Titans break camp with dizzy bat race

One of my favorite days at training camp is the last one. As camp progresses, things start to get more repetitive and increasingly boring but I always look forward to the last day and the annual Dizzy Bat Race.
If you haven’t seen it before, I highly recommend you go to the final day of camp next year.
The race has just a few rules. The rookies form two single-file lines, offense and defense, at one end of the field and must then run a relay race 50 yards downfield and back. At 25 yards, the rooks have to deposit the football between a pair of traffic cones, then sprint into a waiting huddle of veterans. The rooks are then given a baseball bat, which they must hold to the ground with their foreheads on the handle, then spin around the bat in circles. As they are doing this, all kinds of substances are dumped on them, including ice water, Gatorade, ketchup, mustard, flour, powder, you name it.
Each rook must then run back, pick the ball up again and race to hand off to the next rook in line. Many of them are dizzy and disoriented after spinning around the bat and stumble and fall, drawing laughter from the vets and fans.
Rookies Lavelle Hawkins and Cary Williams, who were held out of practice with injuries, didn’t participate. Instead, they were taped to a goalpost and then smothered with the aforementioned condiments. Unfortunately, I got no pics of that.
As mentioned earlier, camp does become boring and repetitive. Not much has happened this week, which is why I haven’t bothered to post anything on it until now. A few highlights from the final three days:
Monday — Another fight, with several players involved, primarily Kevin Mawae and Tony Brown. The footballs must have been slippery because the receivers dropped a few passes. Quinton Ganther coughed up a fumble after a hit by Ryan Fowler, as did Alge Crumpler after being hit by David Thornton.
Tuesday — Two plays of note. Nick Harper had good coverage on a pass to the new Chris Davis (#16) in the end zone. The two went up in the air for the ball and Harper came down with it while Davis came down without his helmet. Michael Griffin laid a big hit on Omar Cuff which could be probably be heard for quite a distance. When Griffin took his helmet off after the hit and did a little trash talking it also drew some criticism from Jeff Fisher. Another fight, this time between Cortland Finnegan and Edward Williams.
Wednesday — They really mixed things up in the secondary. Tony Joiner was on the field a lot at free safety and Michael Griffin even played a little corner. Newcomer Tuff Harris got some work at left corner and looked OK, making a nice deflection to break up a possible TD pass. Vince Young looked sharper than usual and threw a couple of nice deep balls.
One thing I have been doing at camp is taking pictures. I have several hundred which I will crop and save into an album over the next few weeks. Most of them are portraits and I have pics of nearly every player on the roster. I don’t think I have Cary Williams, unless he’s in the background of one of the pics. A few of the pics are not of the best quality but most are decent and I hope you’ll enjoy them. I plan to use them with as many articles as possible, as appropriate.
I’m looking forward to the Friday night game in Atlanta. Will watch it on local TV Channel Two and listen to it on Titans Radio. I consider Mike Keith to be much better than the CBS play by play guys, not to mention the local Channel Two guys.