The other, fast-paced, ball game the Fightin Phils play

Justin Miloszewski carries around a little yellow ball with six nubs and it has become part of an intense competition among the players at double-A Reading. Miloszewski - Milo is what everybody calls him - is the team's strength and conditioning coordinator and the ball is used to improve reflexes.

A Blackwood native who attended Triton High School, Miloszewski has turned the reflex drill into a game in which the participants stand about 15 feet apart and try to roll the ball past one another. The first one to five wins. Sometimes Michael Ventola, the radio broadcaster for the Fightin Phils, gets involved, but the best matches are between the players.

Crazy hops are the norm.

"Bouncy ball," Reading pitcher Tom Windle said when asked to give the game a name. "It's a lot of fun. It kind of just gives us something to do rather than sitting around and waiting for infield or batting practice. It keeps us entertained."

The pitchers end up playing it more often than the position players because they have some time to kill on the road before batting practice and during infield practice.

"It's competitive," pitcher Zach Eflin said. "I like being competitive and it's a fun game to pass time."

In Harrisburg on the penultimate day of Reading's most recent road trip, an intense series of games broke out inside the visiting dugout. It started with a Milo vs. Ventola rematch after the radio broadcaster had won a few days earlier, but it evolved into a dominating display by Ryan O'Sullivan.

The younger brother of Phillies pitcher Sean O'Sullivan is on the disabled list with an injury to his right hand, but he was able to play the game with his right hand (in a cast) behind his back. To make things fair, his opponents also had to play the game with one hand.

As the position players went through batting practice, O'Sullivan took on all comers, beating Aaron Nola, Jesse Biddle, Ben Lively, Tom Windle, and several other members of the Reading pitching staff before the pitchers had to go back to work on the field.

The game before the game was almost as entertaining as the game itself.