After the team completed stretching and normal baseball drills manager Collins had the players practice some of their specialties. Ike Davis and the other firstbasemen practiced tumbling over the dugout railing attempting to snag foul balls. Meanwhile, Mookie Wilson introduced the outfielders to the outfield wall and suggested that slamming into it violently could lead to a four month headache.
Once all that was done it was decided to play a six-inning intrasquad game. Collins named Jose Reyes and David Wright as captains. He awarded Jose the first pick. Things bogged down a bit as Reyes immediately selected Wright. After they told him that that pick was not kosher he changed his selection to Johan Santana. And again Jose was told to try again since Johan's on the DL and doesn't figure to be heard from until June or July.
Finally Jose settled on Carlos Beltran who agreed to play for him conditioned on his being allowed to play centerfield. After that the picks went smoothly until the very end when just one player remained: Luis Castillo. After a good natured game of "you take him", "no, you take him" he was finally firmly ensconced on Wright's bench.
The game itself was relatively unexciting. Any time Daniel Murphy fielded a ball at second the training staff went out to readjust his knee brace and check his vitals. Jason Bay played the entire game in his newly developed Nerf outfit that would protect him against collisions. While it is very efficient in doing that it did give Bay the look of the Michelin man playing leftfield.
After the game it was unclear which team, if either, had won. David Wright said, "I think we scored two runs and they scored maybe 4. I really wasn't paying that much attention."
Josh Thole who caught for Team Reyes said, "By my count we lost 3-2."
Apparently both Chris Capuano and R.A. Dickey were the losing pitchers.
Manager Collins was a bit taken aback by the whole thing. Scratching his head during his post-practice presser he said, "If I remember correctly back when I was with the Angels, we always had one team win and one team lose when we played intrasquad games. Oh, well, we'll strap 'em back on and try again tomorrow. Maybe I'll let Pelfrey be a captain instead of Reyes."
All articles featured on The Apple are fictitious. No Mets were harmed in the writing of this story. Story by Larry Smith. You can follow Larry Smith on twitter @dr4sight
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