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Farrell: My Week At The White Sox Fantasy Camp

Brian Farrell is the winner of 670 The Score's White Sox Fantasy Camp contest. He'll take place in a week long White Sox Fantasy Camp and will blog about it every step of the way.

By Brian Farrell–

Wednesday January 12th
The day started off with an early morning wakeup call at 6:30am.  We met outside the hotel for our shuttle to pick us up and head on over to the stadium.  Once we arrived we got situated in our lockers and headed over to the dining area for some breakfast all cooked up and ready.  After stretching out and putting on our uniforms we were sat down for a pre-game meeting for the upcoming week schedule.  We were told some really funny stories of past camps and some great baseball stories as well from some of the coaches.  We then headed out to the field for our first game.  Some rust had to be shaken out for most of the campers in field, but overall everyone had a good grasp on the basic baseball fundamentals.  I started off with some big time beginners luck, going 3-3 against Bobby Thigpen.  Now granted he's not throwing as hard as he can, but even when he's throwing BP balls, he's still piping them in their with some good juice behind it.  Now we head to the bottom of the last inning, tied up, 2 outs man on 3rd and I step up to the plate.  Every fan has always dreamt of what it would be like to be in that position with the game on the line against a great closer, and this was my chance.  I took the first pitch just to soak up what was actually happening, with a grin on my face and butterflies in my stomach….strike one.  Next pitch is a ball, and at this point, they're getting to the plate pretty quick.  I foul off the next 2 pitches just barely, and the heat is turned up.  I got a 1-2 count and the next pitch is a blazing high heat fastball, which I chase upstairs…He Gone!  And this ball game ovah!  (No extra innings the first game, since we wanted to make sure everyone eased into the first game)  I tell you what; Bobby can still bring the heat bigtime.  Everyone got a good kick out of it, and I'm happy he brought the heat too.  You want to know how you would stack up against the best with the game on the line.  Of course I wish I hit it, but it's still a great story to tell, and only 1 that can happen here this week.  We then grabbed lunch which is also served up and included every day at camp.  After lunch we headed back out for the second game, which we lost.  We have a great team, we just need to find our strengths and adjust.  We then headed back to the hotel where guys hung out in the lobby, told some great stories, had a lot of laughs and just relaxed outside around the patio of the hotel.  A great day but we'll get 'em tomorrow.

Thursday January 13th
Waking up and feeling a little sore.  I haven't used some of those muscles since the little league days.  Same routine in the morning, get to the locker room and head over to the training room.  I forgot to mention about them yesterday and I cannot explain how great these guys are.  There are over 60 guys here and they know everyone's previous injuries from the day before, and know exactly what to do to keep your body running like a finely tuned automobile.  You have full access to the weight room, stretching room, and hot tub/ice bath area just like the pros.  I get stretched out and head back in the locker room for pre-game meetings and introduced to Kangaroo Court, where you are able to fine yourself or others for silly things you forgot to do, a bad play you made in the field, or even something that happened a few months back.  Its all for fun and only a couple of bucks if you get fined, which all goes to charity anyways,  I don't think I've laughed that hard at 8:30 in the morning in my life.  We head out to play our morning game which we win and are pretty pumped.  We eat lunch, take a breather and head out to game 2 which we win again and feeling real good going into the evening.  We head back to the hotel to get ready, and some of my teammates along with myself and fellow campers go out to dinner and have a celebratory drink for the 2 game win streak.

Friday January 14th
Same morning routine. Before the meeting I check out the photo albums of the previous days. Something else that's also very cool the Sox do is hire a great photography team that heads out to the games every day and takes pictures of the live action shots during the game.  These are professional grade pictures you can get which capture the moment like the cover of Sports Illustrated.  Now I don't think any of us are going to make the cover anytime (I said think, you never know.  Let a man dream), but at least you can get some great pictures of you in action in which you wouldn't be able to get unless you have people here.  We head to the field for game 1 and beat the team of Jeff Cox and Moose Skowron, which had lost yesterday, however, are the defending champions, and had a 12 game winning streak going until yesterday afternoon.  We're feeling good and have ourselves a little winning streak going.  After lunch we head back out for game 2 which is a game we have been looking forward to all week because this game is played on the stadium field.  First time I've stepped foot in this place and it's a gorgeous ballpark to catch a game…but maybe not our game.  This field, along with all the other fields to might I add, is in impeccable condition.  Lots of pictures are taken, and in the beginning, kind of hard to focus on the game itself.  You want to play good when you're on the god field and thankfully we did    and won.  After the game guys got ready for the Q & A Hot Stove dinner here at the park.  This is something that family can attend as well.  It's pretty much some really great food, and a way to show your family some of the Sox legends you've been hanging out all week.  My dad and brother came out for this and had a blast.  Steve Stone, Darren Jackson, and Roland Hemmon were special guests and had an open forum discussion where campers or guests could ask any Sox question from the past or present.  Good time had by all.

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