since i had no school today, i got caught up on past episodes of 24 and Chuck. basically i got my espionage/who's-a-double-agent fix for the day and now im at a loss for anything to do. we have practices later so i dont want to go to the field right now, and i have exhausted all remaining episodes for both of these seasons. I also cleaned my room and the living room this morning, it has been a busy morning to say the least.
tomorrow 6 of us will jump in a car...though we still havent found one yet...and head down to southern Germany. now southern Germany, from what i'm told is known for having some of the best beer in the world. And it is northern Germans that are telling me this, and i love the beer here, so i cant even imagine what this beer will be like. I'm pretty excited about it though. but is not drinking that is the purpose of the trip...ok yeah it is, but there will be baseball games too. there is a tournament in Memmingen, which is down by Munich, that wont count toward our record, so there will be beers in the dugout and parties each night. from stories i've heard from these kind of tournaments in years past, (this is the first time the Wild Farmers are going to Memmingen) this weekend should be one for the ages.
we will be joinging half of another team, i think there are like 15 in all, and im not sure how many games there will be but with a free subtitution rule in effect, there should be some funny antics and suspect coaching decisions...oh well its all in fun. I have decided that if/when i pitch, i will throw nothing but knuckleballs. I am going to wear the number 49 and be Tim Wakefield. i've never tried to throw a knuckleball in a game...let alone when im buzzed so this could be interesting. Also i've been growing a fumanchu for the past 2 weeks...if you can call it that; the sides of the stache are having a hard time connecting to the goatee but thats nothing a little Sharpie cant fix! I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.
While we are down having drinks on the baseball field, Julia, the youngest of the Hassenpflugs at 16, will be returning from her 10 month exchange stay in Mississippi. All of the Hassenpflug children have done such stints in America and so have many of the other people i have met in Dohren. its becoming a popular thing around these parts. they take off at 16 with bags packed to the "new world" to the West for what is basically junior year of high school before returning and continuing their studies here in Germany. I cant say i would have had the balls to do that at the tender age of 16 but my hat's off to those that have.
ok Lunch time,
A-Ron
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
a true walk off
Yesterday as me and tony were climbing off our bikes and walking up the school in Wistedt, i caught a glimpse of something brown out of my left eye. as my head turned and my right eye, the good eye, focused in, i recognized this creature as a deer. It was running straight for the building and at the last second took an immediate right turn, heading toward the front door. at this exact moment there was a group of 5 or 6 students coming out of that door that had no idea what was coming their way. the first 5 were a bit farther ahead and were out of harm's way, but the last boy looked to be right in the line of fire. It looked like something straight out of one of those Final Destination movies or something, a freak accident, and i could see it playing in my head as the deer loaded on its hind legs and sprang across the entryway. i held my breath, waiting for the collision, but luckily the boy saw the deer at the last moment and stopped mere inches from certain death...ok so maybe that was a bit dramatic but it was damn close and i thought for sure that kid was going to get absolutely steamrolled by Bambi.
Last night we went to Hassi's place for a few beers after dinner. He lives in Heidenau (i think thats how you spell it) which is 5 km from Dohren. now this may not sound like much, and in reality its not that far. But the up hill climb into a 20 mph head wind made the bike ride very unpleasant. then me and Tony took a wrong turn and got a bit lost...but come to find out, we just turned 1 street too early and werent that far away from where we needed to be. so the night started out with a few Astras and Becks as we watched the Wachen festival DVD. Wachen is a village about the size of Dohren (1000 people or so) and it hosts the largest heavy metal festival in all of Europe. People come from all over the world to take part in this 4 day extraveganza, around 100,000 people in fact. the people of the town sell beer from their gardens, food right off their grills, and even the chance at use a clean bathroom...all for the right price of course. the local children tie carts to the backs of their bikes and happily cart cases of beer to and from the supermarket for the patrons...again, for a price. i think the town probably makes more in this week than it does in the rest of the year. Hassi, Schnapps, and Bernie are all going to this year's festival at Wachen and will undoubtedly be the only ones there with short hair and without leather pants...i wish them luck.
as we drank more beers, we threw in an ACDC concert DVD from back in the day and saw what Angus and the guys looked like when they first started doing music. they had a different singer, more hair, and took less time between songs...these seem to be the only differences between now and then. As Johst stood to leave, Hassi said the one thing that he knew would get him to stay, "let's have a whiskey." Johst sat back down and waited patiently for a bit of the "water of life." Johst had to leave after just one, he had to drive. me and Tony on the other hand sat and had 2 more and were pretty buzzed by the time we left at 11:30. the ride home was a much quicker one with the wind at our backs, but since we were traveling on rural country roads, there were no street lights. I took out my phone and kept pressing buttons to make the screen light up and used that as a headlight for safer travel. i patted myself on the back for that one..."using my head for more than a hat rack" as Dad would say.
Today me, Brockman, and Hinzy went to a school on the other side of Luneburg which took us an hour and a half to get to. these children were all special needs kid with mentally disabilities but were quite good considering it was their first time playing baseball. there were a few kids that tired of the game quickly and needed to be talked into continuing with the rest of the class but i have run across that in every one of the classes. the day got interesting when we started to play the games because they didnt fully understand the rules and sometimes ran to first with the bat, or chased the ball after they hit it and tried to hit it again. but it was a good time and i think they had fun. the last hitter of the day was a boy who could swing pretty well and he sent a liner past the fielders and began walking to 1st. I figured he'd stop there but he turned and continued walking to 2nd where again he turned and headed for 3rd. by the time the ball had gotten back to the pitcher, the runner had a walking stand-up triple...theres a first time for everything i guess. A true walk off.
off to the office,
A-Ron
Last night we went to Hassi's place for a few beers after dinner. He lives in Heidenau (i think thats how you spell it) which is 5 km from Dohren. now this may not sound like much, and in reality its not that far. But the up hill climb into a 20 mph head wind made the bike ride very unpleasant. then me and Tony took a wrong turn and got a bit lost...but come to find out, we just turned 1 street too early and werent that far away from where we needed to be. so the night started out with a few Astras and Becks as we watched the Wachen festival DVD. Wachen is a village about the size of Dohren (1000 people or so) and it hosts the largest heavy metal festival in all of Europe. People come from all over the world to take part in this 4 day extraveganza, around 100,000 people in fact. the people of the town sell beer from their gardens, food right off their grills, and even the chance at use a clean bathroom...all for the right price of course. the local children tie carts to the backs of their bikes and happily cart cases of beer to and from the supermarket for the patrons...again, for a price. i think the town probably makes more in this week than it does in the rest of the year. Hassi, Schnapps, and Bernie are all going to this year's festival at Wachen and will undoubtedly be the only ones there with short hair and without leather pants...i wish them luck.
as we drank more beers, we threw in an ACDC concert DVD from back in the day and saw what Angus and the guys looked like when they first started doing music. they had a different singer, more hair, and took less time between songs...these seem to be the only differences between now and then. As Johst stood to leave, Hassi said the one thing that he knew would get him to stay, "let's have a whiskey." Johst sat back down and waited patiently for a bit of the "water of life." Johst had to leave after just one, he had to drive. me and Tony on the other hand sat and had 2 more and were pretty buzzed by the time we left at 11:30. the ride home was a much quicker one with the wind at our backs, but since we were traveling on rural country roads, there were no street lights. I took out my phone and kept pressing buttons to make the screen light up and used that as a headlight for safer travel. i patted myself on the back for that one..."using my head for more than a hat rack" as Dad would say.
Today me, Brockman, and Hinzy went to a school on the other side of Luneburg which took us an hour and a half to get to. these children were all special needs kid with mentally disabilities but were quite good considering it was their first time playing baseball. there were a few kids that tired of the game quickly and needed to be talked into continuing with the rest of the class but i have run across that in every one of the classes. the day got interesting when we started to play the games because they didnt fully understand the rules and sometimes ran to first with the bat, or chased the ball after they hit it and tried to hit it again. but it was a good time and i think they had fun. the last hitter of the day was a boy who could swing pretty well and he sent a liner past the fielders and began walking to 1st. I figured he'd stop there but he turned and continued walking to 2nd where again he turned and headed for 3rd. by the time the ball had gotten back to the pitcher, the runner had a walking stand-up triple...theres a first time for everything i guess. A true walk off.
off to the office,
A-Ron
Sunday, May 24, 2009
ACDC!!!
The drive to Hockenhiem began at 11 am on Thursday morning and was filled with rest stops and pull offs to the side of the road for pee breaks because in Germany it is legal to have open containers in cars and trust me there were plenty of them. I opened my first beer at around noon and we drank the entire 5 hour car ride to where we were staying., which was a sport house like ours…kind of. There was a track and a soccer field inside that…but that was on the other side of the parking lot. on our side was a couple pyramids, a big tire, a few hurdles, and some pens with water and food bowls. Yep a dog training club. But there was plenty of room and the house was perfect for what we needed and wanted. And surprising no dog shit…none.
Side Note: the father of the guy we were staying with owns his own distillery and was kind enough to bring some samples and show us how true drinkers take shots…but more on that later.
Schnops partook in the shots and had a few more beers before we put him to bed around 9. I’ve never, nor do I think I will ever again see a single man drink that much alcohol at one time. I applaud him and pray for his liver at the same time. During the week, Schnops is a mechanical engineer and one of the smartest guys I’m told I’ve met since I’ve been here…also one of the best paid. But on the weekends you don’t want to be American and around Schnops, Tony and I were favorite targets for fake head locks and wrestling moves, all done in good drunken fun of course. He also liked to yell in the lowest, scariest, death/heavy-metal-band-lead-singer voice I’ve ever heard.
After Dodging Schnops for the first part of the night, the music started and the dance party commenced. There was a lot of ACDC to get ready and rock in general, sprinkle in a few rap songs…both American and German, and late night the party turned to Tom “the Tiger” Jones and “The Lady is Mine.” we played it at least 10 times in the last two hours of the night. All and all a great kick off to the weekend.
At one point in the party, I’m not sure exactly when, Tony decided that he had had enough Johnny Walker and dancing and wanted to go to bed. Now any normal thinking person would have set up his bed in the corner of the room, or outside even, since it was a nice night. But not Tony, he grabbed a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag and put it right in the middle of the room, and I don’t just mean out away from the wall, I mean the exact middle of the room and laid down. About 3.67549 seconds later his eyes were closed and he was off dreaming about German beer. Needless to say, we had a field day with the drunk guy that still had his shoes on. We didn’t write on him or anything like that but I have pictures of bare asses in close proximity to Tony…and I’ll leave it at that.
Ok so that was Thursday. The next morning I woke up around 7...with schnops of all people, and took a shower. I needed to warm myself up since I slept outside that night sandwiched between two lounge chair cushions. Someone *cough* Tony* cough* took my sleeping bag and that was the only thing I could find that even vaguely resembled something suitable to sleep on. I was mistaken. But the shower was warm and just what the doctor ordered. Since no one was up yet I began walking down the street toward town. Since it was so early there wasn’t anything open except a coffee shop that also sold donuts. So I went in and bought a donut for a buck…one of the best donuts I’ve ever had. around 11 we went to take a tour of the distilery i mentioned earlier and take a few free shots. it was here that we learned that you first put your finger in the shot and taste it before actually taking it. if when you put your alcohol drenched finger in your mouth and it burns your tounge or lips, then you know it is not a high quality liquir. but after that you are supposed to take the shot in 2-3 sips instead of all at once. this lets you actually taste the liquir and appreciate it. I did not partake in this round of shots because i took them all Thursday night and i was positive i would have puked if i had taken shots at that point in the day.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves but suffice it to say that the ACDC concert was awesome. They definitely have some years on them but for a bunch of old guys, they can still rock and put on one hell of a show. Grizzly Adams in the one picture is a guy that was strung out on some kind of cocktail of drugs and saw us standing next to the porta-johns with beers and felt entitled to some so he stood there for a good 10 minutes waiting for Tony to pour him a beer. At $9 a liter, that wasn’t happening. But I wanted to always remember him so I took a picture of him…he is the same guy getting Chinese food in the later picture…I was convinced he was stalking us at this point.
After the concert we started walking to meet the bus, and we waited, and we waited, and it never came. So we started walking…this was a 15 km walk back to the sport house. After about 4 km we saw a bus sitting at a corner and sure enough it was the one we paid to pick us up AT the concert. He told us that he didn’t know where to pick us up…we called him a lot of names to make us feel better about him making us walk so far.
Saturday we cleaned up and 6 of us took off for Timo and Hassi’s grandparents’ house. This 3 hour drive was not as pleasant since I was so hungover… but having a couple beers on the drive helped a lot as did the short nap I took in the back seat. Once we got there we put our stuff in the room and took off to see a little bit of the city and get some bread for dinner. We found a pub and had a couple beers before walking through the park back home…I think it was the lack of sleep coupled with the slight buzz that made everything really funny by this point. We joked about girls that walked by, baseball, sexual exploits among other things.
Sunday it was off to Breunchweig to play them in a 1st man’s double header. Coming into the game they were unsuccessful in winning any of their previous 8 games of the season…our plan was to make sure they went to 0-10 on the season.
Their first pitcher was the hardest thrower we have faced all year but despite that, we put up 2 runs in the first on Tony’s first AB and hit in Germany. I on the other hand, was unable to reach base successfully in this game for my first hitless game of the year. 0-3. But we were able to scratch 3 more runs across and rode on the back of Thies all day. The kid threw another great game against a team that is a lot better than what their record shows. We won 5-3.
The 2nd game started a bit differently, they scored one in each of the first two innings off of me because I couldn’t throw a fastball for a strike to save my life. I walked another 5 or something so I took myself out after just 2 innings and put in Laser. This turned out to be a great managerial move because he shut them out the rest of the game. Oh and he hit a HR in his first at bat with his own DC bat…and it was a bomb too. I was able to drive in 2 runs in this game on one a sacrifice and a triple in my last at bat. I think the shadows were messing with all of us a little bit, trees hang over the field down the leftfield line and throughout the afternoon the shadows crept across the infield. but we wont hits game 6-2.
But getting 2 wins was what we needed because Hamburg won 2 this weekend too and we are tied atop the standings at 8-2. Next weekend we have a tournament in Munich that doesn’t count for our record in the league, but in 2 weeks we meet Hamburg in for 1st place. From what I can tell they are a damn good team and will be a true test for the Farmers. But I’m confident we have a team that can sweep them. From the other teams we’ve played I’ve learned that pitching is at a premium here and we right now we have more good pitching than I know what to do with.
ok i uploaded a few picture but it will take way too long to put all of them on here so i tried to pick out the good ones.
A-Ron
There is a guy that was on the trip with us, a huge heavy metal fan and quite the drinker, hereafter referred to by his nick name, Schnops (fitting to say the least) Now Schnops started and finished an entire liter of Bacardi Rum by himself on this 5 hour adventure and was quite sauced by they time we got there but still up walking around and still functioning. To drink an entire liter of alcohol in one sitting is quite impressive by any standard but good ol Schnops didn’t stop there, oh no, not by a long shot…no pun intended. We arrived around 5 or so, having not eaten since we left Dohren so we fired up the grill and put on some meat. at this point schnops turned to beer, probably the best decision he made all night, but that by no means he drank them slow. He had a couple before dinner, with dinner, and then after dinner the shots flowed like wine.
Side Note: the father of the guy we were staying with owns his own distillery and was kind enough to bring some samples and show us how true drinkers take shots…but more on that later.
Schnops partook in the shots and had a few more beers before we put him to bed around 9. I’ve never, nor do I think I will ever again see a single man drink that much alcohol at one time. I applaud him and pray for his liver at the same time. During the week, Schnops is a mechanical engineer and one of the smartest guys I’m told I’ve met since I’ve been here…also one of the best paid. But on the weekends you don’t want to be American and around Schnops, Tony and I were favorite targets for fake head locks and wrestling moves, all done in good drunken fun of course. He also liked to yell in the lowest, scariest, death/heavy-metal-band-lead-singer voice I’ve ever heard.
After Dodging Schnops for the first part of the night, the music started and the dance party commenced. There was a lot of ACDC to get ready and rock in general, sprinkle in a few rap songs…both American and German, and late night the party turned to Tom “the Tiger” Jones and “The Lady is Mine.” we played it at least 10 times in the last two hours of the night. All and all a great kick off to the weekend.
At one point in the party, I’m not sure exactly when, Tony decided that he had had enough Johnny Walker and dancing and wanted to go to bed. Now any normal thinking person would have set up his bed in the corner of the room, or outside even, since it was a nice night. But not Tony, he grabbed a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag and put it right in the middle of the room, and I don’t just mean out away from the wall, I mean the exact middle of the room and laid down. About 3.67549 seconds later his eyes were closed and he was off dreaming about German beer. Needless to say, we had a field day with the drunk guy that still had his shoes on. We didn’t write on him or anything like that but I have pictures of bare asses in close proximity to Tony…and I’ll leave it at that.Ok so that was Thursday. The next morning I woke up around 7...with schnops of all people, and took a shower. I needed to warm myself up since I slept outside that night sandwiched between two lounge chair cushions. Someone *cough* Tony* cough* took my sleeping bag and that was the only thing I could find that even vaguely resembled something suitable to sleep on. I was mistaken. But the shower was warm and just what the doctor ordered. Since no one was up yet I began walking down the street toward town. Since it was so early there wasn’t anything open except a coffee shop that also sold donuts. So I went in and bought a donut for a buck…one of the best donuts I’ve ever had. around 11 we went to take a tour of the distilery i mentioned earlier and take a few free shots. it was here that we learned that you first put your finger in the shot and taste it before actually taking it. if when you put your alcohol drenched finger in your mouth and it burns your tounge or lips, then you know it is not a high quality liquir. but after that you are supposed to take the shot in 2-3 sips instead of all at once. this lets you actually taste the liquir and appreciate it. I did not partake in this round of shots because i took them all Thursday night and i was positive i would have puked if i had taken shots at that point in the day.
I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves but suffice it to say that the ACDC concert was awesome. They definitely have some years on them but for a bunch of old guys, they can still rock and put on one hell of a show. Grizzly Adams in the one picture is a guy that was strung out on some kind of cocktail of drugs and saw us standing next to the porta-johns with beers and felt entitled to some so he stood there for a good 10 minutes waiting for Tony to pour him a beer. At $9 a liter, that wasn’t happening. But I wanted to always remember him so I took a picture of him…he is the same guy getting Chinese food in the later picture…I was convinced he was stalking us at this point.
After the concert we started walking to meet the bus, and we waited, and we waited, and it never came. So we started walking…this was a 15 km walk back to the sport house. After about 4 km we saw a bus sitting at a corner and sure enough it was the one we paid to pick us up AT the concert. He told us that he didn’t know where to pick us up…we called him a lot of names to make us feel better about him making us walk so far.
Saturday we cleaned up and 6 of us took off for Timo and Hassi’s grandparents’ house. This 3 hour drive was not as pleasant since I was so hungover… but having a couple beers on the drive helped a lot as did the short nap I took in the back seat. Once we got there we put our stuff in the room and took off to see a little bit of the city and get some bread for dinner. We found a pub and had a couple beers before walking through the park back home…I think it was the lack of sleep coupled with the slight buzz that made everything really funny by this point. We joked about girls that walked by, baseball, sexual exploits among other things.
Sunday it was off to Breunchweig to play them in a 1st man’s double header. Coming into the game they were unsuccessful in winning any of their previous 8 games of the season…our plan was to make sure they went to 0-10 on the season.
Their first pitcher was the hardest thrower we have faced all year but despite that, we put up 2 runs in the first on Tony’s first AB and hit in Germany. I on the other hand, was unable to reach base successfully in this game for my first hitless game of the year. 0-3. But we were able to scratch 3 more runs across and rode on the back of Thies all day. The kid threw another great game against a team that is a lot better than what their record shows. We won 5-3.
The 2nd game started a bit differently, they scored one in each of the first two innings off of me because I couldn’t throw a fastball for a strike to save my life. I walked another 5 or something so I took myself out after just 2 innings and put in Laser. This turned out to be a great managerial move because he shut them out the rest of the game. Oh and he hit a HR in his first at bat with his own DC bat…and it was a bomb too. I was able to drive in 2 runs in this game on one a sacrifice and a triple in my last at bat. I think the shadows were messing with all of us a little bit, trees hang over the field down the leftfield line and throughout the afternoon the shadows crept across the infield. but we wont hits game 6-2.
But getting 2 wins was what we needed because Hamburg won 2 this weekend too and we are tied atop the standings at 8-2. Next weekend we have a tournament in Munich that doesn’t count for our record in the league, but in 2 weeks we meet Hamburg in for 1st place. From what I can tell they are a damn good team and will be a true test for the Farmers. But I’m confident we have a team that can sweep them. From the other teams we’ve played I’ve learned that pitching is at a premium here and we right now we have more good pitching than I know what to do with.
ok i uploaded a few picture but it will take way too long to put all of them on here so i tried to pick out the good ones.
A-Ron
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Thunderstruck
ACDC concert is friday. we are leaving tomorrow morning at 11 am with plans to have a beer or two before we leave and some on the 5 hour drive. 25 of us are carpooling down to Hockenheim for this concert and are camping at a sportshouse that has just one shower...that means i most likely wont shower until sunday after our games. In honor of the Indy 500 i am going to wear my Celtics jersey, even though they are no longer in the playoff and i know i will get yelled at by crazy drunk basketball fans that like Dallas because of Dirk. But it will be fun and i cant wait.
Tomorrow also is Father's day in Germany. now this is not to celebrate Dads like in America. this is a celebration on God, THE Father. but basically its another reason for Germans to get together and have a few beers (read few as an all day blowout that i wish that i could be a part of).
Tony is settling in nicely and seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit. we have drank every night hes been here and i dont thinks he's slept more than 5 hours on any night that he's been here...he is coming to ACDC too so comfortable, sober sleep will still be something he hasnt done through at least sunday.
today we went and had our Pitch, Hit and Run day at the school in Wistedt and there was a 3rd grader there that asked us, me and Tony, if we like Barack Obama...now i've been asked this before, and i've had political talks since i've been here so that wasnt too surprising. But this little kid asked the question in perfect english, so that threw me off a bit to begin with; and when i asked him if he liked Obama, he told me, "yes, i think he is a fantastic president for the United States." VERBATUM. again, perfect english. First of all, who taught you to use words like fantastic and secondly, you're 8 years old, what the hell do you care about American politics - these were the only things running through my mind when he said that and i didnt have words to respond to him because i was in such shock. he walked away with a smile on his face.
This weekend marks one of the greatest days on the Redneck calander. people from every trailor park across the country will come together in a sea of tanktops, dale ernhardt hats, and cut off jean shorts. vendors will sell corndogs, hotdogs, jalapeno nachoes, apples, and anything...strike that, EVERYthing, else they can fit on a stick to the hordes of overweight children that accompany their drunken parents to this wonderful event. I'm talking about the Indianapolis 500, and i'm not ashamed to say that i'm a tad upset that i'm missing out this year. Last year's rendition was one of the best days ever; perfect weather, great friends, and a baby pool filled to the top with beer and ice. i hope the plans for the slip and slide on the infield didnt fall through and you guys actually pull that off. I wish everyone going to Indy this weekend safe travels and a time well spent in Indy, and to the current residents of Indianapolis, may your couches be occupied by friends and your beds by strangers.
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines,
A-Ron
Tomorrow also is Father's day in Germany. now this is not to celebrate Dads like in America. this is a celebration on God, THE Father. but basically its another reason for Germans to get together and have a few beers (read few as an all day blowout that i wish that i could be a part of).
Tony is settling in nicely and seems to be enjoying himself quite a bit. we have drank every night hes been here and i dont thinks he's slept more than 5 hours on any night that he's been here...he is coming to ACDC too so comfortable, sober sleep will still be something he hasnt done through at least sunday.
today we went and had our Pitch, Hit and Run day at the school in Wistedt and there was a 3rd grader there that asked us, me and Tony, if we like Barack Obama...now i've been asked this before, and i've had political talks since i've been here so that wasnt too surprising. But this little kid asked the question in perfect english, so that threw me off a bit to begin with; and when i asked him if he liked Obama, he told me, "yes, i think he is a fantastic president for the United States." VERBATUM. again, perfect english. First of all, who taught you to use words like fantastic and secondly, you're 8 years old, what the hell do you care about American politics - these were the only things running through my mind when he said that and i didnt have words to respond to him because i was in such shock. he walked away with a smile on his face.
This weekend marks one of the greatest days on the Redneck calander. people from every trailor park across the country will come together in a sea of tanktops, dale ernhardt hats, and cut off jean shorts. vendors will sell corndogs, hotdogs, jalapeno nachoes, apples, and anything...strike that, EVERYthing, else they can fit on a stick to the hordes of overweight children that accompany their drunken parents to this wonderful event. I'm talking about the Indianapolis 500, and i'm not ashamed to say that i'm a tad upset that i'm missing out this year. Last year's rendition was one of the best days ever; perfect weather, great friends, and a baby pool filled to the top with beer and ice. i hope the plans for the slip and slide on the infield didnt fall through and you guys actually pull that off. I wish everyone going to Indy this weekend safe travels and a time well spent in Indy, and to the current residents of Indianapolis, may your couches be occupied by friends and your beds by strangers.
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines,
A-Ron
Monday, May 18, 2009
Dohren just got a little more American
Tony Hurla has entered the building ladies and gentlemen. we picked him up from the airport earlier and brought him back for his first meal in Germany...pizza. My first meal was lasagna...not your typical german entrees, but good nonetheless.
I just left the Wedemeyer household and Tony was sleeping like a baby, his route to Dohren started in KC, then to Charlette, NC, then to Frankfurt, and finally landing in Hamburg and he started yesterday at 7 am. the man needs some rest, but only 2 hours because then its off to the field for youth practices and 3rd man's practice. this is all followed by a meet and greet (aka introducing Tony to German beer and getting drunk) at 9 at the sporthouse.
and tomorrow he will be joining me at Wistedt for our last day of practice before the Pitch, Hit, and Run day on wednesday. Talk about throwing a guy into the fire right off the plane, geez. but he seems eager to get started so i say why not. he studied phy ed and rec management in school with plans of becoming a coach, so i think this will be a good starting block. and he said that he likes working with kids so that is great too since that is the majority of what ive been doing.
Today i got a key to the sport house, now i can go in and take a shower or use the bathroom whenever i want and dont have to wait for Martin, or Johst, or one of the Hassenpflugs. this means that i can take a shower after all the youth practices or after the softball practices, and i can go in and have a beer whenever i want too. my key ring is getting pretty loaded and i like it.
it has been exactly one year since i graduated from college and while i gave the "real world" the ol college try, i think i like what i'm doing now a lot more. never would have dreamed i'd be playing baseball, let alone in Germany, but damn i'm glad i am.
well it's time to go to work aka baseball practice,
A-Ron
I just left the Wedemeyer household and Tony was sleeping like a baby, his route to Dohren started in KC, then to Charlette, NC, then to Frankfurt, and finally landing in Hamburg and he started yesterday at 7 am. the man needs some rest, but only 2 hours because then its off to the field for youth practices and 3rd man's practice. this is all followed by a meet and greet (aka introducing Tony to German beer and getting drunk) at 9 at the sporthouse.
and tomorrow he will be joining me at Wistedt for our last day of practice before the Pitch, Hit, and Run day on wednesday. Talk about throwing a guy into the fire right off the plane, geez. but he seems eager to get started so i say why not. he studied phy ed and rec management in school with plans of becoming a coach, so i think this will be a good starting block. and he said that he likes working with kids so that is great too since that is the majority of what ive been doing.
Today i got a key to the sport house, now i can go in and take a shower or use the bathroom whenever i want and dont have to wait for Martin, or Johst, or one of the Hassenpflugs. this means that i can take a shower after all the youth practices or after the softball practices, and i can go in and have a beer whenever i want too. my key ring is getting pretty loaded and i like it.
it has been exactly one year since i graduated from college and while i gave the "real world" the ol college try, i think i like what i'm doing now a lot more. never would have dreamed i'd be playing baseball, let alone in Germany, but damn i'm glad i am.
well it's time to go to work aka baseball practice,
A-Ron
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Sweep and Swept
busy busy busy. things have been pretty hectic since last tuesday. ok maybe hectic isnt the right word, jampacked is a better way to put it. between school, practices, games, painting, and let not forget the time i MUST spend with a beer in my hand, there isnt much time left in the day.
last thursday was my first Pitch Hit & Run experience at the school in Tostedt. There was a station for throwing, hitting, and running (hmm, imagine that...) and my station which was putting it all together in a 3 inning game. on this day it was the 5th and 6th grade classes doing battle. The day started out kind of chilly and the wind was swirling a bit, but by about 10:00 or so it died down and got really nice out. the margin of talent was quite wide, but overall pretty evenly matched throughout the classes. there were some kids on each team that were pretty good and there were also some girls on each team that really didnt act like they wanted to be out there at all. i set up the fence about 30 meters away from home, which really isnt far at all but everyone loves the long ball so i made it a hitter's park. this set the stage for some high scoring games. there was a 5 run per inning limit which came into play but more often than not the kids were actually getting 3 outs.
in the final 6th grade game of the day, 6a faced off against 6c in what was to be more of a war of words than a baseball game. 6a was kicking ass but that didnt stop the shit talking from some of the boys on 6c and in the last inning they mounted a comeback. normally im not a fan of bush league play or players but the rally was kicked off by a homerun from the biggest shit talker on 6c, and on his way around third he mooned the other team. he actually dropped his pants in the middle of the field and showed the whole world his little bare ass cheeks. I couldnt help but laugh along with the rest of the 5th and 6th graders watching at the time. the best part is that the teacher didnt even say anything about it, she was laughing too!
when it was determined that 6a and 5b were the respective winners of their classes, it was down the the final faceoff to crown an ultimate champion and give braggin' rights for at least the next two or three days. since there were 4 or 5 actual baseball players in 5b, i was putting my money on them to take the cake. but i guess one more year of life outweighs baseball experience. 6a jumped out to a commanding lead and they played defence well enough to hold off the younger 5b team. the final score was something like 8-5* for the 2009 champions 6a.* now i put an astricks there because i noticed late in the game that whenever bases were loaded this one kid just always happened to come to the plate. at first i just figured it was dumb luck that he was always up with bases loaded, and he hit a homerun pretty much every time. then i realized that the little shitheads were batting at will and not in any kind of order whatsoever. there were even a couple of girls on the bench that never hit once....all day, not just that game, but they never picked up a bat in their previous 3 games either. had i figured this out earlier i would have set them straight but it was too late by that point and i didnt feel like arguing.
it was only 5 hours, but for some reason i was worn out. i think it was all the yelling and screaming...speaking of which, each team had cheerleaders. this was the first time ive ever seen pom poms at a baseball game.
saturday we had games at home against Bremen and we were without our leadoff man and 3rd baseman Hinzy. so i played 3rd, laser was in RF and Tiger led off to fill in the holes created by not having Johannes. we dominated the first game, 12-4. MVP of the game went to Stephan, the old man was 3-3 and had RBIs in every one of his 4 ABs. I went 2-4, scored a few times and i dont remember if i had any RBIs or not. it would help if the stat site was ever updated but for some reason it hasnt been touched for 3 weeks.
I started on the mound the 2nd game and later moved to SS after my 3 innings of work. the pitcher in the 2nd game for the Dockers threw pretty hard, had a good curve and a change up that was the best pitch i've seen all year. I saw one fastball in 3 ABs and i hit it down the 1st baseline for a triple. I struck out in my other 2 at bats. he threw me 3 change ups and the bottom just fell right out of them and i swung over all three of them. i was pissed that i struck out once and vowed to not let it happen again but when he threw me two change ups in a row in my last at bat and i whiffed on both of them, i had to tip my cap, that thing was nasty. the score was tied 2-2 for a long time until we took the lead in the 6th. Laser came in in the 7th and got a ground out and 2 Ks to send the Dockers home with 2 losses on the day. It was great to get the sweep and i think it helped mentally to win a close ballgame. from what ive heard, the Farmers werent too good with close games last year. it all starts with pitching and throwing strikes and we have done a great job coming out of the pen and filling up the strike zone. 3-7 on the day brings my avg up a bit...but im not sure how much since the website hasnt been updated (i dont know if you can sense the frustration through the written words, but trust me i'm pounding the keys right now)
pitching wise, i struggled a little bit. I walked at least 4 guys, hit 1, i even walked in a run in the 1st. thats half of my total from all of last year...and 3 of those walks came in 1 inning! I have got to figure out what my deal is and fix it in a hurry. i am not happy with my pitching at all as of late. I'm struggling a bit to find my arm slot, sometimes i am more over-the-top and other times im more 3/4. i've never had this problem before and im not real sure why or how it all started. maybe its because i'm playing the field again and im using a different arm slot for that than i am when i pitch, but they didnt seem to bother me in high school when i did it. i feel like i'm aiming my pitches a bit too much too, instead of just trusting my body and throwing. It will help that Tony is coming and i can focus a bit more on preparing myself for the mound and let him run practice so i can figure out how to throw strikes again.
speaking of Mr. Hurla, he is on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean right now. he gets to Hamburg at 12:45 tomorrow so me and Beefy's mom are going to the airport to pick him up. and then tomorrow night after pratice we are all meeting at the sportshouse to have a beer or two with the new Gay From Spain like we did when i first got here.
today we went to Hamburg to play the knights and thats about all i want to remember from those games. we got our asses handed to us. 13-3 run rule and 10-3. in the 2nd game they got 8 runs in the 1st before we even got an out. it was not a good day for the farmers' 2nd mans' team...and it rained, so that added to the fun of the day. i only played the 2nd game and was 2-3...but that brings my average down because i was batting .800 going into the game.
so we were on both sides of the broom this weekend, but the right side in the games that are most important.
Also, i hit another milestone over the weekend. I have now been here for 2 months. love this place.
A-Ron
last thursday was my first Pitch Hit & Run experience at the school in Tostedt. There was a station for throwing, hitting, and running (hmm, imagine that...) and my station which was putting it all together in a 3 inning game. on this day it was the 5th and 6th grade classes doing battle. The day started out kind of chilly and the wind was swirling a bit, but by about 10:00 or so it died down and got really nice out. the margin of talent was quite wide, but overall pretty evenly matched throughout the classes. there were some kids on each team that were pretty good and there were also some girls on each team that really didnt act like they wanted to be out there at all. i set up the fence about 30 meters away from home, which really isnt far at all but everyone loves the long ball so i made it a hitter's park. this set the stage for some high scoring games. there was a 5 run per inning limit which came into play but more often than not the kids were actually getting 3 outs.
in the final 6th grade game of the day, 6a faced off against 6c in what was to be more of a war of words than a baseball game. 6a was kicking ass but that didnt stop the shit talking from some of the boys on 6c and in the last inning they mounted a comeback. normally im not a fan of bush league play or players but the rally was kicked off by a homerun from the biggest shit talker on 6c, and on his way around third he mooned the other team. he actually dropped his pants in the middle of the field and showed the whole world his little bare ass cheeks. I couldnt help but laugh along with the rest of the 5th and 6th graders watching at the time. the best part is that the teacher didnt even say anything about it, she was laughing too!
when it was determined that 6a and 5b were the respective winners of their classes, it was down the the final faceoff to crown an ultimate champion and give braggin' rights for at least the next two or three days. since there were 4 or 5 actual baseball players in 5b, i was putting my money on them to take the cake. but i guess one more year of life outweighs baseball experience. 6a jumped out to a commanding lead and they played defence well enough to hold off the younger 5b team. the final score was something like 8-5* for the 2009 champions 6a.* now i put an astricks there because i noticed late in the game that whenever bases were loaded this one kid just always happened to come to the plate. at first i just figured it was dumb luck that he was always up with bases loaded, and he hit a homerun pretty much every time. then i realized that the little shitheads were batting at will and not in any kind of order whatsoever. there were even a couple of girls on the bench that never hit once....all day, not just that game, but they never picked up a bat in their previous 3 games either. had i figured this out earlier i would have set them straight but it was too late by that point and i didnt feel like arguing.
it was only 5 hours, but for some reason i was worn out. i think it was all the yelling and screaming...speaking of which, each team had cheerleaders. this was the first time ive ever seen pom poms at a baseball game.
saturday we had games at home against Bremen and we were without our leadoff man and 3rd baseman Hinzy. so i played 3rd, laser was in RF and Tiger led off to fill in the holes created by not having Johannes. we dominated the first game, 12-4. MVP of the game went to Stephan, the old man was 3-3 and had RBIs in every one of his 4 ABs. I went 2-4, scored a few times and i dont remember if i had any RBIs or not. it would help if the stat site was ever updated but for some reason it hasnt been touched for 3 weeks.
I started on the mound the 2nd game and later moved to SS after my 3 innings of work. the pitcher in the 2nd game for the Dockers threw pretty hard, had a good curve and a change up that was the best pitch i've seen all year. I saw one fastball in 3 ABs and i hit it down the 1st baseline for a triple. I struck out in my other 2 at bats. he threw me 3 change ups and the bottom just fell right out of them and i swung over all three of them. i was pissed that i struck out once and vowed to not let it happen again but when he threw me two change ups in a row in my last at bat and i whiffed on both of them, i had to tip my cap, that thing was nasty. the score was tied 2-2 for a long time until we took the lead in the 6th. Laser came in in the 7th and got a ground out and 2 Ks to send the Dockers home with 2 losses on the day. It was great to get the sweep and i think it helped mentally to win a close ballgame. from what ive heard, the Farmers werent too good with close games last year. it all starts with pitching and throwing strikes and we have done a great job coming out of the pen and filling up the strike zone. 3-7 on the day brings my avg up a bit...but im not sure how much since the website hasnt been updated (i dont know if you can sense the frustration through the written words, but trust me i'm pounding the keys right now)
pitching wise, i struggled a little bit. I walked at least 4 guys, hit 1, i even walked in a run in the 1st. thats half of my total from all of last year...and 3 of those walks came in 1 inning! I have got to figure out what my deal is and fix it in a hurry. i am not happy with my pitching at all as of late. I'm struggling a bit to find my arm slot, sometimes i am more over-the-top and other times im more 3/4. i've never had this problem before and im not real sure why or how it all started. maybe its because i'm playing the field again and im using a different arm slot for that than i am when i pitch, but they didnt seem to bother me in high school when i did it. i feel like i'm aiming my pitches a bit too much too, instead of just trusting my body and throwing. It will help that Tony is coming and i can focus a bit more on preparing myself for the mound and let him run practice so i can figure out how to throw strikes again.
speaking of Mr. Hurla, he is on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean right now. he gets to Hamburg at 12:45 tomorrow so me and Beefy's mom are going to the airport to pick him up. and then tomorrow night after pratice we are all meeting at the sportshouse to have a beer or two with the new Gay From Spain like we did when i first got here.
today we went to Hamburg to play the knights and thats about all i want to remember from those games. we got our asses handed to us. 13-3 run rule and 10-3. in the 2nd game they got 8 runs in the 1st before we even got an out. it was not a good day for the farmers' 2nd mans' team...and it rained, so that added to the fun of the day. i only played the 2nd game and was 2-3...but that brings my average down because i was batting .800 going into the game.
so we were on both sides of the broom this weekend, but the right side in the games that are most important.
Also, i hit another milestone over the weekend. I have now been here for 2 months. love this place.
A-Ron
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesday may 12
ok so there was actually more that happened over the weekend, i just ran out of motivation and energy to write the rest last night. so here she goes:
Johst and Laser bought an expesive lathe, one that will follow a pattern to replicate precisely whatever it is, and set it up in a back corner of Henrik's barn. they have been trying different models and dimensions of bats trying to come up with the perfect one to send to the German Baseball Federation and get their approval so we can use DC (Dohren City) Bats in our games. they would also then be able to sell their bats to other teams around the country and hopefully become international as well. a few weeks ago they developed that perfect bat, the DL2. it was a thing of beauty, the ball jumped off of the perfectly balanced barrel, and though it does weigh 30 ounces, it is light as a feather as it flies through the zone...in practice that is. since it is not on the list of approved bats by the German Baseball Federation, we cannot use DC Bats in games. If we were to get caught using a nonsanctioned bat, the player would be kicked out for the day and fined 100 Euros. so the DL2 has a permanent place in practices...for now. finally satisfied that they had perfected the bat, Johst and Laser wrapped 2 of them up and sent them to the Federation for testing and inspection. On Saturday they were finally approved by the German Federation, meaning that all that was left was to send in the money to get the license and get out a new list of approved bats to the umpires and other teams. That should only take a few days so we were all anxious to debut the bats next weekend against Bremen.
ok so really that is everything else that i wanted to say about the weekend, but i felt it was important.
today i was back at Wistedt teaching baseball to the kids and recruiting them to come out on thursday to our PlayBall program. I really hope the weather is nicer this time around because we need more than just 3 kids to show up this time. it was like 45 and real dark and windy last thursday and i'm going to tell myself that that was the reason for the poor turnout. thats my story and im sticking with it. we played a real game in the last class today and since the one team was getting just killed, i decided that i would even the score by stepping in. im a pro ball player and all, surely i can change the face of this game in the 20 minutes we had left to play. little did i know how wrong i was. those kids were good...of course they were, i taught them everything they know about the game... the fact that i didnt teach them everything i know didnt seem to matter though. because we had been playing inside for the last few weeks, and a little crammed for space, i didnt worry with teaching them all the rules, i was just keeping it very simple, throw the ball to first base before the batter gets there or catch the ball in the air for an out. well today i was trying everything to get my team back in the game. i was turning double plays when they didnt tag up on fly balls, (even though i never told them that rule) i was tagging them when they were off the base, (didnt teach them that one either) I even called an infield fly rule at one point. (a desperate move by a desperate man) the game ended somehting like 15-2...I just want to forget that one
in some American news, the guys in Chicago started a softball team and are calling their team the Wild Farmers. I think this is awesome and as a tribute, I'm sending them some legit WF gear. this is a great segway into my next question, if anyone would like some Wild Farmers gear (hat, shirt, bumper sticker, etc.) let me know. I'll see what i can do about getting some stuff to send state side...But hurry, supplies are limited and this special offer wont last long. please send check or money order (Sorry no C.O.D.'s) to:
Mr. Baseball
7 Upn Saal
21255 Dohren, Germany.
It's movie time here in Dohren, Semi Pro is on the marquee tonight, as well as Persuit of Happiness...quite the gamut, i know, but beggers cant be choosers, i'm just glad they are not in German and i can understand them.
A-Ron
Johst and Laser bought an expesive lathe, one that will follow a pattern to replicate precisely whatever it is, and set it up in a back corner of Henrik's barn. they have been trying different models and dimensions of bats trying to come up with the perfect one to send to the German Baseball Federation and get their approval so we can use DC (Dohren City) Bats in our games. they would also then be able to sell their bats to other teams around the country and hopefully become international as well. a few weeks ago they developed that perfect bat, the DL2. it was a thing of beauty, the ball jumped off of the perfectly balanced barrel, and though it does weigh 30 ounces, it is light as a feather as it flies through the zone...in practice that is. since it is not on the list of approved bats by the German Baseball Federation, we cannot use DC Bats in games. If we were to get caught using a nonsanctioned bat, the player would be kicked out for the day and fined 100 Euros. so the DL2 has a permanent place in practices...for now. finally satisfied that they had perfected the bat, Johst and Laser wrapped 2 of them up and sent them to the Federation for testing and inspection. On Saturday they were finally approved by the German Federation, meaning that all that was left was to send in the money to get the license and get out a new list of approved bats to the umpires and other teams. That should only take a few days so we were all anxious to debut the bats next weekend against Bremen.
ok so really that is everything else that i wanted to say about the weekend, but i felt it was important.
today i was back at Wistedt teaching baseball to the kids and recruiting them to come out on thursday to our PlayBall program. I really hope the weather is nicer this time around because we need more than just 3 kids to show up this time. it was like 45 and real dark and windy last thursday and i'm going to tell myself that that was the reason for the poor turnout. thats my story and im sticking with it. we played a real game in the last class today and since the one team was getting just killed, i decided that i would even the score by stepping in. im a pro ball player and all, surely i can change the face of this game in the 20 minutes we had left to play. little did i know how wrong i was. those kids were good...of course they were, i taught them everything they know about the game... the fact that i didnt teach them everything i know didnt seem to matter though. because we had been playing inside for the last few weeks, and a little crammed for space, i didnt worry with teaching them all the rules, i was just keeping it very simple, throw the ball to first base before the batter gets there or catch the ball in the air for an out. well today i was trying everything to get my team back in the game. i was turning double plays when they didnt tag up on fly balls, (even though i never told them that rule) i was tagging them when they were off the base, (didnt teach them that one either) I even called an infield fly rule at one point. (a desperate move by a desperate man) the game ended somehting like 15-2...I just want to forget that one
in some American news, the guys in Chicago started a softball team and are calling their team the Wild Farmers. I think this is awesome and as a tribute, I'm sending them some legit WF gear. this is a great segway into my next question, if anyone would like some Wild Farmers gear (hat, shirt, bumper sticker, etc.) let me know. I'll see what i can do about getting some stuff to send state side...But hurry, supplies are limited and this special offer wont last long. please send check or money order (Sorry no C.O.D.'s) to:
Mr. Baseball
7 Upn Saal
21255 Dohren, Germany.
It's movie time here in Dohren, Semi Pro is on the marquee tonight, as well as Persuit of Happiness...quite the gamut, i know, but beggers cant be choosers, i'm just glad they are not in German and i can understand them.
A-Ron
Thursday, May 7, 2009
A Lot to talk about
Paul, you bring up a very good point in your comment on the last post. I have been lacking in sharing information on the female Germans i have come across, and I appologize. and this as good a time as any to fill you in.
the women of Germany are not some strange breed of people, they have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a nose, and a mouth. hair is on top of their head and they have 2 arms and 2 legs. you really wouldnt be able to pick them out in a crowd like you would say Indian or Chinese girls. but for some reason it seems to be a rule that every school must have a hot blonde working there. it muse be some kind of quota they have to fill or something, i dont know what the deal is, but i like it. It makes the day a lot more interesting thats for sure.
It has been awhile since i last wrote and there has been a lot that has happened. so i'll start at the beginning. Last thursday i went to a school in Tostedt. walking up to the school it was a bit different than the other schools. there werent colored pictures in the windows, no small bikes on the racks. but there was something very familiar, there was a group of kids sitting together at one table all dressed in black, a group of jocks at another table, a few lonely kids sitting alone, yearning to be part of any group...I was back in Highschool. yep, all the stereotypes from America apply here in Germany too.
we went into the teachers lounge, where i met Ina and Annelise, Annelise is the english teacher there at the school and is from Houston, TX. we chatted for a bit about Houston and and living in Germany and she gave me her number if i ever want to go to hamburg or if i just want to hang out with another American. I think i'll probably ask her if she wants to take me and Tony to Hamburg and show us around a bit. for some reason Antje thought we had set up a date or something but i assured her that Annelise was not my type and i dont think her husband would appreciate that either.
Ina was the teacher i was to be working with on this day so we gathered up the equipment and her class of 5th graders and headed to the gym. after an hour and a half of working with the kids, we had to choose 15 of them (at elast 5 girls had to be on the team) to play in the tournament next thursday at the school. In an effort to get a few kids to come play for our organization, The Wild Farmers are coordinating a tournament between the 5th and 6th grade classes at the school. I am to be in charge of this whole shindig and am looking forward to what is sure to be a grand time. Beefy, Daniel, and Skippy will be helping me out too.
Friday i was back to Wistedt but only for one class. It was the 5th graders, the only class that i had not worked with before. this didnt seem to matter though, because they still all knew my name. I had practice after i got back from school and after that it was back to the house to relax before the games on Saturday.
Saturday the Berlin Challengers came to town with stats that begged respect. their two pitchers had good numbers and a few of the hitters where ranked high in the league. I had also heard a lot about their manager, Willy Reyes, a former catcher for the german national team...that was 20 years ago. Willy is still quite a force, devouring my hand when we shook at the line-up exchange, and he took out at least 2 during BP before the game. Thies again threw a gem, shutting them out for 5 innings. the only reason i took him out of the game was because Laser wasnt there for the 2nd game and Thies would have to come back to close out the 2nd game. I came in after that to throw the last two innings.
Percy, their starting pitcher, was a hard throwing righty but he didnt have any off speed that i ever saw. we had hit him around pretty good throughout the game. I had a base hit off the end of the bat and hit a liner up the middle that had been caught by the Shortstop. the outfield was shifted way around to left field when i was at bat so i was thinking about hitting one to right center the whole time. In my 3rd at bat the first pitch was on the inner half about waist high and i threw the bat through the zone and connected. it was the 1st time i've ever hit a ball and just started jogging; a complete no doubter down the line and over the left field fence. in my other 7 lifetime HRs, i've always been thinking double out of the box, I've never just hit one and knew right away that it was gone. after touching home, it was shared with me that i was now the Gay from America. just as i expected, i'll never shake the nickname.
after winning the 1st game, we were all in high spirits and came out guns blazing in the nightcap. I started the game and jan came in in the 4th and threw 2 innings before being replaced but game 1 winner Thies. we were up 6-1 at this point. a couple walks and errors later, the score was 7-6 for the bad guys and we couldnt overcome the deficit and had to settle with a split. it was hard to find the words to calm everyone down after the game, but i think everyone knew the truth. we gave them one that they didnt deserve and we all knew that we are the superior squad.
Saturday night was a party at our place in celebration on Jan's 20 years of existence. we decided to celebrate with a beer pong tourny that lasted all night. Me and Thies were kicking ass and taking names...that is until he threw up all over the garden...reminiscent of me at Johst's birthday. at that point i played with Beefy and one game with Henrik. playing beer pong with german beer is tough (nothing like Natty light) but playing beer pong with Cola and Korn or with Southern Comfort is just dumb. I dont recommend it.
Sunday I went with Martin, Sven and Anna to Hamburg to the Harbor Birthday Party. On May 10, 2009 the Hamburg Harbor turned 821 years young. thats right, 600 years older than America. North America was nothing but sticks back when Hamburg was Europe's newest harbor town. thousands of people turn out for the celebration. there are food stands and beer stands lining the streets of the harbor and vendors are selling homemade pottery and religious trinkets and what not. we were on our way back to the car when the hum of the crowd was broken by the sound of jets. The Swedish Air Force sent 6 of their planes to put on an air show over the harbor, much like the Blue Angels in America. but this show lasted a good 20 minutes with loops and figure 8s and a handful of different flight patterns. this was one of the cooler things i've seen in a long time. I was glad i got to see it along with all the old ships that were occupying the harbor all weekend. there were a bunch of old sailing ships and even a huge cruise ship that had docked so the passengers could enjoy the Harbor Party as well. Getting back to Dohren, we went out to dinner at a local Greek restuarant to celebrate Jan's birthday and also Mother's Day.
early this morning, 9:30, i woke up and went to Henrik's to paint. I was the only one there and i had no idea what any of the buckets said so i picked the one that was the closest to the color i needed (a logical thought) and began slapping paint on the outside of the house. at noon, henrik came and asked me where i found the paint...this is when i started to get a bit worried. I told him that i found it in the room off of the bathroom upstairs and he just started to laugh. "that's the paint for inside, it's an interior paint." so all the work i thought i was doin was all for not, I have to go back next time and paint it with the right stuff...oops!
bed time,
A-Ron
P.S. Tony, the other American, gets here in exactly 1 week.
the women of Germany are not some strange breed of people, they have 2 eyes, 2 ears, a nose, and a mouth. hair is on top of their head and they have 2 arms and 2 legs. you really wouldnt be able to pick them out in a crowd like you would say Indian or Chinese girls. but for some reason it seems to be a rule that every school must have a hot blonde working there. it muse be some kind of quota they have to fill or something, i dont know what the deal is, but i like it. It makes the day a lot more interesting thats for sure.
It has been awhile since i last wrote and there has been a lot that has happened. so i'll start at the beginning. Last thursday i went to a school in Tostedt. walking up to the school it was a bit different than the other schools. there werent colored pictures in the windows, no small bikes on the racks. but there was something very familiar, there was a group of kids sitting together at one table all dressed in black, a group of jocks at another table, a few lonely kids sitting alone, yearning to be part of any group...I was back in Highschool. yep, all the stereotypes from America apply here in Germany too.
we went into the teachers lounge, where i met Ina and Annelise, Annelise is the english teacher there at the school and is from Houston, TX. we chatted for a bit about Houston and and living in Germany and she gave me her number if i ever want to go to hamburg or if i just want to hang out with another American. I think i'll probably ask her if she wants to take me and Tony to Hamburg and show us around a bit. for some reason Antje thought we had set up a date or something but i assured her that Annelise was not my type and i dont think her husband would appreciate that either.
Ina was the teacher i was to be working with on this day so we gathered up the equipment and her class of 5th graders and headed to the gym. after an hour and a half of working with the kids, we had to choose 15 of them (at elast 5 girls had to be on the team) to play in the tournament next thursday at the school. In an effort to get a few kids to come play for our organization, The Wild Farmers are coordinating a tournament between the 5th and 6th grade classes at the school. I am to be in charge of this whole shindig and am looking forward to what is sure to be a grand time. Beefy, Daniel, and Skippy will be helping me out too.
Friday i was back to Wistedt but only for one class. It was the 5th graders, the only class that i had not worked with before. this didnt seem to matter though, because they still all knew my name. I had practice after i got back from school and after that it was back to the house to relax before the games on Saturday.
Saturday the Berlin Challengers came to town with stats that begged respect. their two pitchers had good numbers and a few of the hitters where ranked high in the league. I had also heard a lot about their manager, Willy Reyes, a former catcher for the german national team...that was 20 years ago. Willy is still quite a force, devouring my hand when we shook at the line-up exchange, and he took out at least 2 during BP before the game. Thies again threw a gem, shutting them out for 5 innings. the only reason i took him out of the game was because Laser wasnt there for the 2nd game and Thies would have to come back to close out the 2nd game. I came in after that to throw the last two innings.
Percy, their starting pitcher, was a hard throwing righty but he didnt have any off speed that i ever saw. we had hit him around pretty good throughout the game. I had a base hit off the end of the bat and hit a liner up the middle that had been caught by the Shortstop. the outfield was shifted way around to left field when i was at bat so i was thinking about hitting one to right center the whole time. In my 3rd at bat the first pitch was on the inner half about waist high and i threw the bat through the zone and connected. it was the 1st time i've ever hit a ball and just started jogging; a complete no doubter down the line and over the left field fence. in my other 7 lifetime HRs, i've always been thinking double out of the box, I've never just hit one and knew right away that it was gone. after touching home, it was shared with me that i was now the Gay from America. just as i expected, i'll never shake the nickname.
after winning the 1st game, we were all in high spirits and came out guns blazing in the nightcap. I started the game and jan came in in the 4th and threw 2 innings before being replaced but game 1 winner Thies. we were up 6-1 at this point. a couple walks and errors later, the score was 7-6 for the bad guys and we couldnt overcome the deficit and had to settle with a split. it was hard to find the words to calm everyone down after the game, but i think everyone knew the truth. we gave them one that they didnt deserve and we all knew that we are the superior squad.
Saturday night was a party at our place in celebration on Jan's 20 years of existence. we decided to celebrate with a beer pong tourny that lasted all night. Me and Thies were kicking ass and taking names...that is until he threw up all over the garden...reminiscent of me at Johst's birthday. at that point i played with Beefy and one game with Henrik. playing beer pong with german beer is tough (nothing like Natty light) but playing beer pong with Cola and Korn or with Southern Comfort is just dumb. I dont recommend it.
Sunday I went with Martin, Sven and Anna to Hamburg to the Harbor Birthday Party. On May 10, 2009 the Hamburg Harbor turned 821 years young. thats right, 600 years older than America. North America was nothing but sticks back when Hamburg was Europe's newest harbor town. thousands of people turn out for the celebration. there are food stands and beer stands lining the streets of the harbor and vendors are selling homemade pottery and religious trinkets and what not. we were on our way back to the car when the hum of the crowd was broken by the sound of jets. The Swedish Air Force sent 6 of their planes to put on an air show over the harbor, much like the Blue Angels in America. but this show lasted a good 20 minutes with loops and figure 8s and a handful of different flight patterns. this was one of the cooler things i've seen in a long time. I was glad i got to see it along with all the old ships that were occupying the harbor all weekend. there were a bunch of old sailing ships and even a huge cruise ship that had docked so the passengers could enjoy the Harbor Party as well. Getting back to Dohren, we went out to dinner at a local Greek restuarant to celebrate Jan's birthday and also Mother's Day.
early this morning, 9:30, i woke up and went to Henrik's to paint. I was the only one there and i had no idea what any of the buckets said so i picked the one that was the closest to the color i needed (a logical thought) and began slapping paint on the outside of the house. at noon, henrik came and asked me where i found the paint...this is when i started to get a bit worried. I told him that i found it in the room off of the bathroom upstairs and he just started to laugh. "that's the paint for inside, it's an interior paint." so all the work i thought i was doin was all for not, I have to go back next time and paint it with the right stuff...oops!
bed time,
A-Ron
P.S. Tony, the other American, gets here in exactly 1 week.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
there's no crying in baseball
Tom Hanks coined a term that will forever live on in baseball lore. though it was meant as a joke in the movie, it is now said in all seriousness on baseball diamonds around the world. (at least in my experience) Baseball is not a game where crying is rewarded; you cant cry about a call and get a challenge from the booth, you cant flop on the ground and get the ball in your possession going the other way. you dont cry about a loss, you dont cry about striking out, its all part of the game and there is always another game tomorrow. baseball players dont roll around on the ground after getting hit or falling down; they get up, rub some dirt on it, and the game goes on. there is some major work to be done in this regard in the schools of Wistedt. Now i'm not going to lie and say that i never shed a tear on a baseball field when i was 8 or 9 years old but we were playing with a real ball and i never cried about striking out..in fact i got pretty used to it through my younger years. some of the kids in these schools are crying about getting hit in the leg with a tennis ball being thrown...no, tossed at maybe 15 mph. while they are rolling on the ground weeping, the teacher runs to the locker room and grabs a paper towel and soaks in with cold water (this seems to be the cure-all here in the schools.) and puts it on the spot where the ball hit. and they pout and run to the bench if they get out during a game. i try to explain that in baseball you fail 70% of the time, but this gets lost in translation and is drowned out by their sniffling and whimpering. I'm going to have to toughen these kids up a bit if they want to come play for the Farmers; i mean we are wild afterall.
I am proud to note however that i have seen marked improvement in these kids since we started 3 weeks ago. most are now able to catch and throw with some sense of grace and purpose and the scores of our games are not bound by the one-time-through-the-lineup-per-inning max that is was in the beginning. they are making three outs in an inning, some times even 3 up 3 down. they all know how to hold and swing a bat, they all need some work but thats not my purpose in the schools, im just introducing the game and trying to make it fun. we will work on the finer points when they join the team.
tomorrow actually starts our PlayBall program here in dohren. children from around the area come to us and we have a mini-camp of sorts and teach the game to the kids. we provide gloves and bats and all the equipment in this free introduction to the game. I passed out fliers at the school in Wistedt and they all seemed very excited to come so im hoping there is a good turn out. there are a few of these PlayBall days throughout the next few weeks, and after that each child has the opportunity to join the Wild Farmers youth teams or decide that they want to stick with soccer. we've already had 4 or 5 kids from the school come to a couple of the practices so i'm hoping that tomorrow brings a few more youngsters to the organization.
many of the bigger cities here in northern germany struggle to put together youth teams at all, there just isnt the desire by the kids or motivation by the adults to teach the game and coach a team. Our youth teams do very well however because the number of kids is high and we are sending people into the schools every year to introduce the game and get kids interested in the sport. this is what will make Dohren prosper in the future and guarantee the longevity of the Wild Farmers Organization; It is the work of people like Antje - who was recently recognized for her continued work with the schools and the PlayBall and Pitch, Hit, and Run programs - that is the root of their success and the key to their future in the sport of baseball. I applaud the Wild Farmers for keeping these kids off the soccer field and truely appreciate the opportunity they have afforded me in my effort to do the same.
Today at the school I realized just how out of shape i got in my 7 month layoff. My hamstrings were so tight that i was struggling just to pick up balls...most of you know that im not a very flexible guy anyway, so that coupled with the lactic acid build up -still there from sunday- made for a sore day. I havent had to run bases like i did this weekend in a very long time and im paying for it now. maybe i should have gotten that massage on saturday night on my hamstrings and not my shoulder. looks like extended stretching for this guy today.
A-Ron
I am proud to note however that i have seen marked improvement in these kids since we started 3 weeks ago. most are now able to catch and throw with some sense of grace and purpose and the scores of our games are not bound by the one-time-through-the-lineup-per-inning max that is was in the beginning. they are making three outs in an inning, some times even 3 up 3 down. they all know how to hold and swing a bat, they all need some work but thats not my purpose in the schools, im just introducing the game and trying to make it fun. we will work on the finer points when they join the team.
tomorrow actually starts our PlayBall program here in dohren. children from around the area come to us and we have a mini-camp of sorts and teach the game to the kids. we provide gloves and bats and all the equipment in this free introduction to the game. I passed out fliers at the school in Wistedt and they all seemed very excited to come so im hoping there is a good turn out. there are a few of these PlayBall days throughout the next few weeks, and after that each child has the opportunity to join the Wild Farmers youth teams or decide that they want to stick with soccer. we've already had 4 or 5 kids from the school come to a couple of the practices so i'm hoping that tomorrow brings a few more youngsters to the organization.
many of the bigger cities here in northern germany struggle to put together youth teams at all, there just isnt the desire by the kids or motivation by the adults to teach the game and coach a team. Our youth teams do very well however because the number of kids is high and we are sending people into the schools every year to introduce the game and get kids interested in the sport. this is what will make Dohren prosper in the future and guarantee the longevity of the Wild Farmers Organization; It is the work of people like Antje - who was recently recognized for her continued work with the schools and the PlayBall and Pitch, Hit, and Run programs - that is the root of their success and the key to their future in the sport of baseball. I applaud the Wild Farmers for keeping these kids off the soccer field and truely appreciate the opportunity they have afforded me in my effort to do the same.
Today at the school I realized just how out of shape i got in my 7 month layoff. My hamstrings were so tight that i was struggling just to pick up balls...most of you know that im not a very flexible guy anyway, so that coupled with the lactic acid build up -still there from sunday- made for a sore day. I havent had to run bases like i did this weekend in a very long time and im paying for it now. maybe i should have gotten that massage on saturday night on my hamstrings and not my shoulder. looks like extended stretching for this guy today.
A-Ron
Monday, May 4, 2009
SWEPT through Berlin
the alarm rang at 6:45 saturday morning, 4 hours before i normally get up during the week, and reluctantly i sluggishly pulled myself from the comfort of the covers. the ship set sail at 7:30 for berlin and we still had to eat breakfast and pack lunches for between games. thankfully we packed the car the night before with equiptment and clothes for the trip. we were the first carload to the field at 7:25 but the others were right on our heels and we finally departed at 7:35 or somehting like that.
it was a 3 hour drive to get to Berlin and as we pulled up to the field there was a field hockey game going on, and they were playing on a turf field. I thought, damn, i hope the baseball field is this nice...i wasnt even in the same ballpark (pun intended). the infield looked pretty nice from a distance and freshly groomed but upon closer inspection and walking on it, it was a lot of sand and little dirt, not a good combination for true hops on ground balls. the outfield was just as treacherous with sprouts of crab grass everywhere and an uneven surface. the left field fence was back farther then ours, im not sure how far since there was no sign, and centerfield was about 450 feet away and actually a backstop for the softball field. rightfield was in a bit closer than our field, probably 285 or so. i had the approach to take the ball hard the other way and hope i could get one up in the air and over the fence.
in my 2nd at bat of the afternoon, i stepped to the plate already 1-1. the bases were loaded and we had a comfortable lead. their pitcher wasnt throwing anything we couldnt handle. the first pitch of the AB sailed in belt high and right down broadway. i put a good swing on it and sent a pissrod to center. off the bat i figured it was right at the guy but as i ran to first and notice him with his back to the plate and no sign of turning to catch it, i got on my horse. rounding 1st i looked up to see Jan not quite at 2nd, and i was gaining on him. i had no intention of slowing and picking up Timo as the 3rd base coach, he was waving us on. 1 run will score, 2 runs will score, jan was half way home when i rounded third at top speed looking at the catcher and seeing him back off the plate and let me easily score. Stand-up-inside-the-park-grand-slam. not something you see everyday and the first grandslam of my career. as i touched home i looked at the guys and my first thought was that i was no longer "the gay from spain." I'm pretty sure i've explained this earlier but i'll give a quick recap. every american that comes over is called the gay from spain until he hits his 1st homerun. why this is, I dont know, but when in rome. before i even got back to the dugout, Thies was already telling me that they would talk about it after the game and decide since it was an in the parker and not over the fence. i was too busy catching my breath to protest. we won the game in 5 innings 16-3. Thies picked up the win. I think i was 3-4 in this game but i cant really remember. the stats should be posted by wednesday.
the second game was a bit more of a battle. Laser was on the bump for us and they threw some damn lefty with a lot of movement on his fast ball. Actually i struck out in my first AB against the guy and vowed to not let that happen ever again. the incredible offensive display we put on in the first game was held at bay and they were able to scratch across runs on our fielding errors and walks. it wasnt until later in the game that we actually mounted an attack and Jan came in to pitch for us. I shouldnt have let Laser go as long as i did, and looking back on it, I need to do something in the 2nd game so i can go to the bullpen and actually get warmed up before coming into the game. there would ahve been no way that i could have come in from right field yesterday and been effective. I think i'm going to need to DH and put someone else in the outfield or something. we did get our bats back on track in the latter part of the game and pulled out the sweep of the Berlin Sluggers. their coach, a man from Pennsylvania who had come to germany like i had, was going into his 23 year of coaching. after the game, Thies and Toby came up to me and said that because my home run was not over the fence, it didnt really count...but because it was an astonding in the park grandslam, i would now be known as the guy from spain. a step up.
after showering and enjoying a beer from the concession stand, we headed for the hotel. we checked in, changed clothes, and with map in hand, headed for the subway. we took the purple line to a big train station where we hoped onto the S5 and floated down the rail to a nice little open courtyard. there were tables and chairs set out on the patios of restaurants, filled with people enjoying beer and food. there were street musicians playing and people swaying to their music. we choose a chinese joint for food, since we were all starving, and ordered the first beer of the night. we sat just inside the door, close to the magazine rack and scanning over their selection it became apparent that we were a bit too heavy in the loafers for this establishment if you know what i'm saying. as more and more guys came walking in with low cut women's shirts and perusing the magazines, we all looked at each other, knowing the consensus of the table, and ate with much more intent. after finishing our food in record time, we split the bill and were on our way. we didnt go far before we came across an irish pub that looked promising. it was packed with people watching the Real Madrid vs Barcelona soccer game. we walked through looking for a place to sit before persuading the waitress to let us put a couple tables together outside and pull together 12 unoccupied chairs from other tables. we were right next to a table of 4 guys that got up and left without paying...this did not make our waitress too happy. but i think we brightened her day by ordering 250 euros worth of food and drinks. and speaking of brightening a day, there were girls at KilKenny's who worked at a new massage parlor in the area and they were giving out massages to the customers. one girl came to our table as soon as we got there and asked if we wanted a massage and everyone looked at me and started chanting my name. I told her that she should come back after i've had a few beers. and much to my surprise she did come back about an hour later. and i told the guys that if they paid...it cost "as much as i thought it should be worth"...i would gladly take a massage- i told her to focus on my right shoulder since i was a pitcher...i dont think that did anything for her though...haha. so after a good 10 minute massage, the table had brought together a fist full of money and i was feeling relaxed and the tension i was feeling in my shoulders from all the stress at work had disappeared...as if i had any stresses at work. the guys all thought it was hilarious that i got a massage but little did they know that it actually was a pretty good massage. i've had massages before that were just awful because the person didnt use enough elbow grease. but this girl, whatever her name was, was pretty damn good. so we all decided that we would grab beers on the way back to the hotel and watch "pay tv" for the rest of the evening. while we were waiting for the subway train, we were all standing in a circle and Brockman jumped into the middle and danced a little jig. then somehow i got pushed into the middle and quickly retreated before Igl started doing the running man on the ground right there in the middle of the subway. he left a big circle on the ground from scuffing his shoes and his pants and shirt were grimey as hell when he stood up, but it was worth the laughs. I laughed the entire 20 minute ride back to the hotel.
when we got into the lobby of the hotel we asked Wolfgang, the night manager if we could have a some beer at the bar. he said it was past closing time for the bar but if we didnt tell anyone he would let us have a beer. this incited a cheer from everyone. he also brought out a few jars of peanuts for us to munch on. as we sat their enjoying our beer, someone decided that we should all take off our pants and sit there in our boxers...wolfgang would never know because of the high bar! seeming like a great idea and something to laugh about later, we all loosened belts and slid our jeans to our knees. it was not until i looked over my left shoulder, did i notice the mirror directly behind us...haha oops. and we all laughed when a guy walked into the hotel and behind all of us with a perfect view of all of our asses. If Wolfgang had noticed, he didnt care, and was a sport about the whole thing. we all pulled up our pants and paid the man before departing for our rooms.
sunday morning was a rough one for us all i think. and when we got to the field at 11:00, i experienced something i've never seen before. I've played on all kinds of fields with weird dimensions and fieldgoal posts and light poles in play, i've seen all dirt infields and mounds that were made out of wood and the pitcher had to wear turfs. I've played on fields with flat mounds...but then i guess you really cant call that a mound then can you...and fields without bullpens. I've played on fields without dugouts and fields without fences. I thought i'd seen it all until i came to the home of the Berlin Wizards. it wasnt just the shape of the field, an old soccer field converted for baseball, it wasnt that the right field fence was about 180 feet away and the left field fence 350, it wasnt even the ivy growing up the fences, it was that that ivy was the only thing green on that field! there was no grass to be seen, not the infield, not the outfield, only the ivy on the fence and what can be called the warning track along the rightfield wall. this alone would not have been such a shock, but when i heard the ground rules of this field, thats when the game changed a bit. the entire fence, from 350' away in left all the way around to the right field foul line ( i say line because there was no right field foul pole) was 30 feet high. if someone hits a ball over the fence in fair territory it is a home run...execpt at wizard field...here it is a double if its to the right of the light pole in center. and if the ball gets lost in the greenery at the right field fence, its a dead ball...right?...wrong, it is a live ball until it is either found, or after the runners have all scored, the unpire will go out and look to see if he can find the ball, at that point he has sole descretion as to whether it is infact a homerun or if the ball should have been blown dead and at which point and which bases the runners should go back to.
I wish i had time to tell you about how awful the field umpire was in this first game but i am running out of time. lets just say that he looked to the home umpire before he made any call. and it took him at least 10-15 seconds to make a call period. which killed us when we had runners on 1st and 2nd and there was a low liner to the 2nd baseman. the ball definately hit the ground first but it was close enough that it could have gone either way, but since the umpire didnt make a call right away, our runners took off so not to get doubled up, but 10 seconds later when the guy finally said that he caught the ball, our runners were already at the next base and had no chance of getting back to the previous bag. i thought Timo was going to get tossed because he was throwing all kinds of nasty language in the unpire's direction. ok so i did have time to tell you about the umpire but that was only one call that he messed up, I saw his phone and he had at least 4 missed calls. But we won both games for a sweep of Berlin.
ok off to the Marathon that is practice on Mondays. 3pm-9pm
A-Ron
it was a 3 hour drive to get to Berlin and as we pulled up to the field there was a field hockey game going on, and they were playing on a turf field. I thought, damn, i hope the baseball field is this nice...i wasnt even in the same ballpark (pun intended). the infield looked pretty nice from a distance and freshly groomed but upon closer inspection and walking on it, it was a lot of sand and little dirt, not a good combination for true hops on ground balls. the outfield was just as treacherous with sprouts of crab grass everywhere and an uneven surface. the left field fence was back farther then ours, im not sure how far since there was no sign, and centerfield was about 450 feet away and actually a backstop for the softball field. rightfield was in a bit closer than our field, probably 285 or so. i had the approach to take the ball hard the other way and hope i could get one up in the air and over the fence.
in my 2nd at bat of the afternoon, i stepped to the plate already 1-1. the bases were loaded and we had a comfortable lead. their pitcher wasnt throwing anything we couldnt handle. the first pitch of the AB sailed in belt high and right down broadway. i put a good swing on it and sent a pissrod to center. off the bat i figured it was right at the guy but as i ran to first and notice him with his back to the plate and no sign of turning to catch it, i got on my horse. rounding 1st i looked up to see Jan not quite at 2nd, and i was gaining on him. i had no intention of slowing and picking up Timo as the 3rd base coach, he was waving us on. 1 run will score, 2 runs will score, jan was half way home when i rounded third at top speed looking at the catcher and seeing him back off the plate and let me easily score. Stand-up-inside-the-park-grand-slam. not something you see everyday and the first grandslam of my career. as i touched home i looked at the guys and my first thought was that i was no longer "the gay from spain." I'm pretty sure i've explained this earlier but i'll give a quick recap. every american that comes over is called the gay from spain until he hits his 1st homerun. why this is, I dont know, but when in rome. before i even got back to the dugout, Thies was already telling me that they would talk about it after the game and decide since it was an in the parker and not over the fence. i was too busy catching my breath to protest. we won the game in 5 innings 16-3. Thies picked up the win. I think i was 3-4 in this game but i cant really remember. the stats should be posted by wednesday.
the second game was a bit more of a battle. Laser was on the bump for us and they threw some damn lefty with a lot of movement on his fast ball. Actually i struck out in my first AB against the guy and vowed to not let that happen ever again. the incredible offensive display we put on in the first game was held at bay and they were able to scratch across runs on our fielding errors and walks. it wasnt until later in the game that we actually mounted an attack and Jan came in to pitch for us. I shouldnt have let Laser go as long as i did, and looking back on it, I need to do something in the 2nd game so i can go to the bullpen and actually get warmed up before coming into the game. there would ahve been no way that i could have come in from right field yesterday and been effective. I think i'm going to need to DH and put someone else in the outfield or something. we did get our bats back on track in the latter part of the game and pulled out the sweep of the Berlin Sluggers. their coach, a man from Pennsylvania who had come to germany like i had, was going into his 23 year of coaching. after the game, Thies and Toby came up to me and said that because my home run was not over the fence, it didnt really count...but because it was an astonding in the park grandslam, i would now be known as the guy from spain. a step up.
after showering and enjoying a beer from the concession stand, we headed for the hotel. we checked in, changed clothes, and with map in hand, headed for the subway. we took the purple line to a big train station where we hoped onto the S5 and floated down the rail to a nice little open courtyard. there were tables and chairs set out on the patios of restaurants, filled with people enjoying beer and food. there were street musicians playing and people swaying to their music. we choose a chinese joint for food, since we were all starving, and ordered the first beer of the night. we sat just inside the door, close to the magazine rack and scanning over their selection it became apparent that we were a bit too heavy in the loafers for this establishment if you know what i'm saying. as more and more guys came walking in with low cut women's shirts and perusing the magazines, we all looked at each other, knowing the consensus of the table, and ate with much more intent. after finishing our food in record time, we split the bill and were on our way. we didnt go far before we came across an irish pub that looked promising. it was packed with people watching the Real Madrid vs Barcelona soccer game. we walked through looking for a place to sit before persuading the waitress to let us put a couple tables together outside and pull together 12 unoccupied chairs from other tables. we were right next to a table of 4 guys that got up and left without paying...this did not make our waitress too happy. but i think we brightened her day by ordering 250 euros worth of food and drinks. and speaking of brightening a day, there were girls at KilKenny's who worked at a new massage parlor in the area and they were giving out massages to the customers. one girl came to our table as soon as we got there and asked if we wanted a massage and everyone looked at me and started chanting my name. I told her that she should come back after i've had a few beers. and much to my surprise she did come back about an hour later. and i told the guys that if they paid...it cost "as much as i thought it should be worth"...i would gladly take a massage- i told her to focus on my right shoulder since i was a pitcher...i dont think that did anything for her though...haha. so after a good 10 minute massage, the table had brought together a fist full of money and i was feeling relaxed and the tension i was feeling in my shoulders from all the stress at work had disappeared...as if i had any stresses at work. the guys all thought it was hilarious that i got a massage but little did they know that it actually was a pretty good massage. i've had massages before that were just awful because the person didnt use enough elbow grease. but this girl, whatever her name was, was pretty damn good. so we all decided that we would grab beers on the way back to the hotel and watch "pay tv" for the rest of the evening. while we were waiting for the subway train, we were all standing in a circle and Brockman jumped into the middle and danced a little jig. then somehow i got pushed into the middle and quickly retreated before Igl started doing the running man on the ground right there in the middle of the subway. he left a big circle on the ground from scuffing his shoes and his pants and shirt were grimey as hell when he stood up, but it was worth the laughs. I laughed the entire 20 minute ride back to the hotel.
when we got into the lobby of the hotel we asked Wolfgang, the night manager if we could have a some beer at the bar. he said it was past closing time for the bar but if we didnt tell anyone he would let us have a beer. this incited a cheer from everyone. he also brought out a few jars of peanuts for us to munch on. as we sat their enjoying our beer, someone decided that we should all take off our pants and sit there in our boxers...wolfgang would never know because of the high bar! seeming like a great idea and something to laugh about later, we all loosened belts and slid our jeans to our knees. it was not until i looked over my left shoulder, did i notice the mirror directly behind us...haha oops. and we all laughed when a guy walked into the hotel and behind all of us with a perfect view of all of our asses. If Wolfgang had noticed, he didnt care, and was a sport about the whole thing. we all pulled up our pants and paid the man before departing for our rooms.
sunday morning was a rough one for us all i think. and when we got to the field at 11:00, i experienced something i've never seen before. I've played on all kinds of fields with weird dimensions and fieldgoal posts and light poles in play, i've seen all dirt infields and mounds that were made out of wood and the pitcher had to wear turfs. I've played on fields with flat mounds...but then i guess you really cant call that a mound then can you...and fields without bullpens. I've played on fields without dugouts and fields without fences. I thought i'd seen it all until i came to the home of the Berlin Wizards. it wasnt just the shape of the field, an old soccer field converted for baseball, it wasnt that the right field fence was about 180 feet away and the left field fence 350, it wasnt even the ivy growing up the fences, it was that that ivy was the only thing green on that field! there was no grass to be seen, not the infield, not the outfield, only the ivy on the fence and what can be called the warning track along the rightfield wall. this alone would not have been such a shock, but when i heard the ground rules of this field, thats when the game changed a bit. the entire fence, from 350' away in left all the way around to the right field foul line ( i say line because there was no right field foul pole) was 30 feet high. if someone hits a ball over the fence in fair territory it is a home run...execpt at wizard field...here it is a double if its to the right of the light pole in center. and if the ball gets lost in the greenery at the right field fence, its a dead ball...right?...wrong, it is a live ball until it is either found, or after the runners have all scored, the unpire will go out and look to see if he can find the ball, at that point he has sole descretion as to whether it is infact a homerun or if the ball should have been blown dead and at which point and which bases the runners should go back to.
I wish i had time to tell you about how awful the field umpire was in this first game but i am running out of time. lets just say that he looked to the home umpire before he made any call. and it took him at least 10-15 seconds to make a call period. which killed us when we had runners on 1st and 2nd and there was a low liner to the 2nd baseman. the ball definately hit the ground first but it was close enough that it could have gone either way, but since the umpire didnt make a call right away, our runners took off so not to get doubled up, but 10 seconds later when the guy finally said that he caught the ball, our runners were already at the next base and had no chance of getting back to the previous bag. i thought Timo was going to get tossed because he was throwing all kinds of nasty language in the unpire's direction. ok so i did have time to tell you about the umpire but that was only one call that he messed up, I saw his phone and he had at least 4 missed calls. But we won both games for a sweep of Berlin.
ok off to the Marathon that is practice on Mondays. 3pm-9pm
A-Ron
Friday, May 1, 2009
a dream realized
well shit, i wrote a great post and when i went to publish it, the internet wasnt connected and it wasnt saved and now its gone, and so is the motivation to rewrite everything, so here is the quick recap:
last night we went to Kampan, it was fun and i came home when the sun was coming up
today was a holiday, no work
tomorrow we go to Berlin to play the Sluggers and we are going to stay there saturday night and go out on the town. the 2nd man's team plays on sunday in Berlin too. Will be a good time for sure. i will come back with good stories im sure
later in the summer, we are going to Thies's lake house in Sweden. Fishing, drinking, and Fun are the only things on the docket for the 5 day trip...clothing is optional, from pictures that i saw from last years trip, the birthday suit was the uniform of choice. I cant wait to catch some Pike.
Earlier, as i was eating ice cream, basking in the sun, and enjoying this great 75 degree german weather, i got to thinking about what i would be doing if i was in America at this very moment. I can only imagine that i would have gotten a job in chicago and not still living at home painting. so at 11 am on a friday i figured that i would be sitting in an office, wearing a tie, looking at my Blackberry awating group emails and counting down the hours until 5 oclock and the start of the weekend. and while that sounds like fun and all, i am very happy that i was barefoot, wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt (my work suit), looking at my prepaid Nokia, counting down the hours until i get to play the great game of baseball once again.
I truely am living the Dream and i couldnt be happier with everything right now.
with that said, im going to round out the night with a bottle of water (trust me i need it) and a movie.
A-Ron
that pretty much sums up everything i wrote in the original post.
last night we went to Kampan, it was fun and i came home when the sun was coming up
today was a holiday, no work
tomorrow we go to Berlin to play the Sluggers and we are going to stay there saturday night and go out on the town. the 2nd man's team plays on sunday in Berlin too. Will be a good time for sure. i will come back with good stories im sure
later in the summer, we are going to Thies's lake house in Sweden. Fishing, drinking, and Fun are the only things on the docket for the 5 day trip...clothing is optional, from pictures that i saw from last years trip, the birthday suit was the uniform of choice. I cant wait to catch some Pike.
Earlier, as i was eating ice cream, basking in the sun, and enjoying this great 75 degree german weather, i got to thinking about what i would be doing if i was in America at this very moment. I can only imagine that i would have gotten a job in chicago and not still living at home painting. so at 11 am on a friday i figured that i would be sitting in an office, wearing a tie, looking at my Blackberry awating group emails and counting down the hours until 5 oclock and the start of the weekend. and while that sounds like fun and all, i am very happy that i was barefoot, wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt (my work suit), looking at my prepaid Nokia, counting down the hours until i get to play the great game of baseball once again.
I truely am living the Dream and i couldnt be happier with everything right now.
with that said, im going to round out the night with a bottle of water (trust me i need it) and a movie.
A-Ron
that pretty much sums up everything i wrote in the original post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)