BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Sports Writer
Clarkstonites laughed and smiled as they met for lunch in early March and shared stories from Detroit Tigers Fantasy Baseball Camp from this year and previous years.
Danny Beer, Sam Hoff, Kevin Pesta, Gus Ploss and Kirk Stegmeyer were just a few of 150 campers during this year’s camp, January 26 – February 2.
“One of the cool things about the camp is you meet former players,” said Pesta. “You spend the whole week with former Tigers, but you meet guys like us – all baseball fans, mostly from Michigan. You meet so many more people and then throughout the year they have events, lunches, a camper night where we get introduced one night during a game, opening day parties. There are social events that go on and it keeps us all connected. We have this in common – we all love baseball, we all love the Tigers.”

“I ended up making friendships that continue throughout the year,” Stegmeyer added.
“It’s very seldom you go down to a Tigers game and you don’t run into someone from camp,” Ploss said.
“I was wearing my uniform one time and a guy stopped me and said ‘what a cool idea to put Beer on the back of your uniform,'” Beer smiled. “Bonus after 15 years, you get on a list to throw a first pitch out during a Tigers game which is a really cool thing.”
The week begins with orientation when players arrive. There are clinics on Monday morning and games in the afternoon. Then, there are two games on Tuesday and two games on Wednesday.
“One of those games is ‘Under the Lights’ at Henley Field where the Tigers had their training camp and played their games until 1966,” Hoff added.
There is one game on Thursday and the playoffs are Friday with up to three games.
“Saturday is a dream game,” said Hoff. “Each team has a chance to play against all the pros down there. This year it got rained out.”
Beer shared he has been going to the camp for over 25 years and the first time was for his 30th wedding anniversary present for only one time.
“My wife said one time,” he smiled. “You aren’t doing it again.”
“That’s what I said, too,” Pesta added. “I said one time and then I just got hooked.”
It was the 12th camp for Pesta since January 2000, when he received the first camp as a gift for his 40th birthday.
“I thought I would just attend the one time,” he shared in his camp journal he writes every year. “I still vividly remember sitting in the room during that first orientation and watching my childhood idols Mickey Lolich, Bill Freehan Willie Horton and Al Kaline walk into the room. I was in awe. I still remember having Darrell Evans and Frank Tanana as coaches and what a great time I had getting to know these former pros as well as meeting many campers who were die hard baseball, and specifically Tiger fans, just like myself. By the end of that camp, I knew I would have to come back for more.”
Pesta added he wrote his first journal because he wanted his dad to go with him. His dad opted not to go so he kept a journal for him. This year’s journal is 18 pages and includes details of clinics and games as well as former Tiger players who were coaches for the team and and Pesta’s teammates on Team No. 5.
It was the sixth camp for Stegmeyer, who knew Pesta through Clarkston Riverdawgs.
“We used to coach together,” he said. “Kevin had gone for several years and I just decided one year to go. We ended up going the next year. We have gone every year since. It was my second time not being in the championship game. The first four years we we went to the championship game.”
“That’s the thing,” Beer added. “Someone can go for a lot of years and never make it to the championship game.”
Ploss has been attending for 16 years and added his son has joined him for five years.
“He is a really good athlete,” he smiled. “Some of my most memorable experiences would be when my son would hit after me. I would be on first and he would hit a triple. Most times would make it home. My son is 27 and I am 63. My legs are getting sore. He would give me hassle. I tell him, ‘You are lucky I am still out here.’ It’s weirdly competitive. There’s good players and not so good players. They all get competitive. I used to joke it’s almost like real baseball. Danny is our captain, he is the ambassador. Everyone on our team wants to win for Danny.”
Hoff was the rookie this year.
“When Kevin wrote his journal for 2018, he gave me a copy of it,” Hoff said. “I read it and said ‘wow, this is really cool.’ Then, when this year came along, Kevin said something to me and we have a mutual friend who put the pressure on me. I said I’m sold. I have to tell you I wasn’t disappointed. It was really awesome.”
He added he was sore afterwards.
“The competitive fire does not go out,” said Beer.
“It rips you up,” Ploss said.
Campers can play any position they want during the Fantasy Camp.
“That’s the cool thing,” Stegmeyer said, adding he played first base, third base and pitched.
“My fantasy was to play every position and I did,” Hoff said. “I pitched until they pulled me out after five walks. I played short stop when we were down 10-0, and I walked off field when we were down 15-0.”
“A guy’s fantasy is his teammates’ nightmare,” Ploss said.
“You don’t have to be a really good ball player,” Beer added. “You just have to love baseball.”
“We have a player, Marie in her early 30s, super, duper Tiger fan,” Ploss said. “She had never played baseball in her life. She went to get lessons. She went to the camp all by herself with 90 percent guys. She was amazing. I give her a lot of credit.”
Beer added he named her VIP when he gave his captain speech at the banquet.
Pesta added he had a camper on his team who had never played baseball before and had won the trip.
“The baseball is awesome,” said Hoff, “but just hanging out with the players and hanging out with the campers is my best memory. Hearing the stories, that was the highlight.”
Pesta agreed, adding former Tiger players sit there and start telling stories.
“I will never forget one of the best dinners I had was Tony Phillips was on one side of the table, Willie Horton on the other side and they were arguing about if Billy Martin was one of the meanest man who ever walked the earth or if he was the best manager,” he said. “The banter that goes on, the stories you hear.”
“For the pros, it’s a reunion,” said Beer.
“We have gotten to know Jon Warden so well,” Ploss added. “He comes up and wants to hang out.”
“You realize how nice these guys are,” Hoff said.
The guys added campers can get photographs with the pros and there is an autograph night.
“I would get them to personalize the autograph to me,” said Stegmeyer. “But you don’t ask for autographs throughout the week. Maybe a picture.”
The camp usually has two sessions for a week each but this year there was only one with with ten teams and 150 campers.
“As I get older, I keep thinking and sometimes saying ‘this is my last camp,’ but who knows what the future has in store,” said Pesta. “I’ve often said, you don’t quit playing because you get old, you get old because you quit playing.”