Life in the Minors
During the course of the 84-game sprint to the finish, short-season Frontier League schedule, the members of the Dubois County Dragons pursue various endeavors to help pass their substantial down time. Down time drags on
for some DragonsWith about nine or so hours spent at the ballpark on home game dates, players have 15 more hours per day to fill. Figuring that about eight hours or so is spent sleeping, that still leaves around seven hours per game day to find something with which to do.
While many ballplayers opt to save the majority of those seven hours of leisure for post-game activities, others find ways to keep their minds and bodies occupied until the usual 2:30 p.m. reporting time.
Many players spend a good amount of pre-game time working-out at "Body Language" or "No Pain, No Gain," the two weight rooms that Dragon players and coaches have free access to 24 hours a day in our hometown of Huntingburg, Ind. Understanding the importance of maintaining strength and power throughout the course of a summer is essential for all of our players.
While our pitchers are asked to follow a structured conditioning program which includes running, a medicine ball abdominal routine, a light weight program, and more running, our position players handle most of their strength training and maintenance themselves.
Our third-batter and current Frontier League batting leader Adam Olow and our third baseman and league-leading stolen base artist Dennis Pelfrey practically live at "Body Language." With a daily mid-day trip to the weight room of my own, I see our dynamic duo pumping iron every single day. Adam takes so many vitamins and supplements that all the guys call him "GNC."
Returning all-star catcher Joe Kalczynski and our English relief pitcher Gavin Marshall take it upon themselves to put together a series of pick-up baseball games for the local youth. Advertising their games by putting our public address announcer Scott Sollman up to making announcements during our home contests, Joe Kal and Gav usually gather 20-30 young and eager Dragon fans together at a local park to play America's National Pastime.
I'm pretty sure that Gavin, our perpetual adolescent, organizes the games just so HE can play. He always denies it, so I just bring up that the first sign of guilt is denial speech.
Our other catcher, Dominick Lombardi, spends a bit of his time calling his wife back home in southern California. The rest of his time, we believe, is spent keeping his razor blade shaved head shimmering with a series of revolutionary waxing and buffing procedures. I swear you can see your reflection in it.
Five-year minor league vet Brent Kelley, who may have more Frontier League service time than just about anyone else in the history of the league, just kinda drives around town looking for something to do. He usually takes tips from his teammates on where the good-looking girls of southern Indiana hang out or work and structures his schedule appropriately.
Our manager, Greg Tagert, who has the energy reserve and metabolism of a 10-year old, usually follows his daily 45-minute run through the 90-degree heat of Huntingburg with a lunch that always, always includes about a gallon of iced tea ... the fresh brewed kind of course.
Until, that is, his family makes the yearly pilgrimage to the Midwest to join our skipper for about two months of the summer. Once his wife and the four kids arrive in town, his time gets filled running the "Tag 6" around and keeping them occupied so that they neglect to notice that they keep leaving the temperate climate of northern California for the sticky humidity of Huntingburg each summer.
We just kind of assume that our two Ivy League outfielders, Princeton grad Max Krance and Harvard alum Andrew Huling, spend all of their time in the library or something. I mean, nobody ever sees them anywhere, so we just make the natural assumption.
We have four lefthanded pitchers on our staff this year, three of whom we think share the same brain.
Our southpaw trio of Jamie Bennett, a former Philadelphia Phillies draftee, Matt Kauffman, a former 10th round pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Dave Fuqua a reliever from San Jose State's 2000 College World Series squad-never seem more than 10 feet apart from each other.
They usually don't even talk much, they just sit in the bullpen and look around and laugh in synch. One will just start giggling, and the other two will join in on cue as if they are all in on a joke. Otherwise, they are always throwing, walking, eating, and running together. It's kind of like that X-Files episode with the three brothers from the incestual family. I mean, not the incest thing, but just the fact that they seem to know each other's thoughts without having to speak.
They definitely have their own little fraternity. Not that anyone else is trying to join them.
A bunch of us are trying our darndest to figure out the guitar this summer. I've been playing ... well ... attempting to play for the past year and a half or so, and I've been bringing a guitar I borrowed from a friend in Hawaii on all of our road trips. I also try to find time to practice everyday we're at home as well.
Relief pitcher Jess Turner and outfielder Ray Gorrigzolzagolri ... Ray Gorigolgzari ... Ray G ... whose name should be in the Guiness Book of Records for having the most consonants in a surname, both bring theirs on the bus as well. While we do institute a "No guitar playing on the bus rule," we all use a considerable amount of time on road trips strumming away in our respective hotel rooms.
All the guys always ask if we're getting a band together. We just laugh and make jokes about how people could hire us to scare stray cats out of trees. Really we're not that bad ... I don't think.
Personally, I've also spent some time writing, and well, lately, watching as much of the World Cup as possible looking for my friends Pinsoom Tenzing and Hee Yong Woo who are meshed somewhere among the hundreds of thousands of fans at the Cup.
Time to get back to my guitar.