put us next to one another as we has requested. I walked around in a cloud of mild euphoria as I reacquainted myself with the room and it's surroundings.

I filled out the waiver forms which essentially releases the Mets from any liability may need to be addressed. It would be tough to sue my favorite sports team for any reason outside of gross mismanagement by the owners. So I hand in the completed form  and go back to my locker to suit-up.

A few minutes later my teammate, Phil, shows up. We exchanged hugs as though we hadn't seen each other since last year. In actuality, I had not met Phil EVER, but you would've been hard pressed to figure that out by viewing from afar.

He's a super-cool guy and he will be great on the field if positive attitude and excitement mean ANYTHING AT ALL.  I told him that I would be getting dressed to go out onto the field. He told me that he believed that the players were actually on the way IN and that I may have missed the workout. It was supposed to run until 5 and it was only 3:30. I jumped up and ran to the door. The fields indeed were empty. Why? I have no idea. But tomorrow would have to do. I missed the opportunity to hit the field with my 2013 Rockets jersey for the amusement of John Stearns, but that will come. I'll show it to him by Saturday.

I ran into a few more guys whom I knew from last year. They all genuinely seemed pleased to see me as much as I was to see them.

I tried to set my locker up in a way that would be most efficient. Easier said than done, to be sure. But tomorrow will be the test, when I show up at around 7:30 in a foggy state of awareness.

I left the clubhouse and went back to my guest house to change clothes. From there it was to the Island Club for the Welcome Banquet. It was great to see all involved in the same room. The rookies introduced themselves and we listened to how they made it to our little slice of heaven this year. Many guys received the camp as a gift from their wives. Some paid for it themselves. We found out that there are two brothers for whom this camp is their 14th.  One guy apparently is a Rangers fan. That's all good because I grew up as a Ranger fan. But he meant the TEXAS Rangers, not the NEW YORK Rangers. He kinda got booed by many in attendance. But I can't say I was surprised.

The opening banquet is behind us. Tomorrow we have tryouts, the draft and then game 1 of our little tourney. We get to go over the rules of camp and how things are gonna run.

It's very hard to believe that it has been a year since my last time on these fields. Probably because the memories are still so vivid. And more memories are ready to piggy-back on the old ones.

The people at Disney World believe that THEY are the home to the Happiest Place On Earth.

There're wrong.

At least for THIS week.