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
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