Season Openers Cont.

so where was I, ah yes, I had just coached Beefy to a remarkable pitching performance that will go down in the 2nd man's league history books. and after consuming a couple of alcoholic beverages from the concession stand, we headed to the showers. this was a journey in itself. walking along the left field fence we took a left through a clearing in the trees and hit a concrete road, now one might think that you would take this around to a sporthouse of some kind to the right toward where we parked, but one would be wrong. about 100 feet to the right was another, smaller, more camoflaged path cut through the branches that only went up about chest high. So ducking under the trees, careful not to take a stick in the eye and watching where i'm going at the same time, we follow this around until it opens up to what used to be an RC car track. the lines have faded drastically and weeds cut through the concrete and someone had even taken the time to move a homemade skateboard mini vert spine into one corner, though this looked long abandoned as well. on the far end of this slab of old concrete was a small building with a set of double doors, this was the shower. the inside very much resembled the out in the rundown, outdated sort of way but there was hot running water and thats what we were after. taking one look at the floor in the showers made me think twice about how much i really wanted to bathe. there was mold or fungus, or hell i dont know, it was green and shouldnt have been there. (boy, if i had a dollar for every time i've said that) but then i figured that i'd made it through 4 years of ATO and nasty college lockerrooms without Gangrene so why should germany be any different. If anything it would give me something to write about in my blog. I let the other guys go first...you know, get all the bad stuff stirred up and down the drain before taking my turn under the showerhead. I've been monitoring the situation closely and am happy to report no irregularities in smell or appearance of my feet.

Sunday morning was a pleasant one in the upper 50's, with a breeze out of the east and straight in from left. good for pitchers, bad for hitters. which pissed me off a bit because i'm looking to hit my first homerun pretty soon. Hasse told me that Im the gay spainiard until i hit a HR then i can go back to being an american. what this means, i dont know, i've never heard of being a gay from Spain before...i always thought they were french...but all i know is I dont want to be one and i have to drop a bomb before i can regain my true citizenship. it felt like opening day, we were setting up the speakers and the scoreboard, testing the music and lining the field. we took batting practice first and as i was taking my hacks, i heard in a very familiar dialect, "yeah dude, this looks just like Indiana, with the farms in the background and everything." I looked over, more in shock of hearing English than anything, and said the first thing that came to mind, "I said the same thing when I first saw this place. This looks exactly like Indiana." "are you from Indiana too? Wait does your cousin work at Fast Eddy's?" haha no effing way, i mean i knew April said that she knew a guy that was going to Germany to play baseball but i didnt actually think i'd meet the guy, i sure wasnt going to go looking for him. "Yeah man, you're from Evansville too?!" "well really im from mount vernon but i go to fast eddy's all the time, I'm Mike." at this point i had forgone the remaining 3 swings i had left and walked out of the cage and over to this guy who suddenly seemed more like a long lost friend than a random guy i just met while playing baseball in Germany that just happens to be from the same town and knows my cousin. "hey I'm Aaron, April said she knew a guy that was coming over here but she didnt know where you were going or anything like that. I never thought I'd actually meet the guy. This is just crazy." we talked for about 20 minutes about his experience thus far and mine, we talked about playing against each other in highschool and guys we played with. we bullshitted about pretty much everything you can think of that pertains to our given situation. but he was only coaching that day, not on the field like me.

the opening day lineup read like this:
1.Hinzy 3B
2.Jan SS
3.Aaron RF
4.Rene "the big Cat" DH
5.Hasse C
6.Timo CF
7.Johst 1B
8.Mike 2B
9.Thomas "Tiger" LF
Thies "Nuke LaLoosh" P

now if it was only that easy to write out the lineup card. Germany has their own lineup cards that have more boxes and lines to fill in than an insurance application. I had to write down jersey numbers and exact spellings of names as well as player license numbers and weather or not they were under 21, played on more than just the first man's team, or were non-european foreigners. not only did i have to do this for all the starters but the reserves as well. and once i got done with that i had to fill in when, where and who we were playing, in what league, the forecast for the day, and my prediction for the score of the game...ok so i made those last two up but the rest is true and tedious work just to fill out a lineup. and when i presented my lineup cards to the umpires, they inspected it thoroughly to make sure i did everything just right. this was not fun and it took me at least 10 minutes to fill everyhting out.

i wont give you a play by play of the whole game but heres the jist of it. we scored then they scored, then we scored again, then it was the 6th inning and Thies still hadnt given up a hit. (remember we only play 7 innings) now you may be asking, how could they score if our pitcher hadnt given up a hit, but there were walks and errors and they had 2 runs and we had 3. so when Thies walked a guy and allowed his first ball to leave the infield, i ran in from right, shook his hand and took the ball. Now I hadnt warmed up at all prior to my John Rocker run in through the outfield, so you can imagine my worry when after the 8th warm up pitch, the umpire said "play ball." "wait i'm not warm yet. I need a few more." "nope you only get 8 throws. now batter up." I hadnt thrown a curve or changeup yet and my arm was still getting lubed up with lactic acid and whatever else makes it feel good when i'm throwing. Well shit, here goes nothing, i got men on 2nd and 1st with 2 away. Luckily i was able to get a ground ball and out of the inning. instead of running to the dugout, i went straight for the bullpen to get loose. I felt great in there and even better after we scored 4 runs to go up 7-2. I got this in the bag, this will be a great win for Thies, he deserves it after only giving up 1 hit to these guys through 5 2/3. I was confident going out to the mound, just like another day at the office, no pressure. thats about the time the wheels started wobbling off the axels. The first hitter hit a grounder to 3rd- Yes, 1 out...ah shit, Hinzy booted it. Ok not a problem, get another one and get the doubleplay. another ground ball to Hinzy at third- yeah baby, double play, a pitchers best frien...damnit, we threw it away at 2nd. ok stay cool, we're still turning 2 and letting that run score, we'll still be up 4. the stolen base put the doubleplay out of order, and a pass ball let the run from 3rd score. 7-3. ok, i know they told me that this guy is a damn good hitter, but thies kept him off base all day and i've got better stuff than thies, throw the fastball to get ahead. 370 ft later my fastball landed on the road behind right center. 7-5. ok still up two and bases empty, just like a new inning and thies is still in line for the win, get this one for thies. the next guy got a hit and thats when the wheels completely fell off and the umpire took over. a nice sizable zone began to shrink with every pitch and not wanting to throw cockshots to these guys, I continued throwing on the outside corner. this umpire, who i'm told is the worst in the league, began to see the plate as round and without corners, because he wasnt giving me anything and i walked 4 guys making the score tied at 7-7. still no one out. but the clouds separated and the heavens shined down because now the zone magically expanded and i could throw a ball 4 inches off the plate and it was a strike! this was bittersweet, I was glad that this guy somehow remembered that a ball over the plate is a strike but bitter that he didnt realize this 5 F^&*ING RUNS AGO! maybe it was all the cussing and namecalling i was doing under my breath on the mound, i dont know, but with this new and improved zone i K'ed 2 and got a groundball for 3 outs in a row. So much for Thies getting the win, now we just had to worry about the Farmers getting a win. in our half of the 7th no one scored and in their half of the eighth no one got on. it was 9-1-2 for us in our half and Tiger started it out by getting on base. Hinzy got out but was able to move the runner. jan was able to get on and i came up with guys on 1st and 3rd and one out. all i wanted to do was hit a ball over the infield who was playing in. but with 2 strikes i rolled over an outside curveball to the 3rd baseman. Jan was able to move up but tiger was held at 3rd and i was out at 1st. Laser came up after me and with a 0-2 count, tiger jumped off 3rd and the pitcher just stopped his motion...he was going out of the windup and he just stopped...BALK! we won the game on a Balk! 8-7. Meyers is credited with the win.

the 2nd game was a bit different, they jumped out to an early lead when with 2 guys on, one of their players sent a ball out to right over my head. I was running back and thought i was going to ba able to make the play...but i forgot that the fence is only 320 feet away in right center and ran fullspeed right into the fence. now our chainlink fence is a bit bigger than normal, balls go through it quite easily and this ball did just that. it went through the fence rather than over it but the umpire is a moron (actually i've never met one that wasnt) and he called it a homerun anyway. they got a few more runs in the later innings and we really didnt mount any offense until the 6th when i drove in a run on a sac fly to right. then with timo on first and Johst at the plate, I called for a hit and run. Timo took off, and johst swung and hit a ball in the air. shit johst anything but in the air. "back, back!" timo was almost to 2nd as i watched the centerfielder run further and further back towards the fence, stopped, and watched as the ball landed over the fence for a home dinger Kyle Davis style. 7-3 bad guys. in the bottom of the 7th they brought in their closer who happens to be the closer for their first league's team too, a hard throwing lefty without much control. with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 3rd, we found out why he is the closer. i watched as he lifted his leg to fire home, turned my head to watch the pitch but it never came, i heard a ball hit leather, but it wasnt the cathers mit, it was the 1st baseman's glove and apparently Timo didnt see it either because he didnt even make an attempt to slide back to 1st. he was dead where he stood and come to find out thats this guy's MO. last weekend he walked 2 guys and picked them off to end the game.

The games ended with a Balk and a pickoff...not something you see everyday but hey thats german baseball. Henrik was telling me today that he once threw a no hitter and lost the game. but thats the kind of stuff that happens here, nothing is out of the realm of possibility and i cant wait to see what else the season holds for me and the Wild Farmers (1-1)


A-Ron