Living the baseball dream: The Big Game

Editor's note: On the cusp of his 60th birthday, John Fieser's daughter arranged for him to attend former Chicago Cubs catcher Randy Hundley's fantasy baseball camp. Fieser, of Naperville, has played with and captained competitive softball teams since the mid-'70s and is a long-suffering Cubs fan.

The weeklong camp in Mesa, Ariz., includes twice-daily intersquad games, building up to a game at the Cubs' Hohokam Park pitting the campers against former Cubs players who serve as coaches.

Fieser took his laptop to camp, too, and e-mailed reports to family and friends back home. We're printing edited versions of his dispatches, which conclude today.

Day 6 - Saturday, Jan. 31

We were required to be dressed in our home uniforms in the clubhouse at 9 a.m. for the daily meeting.

The Big Game rules were addressed: There are 8 teams, so there are 8 innings. A maximum of 6 runs can be scored at bat. The Campers are the visiting team, so the team with the best record hits first, with every Camper getting one at bat. Outs are irrelevant to Campers, but the Old Cubs get just 3 outs per inning. Once each Camper on that team has batted, that half of the inning is over; Campers go into the field, and the Old Cubs hit.

There is no pitching machine involved in this game. Campers hit against a Cubs' pitcher. The coaches also went over how the introductions would occur that were to be recorded as the opening of the game. The entire game was to be recorded and will be available for purchase sometime soon.

Walking into Hohokam Park, and knowing I was going to be on the field is a moment I'll never forget.

All of us Campers lined up on the right field line so we could be introduced and be seen on the video camera. I was one of those who gave a phonetic spelling of my name. The announcer got it right, and I hit my mark. So far, so good ...

The game. First thing you need to understand is the Old Cub pitchers aren't there to strike out Campers. They may mess around and throw some trick pitches, but mostly they're just laying the ball in so you can hit it; at least that's what I saw today. The second thing to understand is that Campers never win this game.

Campers were ahead 1-0 after the first inning, but by the sixth inning, we were down 14-9. Time for us to bat. Down by 5 runs? No big deal.

Rick Reuschel came in "in relief" to pitch to us. We pushed 3 runs across, so when we went into the field, the score was 14-12, which was the closest it had been since the second inning.

I went 0-for-1, hitting a pretty good-looking pitch about 8 feet in front of the plate. Fielder's choice left me on first base. Jose Cardenal, playing first base, told me I should steal. I thought he might be up to something, so I didn't do it right away. On about the third pitch, I took off at the pitcher's first movement to the plate and, so I was told, he didn't throw the ball, so I either stole a base or got balked to second. Eventually, I scored 1 of our 3 runs.

Then, we took the field. I played where I had been playing most of the week - left field, which was the sun field.

It's not as easy as it looks to catch a major league fly ball. The sun field makes it tougher. Fortunately, the one ball I lost in the sun wasn't within my range even 20 years ago, so no harm, but had it been hit where I could have caught it, I'm not sure I would have seen it to catch it.

While I was in left field, Bob Dernier - not a big guy, by the way - smoked one into the left field corner foul. Later, I had to chase a line drive just fair down the left field line into the corner. There also was a single to left that rolled out to me on that billiard table grass - no bad bounces to blame for a miss on any of the fields we played on all week. That was the extent of my fielding. Unfortunately for our team, we allowed the maximum of 6 runs.

Two innings later, and the Campers lost to the Old Cubs 22-12. If the Old Cubs had played harder on defense, it could have been much worse for the Campers. The objective was for all Campers to have one chance to hit, get on base, run the bases, score a run, drive a run in, catch a ball, throw someone out - all those things on a Major League field.

I don't think there were any new injuries, but there were a lot of players in the Cub pinstripes who weren't moving too well because the week really took a toll on almost everyone.

One guy putting his uniform pants on in the locker room before the trip to Hohokam was grimacing just bending his legs - I could feel his pain across the room. He had caught nearly every inning of every game all week. Today, he not only caught in the Big Game, but he also hit a double and threw out Jody Davis trying to steal second base.

That evening was the awards banquet. The meal was great and so was the entertainment. The master of ceremonies was Jim Volkman, a Camper, but also a Harry Caray impersonator who sounds just like Harry.

Trophies were given to the team with the best record. Others got baseballs autographed by all of the coaches.

A few more stories were shared by the Old Cubs, and Eddie Vedder addressed the group as well. Randy Hundley spoke, thanking all involved, including the wives and significant others, for supporting the Campers.

This was the last chance to talk to the Old Cubs and get autographs. I made a point to tell Randy Hundley that I thought the camp was great.

My batting average for the week: .556.

Not too bad for a Geezer.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=272675">Day 1: 'I will die a happy man' <span class="date">[2/15/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=271888">Day 2: Living a baseball dream<span class="date">[2/16/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=271940">Day 3: Playing the Giants<span class="date">[2/17/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=272417">Day 4: Ron Santo comes for a visit<span class="date">[2/18/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=272680">Day 5: Some guy named Eddie joins the team<span class="date">[2/19/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>