September 25, 2000

Luckily for everyone in the instructional league, the first week in Tucson held record high temperatures for this time of year. Today was the first day the temperature was in the 90s and therefore the first day I have been able to operate on higher level functions, anything over 100 shuts off parts of my brain. The 40 players here in camp have been working very hard this week despite the hot conditions and are very thankful for the incredible air conditioning at the Doubletree hotel.

The schedule for the month that we are here is the same every day. We arrive to the park at around 8:15 for an 8:45 stretch. We all meet outside the complex in a grassy area and stretch for 30 minutes. Most people would agree that this is probably the toughest part of the day. This is the part of the day that everyone finds out which muscles on their body are sore. Notice I didn't say if—everyone is sore, it is just a matter of finding where.

One constant throughout my career has been an initial problem with strength trainers. Every team, trainer and strength coach I have ever been associated with has a serious problem with my attitude during stretching like this. It always looks like I am just going through the motions. I have always had a meeting with the coaches about a week after we start to discuss my attitude. And every meeting I have to tell the coaches, I am trying as hard as I can I just can't stretch any farther. They are a little skeptical, but when I bend down to touch my toes with the trainer pushing as hard as he can on my back, most of them marvel at how tight I really am and apologize for giving me a hard time. My hamstrings are perhaps the tightest in the United States when I first start stretching. So it looks like I am just standing there a lot of times not doing anything, but in reality I am really trying hard. So, after getting that straightened out the rest of the day is usually a breeze, relatively speaking.

After stretching and then running through some cones and hurdles for agility drills, the groups split up and begin their drills. Pitchers run through a series of throwing programs, pitcher's fielding practice and conditioning. I am not sure what the other nonathletes (position players) do all day, I think they just hit or something for a little while, nothing too difficult. (I don't want any email explaining why position players are better athletes than pitchers—this is an age-old argument and could not possibly be won.) Anyway, the drills run for about three hours and we get lunch at 11. Most of the drills are player specific and center around weaknesses a player needs to work on to get to the big leagues.

After lunch, we play a game that starts at 1. Our minor league coordinator has told us we are playing to win, so every game is very competitive. There are only three teams in the instructional league so we play the Rockies and White Sox every other game. The games are nice because if your aren't pitching you don't have to go. The other day we had a fan show up to watch the game. One fan. At this pace we will draw in double digits for 30 games in instructional league.

Needless to say, free admission isn't enough to draw a lot of people to these games. I think the Diamondbacks should invest in some huge speakers and play crowd noise as loud as it goes just to get us used to playing with the crowd. I mentioned this idea to Greg Perkin and he told me I should be automatically released for such a stupid idea. So I might wait to tell our pitching coordinator.

My favorite day so far has been when I threw a simulated game to hitters. It was nothing unusual except for the fact that John Denny stood behind the mound and Mark Davis stood behind the plate. I couldn't help but think how lucky I was to have two Cy Young winners watching my every move. John Denny stood behind me and said that he would be my mind one day, I should do exactly what he tells my body to do. Mark Davis stood behind the plate and watched my mechanics. They say the only difference between the arms in the minor leagues and the arms in major leagues is the brain that runs them. Well, for one day I had the brain of two big leaguers to guide my arm.

Anyway, our day ends with pitcher meetings at 4:30 p.m. that go through about 5. In the meetings our coordinator goes over every outing with every pitcher, talking about pitch selection, pace, pickoff moves, defensive plays, etc. After that we have about two hours before we want to go to bed. Well, maybe not at 7, but around that time the sunburn and body aches are calling for bedtime. The best feeling the world comes at around 5:30, the end of a long day, when you get to walk into your suite at the Doubletree and if you tipped the maid the air conditioner stayed on high to get the room to about 38 degrees.

After we eat, there is little time to get in trouble around town, but I am sure some guys will give it their best shot to find some. I wish I could, but I got an 8:45 stretch that is going to take it out of me in the morning.

You can contact Will Rosellini at Rumi54@aol.com.