The Quarantine
March 19, 2011
A quarantine due to an outbreak of chicken pox in North Block has wiped out the practices until the 28th of March. On March 5th the quarantine went into effect. The Giants had gotten the roster down to 19 players meaning two more needed to be cut. The A’s tryout day was cancelled, which had been the 5th, but they mostly know who will be on the team anyway.
Funny how the state built a multi-million dollar hospital, which overlooks the baseball field, but those sick with the chicken pox were not moved into it. Instead, the sick convicts were left in the block to infect others, I mean, talk about close quarters. Naturally, the disease spread to more inmates until the quarantine was extended to April 16, or beyond, who knows, so we moved opening day to May 7. Of course, the guys cannot practice, or exercise at all. Our pitchers, who had been throwing regularly and getting in baseball shape, will have to start over, somehow, and in their tiny, cramped cells.
I have not scheduled any April games for the A’s since I am not completely satisfied it will come off yet.[1] But, my memo worked.[2] The educational/recreational staff had no difficulty in backing me and the program we were hoping for. Steve, who was that coach I had been talking about, the one who allowed the inmates to run the team, he and I are okay now, but with some issues undecided. Waiting now to see if Bobby and the others will actually yield control of the team. Convicts simply should not run the team, though they had been able to do a fairly good job of it. Last year’s intramural team that morphed into the B team–the cons ran it. I have done what I could to see that Ed, Ollie, and Steve take charge but it remains to be seen.
As I mentioned previously, the A’s guys hate the idea of being a B team, but they are. The top players are Giants. A new guy, Frank, young, lefty, throws hard and is accomplished. He arrived at the prison just days before the tryouts, and both teams wanted him. After some considerable politicking, he went with the Giants. Now we will have four good starters, Kevin Driscoll, who I want to pitch on opening day, Matt White, Frank Braby, and he may be a real phenom, and Mario Ellis. Frank also plays center, looks great at the plate, so we have to have his bat in all the time.
Chris Marshall, last year’s center fielder, I had to inform that we would ask him to move to left field. He really didn’t like it and let me know he didn’t. Later he came back and said he would do it if it would help the team.
Chris comes from a rock solid family in Long Beach. He talks about his parents a great deal. He feels so bad that he has let the family down, the black sheep he calls himself, and he is Black. Drugs got the better of him and twice since this is the second time he has been in prison. He plays hard and is quite emotional. He gets on himself and a bit much, if he makes an error. One thing I know is that Chris has my back in the prison and he is nobody to fool with.
Some of the guys are getting older and slower. James at 2nd, Red at 1st, Duck, in left last year, Bilal, in right last year–younger guys are waiting to take their places. I can see the anxiety in their faces, the uncertainty. Terry Burton, a bench player mostly the last few years, moving into his mid-fifties, the grey hair appearing more obviously now, may be the smartest player on the team in a long while, has opted to play for the A’s where he figures he will get more playing time. We talked about it and I supported his decision.
We miss Chris Rich, now in the Duelle Institute, or DVI, in Tracey, CA. I have approval now to visit him and I hope to do so soon. Johnny, last year’s team captain and our catcher, is ready again. He is counted an Hispanic, but he lacks any of the physical characteristics of that ethnic group. He has the tattoos, speech, and body language of the proto-typical convict. I have found him to be a reliable man, one I can depend on. When I need information, and so on, I go to Johnny to talk. He has the best interests of the program at heart and gets the job done.
Johnny is a lifer. I never asked him what his crime was and he never volunteered it either. Chris Rich, whom I consider a friend even though volunteers are not supposed to develop such “familiarity” with a convict, was always the guy I depended on to talk real with and receive accurate information about the state of things with the players. Now it is Johnny, and he is easy to reach since he works in the garden area, with Frankie, our first base coach, just inside the main entrance to the prison. We have had a number of conversations in that spot, with Johnny leaning on a rake or a shove.
No wooden bats this year–they have splintered into what looks like weapon stock so only metal this year, none of which can be kept in the prison. The coaches have to bring in the bats and only three. Inventory control is tight now and there is another new warden who will want to make it look like he is doing the job so more rules are likely on the way.
The racial makeup this year–a little less Black, little more white, and enough players housed in North Block so that if H Unit gets locked down we can still play a game.
No real troubled guys on the Giants team for 2011, at least as it appears right now. Bad chemistry on the bench is the worst and this year I am committed to dealing with it at once.
We could have a sixty game schedule, forty for the Giants and twenty for the A’s. I wanted to prevent any of the baseball players from playing on the softball team, but the A’s players, those likely to make that team, protested strongly since they are also the softball players. I relented but then halved their schedule. In the long run then both teams would play approximately the same number of games and with 25% fewer teams to bring in, my load would be lighter. I was afraid of the reaction however, when I let this out during the second day of the tryouts. Strangely, I did not get any static about it. We will see, but I have got the scheduling locked down under my authority and it would be virtually impossible to alter that.
It was necessary to ordered 20 A’s caps, belts, and socks from T & B Sports in San Rafael owned by the Brusati brothers, Jeff and Mike. They give me a good discount. The Oakland A’s gave us uniforms, jerseys and pants, really nice stuff, big league stuff, but we needed to supply the rest of the uniform. We want our guys looking sharp.
And the Giants have new stuff, too. Mike Murphy, long time equipment manager for the San Francisco, World Champion Giants, sent a bunch of stuff over, which I have yet to see. Mainly I need baseballs. Without the Giant’s giving us their used game balls, the whole program would not be played the same way it is now.
Here we are, a big time prison, San Quentin, real convicts, who need to be there and safely locked up, wearing the most expensive big league uniforms, running around on the nice green grass, playing a game and getting a lot of attention for it as well. All at no cost to the tax payer I might add.
Right or wrong? Good or bad? Fair or foul? I don’t deal with these questions anymore. I just do it.
[1] Nearly all the Giants schedule is set now except for five games in August. Since outside teams know the A’s are the “B” team, it is proving difficult to fill up their twenty game schedule. But it will happen because there will be teams who will badly want to come in even if they have to play the B team.
[2] The memo’s success was short lived as the whole mess had to be dragged once again into meetings with the education/recreaction brass. By opening day, May 7, many key issues remain unresolved.