Season Openers

This past weekend marked the beginning of all of the teams' regular season. It was time to see if the off season training and hard, long hours had paid off. Traveling to Berlin, about a 3 hour trip, on saturday with the 2nd man's team, i could help but get a little nervous. No matter what league, or what level you play at, opening day is always filled with a bit of nervous excitement. excited to get back out there and play games that count for something again; nervous to get back out there and play games that count for something again. its a fine line really, one that i teetered on the whole way there. constantly wondering if i had prepared the team well enough, if what we did in practice would come to fruition in the games. excited to get out there and get my uniform dirty diving for balls roaming the field again after 5 years of only being on the mound. I've found that its kind of like riding a bike, playing the field that is. Though i havent taken fly balls or hit cutoff men, havent seen curveballs or swung a bat in 5 years, it all just came rushing back to me fairly quickly. and on this day, my first true meaningfull game in Germany, I was where i started my highschool career...2nd base. little known fact: Aaron Meyers' first highschool game was started at 2nd base...and i never got a ball hit to me thank god. I was using an outfielder's glove and had no business playing the infield. I dont know why but i never played the infield again. But now, 8 years and 50 pounds later, i was back to my roots, manning the 4 spot. and again the skills came rushing back. turning doubleplays, cutting off balls to the outfield, covering first on bunts, it was like i never left. Maybe its because i'm like a chamillion, or maybe it was because i was all juco'ed out, but i played a mean 2nd base. My hat was flatbilled and cocked just a tad to the right, pants pulled down over the spikes, batting gloves flapping in the back pockets. The JuCo allstar Ronny Timbers was out in full force. its a shame i didnt have wrist bands because i would have rocked those too. the icing on the cake was the 13 year old Mexican mustache i had going. we talked about growing staches last weekend at the easter fire so i hadnt shaved for a week but everybody know the hair on my upperlip needs way more time than that to be visible beyond 10 feet. suffice it to say that i looked like a stud out there on the field.

when we got to Berlin, the Roadrunners were already taking batting practice and hitting bombs with wood bats...there were a few black guys on the team and i heard them speaking spanish...a deadly combination in baseball, so i wasnt surprised to see them hitting well. But everybody hits well in batting practice and if they were really that good, they wouldnt be playing in the 2nd man's league...throw them curveballs i thought to myself. Everyone knows black guys cant hit curveballs--remember this, this comes into play later in the narrative.

their pitcher was a cocky little SOB that threw pretty hard for his size and had a decent curveball to go with it. He reminded me a lot of Derek Bryant but with less talent. He was good as long as things were going his way, but as soon as we started getting hits or there was a bad call or something, he blew up. Igl threw for us and got hit around a bit...actually thats a bit of an understatement, he got hit around for 17 runs, but what can you expect throwing to grown-ass black spanish speaking black guys with metal bats...yeah, thats right, in BP they all were hitting bombs with wood, but once the game started they switched to metal. the shortstop for them was a black guy and a pretty good hitter anyway, his stance was good and he swung a good stick, but he swung out of his shoes everytime, trying to put one over the 95 sign in left. (thats Meters remember) so when Igl threw this guy a curveball in the 3rd, i thought for sure he would be out on his front foot and miss horribly...I was wrong...kind of. He was out on his front foot but he didnt miss. he flicked the bat out there at the last second and shot an outside laces high curveball out to left...I had a feeling it might get out, 95 meters is only about 300 feet, but from this guys WALK down to 1st you would have thought he smashed a hanger 500 ft over the green monster in Fenway. Bush league is the best way i can describe the roadrunners, and i should have known, i have been warned many times that most teams are new to the sport and dont understand the unwritten rules of the game...like not stealing or bunting when youre up 8 runs...also happening in the first match of the day. we lost that game 17-7. i was 3-4 in this game.

so between games, we were all sititng there eating and laughing about the game and Johst, who is also the coach of the 2nd team, looks around and asks who is going to throw the 2nd game. I look at Beefy, a 15 year old kid that just smiles from under a mop of tangled hair and agrees with anything you ask him, and ask if he wants to pitch. Obviously he says yes and Johst shrugs his shoulders, chuckles, and says, "ok Beefy's pitching." ok sidenote, Beefy actually can pitch, its not like i was asking him to step on a mound for the first time to throw against grown black men with metal bats (a scarey thing for any pitcher now that i think about it) that just dropped 17 on us, he actually threw last week to live hitters and throws pretty hard (low 70)...he just only throws fastballs. this is what poses the problem. so i said, "Beefy, we need to teach you a 2nd pitch, lets go." we ran down along the side of the dugout (no bullpen here in Berlin) and i showed him the grip on a curveball and how to throw it. the 1st couple didnt look bad and i was hopefull he had just picked it up that quick but then it got worse when he was throwing them 10 feet over the catchers head 5 times in a row. so we moved on from that one and went with a change up. he told me that he already knew how to throw a change and showed me his grip...he was holding it with 3 fingers, index-ring. i said no lets hold it with these three, middle-pinky. 4 throws later he had a 2nd pitch to go along with that fastball of his. the game was getting ready to start so we went back to the dugout to tell eveyone the good news...Beefy was now a bonafide pitcher! to be honest i didnt think we would be in this game either, I thought they were going to tear the kid apart but he was an arm that could throw and thats what we needed. running in from my spot in right, i was astonished when he went 3 up 3 down in the first inning and made those same guys that gave Igl so much trouble look stupid with his new change up. He only gave up 1 in the 2nd inning; the kid was looking good and i looked like a genius for suggesting him. in the 4th inning he got into a bit of a jam by giving up a hit or two and walking the bases loaded. with two outs a guy came to the plate by the nickname of GiantBaby...he had a bit of a babyface but his broad shoulders and 6' 4" frame were more suggestive of the first part of the moniker. going to a full count, with bases loaded and the go ahead run on third is a tight spot for any pitcher and i got goosebumps when Giantbaby swung through the 3rd strike and we came off the field with no harm done. When i got back to the bench, Beefy was still shaking with a look of horror in his eyes, "I dont ever want to do that again." "Dude, you showed that you have quite a big swinging pair of you-know-whats you have right there Beefy." we came up a run short in this game, we had bases loaded with two outs in our half of the 7th and down by a run, but couldnt get one across. we lost 3-4. but when the other team is swinging metal bats and we have only wood, and a 15 year old kid is on the mound, I'd say we played some damn good baseball. The kid threw a hell of a game and impressed everyone. he was the talk of the bleachers sunday at the 1st man's game. I was 2-3 in this game with 2 pissrods for doubles in the gaps off of their lefty that went the whole game.

ok i have to go to practice, but stay tuned to hear how one of our pitchers blew a 5 run lead in one inning!

A-Ron