Day Five - Into the Breach (cont)

So it was off to the far end of the complex, the optimistically named Tradition Field (perhaps only in Florida can you have a Tradition in a couple of years, but whatever). On the way there, I ran into perhaps my two favorite campers, Lynn Spuler and Wendy Shotsky. Lynn and Wendy are both in their fifties, and are first-time campers. And without getting too Five-People-You-Meet-in-Heaven here, they reminded me yet again that fantasy camp is about challenging yourself to do something difficult and then doing it with gusto.

Wendy told me the other day that, like a lot of people here, she’d been dreaming about going to fantasy camp for years. They didn’t let girls play baseball when she was growing up, and she was determined to come and play, no matter what. She convinced her friend Lynn to join her after a great deal of coaxing. And these two ladies are having the time of their lives. The other day, Wendy had a key hit during a game, her first. She told me, “It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my entire live, and I have twins!”

Then I stopped to watch Lynn step in during their final game and she took a hard cut at a pitch, sending it over the first baseman’s outstretched glove for a double. She screamed, then she laughed, then she screamed again. “A double! I hit a double! My first extra base hit!” She was delirious, her team was delirious, even the other team was excited. Another time, Lynn related how the trainer had wrapped her pulled groin. “I only realized that he had taped my underwear to my body when I went to pee.”


Lynn (left center) and Wendy (right center) at the awards banquet.

A lot of people will head back to their jobs and their families this week with a true sense of accomplishment, but I have a feeling that nobody will feel like they achieved as much as these two women.

So it was off to the field for the game against the pros.