A day in the life of Adam Shorsher

Blue Crabs catcher shares the highs and lows of a minor league baseball player

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Blue Crabs catcher Adam Shorsher provides outsiders a glimpse into the daily habits of a minor leaguer. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Here’s an insider’s view into the life of a Blue Crab.

3:10 p.m.

After spending the day running errands and working out at the gym, Shorsher arrives at the locker room and begins to prepare for the night’s game.

Typically players arrive an hour earlier, but Manager Butch Hobson canceled batting practice due to last Wednesday’s high temperatures, so the team had more time away from the ballpark.

3:20 p.m.

Using brushes and Scrubbing Bubbles, Shorsher and a handful of other players sit in their lockers and shine their cleats.

‘‘Some guys do it because they are superstitious,” said Shorsher. ‘‘Other guys think that if they look better, they play better. I just like to have clean shoes. It’s just another way to fill time, and gets you in the right mindset.”

4:15 p.m.

Working with Hobson, Shorsher, John Ramistella, George Sandel, and Clinton Johnston take batting practice in the cage outside the locker room.

Hobson works with his catcher to have quiet feet in the box and swing through the ball when it is out in front of the plate.

The players work off of a tee first and then take rotations on soft toss with Hobson pitching.

5:00 p.m.

Shorsher brings his bat to relief pitcher Travis Wade, who cleans the barrel on a woodturning lathe.

Wade, who started making bats on the lathe seven years ago, uses sandpaper and a welder’s glove to remove pine tar, dirt and water from the bat to make it lighter and smoother in the batter’s hands.

5:30 p.m.

Shorsher and the other skill players attend a hitter’s-only meeting with hitting coach Andy Etchebarren.

In last Wednesday’s game, the Blue Crabs will face a left-handed starter, and with the team struggling against left-handers on the year, Etchebarren wants to go over the approach batters need to take. According to Shorsher, Etchebarren encouraged hitters to stay on pitches and not over-swing.

5:45 p.m.

The catcher comes out of the meeting and begins to get into his uniform.

‘‘The worst part of the day is putting socks on,” Shorsher said.

6:00 p.m.

Starting pitcher Keith Ramsey meets with his catcher briefly to discuss their strategy against the Bluefish lineup. Because Ramsey just faced Bridgeport, not much changes.

‘‘There are certain guys who we say aren’t going to be the ones that beat us,” Shorsher said. ‘‘So if they come up with guys on, we aren’t going to pitch to them, but they know that. They are just hoping for a mistake.”

6:15 p.m.

Shorsher is the first Blue Crab to take the field for warm-ups. He drops his equipment off at the dugout, and then stretches in the outfield.

‘‘As a catcher, everyday is a challenge mentally and physically,” Shorsher said. ‘‘It’s important to have a routine everyday that gets your body in condition to take on the punishment that comes with the position.”

Shorsher also added that injuries are just part of the job, and that by November, two months after the season ends, he usually feels like he has recovered from a season behind the plate.

6:37 p.m.

Ramsey and Shorsher start to warm up in the outfield grass.

They then move to the bullpen mound and work out until just before the 7:05 p.m. first pitch.

7:45 p.m.

Shorsher starts a two-out rally in the bottom of the second inning with a double into the right-field gap, just beyond the reach of diving center fielder Travis Ezi.

A single by Brandon Ketron moves Shorsher to third, but the inning ends with James Shanks striking out with the bases loaded.

8:10 p.m.

Behind the plate, Shorsher drops to his knees and blocks a fastball in the dirt to hold the runner, but comes up in pain.

‘‘It just caught a piece of my thumb that is exposed from my glove being worn the way I wear it,” Shorsher said. ‘‘Just another knick, just another bruise. I’ll probably feel it tomorrow.”

8:20 p.m.

Shorsher returns to the dugout and douses his hands in rubbing alcohol to rid them of sweat on an extremely humid night.

‘‘It’s something I picked up back in high school,” said Shorsher, who resides in San Jose, Calif. and is used to a much dryer heat. ‘‘I never used to wear batting gloves, so I would get the pine tar all over my hands. I used the alcohol to get it off, and I just realized how much dryer my hands were after using it.”

9:10 p.m.

Shorsher drills a high sacrifice fly to center field to score Brian Jarosinski, capping a four-run rally in the sixth inning.

‘‘With a man on third and the infield in, I am just trying to elevate something and make it easy for him to score; that’s all I was trying to do right there,” Shorsher said.

11:00 p.m.

From the on-deck circle, in the bottom of the 11th inning, Shorsher watches as Chris Maples hits a walk-off home run to deliver a 7-6 win.

It is the second straight night the Blue Crabs won on a walk-off homer.

‘‘First time I have ever been apart of something like this, two walk-off home runs in two nights,” Shorsher said. ‘‘It’s a lot of fun, and I’m glad to see the game end. We are making some noise. Hopefully we can keep this thing going.”

Midnight

After spending nearly nine hours at the ballpark, Shorsher grabs a quick shower and heads back to his host family’s house in La Plata.

With an 11:05 a.m. game scheduled for Thursday, the Blue Crabs catcher will be back in the locker room by 9:30.