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.