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