Stanley’s Stance No. 4

May 16, 2000

Journal Entry No. 4 May 16, 2000 – Charlotte, N.C.

Hello baseball fans! Today was a very laid back day. I woke up at about 11:30, to find that Singy (Justin Singleton) was nowhere to be found. We were supposed to leave for practice at 12:45, so I had to find something to eat very quickly. I got dressed and decided to go to McDonalds. I ran into Singy, Casey Stone, and Ryan Riley in the lobby, and decided to join them for lunch. They were about finished, but Casey waited for me to eat. We ate, got dressed, and boarded the bus for practice.

We practiced at Knights Stadium from 12:55 until about 1:45. Most of the position players took extra swings in the cage underneath the stadium after we hit batting practice on the field.

The field is not as big as our home field, which meant that it was time to play a little home run derby. Brian Holstad and Bradley LeCroy are in my hitting group. Holstad had won all three previous times we played. I did not manage to hit any at Virginia, due to a strong wind blowing across the field from right to left. Today was my day, as I claimed victory with a mere two home runs. Bradley nor Holstad hit one. Coach Corbin did not know we were playing, but he threw batting practice as if he did, painting the outside corner, like his name was Greg Maddux. None of the other hitting groups played, but Singy and Jarrod Schmidt stole the show, hitting over five apiece. Since we do not get to hit on the field before games, I guess I will have to wait until the regional to catch Holstad.

We arrived back at the hotel at about 3:30. We quickly showered and headed back to the field for the tournament cookout. We were the last team to arrive, but it turned out to be good, because the food line was small. The food was good. Singy and I actually took cookies and brownies back to the hotel for later. I always like the cookout, because I get to talk to players I know from other teams. It’s cool, because I always know people from playing summer ball.

Singy and I talked to a reporter from the Charleston Post & Courier, who is doing a story about the lack of minorities in college baseball. There are not many black baseball players in the ACC. I had a lot to say about the topic, and I was glad to see that Gene Sapakoff and the Charleston Post & Courier were interested in the subject. I have actually been interviewed on the subject on two other occasions.

We stayed at the cookout for about an hour, and returned to the hotel at about 5:30. Some of the guys went back to the field at 6:30 for the play-in game between Maryland and Duke. As of right now, I do not know who won, because the game went into extra innings.”

Instead of going to the game I played spades from about 5:40 until 10:25. Bradley and I beat Kevin Lynn and Matt Additon in one game to 500, before Bradley and Lynn had to get on the bus for the game.

Casey and I played Ryan Mottl and Additon in a best of three series, with each game to 350. “Motts” and Additon won game one, but Casey and I took the next two to secure the series. “Motts” and Additon were not satisfied, so we gave them another chance in a game to 500. Casey played to about 400 and turned his hand over to Thomas Boozer. Casey stopped playing, because he and Singy wanted to go to the convenience store before curfew.

Singy slept nearly the entire time we played cards. This is the second straight day he has slept through our noisy, trash talking card games. How he does it? I do not know. He ought to be fully rested for the game tomorrow. Singy made a funny comment after he finally awoke from his nap, he said, “If ya’ll play baseball tomorrow as well as ya’ll play spades, we should play pretty well this week.” I hope we do play as well as Casey, Bradley, and I play spades when we team up. We would almost be unbeatable! Talk to ya’ll soon. Go Tigers!

P.S. Don’t expect all the entries to be quite this long, today was just a good day!