7 July, 2005

Hitters knock on wood

Most college ballplayers take batting practice with wooden bats, even though aluminum is what they use come game time. But despite that practice, even after a month of Cape League play, the best and the brightest of the CCBL's 10 teams continue to face the wooden bat challenge every day they take the field.

The Bourne Braves' Andy Goff is no different.

"It's the best hitting tool there is," said Goff. "It teaches you how to hit all over again. You can get jammed and with aluminum, you can still hit it out of the park. Some of these kids are so big these days, they just tap it and it's gone. With wood, you might not even get it out of the infield.

"I haven't broken a bat yet, knock on wood, but it changes the whole game. One of the things about being here is that you can work on pitch selection, on using wood, and there's no scholarship riding on it. I really like to take it one at-bat at a time, try to work on getting on base as often as I can. I try to take a good swing at a good pitch every time."

Goff has played in all but a couple of the Braves' 17 games, be it at second or short. He sees the guys who are placed in different spots on the field, depending on the day, the opponent, what's needed that evening.

"You don't come up here to sit on the bench," he said. "I can't complain at all. Coach [Shapiro] is very upfront. He tells us what's going on that day, where you're going to play. I'm either at second or short, so it's a little easier for me. Some guys don't know until they get to the field that day where they're going to be playing, but you have to just be ready to go wherever they tell you.

With the Cape League rosters now in ink and the team's fine-tooling their combinations, the competition continues to intensify.

"It is so hard to get a hit in this league now, because no matter where you hit it, someone is there that's able to get to it," said Goff, noting that the influx of players who have appeared on the Cape after the completion of the Super Regionals and College World Series has upped the ante here.

"You really have to just get ready to play. You have to stay strong," he said. "We lift at least three times a week. You have to keep your body ready. You have to eat good. If your body is prepared, your mind will be, too, and there's so much mental stuff involved in baseball."

Keeping mind and body sharp also includes staying prepared for competition - of any kind.

"On our off days we'll play golf. It's just like the ping-pong thing. We try to be competitive at everything we do," he said. "It's in our blood. It becomes something we joke about, how badly someone played on a certain hole or that they couldn't return a forehand in ping-pong. We look forward to the off days but we're here to play baseball and we're here to be competitive."

Goff recently got a chance to see July 4th, Cape-style. He admired the views.

"From the bay in East Sandwich, we could see fireworks in Barnstable, in Plymouth, all along the coastline. It was pretty amazing," he said.

Andy Goff of Pittsburgh and Wake Forest University, is sharing his experiences on and off the field as a first-time Cape League player.