If I had one great fear, it is that of getting old. Being restricted to what I can and cannot do. I grew up running around, spending my time outdoor and being active, however I think it would be extremely hard for me if I were not able to do some of those things. Unfortunately I know that time will come but I didn't realize it would come so soon!
My first sign of old age was when I started putting weight on around my waist. That could be attributed to either old age or just my lack of daily activity that I had been accustomed to. However now, I have a hip pain though I think its more of a hip flexor problem (the muslce). I have had this before, but never for this long!
I also have knee problems now. While they are not sore yet, they are bothersome...mainly when I ride my bike but occasionally when I am running as well.
My throwing shoulder is also a bit sore. I don't recall ever having a sore shoulder in my life so I need to take care of this as I definitely need my shoulder. I need to be able to pick up Rachel and squeeze her when I see her!
Normally pain comes and goes and I'm pretty good with it, however these pains are just hanging out chillin. That's how I now I'm aging. When pain becomes expected, and I begin to notice it in my daily life...like waking up because a sore shoulder really tells me I'm getting up there and now I need to actually watch and take care of myself.
Ohh he cruel life can be!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Vs. Hambrug
May 25th, we played a team from Hamburg at their field...a 3-4 hour drive depending on traffic. Since we travel in these ridiculously uncomfortable vans, I had the brilliant idea to bring my pillow, hope in the back (trunk) and move all the equipment to one side and fall asleep. Man what a great idea. The floor was dirty, hard, and loud, perfect to sleep on and in all honesty, the trip seemed like it was about 30 minutes long!
Hamburg field was right next to an airport which meant that every 5 minutes a plane would fly above us...so close in fact that I really thought i could throw a ball at a plane and hit it. The Hamburg team was a lot better than their record indicates. They are on the bottom of the division but they got a few guys that can hit, and they play defense pretty well. Unfortunately their pitching is horrible and we won both games.
The first game we won 15-3 and I had a very pleasing 3-5 day at the plate. I took very good swings on the ball and made solid contact. The two times I got out...a deep ball to center, probably my best hit since the first game. The other time, a hard groundball to second. I spent the past week working on my swing trying to find what worked for me at the start of my season last year and I really think I'm getting closer and closer there. I'm seeing the ball well and like my swing, not its just a matter of being consistent.
The second game was much worse though. We still won...5-1 and had a lot of scoring opportunities, we just didn't capitalize. Myself was 0-4 with a walk. I had a total of 5 at bats this game and saw just 4 fast balls. Keep in mind that i went to two strike with every count so i was trying to work my hardest to make him make the mistake. I guess I'm the one that messed up. They threw a left handed pitcher and I guess after my first game, they weren't going to throw me any fast balls. He really wasn't that good of a pitcher...I just always hit ground balls when a curve ball is throw at me. I'm not sure why but that is something that I will be working on. funny thing...I've known this for a long time, since high school however because of the situations I've been in, I've seen mostly fast balls all my life which probably meant that I never developed that swing to hit curve balls. I guess now's the time to learn.
After these games though, I'm still confident with my swing and the curve ball is just a minor tweak which will help me a lot in this league. Lets hope it works
Hamburg field was right next to an airport which meant that every 5 minutes a plane would fly above us...so close in fact that I really thought i could throw a ball at a plane and hit it. The Hamburg team was a lot better than their record indicates. They are on the bottom of the division but they got a few guys that can hit, and they play defense pretty well. Unfortunately their pitching is horrible and we won both games.
The first game we won 15-3 and I had a very pleasing 3-5 day at the plate. I took very good swings on the ball and made solid contact. The two times I got out...a deep ball to center, probably my best hit since the first game. The other time, a hard groundball to second. I spent the past week working on my swing trying to find what worked for me at the start of my season last year and I really think I'm getting closer and closer there. I'm seeing the ball well and like my swing, not its just a matter of being consistent.
The second game was much worse though. We still won...5-1 and had a lot of scoring opportunities, we just didn't capitalize. Myself was 0-4 with a walk. I had a total of 5 at bats this game and saw just 4 fast balls. Keep in mind that i went to two strike with every count so i was trying to work my hardest to make him make the mistake. I guess I'm the one that messed up. They threw a left handed pitcher and I guess after my first game, they weren't going to throw me any fast balls. He really wasn't that good of a pitcher...I just always hit ground balls when a curve ball is throw at me. I'm not sure why but that is something that I will be working on. funny thing...I've known this for a long time, since high school however because of the situations I've been in, I've seen mostly fast balls all my life which probably meant that I never developed that swing to hit curve balls. I guess now's the time to learn.
After these games though, I'm still confident with my swing and the curve ball is just a minor tweak which will help me a lot in this league. Lets hope it works
Race vs. Danicka Patrick
On Saturday, May 24, I went on a trip to Solingen with the youth team that I help coach. Normally I don't go but they were short on coaches so they asked me to join them. I really was not looking forward to the 2 hour drive in the van/bus. Luckily for me, they parents chaperon their kids their personally meaning that we would be going in cars instead of the horrible vans! Also lucky, our team owner, Martin Nixdorf (he may have more money than God) let us use his car. Mitch, the head coach for this youth team does a lot of work with the youth team and drives kids everywhere so Martin was comfortable letting Mitch take his car. Man o man!
Martin drives a BMW 740 which is ridiculously pimped out. He had it specially made for him complete with suede roof linings, Leather panels and seats, wood trip console, DVD, CD, GPS, doors that close themselves, everything man! The back seats don't look like there's not a whole lot of room but what you don't realize is that the seats recline back almost to a 45 degree angle. Man, i could just pass out in there...instead, I passed out in the front seat.
Like all fancy cars, you just have to have the key in your pocket to unlock the door and start it. when you are in a certain range, it opens automatically and locks automatically. Once you start the car, the chairs adjust to Martin's liking, and the steering wheel comes out towards you. What's really cool however is that supposedly there's a refrigerator in there which I haven't seen, but the back seats, not only have TV's but have Tables as well! Amazing!
To go along with this pimped out BMW was an amazing engine. So smooth and quiet, yet very...I mean very powerful. I was asking Mitch all kinds of questions about it and he gave me a test on the way there. Just a small one....coming around a turn going from about 30 kmh to about 100 kmh in a split second. Keep in mind 100 kmh is nothing. While driving on the Autobahn the average speed is anywhere between 120-150. And since we were driving with parents following us, we nicely stayed at about 130 the majority of the way. On the way back however was a different story.
After a quick stop at McDonalds with the team, each family left on their own to drive back. Mitch and I were one of the last ones to leave. We quickly left and proceeded to drive home as quick as possible. I'm talking 250 kmh!!!!!!!!!!!!! English translation - 155 MPH!!!!!!! I'm watching all the other cars in the other lanes as we just blow past them. We were flying past cars that were going above 150 kmh as well. More importantly however is the fact that when some slow poke got in our lane to pass another car, Mitch would have to hit the brake pretty hard and the best thing is...you hardly even knew it. Everything that car did was smooth, from driving to making me comfortable to sleep! Man is it nice to have money and a road where there are no speed limits!
Martin drives a BMW 740 which is ridiculously pimped out. He had it specially made for him complete with suede roof linings, Leather panels and seats, wood trip console, DVD, CD, GPS, doors that close themselves, everything man! The back seats don't look like there's not a whole lot of room but what you don't realize is that the seats recline back almost to a 45 degree angle. Man, i could just pass out in there...instead, I passed out in the front seat.
Like all fancy cars, you just have to have the key in your pocket to unlock the door and start it. when you are in a certain range, it opens automatically and locks automatically. Once you start the car, the chairs adjust to Martin's liking, and the steering wheel comes out towards you. What's really cool however is that supposedly there's a refrigerator in there which I haven't seen, but the back seats, not only have TV's but have Tables as well! Amazing!
To go along with this pimped out BMW was an amazing engine. So smooth and quiet, yet very...I mean very powerful. I was asking Mitch all kinds of questions about it and he gave me a test on the way there. Just a small one....coming around a turn going from about 30 kmh to about 100 kmh in a split second. Keep in mind 100 kmh is nothing. While driving on the Autobahn the average speed is anywhere between 120-150. And since we were driving with parents following us, we nicely stayed at about 130 the majority of the way. On the way back however was a different story.
After a quick stop at McDonalds with the team, each family left on their own to drive back. Mitch and I were one of the last ones to leave. We quickly left and proceeded to drive home as quick as possible. I'm talking 250 kmh!!!!!!!!!!!!! English translation - 155 MPH!!!!!!! I'm watching all the other cars in the other lanes as we just blow past them. We were flying past cars that were going above 150 kmh as well. More importantly however is the fact that when some slow poke got in our lane to pass another car, Mitch would have to hit the brake pretty hard and the best thing is...you hardly even knew it. Everything that car did was smooth, from driving to making me comfortable to sleep! Man is it nice to have money and a road where there are no speed limits!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Vs. Cologne Cardinals
Baseball is a weird sport. At times it can be so good to you, other times it can be so bad, and sometimes just very fickle. Our first game against Cologne, I was 2-4. I hit one ball hard, and it went right at someone. My two hits....one was a blooper...which I was able to turn into a double, the other was a half ass swing right down the left field line for an RBI single. I consider neither one of them a good hit, but it helped the batting average none the less. We ended up winning the first game 12-1. It's sad because you could actually see the other team giving up. One of our guys hit a ball into the right center gap that should have been caught, however the opposing team's outfielders just jogged to the ball, and instead, got a double out of it. Baseball was good to our team, but bad to them.
Second game was a much closer game....in their eyes. In our eyes, nobody really cared. We pretty much went through the entire game have fun, just swinging the bat not really accomplishing anything. Myself in particular as I went 0-4. I hit a couple balls hard, just didn't get rewarded, but I know it just wasn't me playing today. It was almost like I was going through the motions. It was a good reminder for me that I can't take things for granted. Last year in the states, i was into every bat always thinking and focusing. Here, I haven't been the same. Maybe I've been too occupied with the fact that I'm in Germany. I don't know. either way, I need to get it back and the good thing is, I know I can. We won this game 5-1.
I think I can say that Cy is back. We was 1-3 in the first game, and 2 for 4 i believe in the second. He just getting good wood on the ball now and he's getting rewarded for it as well. With him in the lineup doing what I know he can do, we will be stacked.
Second game was a much closer game....in their eyes. In our eyes, nobody really cared. We pretty much went through the entire game have fun, just swinging the bat not really accomplishing anything. Myself in particular as I went 0-4. I hit a couple balls hard, just didn't get rewarded, but I know it just wasn't me playing today. It was almost like I was going through the motions. It was a good reminder for me that I can't take things for granted. Last year in the states, i was into every bat always thinking and focusing. Here, I haven't been the same. Maybe I've been too occupied with the fact that I'm in Germany. I don't know. either way, I need to get it back and the good thing is, I know I can. We won this game 5-1.
I think I can say that Cy is back. We was 1-3 in the first game, and 2 for 4 i believe in the second. He just getting good wood on the ball now and he's getting rewarded for it as well. With him in the lineup doing what I know he can do, we will be stacked.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
New things
We had a bye week last weekend (may 10th) and we return to action tomorrow (18th) for a game against Cologne. Cy and i have face Cologne in Holland with the team from Rouen so we know what to expect. They are a pretty decent team with some decent pitching so it should be a good game. Last week, we spent the basically the entire week just doing conditioning workouts. Mainly playing soccer. I hate soccer....while I do believe it is a hard sport, I do not like sports where you can only use some of your body.
I do not like not being able to use my arms and hands and therefore struggled with the adjustment (the injured guys were playing goalie so i couldn't). By the final day I found my spot. Stay back on defense and do less running, and when someone comes in my area, attack them. If the ball is in my area, just kick the crap out of it. Luckily for me, i know how to kick the ball (not good, but good enough to get it out of my area). So finally we get back to regular training this past tuesday and had some pretty good workouts. Lots of hitting, lots of throwing, lots of fielding...everything. Friday practice was an easy practice. Just hitting. When I was done, Cy and I threw a little bit to loosen up the arm. Our coach comes over and challenges me and Cy to lil soccer match. He and our 2b/3b Jendrick. Keep in mind that everyone in europe plays soccer, and our coach was actually offered a contract to play professionally. He turned it down cause his father was one to push him a lot, and he rebelled and now plays baseball. He's now about 20 times poorer than he could have been!
Anyways, we are getting our butts handed to us as expected when finally i get a ball and clear land to the goal. I could have shot it, but probably would have missed as the ball was on my right side (i'm a lefty) and the goals were about 3 ft wide. I dribble to try to get a little closer when all of a sudden my coach comes from the side and takes the ball away from me. At the same time, he slips and slides right into my ankle. Down for the count. This isn't a good thing, but I felt something kind of pop or click. I think now that it was probably just my ankle joint rubbing against the bone, but at the time, it was pretty scary. I have very lose ankles because I used to injure them all the time when I was younger, so I can usually take ankle injuries pretty well. This one however hurt pretty bad. I was able to walk it off, but needless to say, I think I'll be retiring from soccer. I am still mobile which is good, but it does hurt when I walk. My coached asked if I was ok to play on Sunday, I just told him, I guess i have to hit homeruns now since i can't run!
Speaking of home runs, I changed my hitting style just slightly. I want to get a little more power on my swing so what I'm doing is opening up my front foot when i swing. What I mean by that is when I finish my swing, my toes should be facing the pitcher. I never open up when I swing and my toes always point towards the third base dugout. That's the reason why I'm so good at hitting the ball to the other field, but now, I want to pull the ball, hit it hard, and hit some bombs. So we'll see how that helps. After watching Cy, he does the same thing, and all the good hitters do it as well. so we'll see how that helps. Me and Cy have a bet - the next person to hit a home run gets a 5L mini keg. That's a lot of beer (cheap though), so lets hope I win.
I do not like not being able to use my arms and hands and therefore struggled with the adjustment (the injured guys were playing goalie so i couldn't). By the final day I found my spot. Stay back on defense and do less running, and when someone comes in my area, attack them. If the ball is in my area, just kick the crap out of it. Luckily for me, i know how to kick the ball (not good, but good enough to get it out of my area). So finally we get back to regular training this past tuesday and had some pretty good workouts. Lots of hitting, lots of throwing, lots of fielding...everything. Friday practice was an easy practice. Just hitting. When I was done, Cy and I threw a little bit to loosen up the arm. Our coach comes over and challenges me and Cy to lil soccer match. He and our 2b/3b Jendrick. Keep in mind that everyone in europe plays soccer, and our coach was actually offered a contract to play professionally. He turned it down cause his father was one to push him a lot, and he rebelled and now plays baseball. He's now about 20 times poorer than he could have been!
Anyways, we are getting our butts handed to us as expected when finally i get a ball and clear land to the goal. I could have shot it, but probably would have missed as the ball was on my right side (i'm a lefty) and the goals were about 3 ft wide. I dribble to try to get a little closer when all of a sudden my coach comes from the side and takes the ball away from me. At the same time, he slips and slides right into my ankle. Down for the count. This isn't a good thing, but I felt something kind of pop or click. I think now that it was probably just my ankle joint rubbing against the bone, but at the time, it was pretty scary. I have very lose ankles because I used to injure them all the time when I was younger, so I can usually take ankle injuries pretty well. This one however hurt pretty bad. I was able to walk it off, but needless to say, I think I'll be retiring from soccer. I am still mobile which is good, but it does hurt when I walk. My coached asked if I was ok to play on Sunday, I just told him, I guess i have to hit homeruns now since i can't run!
Speaking of home runs, I changed my hitting style just slightly. I want to get a little more power on my swing so what I'm doing is opening up my front foot when i swing. What I mean by that is when I finish my swing, my toes should be facing the pitcher. I never open up when I swing and my toes always point towards the third base dugout. That's the reason why I'm so good at hitting the ball to the other field, but now, I want to pull the ball, hit it hard, and hit some bombs. So we'll see how that helps. After watching Cy, he does the same thing, and all the good hitters do it as well. so we'll see how that helps. Me and Cy have a bet - the next person to hit a home run gets a 5L mini keg. That's a lot of beer (cheap though), so lets hope I win.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
some pics
I couldn't figure out how to put a link on the side of my blog but I was able to put it in a post so hopefully this will work. I have more pictures to load so check back in a few!
Sunday, May 4, 2008
worst game ever!
We have officially played the worst team in our division! I am not joking, a 15 yr old team in the states would beat these guys! Guess what their mascot is? the 'Nightmares' how appropriate! To make a long story short, nobody played well, we just over matched the opposing team. their starting pitcher was probably 15 yrs old and threw about 55 mph. I was 1-2 with two walks and a sac fly. We ended up winning 20-0.
The second game was just horrible. Nobody was into it, we knew that we had to do just about nothing to win. And that is what we did for the first 4 innings. Not a whole lot of hits, not a whole lot of anything. We finally kicked it in in the 5th and 6th innings to score a bunch of runs. Actually I should say the other team kicked it in as every ground ball that was hit they pretty much kicked around by the other team. No joke, they had more errors than we had hits! Both me and Cy played crappy. It was just too hard all day trying to hit these slow pitchers. I would try to make an adjustment but I just couldn't. Seriously, no joke, from my first at bat in the first game I was trying to adjust to their speed. By my last at bat of the last game I didn't hit a single pitch off the barrel. Every swing I took was off the end of my bat. I finished this game 0-3 and felt like I actually got worse from this game.
Unfortunately for Cy, he did even worse. On the day I was 1-5, Cy was 0-5. You could tell how frustrated he was at the pitching. Even he, who I think is just an amazing hitter, could not adjust to the pitch speed. You could actually see his bat slow down because he was too early! I'm sure he'll say the same thing that he probably got worse from this game. This one is definitely one that we need to forget, but probably will not be able to! Ohh we won 11-0
The second game was just horrible. Nobody was into it, we knew that we had to do just about nothing to win. And that is what we did for the first 4 innings. Not a whole lot of hits, not a whole lot of anything. We finally kicked it in in the 5th and 6th innings to score a bunch of runs. Actually I should say the other team kicked it in as every ground ball that was hit they pretty much kicked around by the other team. No joke, they had more errors than we had hits! Both me and Cy played crappy. It was just too hard all day trying to hit these slow pitchers. I would try to make an adjustment but I just couldn't. Seriously, no joke, from my first at bat in the first game I was trying to adjust to their speed. By my last at bat of the last game I didn't hit a single pitch off the barrel. Every swing I took was off the end of my bat. I finished this game 0-3 and felt like I actually got worse from this game.
Unfortunately for Cy, he did even worse. On the day I was 1-5, Cy was 0-5. You could tell how frustrated he was at the pitching. Even he, who I think is just an amazing hitter, could not adjust to the pitch speed. You could actually see his bat slow down because he was too early! I'm sure he'll say the same thing that he probably got worse from this game. This one is definitely one that we need to forget, but probably will not be able to! Ohh we won 11-0
Best team in the league
Contrary to what you are thinking....I am not referring to the 'Untouchables' We played the Solingen Alligators on May 1st and they are the defending division champs. They also have the best pitcher in the league. He's a guy from the Dominican republic who just recently got his German Passport meaning he is now a German citizen. This game was just hard for us. We lost 5-4 in 10 innings.
Actually i shouldn't say hard, this game was just sad. We had at least four errors which probably cost us the game. It's hard for me to say why its so hard for people over here to do certain things, mainly make adjustments in the game, but I guess all I can say is maybe they are not taught that over here? Our coach tells us to have a plan at the plate, but sometimes, you have to throw the plan out and take what you can get....or sometimes, actually a lot of times, guys just have the wrong plans.
One guys plan is to hit a home run, the next guys plan is to pull the ball, another guys plan is to just hit it out of the infield. Those are not plans, those are goals. A good plan would be I want to get on base via a bunt, or maybe I want to move the runner on second over to third. Or a good plan would be to see how they are pitching you...fastball first pitch away, second pitch will be a fastball high to try and get you to chase then follow that up with a slider. Knowing he will do that, you can say, first pitch, I want go for a homerun. Second pitch I will take, and the third pitch I want to hit it to the opposite field. That is a plan. That is what the team doesn't do.
I finished off the game 2-4...the only guy with multiple hits in that game. As proud as I am of that, I feel worse at the way we lost. It was as if we just didn't want to win, like we were scared to win.
The second game was worse! It wasn't as sick as the first one, but the score was just bad. we lost 11-1. How did we lose this game? Well we just didn't do what we should have done. We didn't hit, we didn't field balls and our pitching was shaky. I was 1-4 with the only RBI. The sad thing is that I would have had the only two RBI's but the runner on third base didn't tag on my shot to left field in my second at bat. He could have scored had he done a handstand to home!
Cy had about 12 million ground balls during the day and he was perfect on each one of them. He looks so smooth playing at short. It almost looks as if he's doing it in slow motion because everything just seems to happen. He is with out a doubt the best defensive shortstop I've seen here in Germany. I'm not just saying that cause he's my boy too. He makes all the plays and makes it look so easy. His hitting right now is in a slump...by that I mean he's not getting the base hits that show in the stats, but he is hitting the ball. He puts it in play and hits it hard most of the time, just maybe right at someone, or a deep fly ball to center. His hits will come soon!
Actually i shouldn't say hard, this game was just sad. We had at least four errors which probably cost us the game. It's hard for me to say why its so hard for people over here to do certain things, mainly make adjustments in the game, but I guess all I can say is maybe they are not taught that over here? Our coach tells us to have a plan at the plate, but sometimes, you have to throw the plan out and take what you can get....or sometimes, actually a lot of times, guys just have the wrong plans.
One guys plan is to hit a home run, the next guys plan is to pull the ball, another guys plan is to just hit it out of the infield. Those are not plans, those are goals. A good plan would be I want to get on base via a bunt, or maybe I want to move the runner on second over to third. Or a good plan would be to see how they are pitching you...fastball first pitch away, second pitch will be a fastball high to try and get you to chase then follow that up with a slider. Knowing he will do that, you can say, first pitch, I want go for a homerun. Second pitch I will take, and the third pitch I want to hit it to the opposite field. That is a plan. That is what the team doesn't do.
I finished off the game 2-4...the only guy with multiple hits in that game. As proud as I am of that, I feel worse at the way we lost. It was as if we just didn't want to win, like we were scared to win.
The second game was worse! It wasn't as sick as the first one, but the score was just bad. we lost 11-1. How did we lose this game? Well we just didn't do what we should have done. We didn't hit, we didn't field balls and our pitching was shaky. I was 1-4 with the only RBI. The sad thing is that I would have had the only two RBI's but the runner on third base didn't tag on my shot to left field in my second at bat. He could have scored had he done a handstand to home!
Cy had about 12 million ground balls during the day and he was perfect on each one of them. He looks so smooth playing at short. It almost looks as if he's doing it in slow motion because everything just seems to happen. He is with out a doubt the best defensive shortstop I've seen here in Germany. I'm not just saying that cause he's my boy too. He makes all the plays and makes it look so easy. His hitting right now is in a slump...by that I mean he's not getting the base hits that show in the stats, but he is hitting the ball. He puts it in play and hits it hard most of the time, just maybe right at someone, or a deep fly ball to center. His hits will come soon!
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