direction sill but there's a light at the end of the tunnel. as fans can once again see clear blue skies and the return of america's favorite past time. major league baseball. >> i want to show my daughters and my family that these are our roots. this is how i started. >> two time cy young winner santana takes us on a special journey back to his hometown in venezuela. then it's a dream of a lifetime. the chance to feel like a al r leaguer. net yo chicago white sox fantasy camp. fars

hello everyone welcome to this edition of net impact. the boys of summer are officially back. are you ready for the new season? for most major league baseball players the work for the new san has been going on for months already. take for instance santana who spent his season -- kirk from comcast sportsnet new york got a chance to travel with yohan. >> thanks. i learned one thing santana has a heart of gold to match his golden arm. let me introduce you to his

remote hometown. during the journey you'll get a newfound respect for this two time cy young winner. the mountains in venezuela picturesque and tropical. nestled in these mountains is a baseball haven. this is the quaint warm and humble r bl hometown of santana. this is where he grew up thousands of miles away from the big city life of the big apple. yohan returns home to give back to his community. for four years running he hosts a children festival which he calls the cy young big bash. they call it the -- it take

place each year just before christmas. children lined up around the block waiting for yohan to hand out 20 # 10,000 toys. >> so the kids were giving you this presentation? -- >> they presented it to me. >> what happened to you? i saw you tear up a little bit. >> i'm a human being. >> reporter: your wife by the way tells me you hardly ever cry # cry. to what happened? >> let me tell you this, i'm focused on the things i do. it was a great surprise. >> >> reporter: i'm going to translate. hey, you guys are making me cry. that's not fair. >> i try to bring smiles to them. and i trade their smiles for my tears. >> without you sponsoring these teams maybe the fields are no

longer here. >> the league right now there is a lot of kids. we only have one ballpark. we're trying to build another ballpark to show everybody that they have a place to play. and they can be like me or even better. you know, but we need top give them the equipment to have the spirit. i'm going to provide the equipment and everything they need to make sure they will a future and something to dream of. that's the same way it was. and i didn't have this. now i'm in a position i can help and give back, and i don't hesitate to help. that's the way i am. that's the way i was born and raised. these are my roots. this is write came from. that's where i was born. it's always good to be back home. i never forget where i'm coming from and know the things i have to go through to be where i am

right now or be who i am right now. and this is take part of who i am and families here and always try to spend time with my friends when i come here. this is something you cannot get anywhere in the world. >> reporter: the good times continued with a tour of johan's home and the school where he met his wife. >> this is the school i used to come to when i was a little kid. we used to play kick ball when i was a little kid. i used to play over there on the court. that's where i play a lot of basketball. we played basketball, indoor soccer and play -- whatever. you name it i played it. this is first grade. this is where i pretty much saw everything. looks pretty much the same. i used to wear glasses. i still wear contacts. but i used to wear glasses. i used to sit in the front i wasn't able to see when they put things on the board. i grew upright here.

>> right here? >> uh-huh. you see all the people coming down here. great. so here we are inside my parent's house. a place where i grew up. and then my first paycheck went to this house to rebuild the house and then you know to make it comfortable for them. so i spent a couple years here. this is my mom, right here. mama. i want to show you guys our memorabilia room for the first couple years in the big league they have been collecting and we have put all together. so follow me and i show you guys. christmas. you can't forget christmas. so as we walk around we got stuff from the twins, we have stuff from the team i played

here in venezuela and winter ball. they have bobble heads. posters. all this stuff i gave it to them. for them to keep it here. that's where we -- that's where everything started and they collect them all. this is it. i want to thank you guys for spending this time bus here in venezuela. i hope you like it. and i'll see you in new york. >> reporter: in venezuelan like in america, baseball is a national past time. and johan's next goal is to get political support to build a second baseball field. as johan told me he will not stop until the job is done. i'm kirk. back to you. >> thanks kirk. chicago cubs pitcher ryan defer store spent his weekend in

chicago. he invited david caplan to one of the workouts. as you'll see this is a case study in the agnat my of a work use. >> reporter: not a time many professional athletes are up and about. brian is ready to get to work. he gets together with trainer micates in north brook. is occasionally joined by fellow pitchers jeff and tom. >> the three of us working out. it's fun to push each other like that. it's a friendly competition. >> to build team spirit. >> yes. >> reporter: dempsters teammates are workingout. it's up to me to keep up. >> stand up tall. push your butt down. >> reporter: the majority of it is your legs for a pitcher that'sth most important

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baseball team uniform with mayor name on the back of it and you get to play baseball with former major league players. comcast sports net chicago's chuck joins me now with more on the white sox fantasy camp. chuck. >> thanks. i'm here in arizona for white sox spring training. just a few weeks ago i was in white sox fantasy camp. they were memories that will last a lifetime. take a look. >> from the franchise that has brought you household names as burrly, and beckham. we bring youest pa know s a bunch of ordinary joes living out a dream. playing in the white sox fantasy camp. >> no matter how old you are, you can stay young athearted by coming to this camp. >> these guys are acting like kids and they are not kids. >> reporter: they all might

differ in age and ability but what these campers do feel is a love of baseball and former white sox great like the campers that come back years after years. >> i've done this for 16 years. >> it's fun to see these guys having fun. it's their fantasy. i love seeing other guys with pulled muscles instead of me having them like you. >> favorite white sox player of all time. >> reporter: but as i was about to find out, i am no chet. >> we're going to talk at the end of the week how you played and how you faired in an honest way. but let us know on friday. >> i got to look out for myself? >> yes. i get to watch. >> what teem are you playing for? >> reporter: i'm on top of the team. >> what everybody saw with the baseball player best days were way back in little league.

>> what kind of job you do? >> reporter: i'm a sports caster. >> don't lose it. >> reporter: once upon a time i was known to be a very good shortstop with a terrible arm. nice to see that absolutely nothing has changed. [ laughter ] this is why i'm a spirits caster. my team was a rag tag group of misfits. rick suffered a black eye. bernie he missed a lot of everything. bernie is lacking in the fielding department. but he wasn't the only one. that is my 17th error of fantasy baseball camp. i do the lead the league in something. errors. a nickname. carlos you don't know who i am. >> i do.

>> reporter: you do? >> you're g dog. >> reporter: i'm g dog. i got a nickname. >> i just gave it to you. >> our team's battle cry wasn't go, fight, win. instead it was this. he didn't. >> it's just a fun experience. and you'd like to win. nobody likes to lose. >> reporter: but after three days no one lost more than we did and my hitting was getting worse and worse. [ laughter ] >> right here right here. >> that a boy. >> what were you thinking? >> reporter: i don't know what i was thinking. my slump had reached epic performance. and it continued until the last day. and last game. and i was facing the cy young of the camp. >> we have a scouting report an fast ball, curve ball, slider

change, knuckler, split, fork ball, and that's about all he has. >> reporter: he's never faced gar. after making two straight outs i was down to my final at bat where i finally broke through. take that. take that. i'm going home. >> slide. slide. >> yeah. [cheering] they say there's no crying in baseball, but when it came to robin and the team he coached with harold, there was a whole lot of something else. have you yelled at anybody?

>> absolutely. my team sinks. it feels good. >> harold yelled at people. >> absolutely. >> reporter: in the end it's not about who wins or loses because just being here playing a kids game even at bill's age adding incredible memories, that's the real victory. >> i did it. >> it's all in the experience, chuck. all in the experience. well, as you saw just a few minutes ago, we broke down the agnat my of chicago cubs pitcher ryan dempsters pitching. john is just as tough. his is geared toward getting him back to the majors and staying there full-time. last year he was back and forth between the giants and their triple a affiliate.

he's hoping the off season workout will earn him a spot on the roster. comcast sports net bay area spends a day in the life of john. >> the workouts are sop important. you want to stay strong that whole entire year. i'm going to switch things up a lot this year. the weight lifting we've done a lot of heavy weights getting me strong and we switch it to the best workout is surely a good mix. >> the whole point is to get resistance with our trainer and take a break with what we've been doing. >> how is that weight? >> nice. it feels light. >> it's a little light >> we want to get all of our strength gain now in the next 12 weeks. and hopefully he can maintain

it. >> that's a nice warm up. so now i'm at ardon hills for my second workout. i usually come and do arms. >> curls. john smock knocks them out at intervals of 20-30 seconds. or reps. let me push you down. slow. one more time. up. you got it. >> all the power is hidden. >> about lute -- absolutely. >> i'm going to swing the bat in the pool a little bit. i'm going to work on strength and bat. the water resistance makes it stuff to get the bat through the zone. so when you get out of the pool.

the bat feels lighter. i feel i can get through the zone bet we are more power. at the end of the day after working out i come out to the cages and do some hitting. one reason i like to hit off the tee is just to get work on my bat pass. working my hands like inside the ball and trying to stay back. we like to throw to each other. we try to get each other out. this is a typical day for me during the out season. i get my working out in. after this i'm done for the day. i'm getting trade for tomorrow and do the same thing all over. >> you can count on comcast sportsnet.com and our team of insiders to bring you all the of the major leg baseball you

need. check out comcastsportsnet.com. it's debate bl who puts on a better show. the nationals or the slide show. we'll unmask the mascots when we return.

now this. of course we all know that sometimes our favorite baseball team -- favorite baseball team

struggles but perhaps no fans knows that better than the nationals. there's always one competition they dos at the national's park. the racing president. they get heartbreaking defeats and lovable teddy roosevelt. the team held a snowy tryout for their favorite mascots. comcast was right there for all the action. >> john. >> why are you going to be a racing president? >> first of all i'm a girl. >> i did this in colleague for a minor league team. >> i need three volunteers. who's up first? >> i'm waiting for this my whole life >> how old are you? >> i'm 27. >> that's a long time to wait to be a racing president >> it's a once in a lifetime

opportunity. incredibly intense experience. living the dream. putting on the giant head of thomas jefferson. i think goes hand and hand with the racing president. i'm liking for stamina, strength, and ultimately having a good time and having fun with it. >> so once you got half way through the out field you were winding around and went to the knees. were you trying to stay up. talk me through that? >> the snow got so deep. it made me topple over. i has that moment of weakness as we all do. >> i saw you cutting some rug out there. was there any particular style you were follow something >> i'm an old hip hop guy. break dancing in the day. >> reporter: what does it smell like inside that head?

>> there's a good deal of dry sweat smell. if you ever get stuffed into a locker i think that's what the atmosphere is like. >> reporter: what if the guy had it on before had bad breath would that linger? >> bad breath. no. bo. definitely. >> the racing president. that's a hoot. that's going to do it for this edition of net impact. for all of us here we'll see you again next month. peyt gokee fhe o. freci hit uy, at g [ nnou wir on ]tch tch fmalencerstar fth ws fu a boey-cn cr

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