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Days filled with baseball
lead to sleepless nights

After making the long trip out here to Northern Indiana, spring training has gone into full swing for our Gary Southshore Railcats.

A little more than a week into our preseason workouts, I have begun to settle into my new surroundings, slowly but surely. Spring training as it is, there really hasn't been a whole lot of time to do the all-at-once move in, as a typical day has the coaching staff spending anywhere from 8-10 hours at the stadium.

The day usually starts with a free breakfast in the lobby of the Lee's Inn, which is serving as the spring training hotel for the Railcats. For myself and hitting coach Andy Haines, Lee's will also be our home during the season.

I usually stick to my daily bagel and some fresh fruit in the mornings, although hot items like bacon, pancakes, sausage and eggs are also available. Anyone who knows me is well aware that the a.m. hours I usually spend are the ones that follow midnight, and not the hours when the sun is coming up. Needless to say, I try to keep breakfast simple, as not to shock my digestive system too much.

After grabbing my stuff from my suite, I usually head over to our stadium -- The U.S. Steelyard. The drive from Merrillville to Gary only takes about 10 minutes, just enough time for Andy and me to talk about what we saw on the SportsCenter loop the previous night. And with his buddy Clint Barmes having a breakout season with the Colorado Rockies, we have had plenty to talk about.

The walk from the player's parking lot to the clubhouse is a short one thankfully, with May weather usually sitting around the 40-degree mark. After defrosting in the coaches' office for a while, we grab our stuff out of our lockers and get dressed.

We have a full-time clubby named James, whom everyone calls "Twin," due to the fact that he has a twin brother. Of course. Besides being in excellent shape for a man in his mid-50s, Twin is also a tireless worker and always has our uniforms and such hanging and waiting for us each morning. Need anything in the Railcats clubhouse and Twin is the man to see.

The first few days of camp are always used to get guys their reps, with many of camp's early hours spent with hitters getting their swings in at the batting tee, in the cage and on the field. The early days of spring training are also filled with endless fungoed grounders and flyballs for defensive work for infielders and outfielders, while the catchers always have the distinct pleasure of early-morning blocking drills.

For pitchers, the first few days are filled mainly with running and throwing long toss and mound work, and a lot of pitcher's fielding practice, which includes covering first base on grounders to the right side of the infield, fielding comebackers and turning 1-6-3 and 3-6-1 double plays, among other things.

PFPs are always fun to watch, as pitchers who have spent the past few months preparing to throw a ball, are now having to field the ball, a skill many of them apparently forgot to hone during the winter.

Evaluation at this point mainly concerns deciding which guys came in shape and whether or not there were any surprises in camp.

After the first few days, we have moved into intrasquads and exhibition games against some fellow Northern League teams, allowing us to really observe our invitees in action. For our skipper, time is spent in the dugout, using his finely tuned eyes to examine each movement and action, or lack of action, of each player.

Andy coaches third base in the exhibitions, but he is really just observing as well.

My time during these games is usually spent in the stands, sitting behind home plate with my evaluation charts, my pitch counter and a radar gun. These are my tools of choice in getting a read on our arms in camp, judging their arm strength, pitching ability, command, mechanics, arm speed, mound presence and all that good stuff. Just about everyone in spring training with us has a pro background of some sort, so basically we just watch and see if their performances match their statistical track records.

Following each day's workout, the staff meets for a few hours and discusses players, the day's activities and the next day's schedule among other things. After showering up, we'll usually go out to dinner and unwind a bit.

This year, we have been fortunate to be staying in Merrillville, where just about every national chain restaurant can be found on Highway 30. Chili's, Friday's, Outback Steakhouse, Panera, Red Lobster, and all the other usual eateries are plentiful on the town's main drag.

Needless to say, the long hours at the ballpark had been catching up with me as I made the time-change adjustment for the first few days. With Indiana being 5 hours ahead of Hawaii, the adjustment took a while as I endured a string of nights with 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

But today, we had a rainout.

With an exhibition scheduled on the road against the Schaumburg Flyers, it seemed as though another long day was in store. But when we arrived at the stadium, the word was that our game was called.

A day off was in order, giving tired players and tired coaches time to recover for the last week of spring training before the opening of our 96-game season on Friday.

No more rest for the weary.