Fantasy weeks can be a dream

Did you know that I once took Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter deep? Most people don’t realize that I had a cup of coffee at a fantasy baseball camp in the mid-1980s and the chance encounter with Hunter.

My good friend Brad Bibb and I were in Florida for a basketball game between Mercer and Stetson, and Mercer alum Bill Hatfield, who was heading up the camp, invited us over to the Houston Astros’ training site at Kissimmee, where the fantasy camp was being held. I remember seeing Ralph Houk, the longtime manager of the New York Yankees, Johnny Vander Meer, who pitched back-to-back no-hitters for the Cincinnati Reds in 1938, the only man to ever do so, and Joe Niekro, the younger brother of Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, and of course, Hunter who was on five World Series winning teams, three with the Oakland A’s and two with the Yankees.

Hatfield offered me the opportunity to take a few swings against Hunter, and I readily accepted. I’m not certain if it was the first or second pitch, but I took Hunter’s 93 mph fastball dead over the left-field wall. I may have embellished the story a tad, and I am sure Bibb would tell you Catfish’s tosses were around 50 mph and the left-field wall shot was actually a bloop over the shortstop’s head.

Nonetheless, it was my Walter Mitty moment, and that’s the way I remember it, and I’m sticking to it. As the noted neurotic George Costanza from “Seinfeld” said, “It’s not a lie if you believe it.” We were at the camp for just a morning session, but it is a day I will always remember.

The Atlanta Braves are holding their annual Fantasy camp in Kissimmee this week and for slightly less than $4,500, you can take part in the week-long experience and play with and against and rub shoulders with the likes of former Braves Sid Bream, Steve Avery, Marquis Grissom and Denny Neagle, among others.

Local insurance executive Mike Kaplan, who was pretty good athlete at Stratford back in the early 1970s, was a Braves camper in 1993 in West Palm Beach, Florida. His parents gave him the week for his 40th birthday, and he calls it one of the best experiences of his life. He was one of more than 100 people in attendance along with former Braves, Lew Burdette, Ralph Garr, Rick Mahler, Darrell Chaney, Cecil Upshaw, Ernie Johnson and Glenn Hubbard, along with numerous others.

The Braves do the camp right. When Kaplan arrived, he made his way to the locker room where he found an Atlanta uniform with his name on the back. He also has a Mike Kaplan baseball card, which was produced for him.

During the week, Kaplan played through a tweaked quad muscle and as a result was named to the All Lovell Team (named for Braves Assistant trainer Jim Lovell), and he has the trophy to prove it. During the week, the campers went through tryouts and were drafted for different teams. Another highlight was when Braves campers would square off against New York Mets fantasy campers. Half of the teams from Atlanta went to Port St. Lucie to play the Mets while the remainder stayed in West Palm Beach and took on squads that came over from the New York training site. A fond memory for Kaplan was the opportunity to bat against Mahler.

Kaplan calls the fantasy camp Little League for adults, and he highly recommends it.

Kaplan played both basketball and baseball at Stratford, but he is not the best athlete to come out of his family. He is the older brother of former professional tennis player and Georgia Sports Hall of Fame member Jaime Kaplan.

This story was originally published January 16, 2017 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Fantasy weeks can be a dream."