VENICE, Fla. -- Jack Voigt pulled a blue piece of scrap carpet out of his trunk.
"Got a new backdrop today," he said.
Voigt walked to the batting cage at Wellfield Park, where he played Babe Ruth and high school baseball.
Two minor-leaguers, Todd Brown and Jim Felch, were already working out.
"Gas today, Jack," Brown said as he fed balls into the pitching machine. "Going about 92 [mph]."
"We'll have to take that down a little bit then," Voigt replied.
It's not that Voigt was trying to avoid the heat. It's just that his baseballs are so scuffed and beaten up, they do funny things coming out of the machine that hard.
"See what kind of balls we have?" Voigt asked, holding up a muddy specimen.
"These are good balls," Brown said, smiling.
"Pearls," added Felch.
The balls were wretched, but yesterday offered a triumph of sorts. Voigt found the blue carpet in his garage, then used two pieces of string to tie it the batting cage.
"That should work, huh?" he said.
Brown said it was sure better than the small blue ball bag they had been using as a hitting backdrop. Yet, it was clear the facility was not quite Camden Yards quality.
"Not Twin Lakes quality, either," Voigt said.
That's where Voigt normally would be at this time of year -- Twin Lakes Park, the Orioles' home for the early portion of spring training.
Instead, he's continuing his workouts at this county park 11 miles south of the Orioles' training complex, hitting in the cage, running and throwing.
Voigt, 28, earned $150,000 last season, but now he's on strike, and his outfield job with the Orioles is tenuous.
Manager Phil Regan is talking up Curtis Goodwin, the Orioles still might sign Andy Van Slyke. Someone is always getting in the way, when you're Jack Voigt.
No matter, he took three rounds of batting practice yesterday, hacking away in a cage operated by the Venice Little League. After that, he moved to the adjoining field, threw with Brown and Felch, and did wind sprints in the outfield.
From there, Voigt headed to the Venice YMCA, where he lifts weights four times a week. At night, when he still hasn't had enough, he watches game tapes from last season.
This is how he occupies his days now. Chris Sabo usually drives down from Sarasota for the workouts, but he didn't show yesterday. It was just Jack and the boys from Venice, playing ball.
Jack and the boys, plus Voigt's high-school team, the Venice Indians.
4 "Hey, did you guys win last night?" Voigt asked.
"18-2," a player said. "And this guy," he said, pointing to a teammate, "hit two home runs in the same inning."
"Damn," Voigt replied.
Catcher Craig Faulkner, a former Orioles farmhand now with the Chicago Cubs, was Voigt's teammate at Venice and LSU. So was Minnesota pitcher Mark Guthrie -- the scoreboard is dedicated to his late mother.
Back at the cage, Voigt finished putting up the backdrop, then returned to his blue Thunderbird. Inside his trunk was a set of golf clubs, a bag of balls, a few bats. He also had a long, orange extension cord, to connect the pitching machine to an outlet.
Heck, he even had a catcher's mitt.
"In case one of the young pitchers comes by and needs to throw," said Voigt, ever the Jack of all trades.
He changed from white sneakers to black cleats, then donned an Orioles cap and black wristbands. He was wearing a black T-shirt and purple shorts. He said he had gained nearly 15 pounds.
"That comes from marrying a Latin girl -- the home cooking -- and being on a constant weight program for the first time in four years," Voigt said.
He didn't play winter ball this year. Didn't go to Instructional League. Didn't need to rehabilitate an injury. He got married Dec. 17. His wife, Jacky, is from Maracaibo, Venezuela. Voigt said she is one month pregnant.
For Voigt, this is home. His dad, Dave, is the president of the bank down the street. His mom, Judi, is the foundation director of the YMCA. Why, Voigt is something of a celebrity in Venice, pop. 16,922.
Jack Dundas, 76, remembers Voigt. He sat in the second row of the bleachers behind home plate yesterday, wearing a green Venice Indians cap to go with his green Venice jacket.
"Very good shortstop, good hitter," Dundas recalled. "The second half ot his senior year, he really started to hit. The end of his senior year, he hit with power."
Dundas watched the Indians practice pickoff plays and rundowns in the infield as Voigt and his minor-league friends ran in the outfield. It wasn't so long ago that Voigt, Venice Class of '84, was an Indian himself.
"I didn't make the varsity until I was a junior," he said. "I got a May call-up from JV to varsity my sophomore year. I played first and third my junior year. And my senior year, I played shortstop."
Now he's the Orioles' assistant player representative, and nothing is so simple anymore. He's building a new home in Venice. Yet his only income the last six months has been money from the strike fund -- approximately $20,000.
"It's always a concern, yes, but I prepared myself like I was told to," Voigt said. "Even with the new house, I have other resources I can pull from. Imagine not playing for a year -- that's what the scenario was. That's the way I handled my investments."
Still, he's constantly reminded that he has abandoned his major-league lifestyle, at least for now. The other day, he paid $25 at a shoe-repair shop to get his glove re-strung. Normally, one of the Orioles' trainers does it for him, free of charge.
Yesterday, he scrounged around his garage, trying to find a suitable hitting backdrop. Today, he will be back in the cage, but then he'll be forced to take two days off. The Little Leaguers
push him out every weekend.
+ It's their cage, after all.