Photo credit - James Lamb
Orange County, CA – It’s been
quite some time since sharing any ideas or experiences around professional
baseball. No excuse is probably good enough, so no reason will be offered. All
emotions attached to the full season minor league games within the Kansas City
Royals farm system stay relatively calm until every fifth or sixth day. Sure we
pay attention to every game for the team John Lamb (2-2, 3.32) plays with but
the real emotional blast only surfaces whenever he “toes the slab.”
Fortunately, he continues to serve his fellow Wilmington Blue Rocks, Advanced
Class A affiliate of the Royals, as a starting pitcher which gives his friends
and family time to recuperate along with his arm between appearances.
Anyone that enjoys the game
appreciates the wide spectrum of emotions during the slow tendencies involved
with play. An eager anticipation is experienced by coaches, players and fans
alike. The variety of blood pressure levels attached to every pitch, ball in
play, catch or throw is uniformly shared throughout all whom love the game. A pitcher
trying to throw a quality pitch with a batter in the box clearly begins the
entire emotional process. This simple example of anxiety, one pitch at a time,
can be magnified to unbelievable levels when your son pitches.
Photo credit - Brad Glazier
John has had four starts in
the Carolina League this year. He missed an appearance due to the club directing
him to skip a start for additional arm rest. This is his first full season
effort since undergoing elbow surgery in June 2011 when he was playing for the Northwest
Arkansas Naturals, Double A affiliate in the Texas League. Any major mid-season
injury can make an athlete feel like time stands still during the process of
recovery. Watching one season end and another begin without participating can
be a challenge on any player. The positive note during this past off-season was
that the Kansas City Royals management placed John on the 40 man roster. Lefty
sounded to be a little closer to expectations this past Tuesday night in Wilmington,
DE as he helped with the fantastic team effort of ending a seven game slide.
