Merry Christmas...and a quick 2 months!

First off I just want to start off by saying Merry Christmas to everyone out there. This is always my favorite time of the year because regardless of what I was doing or where I was at, I always was able to come back home to my wonderful family. We had a good Christmas at my house; my brother got a new bed, my sister got an iTouch, and I got a plane ticket down to Dallas to see one of my best friends Jordan get married. My mom asked me for about a week straight what I wanted and that was the only thing that I could come up with! So with that said I hope everyone out there got what they wanted and if you didn't then I'm sure that there was a very good explanation as to why you didn't!

Now back to some of my baseball talk:
Playing professional baseball has plenty of positives that greatly outweigh the negatives. But there is this one negative that I have to deal with that really gets to me...the fact that we don't play for a whole 6 months! Let's go back to my first year on pro ball. The year was over and everyone was packing up their things and getting ready to go back home. I was excited because everyone else was and I thought that was the right emotion, go with the crowd right? I, however, had no idea what I was about to face. I got home, spent some quality time with my family, ate at some of my favorite local restaurants, and then I was lost. It was the first time in my life where I hadn't been active in something and I had no idea what to do. I never was forced to get a job because I was always so busy doing other things where I never had any free time. Now I had all the free time that I had ever wanted and more. I'm already a very anxious person and having to wait 6 months to play again made things even worse. I quickly went into a downward spiral, not knowing how to attack the off season.

I finally got a job as a substitute teacher, but who wants to wake up at 5:15 in the morning in their off season?!?! So I only ended up working 1 or 2 days a week before that got old for me. Basically to sum up that first off season, it was an absolute learning experience that I didn't like.

At the end of this past season I knew that it was eventually was going to come to an end and I was going to have to face all of those factors once again. What made things even harder was how I began to play my best baseball of the year towards the end of it. I did everything I could to try and get a gig playing winter ball somewhere, but it was a no go. I was 24 playing in Low A and I guess that didn't really help me out too much. So I went back home this time knowing exactly what I had in store for me.

I've figured a few things out that have helped me along the way. I more look at it now as a different "season". A season that helps me get better and get to where I want to be. It might sound a little cliche but I look at what I do in the off season as an investment. I am only able to perform to a certain level and that level is determined by how much I invest into being the best player that I can be in the off season. So that's what I try and think about whenever I start to sulk and begin to count down the days until I'm back in Florida.

Now I'm approaching the start of the year. I've kind of used this time to gage the point where I finally begin to kick it into gear. I begin hitting and throwing more, I cut down my hours at work so that I can concentrate on my training, and I begin to condition even more. Baseball is such a game of routine, usually thought of as just a routine during the year, but as I've found out if I don't create some kind of routine during the off season I go absolutely crazy!

Thanks for checking back in. I decided not to write about Beyonce...maybe sometime down the road.

Once again, I hope everyone had a great holiday and that everyone has a great new year.

"You begin to believe in luck once you finally start to realize that the hard work you put in and the results aren't just a coincidence."

The Restaurant business

This off season so far has been a very humbling one to say the least. Throughout my whole life I feel like I've been known as a "baseball player". When you have that as a label people look at you a little different and treat you a little different. For the last three months I've been known as a "server". For the first time in my life I took on the challenge of being a waiter at one of my favorite restaurants, Rancho Grande Cantina. I love all the people I work with and I have a great time every time I come into work...except when I have to deal with customers have no consideration and respect for people trying to make an honest living.

It's definitely been a learning experience dealing with different sorts of people from table to table. You can go from one table who is grateful for everything that you do for them to another table who could care less as to how they treat you. I've never felt this way towards servers because I've always understood that they're trying their hardest, but sometimes it just seems as if people that you serve look down upon you because you are a server. It doesn't really make sense to me. I used to always try and find the good in people, and I do feel that there is good in everyone, but some people give you no other choice than to think that they are the scum of the Earth. We have a lot of regulars that come into the restaurant and you would be surprised at how everyone is remembered in the restaurant. You have your people who tip well, the ones who don't tip well, you have nice and considerate people, you also have the other end of the spectrum, you have needy people, and you have people who love to throw fits. For me I have absolutely no problem serving someone who doesn't tip a lot as long as they are nice people and don't try to make my life a living hell. Here's another side note for when you go to restaurants. If you appreciate the way that your server treated you, then let them know. It absolutely makes my day whenever someone notices how hard we work trying to please our tables. Another piece of advice is never get upset with your server at something that they can't control! I've never really understood how people can complain to their server about the food not tasting right. It's like they think that we get their drinks, fill their chips and salsa, take their order, and make their food! Just remember that servers are trying to make an honest living and most of the money that they make is based upon the tips that they make and if they did a good job make sure that they know that you appreciated their services.

I hope that didn't seem like I don't like my job, because that's the furthest thing from the truth. I like being in a setting where I get to interact with all kinds of different people. I've gotten to talk to a bunch of people that I haven't seen in years and catch up on how everything is going. It's also shed some light for me onto how some people just aren't nice! It's a hard thing for me to imagine and to comprehend but it really is the truth.

Come back in a few days, I've got a bone to pick with Beyonce...

I love all the comments and the verses. I love looking up new verses and I love feedback letting me know that people actually enjoy hearing what I have to say. Keep 'em coming!

Meet someone with an open mind, let them persuade to you who they really are.

Changes

This recent off season I've experienced a ton of changes. I'm usually someone that likes to live my life with a little regularity in what I do and I eventually become a creature of habit. For the past three months though I've had to accomidate myself to some changes. I guess I've finally began to accept the fact that everything happens for a reason. At times of change I've realized that I just have to lean back on that fact and put my faith in the knowing that everything will work out in the long run. Things happen in everyone's lives where you think "why me?", but I really believe that you will figure out the answer to that question eventually. It's just getting past that initial change that tends to be the hardest part.

I guess this blog was a little bit of a ramble but it's just something that I've learned along my journey. I'm not sure if anyone even reads this but if someone does and it makes sense to just one person that would make me extremely happy. If at the very least no one reads my blog, I'm still getting my thoughts onto paper, which is always a good way for me to organize my brain a little bit.

Here we go...

It's the first day of December and we're about 3 months into the off-season, halfway to getting back to the game I love. This past year was a successful one. It was my first full season and going into the year I just had one goal and that was to stay healthy. I figured that if I was able to maintain my health then everything else would fall in place. I did everything that I could last off season to ensure the fact that I would be in the best shape of my life to endure a 140 game season. I ended up playing in Greensboro, North Carolina for the Greensboro Grasshoppers the class low a affiliate of the Florida Marlins. All my numbers for the year are on milb.com, just type in my last name in the player search and you can see how my year went numbers wise.

Being in low a with a bunch of 18 and 19 year old kids was definitely a learning experience. I was the old guy of all the position players and I not only felt like a player but I also felt a lot like a mentor and coach. I'd like to think that a lot of the guys looked up to me and saw how I went about my business and learned a few things from me. I ended up getting voted as the MVP of the team which makes me believe that I was respected in how everyone on the team viewed me. I've come to realize that gaining the respect and trust of your teammates can be a tough thing because of how the dynamics of pro ball are, but when you do gain those two things from your teammates then it's that much more special.

Going into the year everyone said how long of a season it was going to be and to be prepared. To me it wasn't the physical part of the season that was the hardest it was the mental part. When you don't get a hit one game you can't worry about it because you more than likely have a game the next day. If you do begin to worry about one game or one situation then that's when it all begins to snowball and then your facing the dreaded "s" word (s***p). It got tough for a lot of guys at the end of the year because the off season was approaching and guys began to shut it down. For me the last couple of months was when I began to turn it on. I looked at it as being a time when everyone else is waring down so it would be a great time to turn it on. It also helped me with the simple fact of knowing that I was getting to play baseball still. As I grow older I begin to appreciate the gift that I have been given to play baseball and I take less and less for granted.

It was hard at the end of the season to say goodbye to some of the guys on the team that I had grown close to, but I also knew that I was transitioning into a different part of my life where I was going to get to see some more people who are a big part of my life.

I ended up getting back to Liberty on September 3rd, and I had a lot of questions about what I was going to do with my off season. I decided to stay at home with my family (which has been a great idea) and workout here at William Jewell College. After a couple weeks of taking some time off I got really bored and decided that it was about time to get a job. I got a job as a server at my favorite restaurant, Rancho Grande Cantina. I love the job, it keeps me busy, and there are a bunch of great people who I get to work with.

Right now my weeks usually consist of working out in the mornings and either hitting, cardio, or working in the evenings. I try to keep myself occupied with things to do while getting myself into even better shape than I was in last year. I know what it takes now for a full season and I just want to build on some of my successes that I enjoyed last year.

I'm hoping to update my blog at least 2 or 3 times a week, so make sure you check back to see what I have to say!

"If you're affraid to fail then ultimately you're affraid to succeed."

I miss this...

After talking to Brock, one of my good friends, this weekend I decided that it was time that I start blogging again. I started to think back on how much I loved it and how much of a stress reliever it was for me to get some of my words down on paper. I'm off to workout right now, but I'll be back later with my updated blog notes!

It's about time!!

It has been a really long time since my last blog, and to be honest I’ve missed it. It’s something that really helps me put my thoughts together and helps me sometimes to put things into perspective. So here I go, I hope everyone enjoys my thoughts.

It seems like I never have any free time until we’re on the road. When we’re at home I like to get to the field early to work on some things with my swing, then work a little on the mental side of the game, get a little stretch in, and get a couple lifts in before we go out for our pre game stretch. I feel a lot more confident with myself whenever I get my routine in. They say that for something to be permanently engrained in your mind or body you have to practice it the right way for 30 straight days. After the game I get some swing in with a weighted bat and then a light bat to try and help with my bat speed. I end the night with a stretch of my legs and some forearm and grip work.

By the time I get home it’s usually about 11 or 11:30…time for bed. So as you can see I don’t ever have a lot of time to blog. Now that we’re on the road I have a little more time. For instance, our bus to the field doesn’t leave until 5:00 tomorrow. With that said I might just sleep until 4:30!

I really miss my family, fiancé’ and my little puppy. It’s such a hard thing to be away from them for an extended period of time. If I wasn’t getting to play baseball and do something that I absolutely love then I don’t think I could be away from them for as long as I am. My parents have been out twice, Drew has been out once, and my brother and sister and Maizie haven’t been out yet. You would think that once they come out it would ease my mind for awhile, but it really does the opposite. All it does when they come out is make me miss them even more when they leave. But like I said, I only have one chance to play baseball and they all know that and support me 100%.

Something else that has helped me being away from my family is becoming close with some of my teammates. At the start of the year I was pretty much a loner. My best friend in the organization, Jordan, was released and my other good friend, Brett, started in double A and our Greensboro team was filled with a bunch of guys that I didn’t really know. With time I’ve become pretty close with a couple of guys, Bryan Petersen and Emilio Ontiveros. Petey and I have a lot of in depth conversations about hitting and mental toughness stuff and Onti and I joke around with each other nonstop. Emilio is from Venezuela, and has a girlfriend back home. He rarely gets to talk to his family; I can only imagine how he feels. But those guys, along with a lot of other guys on the team, are not only great teammates but great people.

I’ve also acquired a new player into my top tier of favorite players. Before the start of the season it included: Ichiro, Carlos Beltran, and David DeJesus. The new member is Chase Utley. I absolutely love the way that this guy plays the game. He plays about as hard as anyone in the league and is probably the best player in the league. I just love how he gets on tope of the plate, dares people to throw one in, and when they do he makes them pay. Not only do I like the way that he plays but I also think that he has one of the top 2 swings in the big leagues, the other being Joe Mauer. So if you get a chance to watch Utley play, all I can say is enjoy it.

I have so much to talk about and so much to catch everyone up on but for now I’m going to watch a movie and get to bed. Hopefully everyone enjoyed my return to the blogging world.

“You’re gonna miss this
You’re gonna want this back
You’re gonna wish these days hadn’t gone by so fast.
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know this now
But you’re gonna miss this.”
-Trace Adkins

Just a song that helps you to remember to enjoy the moment and not to take anything for granted.

Opening series...

Our first series is in the books and we’re on our way back to Greensboro. I figured I have a few hours to burn so why not fill some of it with one of my favorite things to do, blog.

We ended up going 3-1 on the weekend. The first game we won 3-2, the second one 3-2, the third 6-4, and we lost the final game of the series 4-3. All four games of the series we found ourselves behind at some point in the game and in every one we ended up at some point making up the difference. Our team seems to have a lot of fight and for now everyone is pulling for each other, something that is very rare in minor league ball. All that is easy to do whenever you’re winning games, the real character of a team shows through when you go through down times.

I swung the bat pretty well for the three games that I played in, but I don’t like to dwell on either my negatives or positives too much. I’ve always thought that if they could come out with a drug that could eliminate your memory from at bat to at bat it would be that best performance enhancer ever. Like my dad has always said “It’s a short ride from the penthouse to the outhouse.”

August was a very unique city. For those of you that don’t know, the Masters is played in Augusta. If you don’t know what the Master is, it’s probably the biggest golf tournament there is. The tournament begins on the coming Thursday, with the practice rounds beginning tomorrow. Everything in the city revolves around the tournament. I can only imagine how much revenue the town makes off of the tournament. Even Augusta’s minor league team has a tie to the Masters. Their name is the Greenjackets, which happens to be what you receive if you win the Masters, a green jacket. On the trip from the hotel to the field we passed by the 8 entrances to the golf course and we also passed by about 50 scalpers on the sides of the road looking to either buy or sell practice round tickets. Another interesting tidbit about the Greenjackets is that their promotional crew wears caddy outfits with the names of famous golfers on their backs. As for their field it wasn’t too bad. The outfield was a little rough and it was an older stadium which gave it a nice homey feel.

Brock Bond, a former Missouri Tiger standout, plays second base for Augusta. I had a great time catching up with him; it’s always so nice to see a familiar face on the opposing team. Obviously I wanted to win every game but I also wanted Brock to do well. He’s one of the best teammates anyone could ask for; he literally fought for all of us. In the final game of the series I encountered a tough situation. I was on first base and there was a ball hit to the shortstop. I busted my butt over to second base so that I could break up the double play. Every time I go into the base I have the mindset that I don’t want the second baseman to be able to make a good throw to first to double up our guy. The only thing about this time was that Brock was on the other end of the collision. I slid in hard and I definitely paid for it more than he did. I caught a knee to the head and a cleat to the shin. I was fine but I thought that it was such a coincidence that the time that I break up a double play during the series it just so happens to be against one of my better friends.

Tomorrow we open our home schedule against the Hickory Crawdads, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It should be fun; the management has said that they are expecting to have at least 10,000 people. Plus it’s supposed to be a nice night, I can’t wait. I’m sure I’ll be nervous for my first at bat, just like I was for my first game against Augusta. I got my strikeout out of the way and I was good from there!

I’ve already made it through more games than I did last year, a definite plus. I’m also having more fun than anyone right now playing the game that I love. I feel absolutely blessed every time I’m able to step out on the field and play the game that my dad groomed me to play ever since I was a little kid.

Make sure you vote on my new poll question.

*Tough times bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, in all of us.

Found the internet!

I talked the people above our apartment into giving us their password for their wireless network for a small fee. With that said I should be able to blog once again. Tomorrow is our first game against Augusta. The bus leaves at 9:00 to make the short four hour trip down to play Brock Bond's team. I'm absolutely thrilled that the start of the season is less than 24 hours away. I'll have more in a few days but I just wanted to update everyone on my status and let everyone know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Come back in a couple days and I will have the best blog ever!

*Play as if there's no tomorrow.

Check out the new poll question...

There didn’t end up being any releases today which can be a good thing or a really bad thing. I say that it could be a bad thing because people could get really excited about avoiding the last “camp day” only to find out that they get released tomorrow or the next day. I don’t think that they’re planning on releasing any more guys but if you look at the numbers you have to assume that they still have to let some people go. That’s all for the management to decide and if you start thinking too much about it you’ll just give yourself a headache. I have heard some horror stories about some teams waiting until the last day to let guys go. Think about that, guys are planning to break camp with an organization, starting to make travel plans for their families to come see them, and start making living arrangements only to find out that they don’t have a job. All you can do is play well, take care of your business, and pray that that doesn’t happen to you.

We got done with our workouts at around 1:30 today. All we did was stretch, take a short batting practice, and played an eight inning game against the high A team. I think the score was 3-1 with their team coming out on top. I hit 3rd and played centerfield. I only ended up getting three at bats. My first at bat I hit a line drive over the shortstop’s head, my second at bat I grounded out to second, and my third at bat a hit a single to right center. On my groundout I broke my first bat of spring training and it just so happened that today was the only day that I didn’t take two bats out to the field…coincidence? I felt real good at the plate today, I definitely think that watching my swings last night helped me out a lot.

My poll question ended a couple of days ago and Carlos Beltran ended up winning the poll; definitely the right choice. Make sure you vote on my new poll question.

Kind of a short blog today but the NCAA tournament is on and I’m really tired. I hope you guys all understand!

*Being a good teammate is the best compliment that you can receive.

I picked a number...

Another day closer to breaking camp…Today was another day just like any other except for the fact that all the coordinators and coaches are starting to get antsy and when that happens they tend to take it out on the players. I don’t know if I speak for anyone else but I could feel it coming. As of late it seems like all the talk between players has been about being anxious to get out of Jupiter for the summer. I would definitely say that our play on the field has shown it. So today the coordinators put a little reality back into everyone’s mind by letting everyone know that teams aren’t set by any stretch of the imagination and anything can happen.

In today’s game I came in halfway through to DH. I ended up going 0-2 with a strikeout and a high pop up to the third baseman. I still feel good at the plate and I can’t wait to get back into the box tomorrow. I think we ended up getting beat 7-5, but no one really keeps track. It’s also kind of skewed because once a pitchers pitch count becomes too much in a single inning they yell out last batter and roll the inning over. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me simply because that’s not what happens during the year, you have to learn to get out of jams and that’s a huge part of baseball. Tomorrow we have our last “camp day”. Like I talked about in a past blog, these days are usually the ones where most guys are released. All we have tomorrow is batting practice and an intersquad game against the high A team. We should be done by about 1:00, which is a big difference from our usual 5:00 finish.

After our game our trainer was taking requests for numbers and getting sizes for everyone who is in our group. I had my choice of pretty much any number and I decided on…32. I also thought about 44, my number at Missouri, and 39, the number that I had last year in Greensboro when I hit two homeruns in my first two games. I figured I would go back to my roots and that definitely is #32.

Today I transferred clips of some of my swings that have been recorded during this spring training from our hitting coach’s computer. A couple years back our hitting coordinator downloaded a swing analysis program to my computer. I actually found out yesterday that the program is $2,000. When I got back to my room this evening I compared my swing now to my swing back in Jamestown. Things have changes quite a bit and definitely for the better. There are obviously still some things that I have to improve on but I’m definitely taking strides in the right direction.

Movie Update:
Even Money- This movie has one of the most star studded casts of any movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a story of three different people who all have gambling issues and how they all become intertwined in the end. I thought it was an alright movie. There were some points in the movie where I thought it became a little slow but other than that it was a good peek into the life of a gambling addict.
My rating: 6.5

American Idol Update:
Last night was the first night of the top 10 and judging by what the judges had to say Blue Springs’ own David Cook had the best performance. Everyone else was kind of average so it should be interesting to see who will get voted off tonight. At this point in the show everyone deserves to be there, it’s not like last year where Sanjaya stuck around and took up a spot.

Hopefully my blogs are giving everyone insight into what Spring Training is like and how hard it can be on some people. It is considered a job because we do get paid for it, but I mean come on…we’re playing a game and that’s definitely not a job and never will be in my mind.

*Having fun makes everything so much sweeter.

Getting closer...

Another day in the books and we’re all getting closer to breaking camp. It’s gotten to the point where everyone seems to be getting cabin fever, including the coaches. Everyone is getting pretty excited to learn where they’ll be going. I’m just trying to live in the moment because that’s the only thing that you can control; what’s going on right now. I still understand that there are still a lot of guys that are going to be released, but that’s something that you never want to creep into your mind.

I didn’t start in our game today but I did come in in the 6th inning. I only ended up getting one at bat and I single up the middle on the first pitch. Something that I’m definitely working on is being more aggressive. One of my biggest downfalls is that I’m overly picky at the plate. I’m positive that I’ll improve at being more aggressive because it’s basically a mental thing; it’s nothing mechanical so therefore it can be fixed with one simple change of thoughts. Our game today was against the Mets low a team. So far we’ve played the Cardinals about 10 times, the Mets twice, and the Dodgers once. The Dodgers move away from Vero Beach next year so that basically means even more games against the Cardinals. I have heard though that eventually Major League Baseball wants to have every team’s spring training site out in Arizona. It would make a lot of sense in terms of travel and being able to play more teams in spring training. The only problem with that however is that there would be abandoned complexes left here in Florida. Those plans are still at least 4 or 5 years down the road, hopefully it affects me because if it does that means I’ll still be playing.

The major league season started today with the Boston Red Sox playing the Oakland A’s in Tokyo, Japan. It just so happens that they are playing their series in the Tokyo Dome, one of the venues that we played at with Team USA. Looking back at that summer it was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and I would definitely like to go back to Japan at some point in my life, maybe even with my dad so he could show me some of the culture that I didn’t experience the first time around. But anyways, with today’s game America’s favorite past time is officially underway. It’s a time where everyone is fresh and healthy but with the realization that there is still 161 games ahead of them. It’s definitely a long season and to get through it all you have to be as mentally strong as you can possibly be.

Another positive thing that happened to me today was that I got a box of Gatorade recovery shakes for being in the top five of our fitness testing. They put our numbers together from our shuttle test and our vertical test to come up with an overall ranking of position players and I ended up being ranked third. I was happy with that but definitely not satisfied. I know that I could have done better on both of the tests but I do know that the organization took notice of my hard work in the off season.

Well that’s all that I have for today. Tomorrow’s schedule is exactly the same as todays but instead of playing the Mets we play the Dodgers. I still would like to get a picture with Hanley Ramirez and Andre Dawson so I’ll have to work on that too.

*Set your goals high because sometimes your body doesn’t know its limitations.

Up to #2

We’re now one day closer to breaking camp and everyone is becoming pretty anxious. There still seems to be a lot of decisions and moves that the organization is going to have to make. Every team from triple a down to the extended team has at least 30 players. By the start of the season each team has to be down to 25. If you take that into consideration it means that there are at least 25 guys that are still going to be released. The organizational guys who make the decisions say that this is the toughest time of the year for them, for the sole fact that they have to basically fire people. In the business world a boss has to let people go occasionally, in the baseball world the general manager has to let go about 50 people within a four week span. It’s pretty crazy to think of it like that.

Every team does it differently when it comes to releasing guys. Some teams leave notes in lockers to go see the farm director, some teams have the positional coaches pull the players out of the locker room before they go out to the field, and other teams wait until everyone’s out on the field and have the trainers go out and get guys and bring them back to the clubhouse. There’s not a good way to do it, but it has to be done.

When we got arrived at the clubhouse today we were greeted with a drug test, our second one since spring training started. Our first drug test was conducted by MLB; today’s drug test was conducted by the Florida Marlins. If you fail the drug test performed by the MLB you receive a 50 game suspension, if you fail the drug test from the Marlins they hand down consequences depending on the severity of the positive test. There are some guys that get nervous with these tests; I’m not one of them.

Today’s game was once again against the Cardinals. I ended up going 0-1 with a walk, hit by pitch, and a fly out to the left fielder. I hit 3rd in the order and DH’ed. We don’t really keep track of the score of these games but I’m pretty sure that we got outscored today. Travis Mitchell, an outfielder in the Cardinals organization who had signed with Missouri but never ended up making it there, hit a homerun against us today.

Speaking of the Missouri Tigers they jumped up to #2 in Baseball America. I hope the university as a whole and the town of Columbia realizes how great of a thing this squad has going and comes out to support their Tigers!

Movie Update:
Death Sentence- Kevin Bacon plays a father who sees his oldest son slain by gang member in an initiation ritual. The whole movie is basically about Bacon seeking revenge on the gang while protecting his family. This is one of the best movies that I’ve seen in a long time.
My rating: 8.0

Thanks for checking in; hopefully I’ll be bringing some good news tomorrow.

*When no one believes in you look deep inside your soul and you’ll find a believer.

I'm back,,,

Happy Easter to everyone out there! It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged, but now I’m back and in the blogging mood. It is good to be back but it also means that I don’t have anyone to keep me company. It was probably a good thing that my family and fiancé were here whenever Jordan got released. It wouldn’t have been real fun going from a great roommate and friend to nothing. My mom, sister, and Madi left yesterday to go back home and Drew left early this morning. It’s always hard having to say goodbye to people you love so much but then I’m kind of preparing myself so that when they do leave it’s not as bad as it could be.

We had such a good time when everyone was here. We had some incredible food, some good laughs, and they were great company. They all went to the beach everyday, and I have no idea how in the heck they did it. I can only take so much of sand in my crack! With everyone gone I’m going to have to get used to life once again without a car. That means a lot of meals at Boston Market. In case you were wondering, my bike is still over at the Fairfield. I should probably go pick it back up eventually.

I’ve been playing alright in the games. I always seem to get at least one hit but that’s usually the most that I get. I’d like to put together a multi hit game eventually. There still are a lot of guys that are going to be released, hopefully I’ve shown enough so far and the organization thinks enough of me to keep me around for the rest of the year.

The first few days of the NCAA tournament have been absolutely unforgettable. It really is true that in the tournament anyone can beat anyone at any given time and that’s the beauty of it all. My pick to win it all, Tennessee, went into overtime earlier today but they were still able to pull through.

The Missouri baseball team is absolutely on fire! This past weekend the pitching staff didn’t give up an earned run and only 2 runs total. That’s even against a Big 12 opponent who happens to be the #14 team in the nation. What they are doing right now is unprecedented. I hate to put such high expectations with this team but I really think that they have a serious shot at winning the national championship. They’ve already proven that they can handle the early season hype, now it’s time to see if they can take everyone’s best shot. It’s a serious possibility that they could be the #1 team in the country after this weekend. Going back to the pitching staff, I talked to Stan Meeks the other day about Aaron Crow. Mr. Meeks is the scouting director for the Marlins and he told me that he didn’t think that there would be any chance that Crow would be around for the Marlins to take with the sixth pick. It’s going to be fun to see where this season ends.

Well that’s good for now. I’m back in blogging mode so expect a great one tomorrow; hopefully I have nothing but good news to report.

*Achieve the unthinkable.

Best blog EVER!! A must read!!

Since the last time I’ve blogged I’ve been through an absolute roller coaster. Last week I began hitting and seeing the ball really well. I finally have figured some stuff out with my swing and I’ve found some confidence that I haven’t had since my sophomore year at Missouri. I’ve gotten to the point where I feel like every time I come to the plate I’m going to get a hit. That’s how you have to think when you step into the box, if you don’t you’re pretty much defeated.

Last week I hit a ball to the warning track in dead center field and in another game I hit a double over the left fielder’s head and hit a ball to the warning track in left field. I know that when I am hitting the ball to left field I’m at my best. A couple days ago I hit a triple to right center and today I walked twice. And that’s all I remember about my at bats (the bad at bats are already out of my memory!). I think we have about 10 days or so left until spring training is over. It seems like it’s absolutely flown by but I’ve loved every minute of it. I was telling Drew the other day that with me being hurt for all of last season might have been a blessing in disguise. It was bad not being able to play and not be able to move up in the organization but I was able to get into really good shape and I renewed my love for baseball. I basically realized that I can’t stand living without the competition of baseball.

Drew got down here Thursday night and my mom, sister, and my sister’s friend Madi got down here Sunday night. They’ve been keeping each other busy with the beach and the most glamorous mall known to man. It’s always nice to see the people that I love and miss so much when I’m away from them.

Yesterday was our first “camp day”. What that consists of is a morning practice with no game in the afternoon. What it also means is a day of releases. There were about 10 guys that got released yesterday and one of them happened to be my roommate Jordan. He’s become one of my best friends and I know he would do anything for me and it’s just so hard having to say goodbye to such a good friend. That’s the tough part of playing professional baseball; you never know when you’re going to lose a good friend. Even though I won’t be playing with Jordan this year I’m positive that we’ll keep in touch. There will be two more “camp days” where they will probably let go 15 or so guys total. I couldn’t imagine my baseball dream being taken away from me, I try not to think about it but I do know that in the back of my mind it is a reality and could happen.

At about 6:00 p.m. yesterday my day made a drastic turn for the better. Drew and I have been dating now on and off for about 2 years now and I know that there is no girl better for me and yesterday I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer and I had to ask her to marry me. My mom brought down the ring with her that we had put in a different setting from the one that my grandma had given me before she had died. For the past few days I had been contemplating all these different ideas about how I was going to ask her but I finally decided that I was just going to be spontaneous and was going to surprise even myself. My mom’s hotel is right across the street from this neat little bar that’s on the beach called The Square Grouper. Mary and Madi needed some time to get ready for dinner so I decided to show my mom The Grouper, along with Drew. Once we got there we just kind of walked around and took in the environment and scenery. We went to the end of one of the docks and I had my mom take a picture of Drew and I. After we were done taking the picture I got down on a knee, took Drew’s left hand, pulled the ring out of my pocket, and asked the girl of my dreams to marry me. My heart was fluttering like a butterfly, I hadn’t been that nervous in a long time. But she said yes so everything was all good. On the way back to the hotel Drew couldn’t stop looking down at her new ring, and I don’t blame her one bit. Another interesting tidbit about this story is that The Square Grouper is on Love St.

For all of you that are wondering our wedding date is tentatively set for January 2, 2009!

A few days ago I also got a picture with my baseball idol Carlos Beltran and tonight at the mall Drew and I saw him again, and once again I got a picture taken with him! The other pictures that I have posted are with Javy Lopez and Jeff Franceour; both of them play for the Atlanta Braves. The next two pictures are of The Square Grouper, the coolest bar on the planet. The final two pictures are pretty self explanatory.

Movie Review for Ashley:
10 Items or Less- I thought this movie settles in the range of the OK movies. I liked the whole story line and I liked the how it was all portrayed but it was just a little too slow for me. I did however think it was pretty unique how Morgan Freeman played himself in the movie.
My rating: 6.0

So there it is, you can now see why it’s been such a roller coaster week for me. To sum it all up I met my favorite player of all time, I began hitting the ball with authority, my best friend in the organization got released, and I got engaged to the most wonderful girl in the world. It’s been crazy but hey, that’s the life of a minor league baseball player.

The previous poll question ended with Nebraska being the second most hated team in the Big 12. I have a new poll question posted, make sure you vote. Blake I’ll put your poll question idea up eventually.

Hopefully my new fiancé gives me some more free time this week so I can get to blogging!

*Reach out and try to obtain your goals, it won’t hurt to try.

Reason not to blog...

Sorry for not keeping up with my blog for the past couple days. My girlfriend Drew is in town and she hasn't been letting me blog. Alright I'm kidding but I do need to spend some extra time with her since this is the only time that I'll see her in the next 2 months probably. Come back in a couple days and I'll have a full blog about the last few days and the upcoming few days. Things have been going well though and my mom, sister, and one of my sister's friends arrive tomorrow.

*If you tell yourself enough that you can you might just have yourself fooled and be convinced.

I'll also have a movie review for you Ashley and I hope that this helps out for a little Aunt Janet!

1-3...and I wore out the first baseman.

Today was the best days that I’ve experienced in a very long time. For those of you that don’t know I missed all of last season after I dislocated my shoulder and had to have surgery after diving for a ball down the right field line. Now you know why I haven’t played in a game since last April, until today. I was so excited once I got to the field, with the knowledge that I was going to get to play in a competitive game once again. During our morning meeting with our team our manager, Edwin Rodriguez, read of the lineup for this afternoon’s game and that lineup had me hitting lead off and playing centerfield. I was telling Jordan that I think they (the coaches and minor league personnel) realize how much work I’ve put in and that I’ve gotten faster because last year I was never really given the opportunity to play center. Needless to say I was pretty happy that I was starting and playing center and leading off. The morning session was short; we worked on popup priorities, took and infield/outfield, and took batting practice. Once we were done for the morning we went inside and we had our daily subs.

Lunch time was over and 12:45 rolled around and my teammates and I made our way over to the Cardinals fields. We had a quick stretch as a team, played some catch, and it seemed like in no time it was time for the game to begin. My first at bat I worked the count to 3-1 and swung at a borderline pitch up and in and hit a ground ball to the first baseman. I felt good throughout the at bat and hit the ball somewhat hard, I just didn’t stay through it. My next at bat I came up with runners on first and second with no outs. I got the count to my advantage at 2-1 and I hit another ground ball to the first baseman except this time it bounced over his head, scoring the run from second base. I hit this ball pretty hard but just straight into the ground. My final at bat I came up with one out and a runner on first. I was pretty anxious throughout the entire day and my last at bat showed it. I swung at the first pitch and once again hit a hard ground ball to the first baseman. I ended up grounding into a double play. When I look back on my 1-3 day I think that I had an alright day at the plate. I know that once I get some more live pitching under my belt, the balls that I hit today will all end up being line drives in the right center gap. I played 5 innings, hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to play a full game.

One of the most encouraging things of the day for me happened when I was on first after my single. The next batter hit a line drive to second base and I was caught off the base and was doubled up at first. It was a pretty tough read, but the thing that I was happy with was that I slid back into first base head first. Ever since I dislocated my shoulder I’ve been worried that I wasn’t going to be able to dive head first. Right before I dove back I had second thoughts in my head about diving but I did it anyways and it ended up turning out alright. Hopefully the next time that this situation arises I won’t have to think twice about it.

Movie Update:
Broken- I thought this was a pretty good movie. We watched it last night and usually when we watch movies at night we usually don’t make it through the whole thing. Last night though we didn’t want to turn it off because we got so into it. It’s pretty much 4 movies all rolled into one. It was confusing at first but once you begin to understand what’s going on its pretty good.
My rating: 6.5

Tomorrow we play the Cardinals once again, but on our home field. I’m going to get at least two at bats and I can’t wait.

*Ooze with confidence but leave cockiness to the insecure.

First day of games.........tomorrow.

The rain once again had a big effect on our day. When we woke up and went down to eat breakfast we were greeted by a downpour. So obviously the fields were soaked and we had to change around our day accordingly. All we ended up doing was taking batting practice in the cages and then ran a little bit for our conditioning. We had to take a shower after we were done because we had a meeting with the minor league drug testing people. It actually wasn’t too bad, usually those meetings are like pulling teeth, but today it was a short 15 minutes.

That was the end of our day at the field and it was only around 12:30. Jordan and I then came back to the hotel, put in Transformers, and 15 minutes into the movie fell asleep. We woke back up at about 4:00 and finished up the movie (the review will follow). We went ahead and got some dinner at Pollo Tropical, a local Caribbean fast food joint. It’s a pretty good place to eat, I had a bowl of rice with black beans and chicken on top of it. The best part about it is that it only costs $3.85 and it still fills me up. Now I’m sitting in bed watching the final 12 of American Idol perform.

When I got to the field I found out that I was affected by the drop downs from major league camp. With one outfielder moving down from big league camp there was a trickle down effect which subsequently sent me down to group four (the low A group). I knew that it was probably going to come eventually but I’m not going to lie and say that I wasn’t a little bit disappointed. But honestly it doesn’t matter to me what group I’m in as long as I’m able to get some at bats and showcase my abilities.

Tomorrow we play our first game of the spring. We make the short walk over to the Cardinals camp. I can’t wait, it’s been forever since I’ve been in a game situation. I’m ready to compete, I feel lost whenever I’m not competing in something. That makes me that that once my baseball career is over I’m going to have to find something that can bring out my competitive juices.

Movie Update:
Transformers- This movie is a spin off of the figureines that were popular in the early to mid 1990’s. It’s a pretty action packed movie and I thought they did a great job of including real life events and monuments into a completely ficional film.
My rating: 6.5

American Idol Update:
They’re finally down to their final 12 performers and the guys and girls are now merged together. I thought that the best performances of the night came from Chikeze (his first good performance yet), Carly Smithson, Brooke White, and Kansas City's own David Cook. The people that I think will be voted off are Ramiele Malubay and Kristy Lee Cook. We'll have to see tomorrow how my predictions turn out.

I’ll have a pretty detailed report of my first spring training game tomorrow. I’m thinking that it’s going to be a good report, but you’ll have to check back tomorrow to see how it went.

*Challenge yourself to be at your best at all times.

New poll question and a near home run.

Today started off pretty early for me and all the outfielders. We had early work with all the outfielders, we worked on drop steps and sinking line drives. Early work usually lasts about 30 minutes and we’re all assigned times to come out early and work with the coordinators. Thursday is our next day for early work, instead of outfield work we have hitting.

Today’s schedule was almost exactly the same as it was a few days ago with one variation. Instead of bunt defense for our team defense we worked on cuts and relays. Our team did really well with this which is always nice because the fewer mistakes you make the less time you spend on the team defense.

We also took live batting practice off of pitchers. Today the pitchers didn’t tell us what was coming so it was more of an at bat, and more game like. My first at bat I got fooled on a change up on a 1-1 count and flew out to centerfield. My next at bat I hit a fly ball to right field that short hopped the fence. It probably would have been an out because it was hit pretty high and would have given the right fielder plenty of time to get under it. I was pretty happy with the swing that I took; I just got under it a little bit. My third at bat was against a lefty, something that I haven’t seen in forever. I saw six pitches but ended up striking out looking. Even though I struck out I felt good with my takes and I saw all his pitches. My next at bat I got to a 3-2 count and hit a line drive into left center. If this was in a game situation I probably would’ve gotten a double. This was my most encouraging at bat of the day. My final at bat against the same lefty I once again got to 3-2 and hit a weak ground ball to the second baseman. When I look back on my at bats I felt pretty good and saw a lot of pitches. I would’ve ended up being 1-5 on the day.

After the game Jordan and I watched a little of the Twins vs. Marlins game. Joe Mauer, former AL batting champ, happened to be making his way towards the locker room which happened to be right where Jordan and I were standing. As you can see by the picture I had my camera with me and he was more than happy to oblige. He was a really nice guy, which stays true to everything that I’ve ever heard about him.

The Marlins started sending guys down from big league camp yesterday. So far 15 guys have been sent down; starting tomorrow our groups will change. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to the groups.

Baseball America came out with their newest top 25 poll and it found Missouri at number four. I haven’t really looked into this but I would think that this is the highest a Missouri baseball team has ever been ranked. If there able to keep winning you never know what can happen; I think this is cliché, but the possibilities are endless.

Movie Update:
Heavens Fall- This is a movie based upon a trial of rape by a group of nine black men in Mobile, Alabama. I won’t give anything away but I will say that this was a great movie. It still makes me so mad to think of how black people were treated back during segregation.
My rating: 8.5

Zodiac- This is another movie that Jordan and I watched that was based upon true events. This movie is about the Zodiac killer that began in the late 1960’s. A group of reporters and cops are led in many different directions while trying to figure out who the Zodiac killer is. I don’t want to spoil any of this movie either, but it is also a great flick. If you plan on watching it make sure you have plenty of time on your hands because it’s more than two and a half hours.
My rating: 9.0

Jordan and I have watched a couple really good movies in the past couple days. Tomorrow will be a little shorter day because we don’t have live batting practice. We’re replacing that though with an annual drug testing meeting. A new poll questions is up so make sure you check it out and vote.

*Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

Hunter's Away Message

Attention all avid readers of Hunter's blog. He is very sorry he will not be able to complete a blog tonight because the internet at his hotel will not allow him to do so. He will continue his blog tomorrow along with a new poll question. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding.

-Drew Nervig

Another modified day.

Today was another long day, but today it wasn’t because of long talks but because of rain from last night. We got to the field only to find all the fields soaked from last night’s rain. Since the fields were wet they moved everything back a little to see if the fields could dry out a little. Needless to say the fields never dried out and we waited for a few hours. We took batting practice off of the coaches in the batting cages and shortly after moved to the fields to take live batting practice off pitchers. They did cover up the mounds and home plate areas last night. I only saw 10 pitches today and I think took four swings; out of those 4 swings I hit 2 balls hard that most likely would have been hits. Tomorrow we do the same things as what we did yesterday; hopefully the rain stays away so that we’re able to stay on schedule.

Brett threw two innings in the big league game today. The Marlins traveled four hours to play the defending world champion, Boston Red Sox. After the game I sent Brett a text message asking him how he did and his response was that he threw two innings and didn’t give up any runs and that the first three batters that he faced were David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, and Jason Varitek. All three of those guys are regular starters for the Red Sox with Ortiz being a perennial all-star. I would love to be able to face big league pitchers like that on a daily basis. For the most part I feel like I’ve been able to rise to the challenge of facing better pitchers, I just think it would be so tough mentally to hit every time against a guy with their caliber.

After Jordan and I left the field we decided to make a pit stop at a local dive called Dune Dog’s. They specialize in different kinds of hot dogs and what they put on their dogs. Dune Dog’s is definitely a place that is a must stop restaurant for first timers to Jupiter. It’s set outside, a trait of a restaurant that could only be achieved in a few places in the continental United States. All I had though was corn on the cob (have to eat healthy) while Jordan chowed down on a foot long chili cheese dog with a side of waffle fries. As soon as they brought out his food my mouth instantly started watering. We’re definitely going to have to hit up Dune Dog’s on a Sunday so I can get anything on the menu!

Movie Update:
Guy X- This is a movie based in 1979 on an army base in Greenland. This was one of the more confusing movies I’ve ever seen. I knew what was going on but I had no idea how it was happening (if that makes any sense). American Pie’s Jason Biggs is the star of this black comedy. I might have to watch this one again to catch some of the things that I wasn’t able to pick up on the first time around.
My rating- 5.5

Jordan and I are now settled into bed getting ready to watch the Duke vs. North Carolina game. We also have to make sure and get to bed an hour earlier tonight so that we can make an easy adjustment into daylight savings time. Hopefully the weather will be nice and warm tomorrow so that we can get everything in that we need to.

If you haven’t noticed yet the poll question has ended. Apparently baseball games are by far the best sporting events to go to at Mizzou. I’m going to be honest, I even voted for football. I’m sure if I would have been at that regional last year my opinion might be different. I’ll have a new poll question up tomorrow so stay tuned.

The picture is of half of our locker room.

*Control only what’s in your power, if you work hard enough you shouldn’t have to worry about that which you can’t control...it should all take care of itself.

First day of spring training...

Today was the first day of full squad workouts and it was a tiring day. We started off the day at the field with an hour and a half long meeting about expectations and rules. That was probably the most tiring part of the day. Standing for long periods of time wasn’t something that I practiced a whole lot in the off season. Once that was all done with we split up into our groups, which are all on five different fields. The first thing that we did, after stretch and throwing, was bunt defense. This is kind of a boring time for the outfielders because we always end up spending the entire time running bases. It gets a little monotonous but you have to do it. After 30 minutes spent on bunt defense we split off into our defensive specialties. Today for outfield work we started off with some ground balls and worked up to drop steps to our left and right. I’m not sure how long that lasted but it seemed to go by pretty quick. Live batting practice was the next thing on the agenda. I got four rounds with five pitches a piece. I probably took 10 swings and hit the ball hard at least five times. It’s always nice to start off spring training with feeling nice in the box. We have live BP for the next 4 days so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing some live pitching. I figure that the more pitches that I can see of pitchers before we actually start playing games then the better off I’ll be. We ended the day with some regular batting practice followed by a little conditioning. By the time that I got back into the locker room after eating lunch and getting changed I only had about 20 minutes in the weight room. I got a little leg work in, took a shower, and Jordan and I headed back to the hotel.

The Missouri baseball team kicks off a weekend series with Indiana State tomorrow. These kinds of games are what are considered “trap” games. They’re always a little tougher to get up for because you know that you aren’t playing an opponent that as high of quality as you did the weekend before. That’s the reason as to why I think bigger schools struggle so much with mid-week games. It’s tough to get up for a game in the middle of the week that can be surrounded by a series with Texas and Nebraska. The best teams are able to rise to the challenge of every game. Hopefully Missouri goes out the same mindset that they played with last weekend.

Movie Update:
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer- I thought this movie was alright. I haven’t seen all of the first movie so there were some parts of this second movie where I was kind of lost. Jordan and I both enjoyed watching the new age action heroes!
My rating- 6.0

Suburban Girl: I struggled all the way through this movie. It’s a real slow about a young up and coming editor who fall for an older man who is very highly thought of in the book business. The best part of this movie was getting to see Sarah Michelle Gellar in her underwear, other than that it wasn’t very good.
My rating-4.0

Tomorrow’s schedule is very similar to what we did today. The only difference being that during our team time we’ll do something different than bunt defense. I’m going to try to get to bed before midnight tonight; I should be able to considering I avoided a nap this afternoon.

*Drown out negative thoughts with thoughts.

Go time tomorrow!

I kind of thought that today was going to be the first day of workouts for the position players, at least that’s what I was told, turns out I was told wrong. I woke up at 7:30 and went to the field with Jordan only to find out that we don’t have anything tomorrow. After I found that out I realized that I had about 4 hours to kill before I could get a ride back to the hotel. I taped up a couple bats, hit for a little, and did a little core work. I didn’t want to get a big lift in today so that I could be fresh for tomorrow’s first workout. I worked out a few kinks in the batting cage that had been bothering me since the last time that I had taken live BP. After about 45 minutes I got done what I needed to do.

A couple nights ago I was bored and found myself just clicking on random icons on my desktop. A couple years ago the hitting instructor for the Marlins downloaded a hitting analysis program onto my computer with a bunch of my swings and big league swings. A week or so after he put the program on my computer it stopped working. Now that you know that background information I can continue on with my story. When I clicked on it a couple nights ago I was really surprised to have it come up and work. I’ve been experimenting with it the past couple days, trying to find out all the ins and outs of the program. I’m thinking about buying a camcorder and know that I know that this program works I really am considering buying one. It will also be a great tool for when I start giving lessons once again. There were so many times when I was giving a lesson that I wished that I could show whoever I was working with they were doing with their swing that was wrong or right. Sometimes when you see yourself swinging, at least with me, you imagine yourself looking completely different. I’m looking forward to getting new swings of mine onto my computer, the last swing that I have of mine was when I was in Jamestown my first year.

My family is going to Columbia this weekend to watch the Missouri baseball team play. My dad is always able to give me a good analysis of the game and how everyone did, so I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say. Hopefully the weather will allow for all the games to be played this weekend.

Tomorrow Brett throws in his first big league game in Jupiter. That means that Jordan and I will finally get to see him throw. Apparently they start sending guys from big league camp down to minor league camp on Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact that has on all us minor leaguers. Usually when people get sent down from big league camp they start to release guys on the minor league level. I would think though that they would at least let us play some games before they started releasing guys. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Movie update:
The Kingdom- Jordan and I started this one last night and finished it up this afternoon. Jamie Foxx plays a FBI agent that goes over to Saudi Arabia to try and solve a terrorist crime. There were some pretty good battle scenes in this movie. I’d definitely suggest this movie.
My rating- 7.5

Rush Hour 3- Most everyone has seen the at least one of the first two Rush Hour movies. This one was based in Paris with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker trying to save the Chinese ambassador’s daughter. I thought it was an alright movie, Chris Tucker always seems to have some lines in movies that end up being common catch phrases.
My rating- 6.0

American Idol update:
Tonight was an elimination night, taking the competition down to the final 12. It’s also the last show where the guys and girls are voted on separately. In my opinion this season has some of the best voices/personalities of any season yet.
Females eliminated- Kady Malloy’s journey came to an end tonight. If you can remember right she was my dad’s pick from the very beginning. It’s a shame she didn’t do well, it seemed as if off stage she was a really fun girl but when she got on stage she kind of lost her personality. The next girl to get voted off was my favorite Asia’h Epperson. I’m still hurting with this one. She has been my favorite since her first audition, which happened to be only a few days after he father passed away. I still think that she has a very bright future in front of her.
Males eliminated- Luke Menard was the first guy voted off. The Hugh Jackman look alike never really had a week where he was real good. He always seemed to be pretty average and it finally caught up to him tonight. The last cast-off of the night was Danny Noriega. I’m only going to say one thing, it’s about time.

The first picture is of the Marlins offices at our spring training facility. The second picture is of our new room at the La Quinta and the final picture is of the view from our window (that palm tree doesn't make for a great view).

*If you don’t think you belong, quit.

Stuck in the bathroom!

I’m going to start off tonight’s blog with one of the funnier stories that has involved Jordan and I. For the first couple days that we have been in our new room Jordan has had a hard time getting out of the bathroom once he closes the door. I make fun of him every time he fiddles with it because it has never happened to me. I later figured out that I have never shut the door all the way. So obviously Jordan wanted to prove a point to me and of course we both went into the bathroom at the same time. I think you can see where this story is going now. Once we were in the bathroom we fiddled around with the doorknob with no luck. We tried and tried and about 15 minutes later we decided to give up. Luckily I had brought my phone into the bathroom with me because I was talking to Drew. I had to call 411 and get the number to our hotel where I talked to the lady at the front desk. I tried explaining what was going on but I think she thought I was messing with her. A couple minutes later a lady knocked on our door, came into our room, and freed us from the bathroom. All three of us were laughing historically. I can only imagine what she was thinking. Not only were two guys stuck in the bathroom together but two guys that both had only a pair of shorts on a piece! After all that trouble we ended up getting a pretty good laugh out of it. Those are the kind of situations that Jordan and I always seem to end up in.

Tomorrow is the first day of workouts for the position players, and I can’t wait. The position players that weren’t here all arrived tonight and will have their physicals tomorrow morning. Once everyone has completed their physicals we’ll head out to the field to, I’m assuming, take batting practice and play catch. Friday we are scheduled to have our first session of live batting practice facing pitchers. We’ll continue to have morning sessions only until the 12th when we will start play games in the afternoons. All the coaches that I’ve talked to that I haven’t seen in awhile have all said that they heard through the grapevine that I’ve been hitting the ball well. That’s encouraging to me that my name has come up in conversations with the coaches.

Jordan and I had our second night in a row of Subway. We just might go there every night, and that means a lot of saved money and a lot of healthy sandwiches. But considering we get subs every day for lunch we might just have to switch up dinner a little bit every now and then to keep our bodies guessing!

I stayed away from a nap this afternoon so that I could get a good night’s worth of sleep tonight. Hopefully it’s a decision that turns out to be the right one. All I know is that this afternoon until about now I’ve been yawning every 10 seconds it seems like. Come back tomorrow to read how my first day with the rest of the position players went.

Today's picture is of my sister and I a couple of years ago. I forgot/couldn't find anything good to take a picture of today so I figured that I could just put up a picture of my favorite sister.

*If you play every game as if it is your last you won’t have to second guess yourself.

Rubbing elbow with the stars...

Today didn’t end up being as long as I thought that it would. Usually when we have physicals whether it was in high school, college, or pro ball the physicals have taken forever. Jordan and I got to the doctor’s office around 9:15. At the doctor’s office we went through a dental exam, urine test, blood test, orthopedic exam, and EKG. We got done with that around 11:00 and headed over to the facilities to do sit and reach, height and weight, body fat, and verticals. My vertical ended up being 31”. I know I can get up to a 35” if I was warmed up and had some blood flowing. My body fat was down, in a couple days they’ll post the percentages and I’ll be able to stack myself up against some of the other guys and against myself from last August when I left rehab.

The pitchers didn’t start their first day of workouts until 1:00. I needed a ride back to the hotel and with Jordan being a pitcher and still having about an hour and a half until they began I was able to get about a two hour lift in. It was pretty invigorating, I’m hoping that I can get one more great day of hard lifting in before spring training begins.

The Marlins played a limited Mets squad today. Jordan and I watched from behind the left field fence for about 3 or 4 innings. I brought my camera out with me today so that when the starters came off the field early I could get some pictures taken with them, and that’s exactly what I did. The first picture is with the Marlins 40 something year old left fielder Luis Gonzalez. The second picture is with the Marlins second baseman, and the man with Popeye forearms, Dan Uggla. The last picture is with the Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. In the picture Reyes looks taller than me but I’m pretty sure he was standing on the higher side of a slope. I was pretty surprised to see how big he was; on TV he just looks like another skinny guy. It definitely gave validation to my point that you won’t see too many guys in the big leagues that aren’t physical specimens. I’m looking forward to getting more pictures with some big league stars. I’m also thinking about going to Walgreen’s and getting my pictures made into 8X10’s and having the guys sign them. Either way they’ll be nice thing to put into a recreation room when I grow up and have my own house (along with a certain female).

At the field today they had our groups posted for spring training. I was in group 3 (the high A group) but I’m not going to put much stock into that for one because there are about 10 outfielders in big league spring training and once they start getting sent down it will have a trickle effect among the minor league groups. Also I had the low A manager tell me that he’s trying to get me as one of his outfielders. I’m pretty sure that he likes me and would give me an ample amount of at-bats. Either way it doesn’t matter where I end up I’m going to have to put up good numbers and stay healthy to show the Marlins that I can produce in pro ball.

Jordan and I watched Balls of Fury last night. I thought it was absolutely hilarious but IMDB users thought it was terrible. It’s basically about the world of underground (obviously fictional, at least I think) ping-pong. Christopher Walken plays the ping-pong master and I think that any role he plays ends up being comical. This afternoon we started watching 3:10 to Yuma, a movie that has gotten great reviews. We’re about halfway through and I’m not real impressed with it. It is a Western, and with me not being a very big fan of that genre could be the reason that I don’t like it so far.

Tomorrow the position players that are here have the day off but I’m going to go in with Jordan in the morning because I have nothing better to do and if there’s a chance that I can get better I’m going to take full advantage of it.

If you click on the pictures you can make them full size.

*Sometimes you can make something out of nothing but it would be a travesty to make nothing out of something.

First full day with Jordan...

Today was a good day. I originally woke up around 7:00 to go down and eat breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised with the La Quinta’s breakfast selections. The one thing that I was worried about was whether or not they were going to have hard boiled eggs, but they did. The one thing that they don’t have here that they had at the Fairfield Inn is waffles. They do however have biscuits and gravy, so I figured that was a decent trade off. I was also happy to find out that they have USA Today’s in the breakfast room. I was worried that with the change in hotels I wasn’t going to be able to continue my morning puzzles out of the paper.

I also found out today that this spring training we get money for food instead of meal vouchers. In years past they have given out vouchers that are worth $9.00 with about 10 different restaurants that accept them. This year since Jordan and I are staying at another hotel we’re getting money. It should end up being a pretty good thing because with the vouchers if you didn’t spend the full amount you didn’t get any change back. This year I’m hoping to maybe pocket some extra meal money, granted it won’t be much but something is better than nothing.

After we got done with our workout today at the field they let us get our 300 yard shuttle conditioning testing out of the way if we wanted to. There were about 10 guys that decided to run it. I ended up running my first one in :53 and my second one in :54. They were the best times out of my group but I think I can do better so I’m going to run it again once spring training starts. My goal is to get the best time in the organization. I really want to show to the coaches and front office how serious I was this off season with getting myself into the best shape possible. I think I can run it a little better because I was dragging a little today from my swimming that I did yesterday. I know that with fresh legs I can get those times down by at least a couple seconds. I hate to make excuses but I guess I just did.

Brett didn’t end up throwing in the big league game today which was pretty disappointing. He said that instead of throwing today he’s not going to be able to throw until Wednesday which happens to be in Ft. Lauderdale again. It’s starting to look like I’m going to have to have a talk with Fredi (Gonzalez, the Marlins manager) about getting Brett some innings at home!

Jordan and I also relaxed at the beach for awhile this afternoon after workouts. We went over to Chili’s for dinner, which is definitely a new one for me. Tomorrow we have our physicals at 9:45. Spring training is finally here, it seems like it’s taken forever but I’m sure it will be well worth the wait.

*”It’s not easy, it takes patience…you got to make sure and do it right.” John Pascucci (one of Drew’s clients at Wilson’s).

Change of scenery (still won't let me post my picture)

What a great day it has been! I woke up around 11:00 and took my computer with me over to Duffy’s to catch up on some of this past week’s shows. I stayed for about an hour and watched the Gauntlet 3 and Rob and Big. After I was all caught up I headed over to Vinny’s Pizza and got my regular Sunday pizza. Once I got back to the hotel I felt a little lazy so I headed down to the pool and swam 25 laps of all different kinds of strokes. Swimming can be so hard when you aren’t a very good swimmer. I feel like when I swim all I’m doing is fighting with the water…and it’s one heck of an opponent!

Once I got done swimming I went back up to my room and relaxed for awhile while I watched the Missouri baseball game on gametracker (more about that later). At about 5:00 Brett came and picked me up from the hotel and we headed over to his place where we grilled some sausages and steaks. Along with Lindsey and Brett we were joined by Andrew Miller. Andrew was picked up this off season in a trade with the Detroit Tigers. He threw in the big leagues last year for the Tigers and is a highly touted prospect. He’s a real down to earth guy and you would never guess that he was a big leaguer that signed for a ton of money. I had fun talking to him and just asking him random questions about the big leagues and some of the guys that he had played with. He’s pretty knowledgeable about sports, so for me he’s an easy guy to talk to. He even knew a little about Missouri baseball which is really rare.

Brett brought me back to the hotel at around 9:00 where I received a call from Jordan informing me that he was only an hour away from Jupiter and we could move over to the La Quinta tonight as opposed to tomorrow night. Once he got here it took a couple trips to get all my stuff transferred from the Fairfield to the La Quinta. I think this hotel is going to be a good change of scenery. Some of the plusses include that it’s closer to the beach (it’s right next to the intercoastal), it has a faster internet connection (that means slingbox in my bed), and the TV is bigger and nicer and has more channels. The real test will come tomorrow morning with breakfast. The lady at the front desk says that it’s a pretty good one, it’ll be tough though to be any better than the Fairfield’s.

It’s so nice to see Jordan again. Along with Brett he’s my best friend in the organization. We really seemed to pick up right where we left off from last summer. We were joking earlier that it seems like we were away from each other for a weekend. He’s a great friend that I’ve been able to keep in close contact with over the past off-season.

Now onto the recap of Missouri baseball’s weekend out in San Diego. They ended up winning 3 out of 4 which is pretty good considering the competition they faced. It’s always nice to beat up on California teams. They always seem to think that they’re way of playing baseball is the best and they have the best players and when you’re able to put it to them, like we did a couple years ago in the Malibu regional, it is absolutely amazing. I know they would have liked to come out of the weekend with 4 wins but when it’s all said and done it wasn’t so bad of a weekend. It’ll be interesting where they end up in the rankings after this weekend. I assume that they’ll stay in the top 10 but be around 8 or 9. It’s nice to be able to drop some spots and still be in the top 10.

I’ll have more to write tomorrow. It’s been a long, crazy night of moving things around and getting situated in a new room. Brett also throws in the big league game tomorrow against the Red Sox. Tomorrow should be a good blog.

*Happiness doesn’t come from things that you can hold but rather from things that your soul possesses.

2-1 on the weekend so far.

The second game of Missouri’s double header last night ended up going to the good guys. Ian Berger threw what looked like to be a very good game. The only run that he gave up was on a homerun. If Berger is able to throw for the rest of the year like he did last night, then watch out Big 12 and not to mention the rest of the country.

Today’s game unfortunately didn’t turn out the way that Missouri fans would have liked. Rick Zagone threw well through 5 innings, only allowing one hit. The 6th inning however was a different story. San Diego ended up scoring 3 in the bottom of the 6th, giving them a 5-4 lead, which ended up being good enough to get the win.

Ryan Lollis and Jacob Priday continue their hot start. Through 7 games Lollis is hitting .444 and Priday is hitting .379. I know what those guys are going through, in regards to having high expectations thrust upon them. It looks as if these two are doing a great job of living up to the early season expectations. Both of these guys are great hitters, consistency will prove to be the deciding factor with these two as to how high they will end up being drafted.

I caught up today on some much needed sleep. I slept all the way until 1:30 in the afternoon! I honestly could have slept until about 4:00 but I had to get up and get the day going. Once I got going I made my way down to the exercise room and did a half hour of stair climber, 500 pushups, and 500 different abs exercises. After that I went out to the pool and did a bunch of different exercises in the pool. It was definitely 2 hours well spent.

While I was in the exercise room I watched the Tyson Cup. It was the first time that I had seen the next greatest American gymnast, Shawn Johnson, compete. She has to be the cutest thing ever. I will say this; America will absolutely love this girl. Today, unfortunately, she didn’t win. It was the first time during her senior career that she hadn’t won a competition. It’ll be fun to watch her progress through the trials and on into the Olympic Games. As much as I hate to admit it I have a ton of respect for gymnasts. The things that they are able to do are just so amazing. I definitely wouldn’t mind having a daughter that was a gymnast. I could handle going to watch her gymnastics meets but I’m not sure I could handle girls basketball, soccer, or softball. We’ll see what happens with that.

I watched The Bourne Ultimatum last night. I didn’t think it was as good as the second movie, but I still thought it was pretty good. They had a couple really good fight scenes. To understand this movie you have to have a good understanding with the back story of the Bourne movies. This one was a little tough to follow, but I managed to get by and understand what was going on.

Tomorrow should be a pretty good day; Jordan gets in tomorrow night, I’m able to eat whatever I want to (because it’s my day to eat whatever), and I’m going to go over to the field at 1:00 to watch the Marlins game.

Well it still won't let me post any pictures...maybe tomorrow.

*Don’t dwell on what’s in store, live for the moment.

Rough day at the field.

Today I’m switching things up a little bit. Right now the Missouri baseball game against San Diego State is going on and I was in the hotel trying to follow the gametracker but because the internet connection isn’t very fast at the hotel I wasn’t able to follow very closely. So I figured I would just head over to old reliable, Duffy’s.

From what I can tell the first game against California went pretty well. Obviously I’m only looking at the box score, but it did favor Missouri. They ended up winning 7-5 with Aaron Crow getting the win. The big blow for Missouri came in the first inning on a grand slam by Aaron Senne. They ended up pounding out 14 hits; hopefully the bats can stay hot for this second game. Crow looked like he threw pretty well. He gave up a homerun in the first inning as well, but being the competitor that he is it looked like he calmed down just fine and ended up striking out 10. It looks like Ian Berger has started the second game of the double header.

I absolutely loved Friday night games. They always seemed to bring out the best in everyone. Both teams are fresh after a couple days off and are ready to get things going. Each team has their ace on the hill and both teams know how crucial it is to start the weekend off 1-0. My junior year it seemed like the only hitting I did during the weekend series came on Friday nights. I always seemed to get 2 or 3 hits and then the rest of the weekend would go oh-fer. If somehow I would’ve been able to harness what I had on Friday night and take that into every game I would’ve been a lot better off. The good thing for me is that I’m still getting a chance to play and I’m still in search of finding that frame of mind that I need to be in for every game.

Today was a pretty rough day for me. We faced some live pitching, just like we did last Friday. It definitely didn’t go as well today as I would have liked, but that’s how baseball goes. Everything today seemed like it was moving at a faster pace. When I’m able to slow the game down, like I was able to last week, things seem to come a lot easier. The thing about baseball is that the more and more you think about what went wrong you’ll just get yourself worked up and create a headache for yourself. What I try and do is learn from the bad as soon as I can and get it out of my system. Once that happens I try to remind myself about all the positives that I’ve had within the past month since I’ve been down here. When you look at it like that the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. I like to think that the best thing about having a bad day at the plate is that it ends and tomorrow will be a completely new day. The great hitters are able to throw a bad at bat or maybe even a bad swing out of their memory before it’s able to weigh too heavily on their mind. I know I can get to that point, and have been before. Honestly I think that sometimes I over critique what I do when sometimes the events that happen to me aren’t within my control. With me it’s all about knowing that I can compete and succeed with the best.

I also put up a new poll question so be sure and vote. The last poll question about my hair style was kind of interesting. I voted for the short fade look, and that’s the one that ended up winning. If you know me, you know that if I could I would have a different hairstyle every week. I’m probably not going to be able to do that anytime soon so I figure I’ll just stick with my current hairstyle, the short fade.

I tried posting a picture, but for some reason it's wouldn't let me. I'll try again tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be a new day and you can’t ask for much more than that.

*It’s not hard to think negatively, being able to think positively during tough times is what will get you through.

Jupiter is freezing over!

These past couple of days something extremely out of the ordinary has happened, it has been “cold”. Yesterday it was overcast with a little wind and the temperature was in the low 60’s. Today it was sunny and in the low 60’s and tonight it’s supposed to get down into the 40’s. I know, I know…it sounds absolutely crazy to say that that is cold but if you were to see how people down here react to this weather you would think that they’re preparing for an ice age! I was talking to some of the Latinos and they don’t know what to do. One of the guys that’s from the Dominican Republic told me that the coldest it got this past year was the high 70’s. Obviously none of the Latin guys have ever seen snow, which I could never imagine. I couldn’t live in an environment where it was warm all the time, I need change. Being a Midwest boy I’ve learn to appreciate the change in season. We’ll see what tomorrow has in store weather-wise, it should be pretty interesting to see if it keeps getting cooler. I don’t like looking at the forecast either, I like to be surprised!

Today I watched the first couple innings of the Cardinals vs. Mets spring training game. Both of the teams had most of their starters in the game, everyone except for my favorite player of course. For those of you that don’t know it’s Carlos Beltran. I’ve been a big fan of his ever since his days with the Royals. The first picture is of Moises Alou out in left field. I always get excited when there is a marquee player out in left field. I got to see Albert Pujols hit once, saw Jose Reyes hit a couple times. Eventually one of these times I’ll build up enough courage to get an autograph or take a picture with one of the big leaguers. It’s kind of weird to me because I still am such a big fan of a lot of these guys that I get to see play up close. To think that I could eventually play against these guys would be a dream come true. If I am fortunate enough to get that opportunity I will cherish every moment of it and try to stay away from being star struck.

The Missouri baseball team starts off a tough weekend’s worth of competition tomorrow against California followed later in the night with San Diego State. Even though Missouri is ranked #5 in Baseball America’s top 25 I still don’t feel like they’ve reached the level of national respect quite yet. With that said, doing well this weekend, I think, would put them in the same category of the national powerhouses of college baseball. Granted it is going to be one of the tougher weekends of the year I think Missouri will rise to the challenge. It’ll be interesting to see which pitcher Coach Jamieson and the coaching staff decide to start against each opponent. If you go off of what happened last weekend San Diego State will be the toughest opponent, but then again it is college baseball and there are so many things that can happen. I also think that Missouri’s offense will be able to display, on a national scene, what they’re made of. I’m sure a lot of people are questioning the offense after a weekend filled with unearned runs, walks, and hit by pitches. But you know what? You don’t win games by getting a lot of hits and hitting a lot of homeruns, you win games by scoring more runs than the other team. In my opinion if they hit .200 as a team but average 10 runs a game then that’s a great offense. I do think that this weekend they are going to get a chance to swing the bats a little more due to the higher quality in pitching. Hopefully they can prove those naysayers wrong and still be able to put up a lot of runs with a good amount of hits.

One of the neater things with being in the minor leagues is that you play with and against guys who end up being in the big leagues. The way that the Marlins do things, they end up bringing a lot of guys up through the organization. Today was one of my good friend Brett Sinkebeil’s first appearance in a big league spring training game. Unfortunately they played in Fort Lauderdale so I wasn’t able to see him throw but according to the box score it looked like he threw alright. Hopefully the next time that he throws in a game I’ll be able to see him in person.

Ok now onto the part of my blog that you might not like to read but I like writing about anyways, my movie reviews and my take on the night’s American Idol. So if you don’t like reading about those two things there’s my warning.

Last night I watched a couple different movies. The first one that I watched was called Goal!. I thought it was a really good movie. It’s about a young man living in Los Angeles who gets noticed in a recreational soccer game by a European soccer fan. It’s a really good inspirational movie having to do with going after your goals. I’m also a sucker for a movie with good sports scenes, even if they are soccer scenes. This movie had great soccer scenes, and that was enough for me.
The second movie that I saw was Heartbreak Kid with Ben Stiller. It had some good laughs in it and I’d probably recommend this movie too. Like always Ben Stiller is put into some awkward situations, always leading to a funny moment.

Tonight was the second week on American Idol for cast-offs. The guys that were voted off were Robbie Carrico (the guy with the long hair) and Jason Yeager (the guy with the dark hair with a little streak of blonde in the front). I wasn’t a real big fan of either of these guys so I wasn’t really disappointed. The girls that were voted off were Alexandrea Lushington and Alaina Whitaker. Alaina was one of the cuter girls in the competition but wasn’t real memorable with her performances. My favorites are still around so that’s all that I really care about. Next week it should be 80’s week, so I’m definitely looking forward to that.

The other picture that I posted is of my locker at the field. It’s already a little messy, but hey it’s all good. I figured maybe you guys would like to see what that looks like. I'll start posting more pictures.

Just in case you guys were wondering if my thoughts at the end of the blog are mine…they definitely are. For some reason my dad doesn’t think that I’m smart enough to come up with those on my own. What he doesn’t realize is that my intelligence comes from my mom!

*Striking fear into your opponent’s head is winning half of the battle.