[Tib]

CHAPTER 6:

April in A-Ball

When I went back over my notes for this chapter I was trying to decide what information from my emails best described my first days in the Eastern Developmental League. Then I realized the best way for you to get a true glimpse of my early days in baseball was just to reprint my emails from that time.


From: Dave Driscoll (ddriscoll@CBPA.org)
Sent: March 30, 2003 4:46PM
To: Don Driscoll (dondriscoll@familynet.com)
Subject:

Dear Dad,
Hello! Sorry I haven’t written in some time but I’ve been a little busy. I’m an official member of the players’ union now. See my new email address? We’ve been working out all day every day for two weeks now. I’ve hardly had time to do anything but get the computer going. I did get some furniture. Thanks for the $$$. Did you get my postcard from Savannah? Some of the guys and I went there to see Return of the King. What a beautiful city! Beautiful girls, too. Had to send you something from there.

Well, it looks like I’ll be starting our first game. Lino, the other shortstop, is good but I have more range. Been working out almost every day and I feel stronger, like I have more bat control. Knee feels good. No twinges so far. Also, switching to wooden bats hasn’t been too tough. Gable has been working with us. I’ve been roping the ball. We all have. Except off of Keith Hassell. That guy is good. I figure we either have a great hitting team or a poor pitching team. I guess we’ll find out in two days! Yoogie said his elbow has been sore since Costello changed his motion, but his curve is tougher to hit now.

Met our manager, Theo Garner. I guess he’s about 60. He’s really something. He used to manage in Kansas City. Guess he wasn’t there for very long because I don’t remember him. But he did manage Horatio Munoz while he was there. He knows everything about being a ballplayer, from how to put pine tar on your bat down to how to sign a baseball. Can you believe he actually had us signing our practice balls? Now we have 12 dozen banged up balls with scribbling all over them. Met the team owner, Mr. DuPree. He owns a trucking company. Nice enough, but a little flashy. Likes to show off, impress people. If he really wanted to impress someone, he could replace our outfield fence. Somebody’s going to get killed out there. What a plywood piece of crap. That would impress me. He took us over to the team offices where we had a class on how we are supposed to behave now that we’re professionals. Suttles farted through the whole thing. We couldn’t stop laughing. Garner almost fined us.

The guys are all pretty cool, except for our center fielder, Keith Hart. He thinks he’s the next Wilbur Simpson or something. All full of himself. On his cell phone all the time. Garner’s constantly on him for playing his music too loud in the locker room. He can play, though. I’ve tried to talk to Kearse, but he sort of keeps to himself. I don’t think he thinks he should be here. Well, he’s older and he’s the only one of us who’s been to AAA.

I’ve been hanging out mostly with Steve McCammon, Jon Rowland (RF) and Yoogie, Steve Ugarte (P), from San Diego. It turned out McCammon and Rowland needed a place to stay, so I offered the extra bedroom to them. Miss Draper had a fit when I told her. She said they were subletting and I was still responsible for all the rent and for any damage they do. I said ok. I hope that’s all right. Let me know if I should do something.

McCammon is from some little town in Wisconsin - Pardeeville. He’s huge – like 6’5”. Rowland is a cowboy from Dallas. His folks own a ranch or cattle or something. He’s a little quiet sometimes, but he’s a good guy. Did you get the roster? I asked Caroline, the team secretary, to send you one. When you get it, take a look at what number I am! How about that? It was totally by accident, too. I’ll tell you about that some time.

There’s another Dave on the team, Dave Guevara. Nobody calls him Davey. I don’t know why the hell not. Thad Martinez plays third for us. He’s a good hitter but he can’t go to his left very well, so I wind up having to make a lot of plays in the hole. Good guy, though. One of our starters, John Dang, is from Chicago, but his parents were born in Korea. Our closer is Lucas Romero, from Venezuela. Can’t speak a word of English. He hangs with Lino a lot, of course. One of our power hitters is our left fielder Manuel Aguirre, from the Dominican. Dead pull hitter. Huge arms. He absolutely murders fastballs but can’t hit an outside breaking pitch to save his life. I hear he’s got a kid back home.

Well, got to go. Steve and Jon and I are heading out for BBQ with Dex and Guy Rennie, one of our other pitchers. I’ll email you after our first game. Wish me luck!

Dave

It’s a very strange feeling, standing in a dugout before a game. You’re nervous, excited. Maybe you’re anxious, maybe you’re confident. But sometimes you’re remarkably calm. Sometimes you’re so cool you seem apathetic. The first day of April 2003 saw me in my first professional baseball game. I was not calm. I was not cool. I was a basket case. I couldn’t remember how Gable wanted me to put my fingers on the bat. While out at short, I switched my finger in my glove every three pitches. Index finger out. Index finger in. Now out. Now in. I was fidgeting so bad McCammon called a mound meeting in the third inning and said, “Jesus Christ, Davey. You’re not going to do that all year, are you?”


From: Dave Driscoll <ddriscoll@CBPA.org>
Sent: April 1, 2003 9:17PM
To: Don Driscoll <dondriscoll@familynet.com>
Subject:

Dear Dad,
We won! 9-6 over the Fort Myers Pelicans, Miami’s A-ball club. Not only that, I came up with the bases loaded in my first AB and drove in two runs with a single! The Pelicans’ pitcher, Quesinberry, almost got his head taken off! It felt great! I hardly felt it come off the bat. Then I went to second on the throw and Kearse knocked me in. I went 0-2 the rest of the game, but I got that first hit out of the way. I also had a SAC fly, so I had 3 rbis!

I was worried about switching to wooden bats, but not any more. I’m really getting used to them. They are not that much heavier than aluminum, but the balance is different. You have to be a little stronger in the forearms to get them around quickly.

A bunch of us went to Smokey’s Ribs after the game and hung out. Hart was there, and Ervin Curlee, another three-year vet of the minors. Dex even got a couple of the Latin players to come. It was a good feeling to enjoy our first win like that.

Well, we’ve got them again tomorrow and I’ve got to get to the gym in the morning before batting practice. Talk to you soon.

Dave
(.333)


We went 2-3 the rest of the week against Thunder Bay and Beaumont. But that wasn’t the worst of it:


From: Dave Driscoll <ddriscoll@CBPA.org>
Sent: April 4, 2003 5:51PM
To: Don Driscoll <dondriscoll@familynet.com>
Subject:

Dear Dad,
Won today vs. Thunder Bay. Hassell mowed them down. Haven’t made an error since we lost to Ft. Myers. Haven’t had a hit, either. 0 for my last 10. I haven’t had a hit since the first game. Garner’s been pinching Lopez for me in the late innings. Today, of all days, he pulls me in the 8th and Lopez singles in a run. Happy birthday to me. Well, it was his birthday, too.

I’m taking extra BP tomorrow. These wooden bats feel heavier when you’re not hitting well. Keith Hart, of all people, came up and told me to keep working at it. It must have showed. Gable hasn’t said anything yet. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Dave
(.091)



From: Dave Driscoll <ddriscoll@CBPA.org>
Sent: April 7, 2003 9:37PM
To: Don Driscoll <dondriscoll@familynet.com>
Subject:

Dear Dad,
0 for 4 again today. I really can’t believe it. 1 for 21. If I go 4 for 4 I’ll still be hitting just .200. I can’t get comfortable, I can’t decide which pitch to hit. I can’t decide where to put my feet, my hands; I’m trying everything and it’s not working. I’m just swinging at anything. Gable says it’s common to go through an “adjustment slump”. Really? It hasn’t seemed to affect Lopez. He’s hitting .364 with as many rbis as me and half the AB. I’m thinking about buying a new bat I saw at Ridley’s. It’s supposed to help you make better contact.

At least I’m not the only one. McCammon’s 1 for 19. He just jokes about it like it’s no big deal. How can he just shrug it off like that? He’s got John Miller, our other catcher, breathing down his neck. I’m just going to keep trying. Something’s got to break soon.

Dave


Are you sensing a pattern here? And my Dad, like he had done so many times, tells me exactly what I need to hear.


From: Don Driscoll<dondriscoll@familynet.com>
Sent: April 7, 2003 11:37PM
To: Dave Driscoll <ddriscoll@CBPA.org>

Subject:

Dear David,
Don’t buy the new bat. Slumps are going to happen. Gable’s right, there is an adjustment to be made when you switch equipment like that. But don’t try everything at once. Try one thing, then keep it or rule it out. Then try the next thing.

Don’t make a number your goal. Saying you have to go 4 for 4 is only going to put more pressure on you. Tell yourself you want to make good contact every time. Hit it hard somewhere and the hits will come. Pick a pitch you are hitting well and look for it in the game. Remember, these pitchers don’t know your strengths and weaknesses. Take advantage of their mistakes. Teach them a lesson.

Good luck,
Dad