so it all came down to this, our last games of the season, games that HAD to be won, games against a team that had swept us at our place earlier in the year. it couldnt have been written any better.
With 2 wins over Hamburg and 1 Berlin Sluggers loss against Paderborn at any point in their 4 game set, the Wild Farmers would be movin' on up to the big leagues. but before we could worry about Berlin and Paderborn, we first had to take care of our own business. Henrik had told us earlier in the week that he was planning on coming and throwing a game for us over the weekend so that took a big pressure off our pitching staff which had been recently depleted due to injury and arm-overuse. Since Thies was our horse all year, winning 7 or our total of 14, we had no choice but to ride him one last time in the first game...its tough to sweep if you dont win the 1st one.
When we showed up at the field for batting practice, there was already a feeling throughout the team that this was going to be a good day. we'd had great practices in the week and we were prepared to kick some ass. and by the looks of thier hitters in BP, they didnt have the same confidence. there was no talking, no cheering for good hits, no friendly banter amongst teammates; they were on their heels already and we could smell it.
we had beers and Korn chilling the fridge in the dugout, thats how positive we were that we were going to win. we had bought champaign before the game and had it on ice, thats how confident we were. and it showed when we took infield, we were clean, crisp, and most of all, we were loud; cheering for good throws from the outfield, rooting on infielders as they made easy plays on balls hit softly to them as though they were game saving dives in the holes. We had come to play.
Thies threw a 2 hitter in the first game, allowing 2 unearned runs to touch home with a handfull of Ks. We had brought our bats with us, on the other hand, and we were ahead from the start and never looked back. it was a great start to the day, and if they weren't scared before, they definitely were now. they had been swept by the Sluggers the weekend before and were starring another one in the face this time around.
everyone knew what was at stake and despite it being the last game of the season, no one complained that i put the same lineup back out there for the 2nd game...never change a winning team...and this lineup was poised for one last big win. Henrik was on the bump in the night cap and began just as he had left off last weekend against Braunschwieg. he was pumping strikes and getting ground balls, we had a bit more trouble fielding them than i would have liked but the 4 double plays we turned helped get us out of jams. the momentum began to shift in the 3rd when they put up 3 runs, but as i said before, there was a different aura about this team than there had been in the middle of the season. before, we might have lost fight, might have packed it in, but not now, not in the most important game of our season. we responded in the top of the 4th with 5 runs of our own, and the threat had been squashed like the proverbial bug.
We were in the driver's seat and it stayed this way until the bottom of the 7th. Runners had reached base on a walk and an error with a steal in between. that gave them runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 down and down by 4. I had been patrolling right field all day. I had badly misjudged a ball over my head in the first game...thanks a little to the sun...only to turn and make a good relay throw to get the guy at the plate. early in the 2nd game i had fired a ball to third trying to get the tagging runner from 2nd but it was just a bit off line and he was safe by just a bit. So with 1 down in the bottom of the 7th and runners on 1st and 3rd, i wasnt expecting the runner, the same one i'd almost hosed at 3rd, to try to test me again. there was no way that he would even think about it, his run means nothing in the grand scheme of things and they'd still have a scoring opportunity with 2 down if i caught it and he didnt go. But as the ball was settling into my mit (for the 2nd out of the inning) i glanced at 3rd and saw him pumping for home...I couldnt believe it, and to be honest i was a bit offended, i know i've lost a bit on the ol wing since i last played in the outfield in highschool, but i still had plenty left in the tank and the best arm i'd seen in the German 2nd league. what an idiot! I came up firing a laser beam that flew just over Johst's head and was a perfect one hopper to Tony at home...its the kind of play you dream of making, the perfect scenario, the perfect read on the ball, the perfect line for the throw, the deafening noise of the 200 fans in attendence, the collective hold of the breath as the dust settles awaiting the call that could end the game or prolong it for one more out...and it was the perfect ending to an unforgetable season.
even though we got 2nd in the league, that pile at the end, the rush toward the middle of the field was one of champions. the pyramid had never been more fun...or more stable for that matter, and maybe thats because we were first leaguers now. and the champaign dousing that ensued was well deserved, we had run the gauntlet of 5 games in 7 days, we had won 8 of our last 10 (9 actually, but we had to forfeit one on account of a bonehead coaching move) and we deserved to celebrate...though some on the Stealers side of the fence seemed to think we were being "classless idiots." but we werent going to let them rain on our parade.
after a few beers on the field, we showered and loaded up the cars headed back to Dohren. That might have been the most fun car ride ever. we drank beers and sang songs like "Finger in the butt, Mexico"...or at least thats how they tell me it translates. By the time we had reached Dohren, the whole town had heard that we were going to the first league, a lot of that had to do with us putting our heads out the windows and screaming it from the mountain tops. that night was something called Kultnacht, or Cult Night, here in Dohren, but we used it as a platform to tell those who didnt know already and bask even more in the glory of our conquest.
the 2nd man's games on Sunday didnt go quite as well, actually they didnt go well at all. we lost the 1st game on a walk off 3-run jack in the bottom of the 7th...thats not exactly how i saw my last pitch of the day going, but thats how it ended. and the 2nd game was just a train wreck. But that is not how i will remember this weekend. I will always remember that throw, and that pile, and the joy on all the faces because i had been a part of the Farmer's team that was the first to make it to the 1st Bundesliga.
DOHREN IST DABEI!!!
A-Ron
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Reese and Weekend Sweep
After a brief trip home to Walkerton, Reese packed his bags and headed back for Korea, but not before a little detour to Dohren City to see the Wild Farmers. His plane landed at 10 am in Frankfurt and then he hopped on a train bound for Hamburg. I met him at the trainstation and we headed back to Dohren. There was one ultimatum laid down by guys on the team and it was that he would not be allowed to step foot on Dohren soil if he did not have dip with him. He did not disappoint. Since Reese was new to Germany and Dohren, I took him on the Dohren Tour around the city. That included stops at the baseball field and the DC bat factory where we saw johst turn a bat on the lathe. Later that evening we headed to dieckhof for an introduction to German beers and a Currywurst and Pommes, a dish that has become a staple for me everytime i go there. Actually i get it some much the waiter asked me if i wanted one before we ordered our first beer. Tony met us there later, after he was done with softball practice, and we shot the shit until around 12 when we headed back toward Dohren. We debated going home to bed or going to Krila's to have some more beers and watch baseball. Reese said that we should keep drinking since we were going to a Concentration Camp the next day and it wouldnt be appropriate to be chipper but rather we needed to look tired and irratible. So we went to Krila's to watch baseball since he's got ESPN America.
Wednesday Krila picked us up around 1 and we went to Bergen-Belsen, A POW camp that was later turned into a concentration camp by the Nazi regime. Now I had to learn about these camps when I was in school, and then they seemed so far away, so other-worldly. It was like something out of a fiction book and i couldnt believe that people would actually do something like that. And now that i have been there, seen the reminants of the buildings, walked on the same Earth that was once covered with the stench of death and dying and disease, it takes on a whole new realness. Though all of the buildings have been torn down since the camps closure in 1945, there are a few foundations of some of the bunk houses still remaining and 6-7 mass graves mounded up on the west side of the compound. This was the thing that was the most shocking to me, between the POW camp and later the concentration camp, somehting in the neighborhood of 52,000 people died at the camp or as a result of the injuries and disease of the camp. There was a video shot in 1945 when the British came and liberated the remaining prisoners and it shows hundreds of bodies being pushed around by a bulldoser in an effort to clean up the site. Anne Frank died in this camp just a few months before it was liberated.
Wednesday night we went to practice where Reese joined us and took some grounders and hit a little bit. I tried to talk him into dropping and driving for the fence but he assured me that that was not his game and proceeded to lace liners right over the 2nd baseman. We had some pizza and beers after practice, which is the norm for wednesdays.
Thursday we had to go to the school in Tostedt so Reese came along and we taught some younsters how to throw and catch...which is proving to be easier said than done, most of them arent grasping the concept and the teacher doesnt speak English very well so its been tough to get our point across to the kids. after our lesson at the Dieckhof School, we had to run over the Tostedt Real for an afterschool program. there are kids from all over the area that come and choose what sport they want to do. there is basketball (the coach for this one is a chick...if you can call her that...that is at least 6' 5" and 250 lbs) soccer, ping pong, karate, and baseball...we had one kid, but they sent us home anyway. we got beat by table tennis and karate...it was a sad day, but at the same time, we were all pretty tired and not in the mood to teach 1 kid baseball for 2 hours. so we got something to eat in Tostedt and came home and took a nap.
Hasi made us reservation at the Beck's Brewery in Bremen for friday at 2 pm so we got to the train station in Tostedt at 12 to buy our ticket for the 12:10 train. it took at least 15 minutes for us to figure out how to get the right ticket and come to find out, there was no 12:10 train, the soonest one was 12:47. that put us in Bremen at 1:30 and we still didnt know how far it was to the brewery or exactly where it was. so when we got to the trainstation, we headed to an info desk and asked the best way to get there. at first they all looked at me like i was speaking a foreign language...wait...i guess i was, but they conversed for a few seconds and told us to get on the 1 tram toward Huchting. when we walked outside and found out where the tram was it was coming down the tracks. we jumped on and rode it with no idea what stop to get off, just that we were headed in the right direction. We figured the brewery would pop out and we would just know...we were right. we got off the tram and got the brewery with 10 minutes to spare.
the tour itself was like most others ive been on, no big differences between styles or ingredients, but thats not why i go, its the beer tasting after the tour thats the main attraction. at the tasting here, they give you 2 of their 3 brews and you are to distinguish between them. Tony and Reese agreed that the first one was Beck's and the 2nd was Hakke-Beck's. I thought it was the other way. Our guide said that the people that got it right would be given another beer...he gave Tony and Reese another one anyway! actually everyone gets 4 beers and then a beer for the road. we were pretty hungry so we decided to get back to the train station and see when our train left before trying to find some food. its a good thing we did because we just had enough time to get Burger King at the station before getting on the train. we got back with just long enough to get home and change before leaving for practice.
Saturday we had to make up our one game against Bremen at their place that got rained out last time. which was a good thing because we were losing bad that game. but we came in with a different intensity this time around. i could tell from batting practice that we knew we were going to win, there was a refreshed attitude among the team, the one that was there in the beginning of the season. the score was tied at 0-0 after the first inning but that would change in the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th. Laser had a no hitter going through 4 innings and we were lighting up their pitcher. Laser's arm was bothering him, so i took him out and put myself on the mound. I dont know what it is but they hit me well for some reason. the first batter i faced got a hit and the post game show was cancelled for both teams. we won this game easily 8-2.
Sunday was a double header against the worst team in the league, Braunschweig. But depiste their record, we have never played 3 games in a weekend and were a bit worried about our pitching situation. Henrik helped us out big time by coming and giving us 4 solid innings. Tony came in in relief and held them to just 1 run. I hit a 3-run HR in the 1st, my 7th HR since being in Germany, and added an RBI single later in the game. we won this game by the mercy rule 11-1 in the 6th.
Thies started the 2nd game and threw a complete game, 7 innings 3 runs. again we scored 11 and i had a triple and a double in this game. that gave me a 1b, 2b, 3b, and HR on the day...the cycle. despite it coming in a double header, its the first time i've gotten all 4 in one day so i'm counting it. So despite all the worry and stress over finding out how we were going to find pitching for 3 games in a weekend, it ended up as best it could have. With those 3 wins, we are now in 2nd place in the league and have a possible chance at getting 1st if the 4 game series between Berlin and Paderborn plays out right.
After the game we had a BBQ to get rid of the leftovers from the Farmers Cup. there was all kinds of meats and beer, and salads, it was a feast. Henrik came back after tending to the farm and brought Charlie along. now this is the most skiddish dog i've ever met so you imagine my surprise when i called his name and he came right over to me and let me pet him. this was icing on the cake for the day. I was beginning to think it would never happen, but i can cross this one off my to-do list! Granted, he never came over and let me pet him again that day, but it did happen once and i'll take it.
A-Ron
in other world news: Congrats to Christie and Harris on their wedding. wish i could have been there guys.
AND Matt Walker has resigned from both the head baseball and football positions at DePauw University for personal reasons.
Wednesday Krila picked us up around 1 and we went to Bergen-Belsen, A POW camp that was later turned into a concentration camp by the Nazi regime. Now I had to learn about these camps when I was in school, and then they seemed so far away, so other-worldly. It was like something out of a fiction book and i couldnt believe that people would actually do something like that. And now that i have been there, seen the reminants of the buildings, walked on the same Earth that was once covered with the stench of death and dying and disease, it takes on a whole new realness. Though all of the buildings have been torn down since the camps closure in 1945, there are a few foundations of some of the bunk houses still remaining and 6-7 mass graves mounded up on the west side of the compound. This was the thing that was the most shocking to me, between the POW camp and later the concentration camp, somehting in the neighborhood of 52,000 people died at the camp or as a result of the injuries and disease of the camp. There was a video shot in 1945 when the British came and liberated the remaining prisoners and it shows hundreds of bodies being pushed around by a bulldoser in an effort to clean up the site. Anne Frank died in this camp just a few months before it was liberated.
Wednesday night we went to practice where Reese joined us and took some grounders and hit a little bit. I tried to talk him into dropping and driving for the fence but he assured me that that was not his game and proceeded to lace liners right over the 2nd baseman. We had some pizza and beers after practice, which is the norm for wednesdays.
Thursday we had to go to the school in Tostedt so Reese came along and we taught some younsters how to throw and catch...which is proving to be easier said than done, most of them arent grasping the concept and the teacher doesnt speak English very well so its been tough to get our point across to the kids. after our lesson at the Dieckhof School, we had to run over the Tostedt Real for an afterschool program. there are kids from all over the area that come and choose what sport they want to do. there is basketball (the coach for this one is a chick...if you can call her that...that is at least 6' 5" and 250 lbs) soccer, ping pong, karate, and baseball...we had one kid, but they sent us home anyway. we got beat by table tennis and karate...it was a sad day, but at the same time, we were all pretty tired and not in the mood to teach 1 kid baseball for 2 hours. so we got something to eat in Tostedt and came home and took a nap.
Hasi made us reservation at the Beck's Brewery in Bremen for friday at 2 pm so we got to the train station in Tostedt at 12 to buy our ticket for the 12:10 train. it took at least 15 minutes for us to figure out how to get the right ticket and come to find out, there was no 12:10 train, the soonest one was 12:47. that put us in Bremen at 1:30 and we still didnt know how far it was to the brewery or exactly where it was. so when we got to the trainstation, we headed to an info desk and asked the best way to get there. at first they all looked at me like i was speaking a foreign language...wait...i guess i was, but they conversed for a few seconds and told us to get on the 1 tram toward Huchting. when we walked outside and found out where the tram was it was coming down the tracks. we jumped on and rode it with no idea what stop to get off, just that we were headed in the right direction. We figured the brewery would pop out and we would just know...we were right. we got off the tram and got the brewery with 10 minutes to spare.
the tour itself was like most others ive been on, no big differences between styles or ingredients, but thats not why i go, its the beer tasting after the tour thats the main attraction. at the tasting here, they give you 2 of their 3 brews and you are to distinguish between them. Tony and Reese agreed that the first one was Beck's and the 2nd was Hakke-Beck's. I thought it was the other way. Our guide said that the people that got it right would be given another beer...he gave Tony and Reese another one anyway! actually everyone gets 4 beers and then a beer for the road. we were pretty hungry so we decided to get back to the train station and see when our train left before trying to find some food. its a good thing we did because we just had enough time to get Burger King at the station before getting on the train. we got back with just long enough to get home and change before leaving for practice.
Saturday we had to make up our one game against Bremen at their place that got rained out last time. which was a good thing because we were losing bad that game. but we came in with a different intensity this time around. i could tell from batting practice that we knew we were going to win, there was a refreshed attitude among the team, the one that was there in the beginning of the season. the score was tied at 0-0 after the first inning but that would change in the 2nd and the 3rd and the 4th. Laser had a no hitter going through 4 innings and we were lighting up their pitcher. Laser's arm was bothering him, so i took him out and put myself on the mound. I dont know what it is but they hit me well for some reason. the first batter i faced got a hit and the post game show was cancelled for both teams. we won this game easily 8-2.
Sunday was a double header against the worst team in the league, Braunschweig. But depiste their record, we have never played 3 games in a weekend and were a bit worried about our pitching situation. Henrik helped us out big time by coming and giving us 4 solid innings. Tony came in in relief and held them to just 1 run. I hit a 3-run HR in the 1st, my 7th HR since being in Germany, and added an RBI single later in the game. we won this game by the mercy rule 11-1 in the 6th.
Thies started the 2nd game and threw a complete game, 7 innings 3 runs. again we scored 11 and i had a triple and a double in this game. that gave me a 1b, 2b, 3b, and HR on the day...the cycle. despite it coming in a double header, its the first time i've gotten all 4 in one day so i'm counting it. So despite all the worry and stress over finding out how we were going to find pitching for 3 games in a weekend, it ended up as best it could have. With those 3 wins, we are now in 2nd place in the league and have a possible chance at getting 1st if the 4 game series between Berlin and Paderborn plays out right.
After the game we had a BBQ to get rid of the leftovers from the Farmers Cup. there was all kinds of meats and beer, and salads, it was a feast. Henrik came back after tending to the farm and brought Charlie along. now this is the most skiddish dog i've ever met so you imagine my surprise when i called his name and he came right over to me and let me pet him. this was icing on the cake for the day. I was beginning to think it would never happen, but i can cross this one off my to-do list! Granted, he never came over and let me pet him again that day, but it did happen once and i'll take it.
A-Ron
in other world news: Congrats to Christie and Harris on their wedding. wish i could have been there guys.
AND Matt Walker has resigned from both the head baseball and football positions at DePauw University for personal reasons.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Boys from Bakersfield
2 cars pulled out of the Hassenpflug dirveway thursday evening, packed to the gills with fishing gear, bags, and 8 guys ready to have the adventure of a lifetime. Sweden is an 8 hour trip from the friendly confines of Dohren City, so leaving at 8 pm would put us there just as the fishing would start getting good. (the sun rises at 4 am there...and it doesnt really get dark until 11)
the excitement grew as we passed by Hamburg and no traffic jam, (quite a rarity since the Autobahn is torn to hell on the A1) we made great time to Kiel, and were crossing into Denmark in no time. The first ferry was a 40 minute trip across the Baltic Sea. it was crammed with cars, we were actually the last cars to get on. so we headed up to the ol poop deck and watched as ships passed in the night. since we had been in the car for about 4 hours, we were a little slap happy and began doing Titanic scenes, like "i'm the king of the world" and spitting over the side of the boat. we got some weird looks from the other passengers. this is also where we bought 12 cases of "Probably the best beer in the World" (Carlsburg) to go along with 2.5 cases of Astra we stuffed into our bags and the 7 bottles of liquir...so really the cars werent too packed to the gills when we left, but they definitely rode a little lower after coming off the ferry.
Denmark isnt a very fun place to drive through, it reminds me a lot of Indiana actually; flat farm lands for miles in every direction. but after 2 hours of driving, we made it to the next ferry, the one to take us to the promise land, just in time to see the gate go down and it sail away. so we had to wait for it to go over and come back...this was just enough time to start a dance party outside the cars. Thies also showed us how Rigs, his uncle's dog, pulled his hamstring once. this is truely indescribable, but i think you can picture it in your head...not the dog pulling a hamstring, but a guy on all fours reinacting it outside the 1st car in a line of 15 waiting to get on the ferry at midnight. this ferry had a much better viewing deck, which afforded us another golden opportunity to do the "king of the world" scene from titanic.
Once in Sweden, we had another couple of hours until we got to the lake house. and this part of the drive was marked by random spot lights lighting up trees in the forest, a giant elk statue, and stories of sexual conquests told just to keep Thies awake as he drove. we pulled into the house right at 4 am, exactly 8 hours from when we started, a new record. while most guys unpacked and headed to bed, Tony, Hubi, and I stayed awake and headed out to the boat with our fishing gear. it was quite chilly and it started raining after a while so we headed in empty handed around 6.
Flankey Ball is a game that I had come to despise, I hadnt won...hell i hadnt even knocked over a can in the entire 6 games that i'd played. but this is the tradition in Sweden, so when in Rome, right? so the stage was set, 4 teams battling for the right not to have to do dishes that night. (spaghetti was on the menu) Team USA consisting of...well i think you can figure that one out, took home the trophy and my thoughts about the game have changed a bit...its actually a simple game if you knock over the cans. Lowe (pronounced Loova) and Nico were the unfortunate pair that lost both games and had to clean up that night.
After a good meal, we sat around the table and played our first of many rounds of poker. Its a good thing someone brought chips and cards, because it would have made for some boring evenings otherwise. Everyone pretty much played every hand dealt, but i think it had more to do with the fact that they were "erotic cards" and had naked women on them, more so than them actually being good hands.
Saturday, we had decided, would be the day that we would go to Jonkeping and go to a bar instead of drinking at the house. we needed to see these Swedish women for ourselves. Timo, Nico, and Tony went early to see the town, while Thies, Lowe, Jan, Hubi, and I waited around a little bit longer...and by waited around i mean we pregamed. we got to the town around 6-6:30 and it was a ghost town, there was nothing opened and no one was around. but we had a case of beer with us so we found a parking lot (empty of course) and called the other guys to come meet us there. the 4 of us, Lowe had to drive, had almost finished the beer by the time the others got there, but they had a case too, so the party continued. we decided that if we were going to go out to these bars, we needed a back story...all great bar visits start with these kind of conversations. so we come up with the story that we were all high school friends from Bakersfield, CA there together celebrating Tony's bachelor party. so here is the line up:
Tony: plays wide reciever for arena football in Kansas City
Jan: shortstop for Tokyo Giants. leads the league in errors. He was our stoner friend in school.
Thies: Plays hockey for the Anaheim Ducks.
Nico: point guard for the Knicks
Hubi aka Sebastion Walsh: brother to Kerry Walsh and also a pro volleyball player
Me: Bomb dropper for the Mets
Timo: plays alongside Tiger Woods for Team Nike. he was taking meds to rehab a knee so no drinking for him
Toward the end of our 2nd case of beer, Thies decided he wanted to say something, "Hey i have a question. I'm hungry. Let's go to McDonalds."
The rest of the group, "Thies, that was actually 2 statements. you didnt ask a question anywhere in there."
this became a common saying throughout the rest of the trip. as did, "i'm not from California, I'm from Anaheim." again, thank you thies.
so now that we had our story straight, we did finally go to McDonalds, and then off to paint the town red. we walked along the strip until we fould a place that was having some kind of party on the roof with a live band. so we headed in and when we got up the stairs, we saw that everyone there was dressed up very nice in shirts and ties and we came strolling in wearing t-shirts and shorts. they were all dancing and singing though, so we thought why not stay and see where this takes us. We found the bar and ordered a drink. 49 krown for a beer, that equates to 5 euros a beer, which when compared to the dollar is something like 8 bucks. but we got a beer and headed up to the dance floor. it was filled with older women and they took to us like ducks to water. we were dancing and singing along and just loving life. then the band took a break, and just as they left the roof and the door closed behind them, a drunk guy crashed into the mixing board and fell to the ground with it. but he didnt seem to break anything because the band came back out and continued on. The singer called up a girl, we think it was her birthday or something, and then looked around and grabbed Hubi and they danced for about 5 seconds of the song before the girl was bombarded by her friends and hubi came back to our circle.
an older man came up to us, asking what we were there for, and we told him that we were celebrating Tony's bachelor party, and he said that there was a place down the way that was more our age group. he sounded sincere about it, but talking about the conversation later, we thought that we might have been impeding on his game a little bit by dacing with all the women, so thats why he told us to leave. but we walked down to where he told us and found a line halfway around the block to get into the bar, Twin Cities. and we found out that there was a cover charge as well. so i went up to a group of girls and asked them if they knew of any other place we could go to hang out and drink some beers. they told us about a bar on the other side of the big hotel infront of us and that they would come with us. we gave them our bullshit story about being from Bakersfield and playing all of our sports, and they bought it...hook, line, and sinker! well...that is until some of the guys started speaking German and one of the girls asked Tony, "are your friends German?" "Uh no, they spent a few years in Germany though, so they like to take German to each other."
This made the girls leave, and there we were sitting on the corner of the street, wondering what to do next. there was some discussion, but since the drivers wanted to leave, we all had to go home with them.
Sunday was yet another day on the lake, trying to catch those pesky pike. I'm pretty sure they were holding on deeper cover, in the cooler water, but since we didnt have a depth finder or anything like that, it was impossible to find the fish. we were able to catch 4 pike, ranging from 30cm to 59cm, throughout the 5 days. but they were just shore runners alone, searching for some smaller bait fish. Lowe did have 2 fish on that threw the hook and got away, but the 4 we caught were grilled up and devoured.
on Monday, we went swimming at the jumping tower...i say we because we all went, but only Nico, Hubi, Thies, and Lowe got in the water. it was way too cold for me. but they all climbed up the tower, and took a jump. Nico and Hubi went up to the 10 meter platform and did perfect backflips, and didnt even make a splash when they hit the water. it was like they water opened up and just swallowed them, no disturbance whatsoever...or at least thats how we are all going to tell the story.
the rest of the trip is littered with poker, long hours spent at Pike Tongue and Killer Pike Island, beers, and songs with innappropriate lyrics that i wont mention here, though i will never forget them. we also ran out of beer on sunday night, so we had to go buy more for monday evening festivities. Beer is very expensive in Sweden but we found the cheapest, most alcohol percentage we could and got 3 cases. the same amount of money would have bought 14 bottles of korn here in germany, so thats roughly 70 euros for 3 cases of half liters. Harboes is a danish beer, and not one i'd never really like to drink again. it had a bad taste going down, and not a real good after taste either...pretty much it was just bad beer. But beggers cant be choosers so i drank it anyway.
4:30 wednesday morning rolled around pretty quickly and we were packing up and heading home. we cleaned pretty much all day tuesday so we could get up and go wednesday morning so we were on the road by 5 am. we had practice that night at 7 and wanted to get back, unpacked, and rested a little before hitting the field.
Hubi made a 1-hour video of the entire trip, i hope we burns it to a CD so i can have visuals of this entire thing.
It was a tiring trip and now i need a vacation from my vacation.
A-Ron
the excitement grew as we passed by Hamburg and no traffic jam, (quite a rarity since the Autobahn is torn to hell on the A1) we made great time to Kiel, and were crossing into Denmark in no time. The first ferry was a 40 minute trip across the Baltic Sea. it was crammed with cars, we were actually the last cars to get on. so we headed up to the ol poop deck and watched as ships passed in the night. since we had been in the car for about 4 hours, we were a little slap happy and began doing Titanic scenes, like "i'm the king of the world" and spitting over the side of the boat. we got some weird looks from the other passengers. this is also where we bought 12 cases of "Probably the best beer in the World" (Carlsburg) to go along with 2.5 cases of Astra we stuffed into our bags and the 7 bottles of liquir...so really the cars werent too packed to the gills when we left, but they definitely rode a little lower after coming off the ferry.
Denmark isnt a very fun place to drive through, it reminds me a lot of Indiana actually; flat farm lands for miles in every direction. but after 2 hours of driving, we made it to the next ferry, the one to take us to the promise land, just in time to see the gate go down and it sail away. so we had to wait for it to go over and come back...this was just enough time to start a dance party outside the cars. Thies also showed us how Rigs, his uncle's dog, pulled his hamstring once. this is truely indescribable, but i think you can picture it in your head...not the dog pulling a hamstring, but a guy on all fours reinacting it outside the 1st car in a line of 15 waiting to get on the ferry at midnight. this ferry had a much better viewing deck, which afforded us another golden opportunity to do the "king of the world" scene from titanic.
Once in Sweden, we had another couple of hours until we got to the lake house. and this part of the drive was marked by random spot lights lighting up trees in the forest, a giant elk statue, and stories of sexual conquests told just to keep Thies awake as he drove. we pulled into the house right at 4 am, exactly 8 hours from when we started, a new record. while most guys unpacked and headed to bed, Tony, Hubi, and I stayed awake and headed out to the boat with our fishing gear. it was quite chilly and it started raining after a while so we headed in empty handed around 6.
Flankey Ball is a game that I had come to despise, I hadnt won...hell i hadnt even knocked over a can in the entire 6 games that i'd played. but this is the tradition in Sweden, so when in Rome, right? so the stage was set, 4 teams battling for the right not to have to do dishes that night. (spaghetti was on the menu) Team USA consisting of...well i think you can figure that one out, took home the trophy and my thoughts about the game have changed a bit...its actually a simple game if you knock over the cans. Lowe (pronounced Loova) and Nico were the unfortunate pair that lost both games and had to clean up that night.
After a good meal, we sat around the table and played our first of many rounds of poker. Its a good thing someone brought chips and cards, because it would have made for some boring evenings otherwise. Everyone pretty much played every hand dealt, but i think it had more to do with the fact that they were "erotic cards" and had naked women on them, more so than them actually being good hands.
Saturday, we had decided, would be the day that we would go to Jonkeping and go to a bar instead of drinking at the house. we needed to see these Swedish women for ourselves. Timo, Nico, and Tony went early to see the town, while Thies, Lowe, Jan, Hubi, and I waited around a little bit longer...and by waited around i mean we pregamed. we got to the town around 6-6:30 and it was a ghost town, there was nothing opened and no one was around. but we had a case of beer with us so we found a parking lot (empty of course) and called the other guys to come meet us there. the 4 of us, Lowe had to drive, had almost finished the beer by the time the others got there, but they had a case too, so the party continued. we decided that if we were going to go out to these bars, we needed a back story...all great bar visits start with these kind of conversations. so we come up with the story that we were all high school friends from Bakersfield, CA there together celebrating Tony's bachelor party. so here is the line up:
Tony: plays wide reciever for arena football in Kansas City
Jan: shortstop for Tokyo Giants. leads the league in errors. He was our stoner friend in school.
Thies: Plays hockey for the Anaheim Ducks.
Nico: point guard for the Knicks
Hubi aka Sebastion Walsh: brother to Kerry Walsh and also a pro volleyball player
Me: Bomb dropper for the Mets
Timo: plays alongside Tiger Woods for Team Nike. he was taking meds to rehab a knee so no drinking for him
Toward the end of our 2nd case of beer, Thies decided he wanted to say something, "Hey i have a question. I'm hungry. Let's go to McDonalds."
The rest of the group, "Thies, that was actually 2 statements. you didnt ask a question anywhere in there."
this became a common saying throughout the rest of the trip. as did, "i'm not from California, I'm from Anaheim." again, thank you thies.
so now that we had our story straight, we did finally go to McDonalds, and then off to paint the town red. we walked along the strip until we fould a place that was having some kind of party on the roof with a live band. so we headed in and when we got up the stairs, we saw that everyone there was dressed up very nice in shirts and ties and we came strolling in wearing t-shirts and shorts. they were all dancing and singing though, so we thought why not stay and see where this takes us. We found the bar and ordered a drink. 49 krown for a beer, that equates to 5 euros a beer, which when compared to the dollar is something like 8 bucks. but we got a beer and headed up to the dance floor. it was filled with older women and they took to us like ducks to water. we were dancing and singing along and just loving life. then the band took a break, and just as they left the roof and the door closed behind them, a drunk guy crashed into the mixing board and fell to the ground with it. but he didnt seem to break anything because the band came back out and continued on. The singer called up a girl, we think it was her birthday or something, and then looked around and grabbed Hubi and they danced for about 5 seconds of the song before the girl was bombarded by her friends and hubi came back to our circle.
an older man came up to us, asking what we were there for, and we told him that we were celebrating Tony's bachelor party, and he said that there was a place down the way that was more our age group. he sounded sincere about it, but talking about the conversation later, we thought that we might have been impeding on his game a little bit by dacing with all the women, so thats why he told us to leave. but we walked down to where he told us and found a line halfway around the block to get into the bar, Twin Cities. and we found out that there was a cover charge as well. so i went up to a group of girls and asked them if they knew of any other place we could go to hang out and drink some beers. they told us about a bar on the other side of the big hotel infront of us and that they would come with us. we gave them our bullshit story about being from Bakersfield and playing all of our sports, and they bought it...hook, line, and sinker! well...that is until some of the guys started speaking German and one of the girls asked Tony, "are your friends German?" "Uh no, they spent a few years in Germany though, so they like to take German to each other."
This made the girls leave, and there we were sitting on the corner of the street, wondering what to do next. there was some discussion, but since the drivers wanted to leave, we all had to go home with them.
Sunday was yet another day on the lake, trying to catch those pesky pike. I'm pretty sure they were holding on deeper cover, in the cooler water, but since we didnt have a depth finder or anything like that, it was impossible to find the fish. we were able to catch 4 pike, ranging from 30cm to 59cm, throughout the 5 days. but they were just shore runners alone, searching for some smaller bait fish. Lowe did have 2 fish on that threw the hook and got away, but the 4 we caught were grilled up and devoured.
on Monday, we went swimming at the jumping tower...i say we because we all went, but only Nico, Hubi, Thies, and Lowe got in the water. it was way too cold for me. but they all climbed up the tower, and took a jump. Nico and Hubi went up to the 10 meter platform and did perfect backflips, and didnt even make a splash when they hit the water. it was like they water opened up and just swallowed them, no disturbance whatsoever...or at least thats how we are all going to tell the story.
the rest of the trip is littered with poker, long hours spent at Pike Tongue and Killer Pike Island, beers, and songs with innappropriate lyrics that i wont mention here, though i will never forget them. we also ran out of beer on sunday night, so we had to go buy more for monday evening festivities. Beer is very expensive in Sweden but we found the cheapest, most alcohol percentage we could and got 3 cases. the same amount of money would have bought 14 bottles of korn here in germany, so thats roughly 70 euros for 3 cases of half liters. Harboes is a danish beer, and not one i'd never really like to drink again. it had a bad taste going down, and not a real good after taste either...pretty much it was just bad beer. But beggers cant be choosers so i drank it anyway.
4:30 wednesday morning rolled around pretty quickly and we were packing up and heading home. we cleaned pretty much all day tuesday so we could get up and go wednesday morning so we were on the road by 5 am. we had practice that night at 7 and wanted to get back, unpacked, and rested a little before hitting the field.
Hubi made a 1-hour video of the entire trip, i hope we burns it to a CD so i can have visuals of this entire thing.
It was a tiring trip and now i need a vacation from my vacation.
A-Ron
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)