the junior team is made up of kids from 13-18 and the range of talent is just as big as with the age. a few 12 year olds round out the lineup as well, though they are more or less there to hold down positions. Daniel, a 15 year old that pitches and plays for the 1st man's team as well, has a cannon for an arm and pumps it at close to 80 with a decent curve and change-piece as well. It really wasnt fair that he was throwing to 12-13 yr olds who were more concerned about not getting hit than actually swinging the bat. he was a bit wild, something we can work on in practice if he ever shows up...that is the standard procedure with the Thieben boys, Kevin (18), Daniel (15), and Ollie (12), they have a hard time making it the 800 feet from their front door to the field for practices. But despite a few errant pitches, Daniel pitched a hell of a game and gave me more than enough chances to use my strike 3 punch outs. before the game, i was talking to Rene and Thies about these patented moves and it was hard for me not to laugh when i heard them on the ground laughing after my first strike out. the bow and arrow and pigeon toss to shotgun were crowd favorites as well. while our pitchers handled themselves pretty well, the pitchers for Luneburg were a bit off. they walked at least 4 an inning and through the first 4 innings only managed to get 3 total out. In the German youth divisions there is a 5 run per inning max so the scores are run up into the hundreds...which would have happened if not for this rule. there isnt, however, a 10 run mercy rule or anything like that, they play a full 7 innings, which was just dreadful.

after the junior's game it was time for our practice, and then out to to the woods again to party at Reaper. This time there was only one of those nasty liquiorish shots, but plenty of Korn and Bacardi to be had. Korn is like vodka only not as strong, its a pretty popular drink here with the youth of Germany. I was supposed to get up at 9 to help henrik put the roof on his house but when i rolled over and looked at my phone saturday 'morning' it read 12:30. i immediately jumped up and threw clothes on but was stopped by timo and he told me that there were enough people there and they finished already. oops! Saturday night was low key, we just went to Hassi's place and watched the Red Sox beat up on the Yankees in game two of the series. The grandslam by Veritek was a highlight for eveyone but Johst, who is a Yankees fan.

Waking up at 730 on Sunday morning was not nearly as fun as i was hoping it would be. I had to help beefy coach the youth team in their game before our double header against Luneburg later in the afternoon. I was beat, after umpiring and practice on friday, followed by Reaper that night and not really relaxing saturday, my body was just tired. and sitting through another youth game only made me more exhausted. eating between games helped and so did the coca-cola out of a god ol glass bottle. I was in relief the first game so i sat until the 5th. then i came in, gave up one hit, no walks and the best part is that i found my curveball again. Until today I couldnt throw a curve for a strike and i had no clue why, but somehow, somewhere i found it and "Reunited and it feels so good." and the 2nd game i started at 2nd base and was moved to Short when Igl's arm decided to give out on him...its the craziest thing, he can throw hard and it doesnt hurt but if he tosses the ball, his elbow kills. but at the plate i was 2-3 with 2 singles and i reached on an error by the shortstop. and speaking of stats, here is the link to all of our stats-http://stats.baseball-softball.de/2bln/?y=9&f=team77 this is only for the 1st team.

The bed is calling my name,

A-Ron