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.

Hump Day!

First off I want to say I can’t believe how many people have voted on my poll question, it makes me happy to know that people are reading my blog! Feel free to leave me a comment, I love reading those too. Anyways, onto my thoughts for the day.

Today was kind of a weird day in regard to everything over at the field. The big league team had a game tonight at 7:00 so it kind of threw everything else off. But that’s all I’m going to say about that because my dad says I complain and whine too much about not getting to do some of the stuff that I’d like to do.

Today I was living off of leftovers. The best part about that is that I didn’t have to spend any money! Being a minor leaguer you really have to budget your money well. This off-season I put together a spread sheet that let me keep track of the money I spent and the money that I made. The way that I look at it is that if I am on the positive side every month then I’ll be alright! Easy way to think of it, right?

Last night I finished up a movie called Eastern Promises. I thought it was alright. It’s one of those movies that do real well in the world of critics but sometimes not so well with the general public. At least that’s how I am with a lot of movies like that. I guess I shouldn’t say that my opinion is that of the general public’s…but I’m going to. Anyways, this movie is about a Russian gangster family (that does really exist) dominating the streets of London. I’m a big fan of gangster movies; it always amazes me to think that some of the things that happen in these movies actually go on in the mafia/gang world.

My good buddy Jordan gets down here on Sunday. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen him so I’m definitely looking forward to my roomy getting in. He’s getting married on the first of December. It’s definitely going to be a busy off-season in regards to traveling and weddings. Drew I’m sure will be making all the trips with me. We’re most likely going to go back to Colorado Springs to visit her family, go down to Oklahoma in November for Brett’s wedding, go down to Charleston for Priday’s wedding, and finally go down to Dallas for Jordan’s wedding. I can’t wait…

Last night American Idol’s guy’s night was very mediocre. Like I had said last night everyone was just average except for David Archuleta. He is running away with this competition. Every time that he has performed it has been a great performance. One thing that I think is a little weird about this season is how they’re allowing them to use their guitars to perform. Sometimes, as in the case last night, the guitars drown out the voices. As far as I’m concerned it is a singing competition and I would honestly rather hear them sing on their own on the stage.

Here are some of my thoughts on tonight’s performances. I thought that Brooke White probably had the best performance, but with that said she had her guitar with her so that bumps her down a notch for me. I thought the rocker Amanda Overmeyer was really bad this week vocally, not to mention that her hair looked like skunk’s fur. I thought that my girl Asia’h Epperson was good outside of her one slip up in the middle of her song although Simon thought she was terrible. My dad’s choice Kady Malloy had another weak performance. You can tell that the judges want her to do so well because she’s so attractive and has a great personality but when she gets on stage she almost seems like a different person. Those are the only ones to really mention.

Before I leave you guys for the night I have one more story. In the mornings when I eat breakfast there is usually a morning talk show on the TV. Today was Live with Regis and Kelly, that’s not the interesting part though. They had a dog on today that set the world record for the fastest time to pop 100 balloons! The terrier popped all 100 balloons in a little more than 40 seconds. It was absolutely amazing, and it started my day off with a pretty good laugh.

*Insist on yourself, never imitate.

Everything's average...

Today has I guess been a pretty average day in terms of everything that went on. Nothing real special happened and nothing real bad happened. So I guess when you put those two things together you get an average day. Even though it was an average day I was still in high spirits because of the simple fact that I got to go to the field for yet another day.

Today was an early day in regards to working out. I woke up at 7:45, got some breakfast, and made the short bike trip over to the field. I got to the field at around 8:45, got dressed and stretched with the 6 other rehab guys. This is where things got a little frustrating. I got back inside and it was about 9:20 and I was ready to get my lift on but there was only one problem…there were 2 big leaguers occupying the weight room. Josh, the minor league strength and conditioning coordinator informed us that the weight room would be open to the minor leaguers at around 11:30. With that in mind I proceeded to do about 2 hours worth of shoulder rehab, forearm work, and core work inside the training room. There were a lot of unhappy minor leaguers, I just kind of sat back and listened and took it all in. After awhile the weight room was open and I took full advantage of it. I was able to get another full workout in today which always seems to be so refreshing. I’m a little worried that once actual spring training begins I might have to back off a little with my working out. I say this because I’m not real sure how hard I need to lift to be able to keep my body in good shape yet not be tired for practices because as everyone knows spring training can get long and strenuous.

I got done lifting at around 12:30 and I still had to buy a little time before the 3:00 start of the Marlins spring training opener. I rode my bike over to the closest Publix and got a turkey breast sub. I sat outside and enjoyed my meal and was even able to leave half of it for tomorrow. By the time I was done eating it was about time to get back so I could catch the first pitch of the game.

When I watch the spring training games I always take my perch behind the left field wall. Once we get going with spring training we always have a lunch break between our morning and afternoon workouts and during that time the big league teams are taking batting practice on the big field so I usually will go over to my spot and watch about 30 minutes of BP. The first picture is of where I watch all the games at. Today the Marlins played the University of Miami. I can only imagine how big of a thrill it has to be for a college kid to be playing against a big league opponent. My college days are only a couple years behind me and I know that if we would have had that opportunity I would have felt like a kid in a candy store. After the first inning of today’s game the sky started to get pretty dark, and it was obvious that it was about to pour (the second picture). Once the first inning was completely over the rain came down and I headed back into the clubhouse. I ended up riding my bike back to the hotel after the rain had stopped and by that time I was ready to get back to the hotel and start a new movie.

The rest of my day has been pretty normal and now I’m in the breakfast room watching American Idol. So far they’ve gone through 5 performances and they’ve all been, you guessed it, average. Tomorrow I’ll include my final opinion of tonight’s show.

If you were wondering the Marlins ended up winning 7-2. It’s kind of a no-win situation for the Marlins, if they win they were supposed to and if they lose then it looks really bad.

*Once the thought of failure has entered your mind then you’ve already failed.


I originally posted this blog but I had to re-post it because of a few things. The first thing being that I forgot to post my pictures! Obviously they're up now, so I hope you guys enjoy those. The second reason being because I just saw the best American Idol performance ever by David Archuleta. As far as I can tell he is heads and shoulders above everyone in this competition, especially the guys. That's all for now...I think.

A day to learn from...

The Missouri baseball team was handed their first loss today...I sure was hoping they'd go undefeated. Well in a realistic world everyone knows that going undefeated isn't the most plausible thing ever. Hopefully the guys and coaches will all learn from the loss and hopefully it becomes more of a learning experience than anything. After the weekend Missouri jumped from #6 to #5 in the Baseball America poll. I know Coach Jamieson and his staff will have everyone ready to play once this coming weekend rolls around. An interesting thing has occured with the team so far, they've been putting up some pretty good numbers on offense. That wasn't supposed to happen was it? These guys have been overlooked by a lot of people. Missouri basically has their high ranking because of the pitching staff. What the country doesn't know is how good this offense can be as well.

Today I was able to get a full workout for the first time since I've arrived in Jupiter. The "winter workout" guys got done a lot earlier than the "mini-camp" guys so I was able to go in about an hour before the other guys got in there and stayed until the end of the time that the "mini -camp" guys were in there. I'm not sure if all the working out will help me out a whole bunch when it comes to physical work but I know that mentally I will be in a better frame of mind knowing that I've worked about as hard as I can. I think that's one of the things with steroids that a lot of people don't understand. Obviously getting stronger from steroids is a big plus but I think that the biggest thing with steroids is that it gives the user more confidence because they know that they've used something that is a "performance enhancer". With that in the back of your mind you suddenly gain a lot more confidence. I've never done steroids if that's what you were asking yourself, it's just my opinion!

Tomorrow I'm going to ride my bike over to the field at around 9:00 so I can get some rehab work in and some weight training in before the big leaguers get there. Tomorrow at 3:00 the Marlins play the University of Miami. I'm looking forward to watching this game. Miami's supposed to pretty good this year so I'm hoping it ends up being a good game. It also gives me 3 more hours of something to do.

I received a package in the mail today and that right there brightened up my day a ton. My parents (who I don't say how great they are enough) sent me a booklet of new DVD's, a couple magazines, some orange slices, pumpkins seeds, Reese's peanut butter eggs, and last but definitely not least some wasabi and soy sauce almonds. If you've never tried those almonds I'd definitely suggest going out and getting some, it'll be worth the trip. I have the best parents in the world!

Today was a so-so day. It would have been one of the best days in awhile if Missouri could've pulled it out but it is a long season and they still have a ton of winning left to do. Outside of that though it was a great day.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a pretty good day as well.

*There's no better feeling in the world than when you line up against an opponent and you know that you've out trained him.

What a weekend!

I couldn't really have asked for a better weekend. I'll start out with Friday since I didn't really blog Friday night.

I had another encouraging day of practice in regards to hitting. I faced some more live pitching, had a few hits, and hit a homerun off of a former big leaguer. I feel pretty good right now at the plate, I need to keep this same frame of mind as Spring Training and the season progresses. I think I've also found a little cue with my swing/stance that lets me know how my swing is at that point in time. Here's what I've noticed...whenever I get in a hot streak I'm able to hit the ball with authority to all fields. This is where my theory comes in. When I'm doing well and I see a pitch that is off the plate inside I see it a long time and I turn my right shoulder in, whenever I'm struggling and I see an inside pitch off the plate I don't turn my shoulder and I scoot my feet back away from the plate. What this tells me is that I'm not looking to go to left field and I'm not keeping my shoulder in, everything is flying out towards the right side. Being able to tell what you do wrong from pitch to pitch is what seperates the good from the great. I think I know my swing better than anyone else (my dad probably knows it just as well) so the more that I'm able to correct myself and not have to lean on a hitting coach to help me the better off I think I'll be.

Friday night I went over to Brett's house and we had some pizza and watched a movie. They had rented Gone Baby Gone, definitely a movie that I recommend. It has Morgan Freeman and Casey Affleck and is about a couple cases of missing children within a city. It's definitely a thinker, it kept me guessing and the end definitely threw me for a loop but in my opinion that makes for a great movie. Obviously I recommend this movie. I ended up staying the night over at Brett's apartment because it was closer to the car rental place and we figured it would be a lot easier for Lindsey and would save her a trip over to the hotel.

I woke up early Saturday morning and Lindsey insisted on making me a breakfast burrito so I obliged and I'm glad I did because it was really good. Anyways, Lindsey took me over to Enterprise at about 9:00. I have the best dad in the world by the way, he agreed to foot the bill for the car. After a little paperwork I was on the road in my Nissan Sentra on the way to DeLand, Florida. Missouri's game was scheduled to start at 1:00 and I got into DeLand at about 12:15. So...I drove around the city for awhile to waste some time (I was actually lost). I got to the stadium around 12:50 and sat around until 1:30 for the start of the game because of a little rain delay. It was awesome to see some familiar faces and some good baseball. Saturday's game was against Michigan State and it was one of the more sloppy games I've seen. For example, in the first inning Missouri jumped out to a 4-0 lead with no hits. Michigan State kept inching closer only to see Missouri inch further away. Missouri ended up winning 14-9 after about a 4 hour marathon.

I met up with the team back at the hotel and talked to a few of the guys for awhile, 15 minutes later Dan and I were off to Chili's to get some dinner. We sat at Chili's for about an hour catching eachother up on some news and what had been going on in eachother's lives. After dinner we went back to the hotel and sat in his room and watched the Memphis vs. Tennessee game with a few other guys from the team. Jacob and I talked about some wedding stuff...which is always fun. He doesn't seem to know too much about what's going on with their planning though. I say I don't want to be involved but I think whene everything gets going I'm going to be just as involved as anyone. The basketball game lived up to all the hype that the media had put on the game. Watching the game got me pretty excited for March Madness. I lucked out last night and ended up sleeping in a bed, I was more than willing to sleep on the floor. Luke ended up staying over at his dad's house, leaving me with Coach Vitello as a roommate.

This morning I got up with the team and had breakfast down in the lobby of their hotel. Their breakfast is right up there in quality with the Fairfield Inn's breakfast. They all left for a team meal at around noon so I went on a wild goose chase to find a mall. The lady at the front desk of the hotel gave me terrible directions. Needless to say I drove around for an hour and a half and never found anything. I did end up running into a Ci-Ci's which was pretty nice, and by the time that I was done eating it was about gametime.

Today's opponent for Missouri was the host team of the tournament, Stetson. Kyle Gibson took the hill for the Tigers and he looked pretty impressive. He got into a jam one inning where Stetson loaded the bases with no outs. Kyle went ahead and struck out the next 3 batters with ease. The offense, in my opinion, looked a lot better today. They came up with timely hits and my boy JP (Jacob Priday) hit his first bomb of the season. I left the game in the 7th inning so that I could get back at a reasonable time. When I left Missouri was on top 9-2, they ended up winning 9-5. This team looks like they have all the tools to be a contender not only for the Big 12 title but dare I say...the National Championship?!?! I'm really excited to see what the season has in store. Next weekend will be a big early season test as they head out to San Diego where they will play San Diego, San Diego State, California, and Cal-Poly.

I sat behind the plate for both games and from that angle it looks like hitting is so easy. Sitting back there also gave me the opportunity to talk to some of the scouts, pitchers, and parents. I met Luke's dad for the first time, and it was definitely a treat. He lives in Orlando and travels the country as a motivational speaker. He also has been trying to make it on the Senior PGA Tour. He said that he's been to qualifying school a couple times and has missed becoming a pro by a couple shots each time. He also told me how he was a speaker for the Chicago Bears back when Mike Ditka was the coach and Walter Payton was the running back. He even has a 1985 Super Bowl ring. It was a treat meeting him and talking to Crow, Rick, Ian Berger, and Nick Tepesch.

The drive back to Jupiter seemed to go by pretty quick. I talked to Drew for about an hour and a half, Jordan for a half hour, and my mom for about 15 minutes. When I got back to the hotel I had a package waiting for me at the front desk, my mom had sent me some drawing utensils and my favorite...Reese's eggs!

So now I'm here blogging. This weekend was amazing, I definitely needed it. I now feel refreshed and am even more ready to get the season underway. I feel like I want to make it to the big leagues not only for myself and family but also for Missouri. They've been so good to me, I just feel like I need to repay them in some form and making it to big leagues I think would do it. I see how excited everyone is for Ian, he gives the program even more credibility and prestige. I should get to see a couple more Missouri games this year on Slingbox and hopefully a few games on ESPN when they're in Omaha.

*If you have any doubts about accomplishing the goal that is ahead of you then there is no point in even setting out on the adventure.

Off to Stetson...

I don't have a whole lot of time tonight so I'll just give you guys the amazing news. I'm renting a car tomorrow and heading up to DeLand to watch Missouri play for the next couple days. I absolutely can't wait. I'll be back on Sunday night and you guys will get a weekend's worth of blogging...stay tuned.

*When you figure out you belong it might be too late.

Good job America!

Today's been pretty gloomy. It has pretty much rained at a decent pace throughout the entire day. As you can imagine it made it a little tough to do baseball work on the fields so all we did today was hit in the cages and lifted. Hopefully tomorrow will offer some better weather so that we can get on the field and get out work in.

Division 1 baseball begins tomorrow and I can't wait. Missouri plays their first game tomorrow against the University Of Connecticut. They're going into the season with high expections, as they should. They are ranked as high as #6 in the Baseball America poll. This year's team looks to be a lot like the one that I played on my junior year. We had a good previous year and had some lofty expectations coming into the season. You always have to have high expectations for yourslef, if you don't then what are youreally playing for? I think what happened to us is that we weren't able to sneak up on anyone like we had done in years past. When we took the field we thought that teams would lay down for us and in reality it was the complete opposite. I just hope that this team doesn't make the same mistake that we did. I think what is going to help this team is that they have guys that were on that team and they know what to expect. I'm also pretty sure that Coach J and his coaching staff have done a great job this second time around with grounding everyone and letting them know that regardless of what they are ranked they still have to go out everyday with a workman's like attitude to get the job done. Hopefully I will be able to make the 2 hour trip over to Stetson to watch the Tigers play this weekend, if not I'll just follow the games on stat tracker like I did all of last year.

I'm guessing you're wondering why the title of this blog is 'Good job America!'...here's the reason. Tonight was the first night of eliminations on American Idol and America definitely kicked off the right people. The guys who got eliminated were Colton Berry and Garrett Haley. Neither one of them were very impressive, I wasn't sad at all to see either of them go. The girls who got voted off were Amy Davis and Joanne Borgella. I didn't think much of either of them either. They were both kind of boring with their performances last night. My favorites are still going strong...I can't wait for next week.

In case you guys didn't notice I posted a new poll question and it is a great one...be sure and vote.

*Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Ladies night...

At this moment in time I am being a serious multi-tasker...not only am I blogging but I'm also watching the girls perform on American Idol. They've only had two performances up to this point so my review of the night will be towards the bottom of my blog. I usually have to watch anything that's on FOX in the workout room because our TV in our room doesn't carry FOX and down in the breakfast room is usually set up for a Halo battle room. Luckily tonight I got in the room and staked my claim to a table before they got down here. So blogging and American Idol...it really couldn't get much better than that!

Today definitely resembled every other day when it came to baseball stuff. More and more coaches are beginning to arrive. I'm paying close attention to every drill that we do, not only because I like to get better, but because I can't wait to get back to Columbia next year and give lessons with some new drills. I think we continue to come in at 2:00 up until the big leaguers start playing games and I don't think they start that for another week. Their first game is against the University of Miami. Miami is supposed to be pretty good this year so I'm looking forward to watching a competitive game. Most importantly it will symbolize the start of the games and that means that we're even closer to the start of our Spring Training begins which in turn means that games are soon to be followed! I was thinking today while I was in the outfield that I haven't seen live pitching (in a game situation) since last April. It's sure been awhile but I think that once I step back in the box it will all come back to me. To be completely honest I will be crushed if all the work that I've put in doesn't pay off. I'm putting all my faith into the fact that I know I've done as much as I can, and that is enough for me to sleep well at night. I understand that they say getting released is out of your control and I only agree with that to a certain extent. If you put in a ton of work with the aspirations of getting better then it should show through and that right there is putting the control back in your hands. Enough said about that, I'm just ready to get out there and do what I love.

Speaking of making it, Ian Kinsler has definitely done that. Yesterday he signed 5 year $22 million dollar extension with the Texas Rangers. I can only imagine what that feels like to know that you'll be set for the rest of your life because of something like baseball. He got drafted in the 17th round after his junior year, just like somebody else you guys know, and from that point on he played with a chip on his shoulder. He constantly played knowing that he was disrespected in the draft by so many teams and from that point when he got drafted he was out to prove people wrong. There isn't a better attitude to have than that. When I'm healthy this year I'm going to keep all of that in the back of my mind. Congratulations Ian...

Tonight was another Subway night. I've decided that up until the point that we get vouchers I'm going to hit up Subway on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Monday I had a cheese and steak sub, tonight I had a chicken breast, and I think on Friday I'm going to have turkey breast. You have to mix it up a little! I always seems to get the same vegetables though; lettuce, onions, green peppers, banana peppers, jalapenos, and spinach. All I need to do is add a few more vegetables and they won't be able to close my sandwich! You can't beat that $5.00 sub...all day everyday.

After about 20 different tries I finally was able to finish all of High School Musical. I actually liked it. Granted it's more geared for the younger audience but I love musical type movies like that. The basketball scenes in it weren't great which made it a little less believable but Vanessa Hudgens makes up for that with her gorgeousness! I guess I would recommend this movie but not to everyone. I'd recommend it if you like Disney movies or cheesy movies, but if you aren't into that type of thing you probably want to stay away from this one.

Within the past month I've run across some videos on YouTube that if you haven't seen before you have to check out. For the first video just type in "Kenny George", you will not be disappointed. For the next one just type in "high school girl dunks". That one pretty much explains itself, it's pretty amazing. So if any of you ever find yourself bored and have a little time to spare, go ahead and go over to YouTube and check out those two videos...it will definitely be worth your time.

I failed to mention why today was a better day than most...I got a package!! Drew sent me some more movies that I left behind and some other essentials required for living down here in Jupiter. When I walk by the front desk and they say, "Mr. Mense, you have mail," it absolutely brightens my day! So with that said don't be afraid to send me anything and I do mean anything. I am very gracious for everything that I receive.

One last thing before I move on to my Idol run-down. The poll question ended today and Booche's came out on top. If you ask me, you couldn't have gone wrong with voting for any of those restaurants. When it's all said and done though Booche's burgers were just good enough to beat out Shakespeare's famous pizza. This was definitely a good poll, another one will be up tomorrow so definitely put a reminder in your brain for that!

Here is my thoughts on American Idol tonight. I like listening to the girls more than I do the guys, especially when it's the older songs like tonight and last night.
I'll start off once again with the good performances:
Amanda Overmyer- The rocker girl who performs like she wants to rip somebody's face off!
Alexandrea Lushington- Youg girl from Georgia who performed very well tonight.
Asia'h Epperson- My favorite, who I thought was the best of the night.
Ramiele Malubay- The Oriental girl who the judeges absolutely loved. I thought she was good, but I thought Asia'h was better...I might be a little partial to Asia'h though.
OK performances:
Alaina Whitaker- One of the better looking girls who wasn't good and was bad, so that puts her in this category.
Kady Malloy- Another good looking girl who is my dad's favorite.
Brooke White- The nanny who was a little dry tonight, but not bad.
Syesha Mercado- She's on the edge of the good category but I didn't like her long, scratchy note at the end of the song.
Carly Smithson- The Irish girl who I thought sang well but I didn't think it was a great performance. The judges all loved it though.
Bad performances:
Kristy Lee Cook- She performed first and it was just plain boring.
Joanne Borgella- The plus size model with another very boring performance.
Amy Davis- Probably the worst performance of the night, she might stick around though because she's good looking.
With all that said I thought it was an alright night for the girls. It'll be interesting to see who America decided to vote off tomorrow night. If I had a vote tonight it would definitely go to my girl Asia'h.

I hope everyone out there is healthy and doing well. Come back tomorrow for a new poll and the results from the American Idol cast off show.

*What you gave today you will always have and what you didn't give today you have lost forever.

First night of the final 24...

Today was very similar to yesterday in regards to what my day consisted of. I got up real early to eat some breakfast and went right back to sleep. I just kind of hung around the room until about 12:45 and then we headed over to the field. My day of baseball was over at around 6:oo. I had to waste some time before Idol started so I went over to C.R. Chicks and had some dinner and just hung out for awhile. By the time that I got back it was time for Idol...

The build up to American Idol tonight was definitely not worth the hype. Don't get me wrong, I still absolutely love the show but I just don't like some of the themese that they come up with. Tonight was 60's night, not really my type of thing. Even with that said I'll still give my opinion of the contestants.
Good performances:
Robbie Carrico (the rocker with the long hair)
David Archuleta (the young kid who was the best of the night)
Jason Castro (guy with the dreadlocks, had a really good performance with his guitar)
Michael Johns (the Australian who still is dominating)
OK performances:
Chikeze (apparently he just decided to drop his last name)
David Cook (not too sure about his hair, but he's from Blue Springs)
David Hernandez (first performance of the night, good start to the night)
Bad performances:
Jason Yeager (I don't even remember this one, I just wrote his name down)
Danny Noriega (the second coming of Sanjaya?)
Luke Menard (probably should be voted off)
Colton Berry (in the same category of Danny)
Garrett Haley (don't remember this one either)
Tomorrow is the girl's night. If I had to give a vote tonight it would be Jason Castro. He definitely made the most out of his song.

That's about all that I have today, I have a real bad headache...I didn't eat enough today. I only took in 1,400 calories...but I saved a lot of money. It's hard to get a happy medium.

*No matter how long it takes and no matter what it takes I will hang in there until I get what I want.

I'm not a big fan of the new schedule...

Today we weren't allowed to arrive at the facilities until 2:00 because of the start of spring training for the Marlins pitchers and catchers. I'm not really sure why they do this, there are still 4 fields that don't even get used during the morning session. I woke up today at around 10 and just kind of layed around waiting to go to the field. The good thing about how we're doing things now is that there aren't nearly as many guys. For example, today we had 9 hitters as opposed to the 25 that we have had over the past week. We got all our baseball work in on the field, which took about 2 hours, and we headed back into the weight room. The strength and conditioning coordinator had been at the facilities since 5:30 in the morning so he was ready to go home. Needless to say I was only able to get about an hours worth of lifting in. I'm just worried that I'm going to lose some of the strength that I've worked so hard for over the past 4 months. He tried telling me today that you can lift too much. In my opinion, there is no such thing as working too hard. We got back to the hotel around six. I held off on dinner for about 45 minutes before I decided on Subway. The Subway by our hotel has a great deal, $5.00 foot long subs, all day everyday. It's always light on the wallet and light on the fat, definitely my kind of meal. Now I'm here, trying to figure out something to do.

Last night's all-star game ended up being a really good game. The East jumped out to a big lead in the first half, only to see their lead dwindle down to nothing in the second half. Luckily for the East, they had Ray Allen. Within the last 3 minutes of the game the East had three possessions in a row where Allen hit three pointers. Allen's heroics ended up being enough for the East to pull back ahead and stay on top for the remainder of the game. I thought Allen should have been the MVP of the game but the honor went to LeBron James who also had a great game, just missing a triple double. It was definitely the best NBA game that I have seen all year (granted that's a hanful). The best part about the game, in my opinion, was how hard they all played and how competitive the game got. I've seen a lot of NBA all-star games and this one seemd like they were playing for something a little more.

Last night I watched The Queen. The movie gives an inside look at the royal family, in particular Queen Elizabeth II, during the time of Princess Diana's death. I was younger when all of this went on, so a lot of it was new to me. I had no idea that the royal family shunned Princess Diana like they did. What I liked so much about this movie was how they were able to include real footage. They did it in such a tasteful way that sometimes it was hard to tell what was real and what was movie made. This movie has a 7.7 rating on IMDB. I'm not sure I would give it that high of a rating but I would definitely suggest it. It's a good movie with a lot of historical significance.

I still have some time before bed, and there really isn't anything that good on TV right now. I'll probably end up going over to Duffy's to watch some Slingbox. Stay posted...

*You miss %100 of the shots that you don't take.

Sunday Night

It's Sunday night and the NBA All-Star game has just begun. These games are always so fun to watch because these guys are the best of the best and they're all able to showcase their abilities all on the same court. The score always seems to be in the mid-100's by the time that it's all said and done. I'll have more on the game tomorrow.

I got to sleep in today which is always nice, but it might get a little out of control this week (we can't be at the field until 2:00). I got up and decided that my hair needed to be cut because it was starting to get to the point where when I woke up you could tell that some of my hairs were out of place. So I took the easiest and cheapest route and went ahead and did it myself. After my haircut I headed over to Duffy's for some Slingbox action. Today's schedule of shows included Dinner: Impossible and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern. By now everyone should know about Dinner: Impossible but Bizarre Foods is new to my blog. This show is basically about a man (Andrew Zimmern) who travels the world and tries out the craziest/nastiest foods on the planet. If you know my dad I think you know that he could probably do this. Today Andrew was in Taiwan and tried stinky tofu and chicken throats. After being in Taiwan for a week I came to appreciate the smells that he talked about during the show. Everywhere you go you get a good whiff of some not so pleasant food. It really makes you lose your appetite. With that fresh in my mind I took the short walk over to Vinny's Pizza. I had a gigantic slice of buffalo chicken pizza and a slice of cheese. They have great New York style pizza, my favorite. Keep in mind I don't eat healthy on Sundays! After I ate I came back to the hotel and layed down for a little and watched some gymnastics. I actually enjoy watching gymnastics every now and then, it's just a shame I've never seen Drew do gymnastics, kind of odd right? I started to feel a little lazy and worthless so I had to get up and do something.

I contemplated between the workout room and the pool. I don't have the right shoes here at the hotel and it was a perfect day outside, so it was an easy choice. I worked out in the pool for about 45 minutes, doing some agility work and some sprinting exercises. By the time that I was done I was hungy again and thankfully Brett and Lindsey were also. They came and picked me up from the hotel and we headed over to Rancho Chico off of US-1. It was good to have some Mexican, it feels like it's been forever since I've had any. Speaking of Mexican, I think that having Rancho Grande for food at a wedding reception would be amazing. I'm just going to have to convince Drew of the same thing. I got back to the hotel and that's where I'm at now...

Last night I watched Caddyshack, an absolute classic. I had never seen the whole movie all the way through. I've seen bits and pieces that have probably all added up to the whole thing but that's not the same. What I love so much about this movie is all of the unique characters and the different plots that they have going on throughout the movie. Obviously I recommend this movie.

Now I'm to the point that everyone has been waiting for...my take on last night's all-star festivities. The skills challenge was a nice appetizer, it got me in the basketball mood. Next up was the 3 point shootout. Normally I'm not a big fan of this event, but when a guy scores 25 and ties the single session score like Jason Kapono did last night, it's easy to see why it was better than ever last night. All of that lead up to the the main course...the dunk contest!

Like I had said last night, the person that was going to be the most creative was the one that was going to win...and I was definitely right. Oh ya I also chose Dwight Howard to win...and he did. Anyways, here are some of my favorite dunks from last night.

I'll start off with Gerald Green. His first dunk he called the "birthday cake". He put a cupcake with a lit candle on the back of the rim and blew it out as he threw down a 2 handed dunk. This one only got a 45 and was very creative. His next dunk involved his teammate Rashad McCants and a ladder. McCants sat on top of the ladder with the ball. As Green approached him he tossed the ball up in the air and Green, all in one motion, caught it and did a windmill. His next dunk also included McCants. This one McCants was standing behind the basket, out of bounds. He threw the ball over the backboard, Green caught the ball, went between his legs, and threw it down with his right hand. This dunk 10 years ago might have been looked upon as one of the greatest ever but because it has been done before it didn't get as many points as it probably deserved. His last dunk was performed with no shoes and in his socks. This dunk was a simple (for him) between the legs. I don't think people really understood how tough it is to be able to keep your feet with only socks on jumping off of a hardwood floor!! The last time I was in my socks on a hardwood floor I think I tore my meniscus! This was an extremely underestimated dunk. Anyways, the defending champion put up a great showing.

Next up is the champion, Dwight Howard. In his first dunk he started from out of bounds, behind the basket. He threw the ball off the back of the glass and tossed it down, windmill style with his left hand (the first picture is of this dunk). He's one of the only guys that can do this because his arms are so incredibly long. His head was behind the basket while he was dunking the ball!! Absolutely amazing! His next dunk was the most popular one of the night (and what the second picture is of). He set it up by putting on a Superman cape and put down a piece of tape down right in front of the free throw line. His partner, Jameer Nelson, threw the ball up as he approached the line and Howard took off, off of two feet. The amazing part of this one was how high he got. This is where it gets a little tricky. He didn't actually dunk the ball, he just threw it in. He still got a 50 on the dunk because of the wow factor, but I'm not so sure that it should have even counted. It was still amazing though. His next dunk I thought was his best. He lobbed the ball up to himself and once he was at the peak of his jump he tapped the ball off the backboard with his left hand and dunked it on his way down with his right, an absolute tremendous showing of jumping ability and athleticism. That dunk was definitely his most creative. For his final dunk he put up a mini basket to the right of the rim. He then placed the basketball on the mini goal. At the peak of his jump on this one he grabbed the ball off of the mini goal and proceeded to windmill it home with his right hand.

When it was all said and done it was definitely the best dunk contest since Vince Carter in 2000. Hopefully this year sparked the creative juices within some of the NBA's best jumpers.

Last night was a great night, it definitely showed why it's one of my favorite sporting event days during the year.

*No matter how long it takes or how hard I have to try I will succeed at what I want.

Today's pictures...the blog is below...

The first picture is of the strip mall that is about a block down from the hotel that I regularly visit. Some of the shops that are over there include GNC, a bookstore, R.J. Gators, and a pet store with a little puppy. The next photo is of Duffy's, one of the more popular sports restaurants down here in Southern Florida. The final picture is of the patio seating outside of Duffy's where I sit to watch Slingbox.

Keep scrolling down to my next entry for today's blog.

Back and ready to blog...

I'll start off by saying that today is one of my favorite days in regards to sporting events. Here's a list of what are my favorite days:

1. Super Bowl Sunday

2. The first day of the NFL Draft
3. All-Star Saturday (including the 3-point shootout, the skills competition, and the dunk contest)

4. The first day of the College World Series

5. Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies

6. The day of the Homerun Derby

7. NBA Draft

So anyways, today is obviously the night of number 3. The Skills Competition and the 3-point shootout kind of take a back seat to the slam dunk competition. Tonight I'm going with Dwight Howard as the winner. I'm going with him because I think he's the most innovative of the four dunkers. Last year he did a few things that had never been done before and that's what it's going to take to win it this year. In my opinion the dunk contest is starting to make a comeback. In the late 90's the dunk contest was as good as ever. After Vince Carter's showing in the 2000 dunk contest it all went downhill. For a few years they tried experimenting with a few different things knowing that it didn't have the luster that is once had. The NBA can do all they want to try and spice it up, but what it really comes down to is who's in it and what kind of creativity they're going to bring to the table. There have been so many dunk contests that it almost seems that all the dunks have been used up. With that said, the guys that are the most innovativc end up being the most exciting to watch.

Yesterday was another great day to hit. I took some live batting practice on the field against a guy who was with the Royals last year. I felt good swinging the bat, it was nice to see some live pitching. The last real at-bat that I had was all the way back in April I believe. I was able to square a few balls up, so it was pretty encouraging. I need to do some things during this spring training to let the coaches and front office personnel know that I'm back healthy and as good as I've ever been. I need to show the Marlins that they made a great choice with pick number 515 in the 2006 draft.

When I got back to the hotel yesterday afternoon I got a call from Brett asking if I would be willing to go to the beach with him and Lindsey to take some photos for their wedding invitations. Being around Lindsey and Brett gets me excited to get married. I see how happy they are and I know that I'm going to be the same way. Planning a wedding and everything can be chaos sometimes, but that's really the beauty in the whole thing. Anyways, we got down to the beach and I took about 25 or so pictures. They also brought Lindsey's dog Bailey to the beach with us. She's a big fan of the beach but a little timid with the waves. I would just love to see Desi and Maizie down here on the beach. I'm not sure how either one would handle it but I do know that before we could ever bring Maizie down here she'd have to be obedient without the leash.

After we left the beach we headed back to their place and had some italian take out and watched some of the celebrity all-star game. It's always nice to get away from the hotel and hang out with some friends.

Today has been a great day for me to sit back, catch my breath from the week, and relax. I originally woke up around 6:30 and had some breakfast. I obviously went back to bed though! I got up the second time around 11:30 and headed over to Duffy's to watch some Slingbox. I watched an episode of Three Sheets and an episode of Timeless. Both of these shows run on Mojo, a channel specially designed for HD. In the Three Sheets episode the host, Zane, was in Japan trying out some sake. It's always good to see some footage of my heritage! Timeless is a show that has two segments and outlines a different sports stories. Today's stories were about the kids state wrestling championships in Ohio and the second segment was about the life of a 36 year old minor league baseball player. It was good to see the baseball story, I was able to relate with a lot of the things that he goes through.

After I left Duffy's I went over to Tropical Smoothie and had a health nut smoothie. It's pretty good not only taste-wise but also is very good for you. There's one thing that confuses me though, everytime I've gotten that particular smoothie (3 times) it's tasted different. Today it had more of a blueberry flavor. Either way, it's been good everytime.

My next stop was over at the book store. I always like to sit, take a laod off, and read some magazines and books. Today I read a little bit about working out and flipped through a few different magazines. There was an author there today that was signing books for his latest novel. I felt kind of bad for the guy because they had this station set up for the guy and there wasn't anyone who came over to him for the 45 minutes or so that I was there. You could tell he was kind of embarassed. He was slouched down in his chair with his head down and kept playing with his pen.

I tried watching a movie earlier but it started skipping. The first skipper that I've had since I've been down here. So now I'm back here in the room blogging and watching some All-Star Satuday night. Tomorrow I'll have my review of tonight's dunk contest, I'm sure it will be a good one!

I just want to thank everyone for reading my blog. Hopefully it never bores anyone too much and entertains you just enough. It really does mean a lot to me for people to read my thoughts.

I just want to end tonight with a little inspirational story:
There was a group of frogs hopping along one day when a couple of frogs out of the group fell into a hole. The group stopped to see if they could help their fallen compadres, but unfortunately they couldn't help. The two frogs in the hole kept jumping away, trying to get out. After awhile the frogs at the top of the hole began telling the two frogs to just give in and just go peacefully. One of the frogs obliged and croaked (no pun intended of course because this isn't a funny story!), while the other kept jumping away. The frogs at the top kept yelling at the frog to stop and just let it go. The frog at the bottom of the hole kept struggling and from out of nowhere gained up enough strength in his little legs to jump straight out of the hole. Tired and exhausted and finally out of the hole, the group of frogs asked the frog "Didn't you hear us telling you to give up and just let go?" The frog simply looked at them with a dumbfounded look and said,"I can't hear anything that you guys are saying...I'm deaf." So the moral to this stroy is that you always have to think positive. Sometimes you have to turn your hearing off when it comes to naysayers.

Exhausted...

It's the end of the week and I'm a worn down puppy! The way I look at it is that if by the end of the week I'm not exhausted then I haven't worked as hard as I could've during the week. Everything that I'm doing now hopefully will help me stay healthy and strong throughout the whole season.

I'm going to leave it at that tonight and hit the sack early (no nap today). Tomorrow I will have a ton to talk about and I plan on taking and posting some new pictures. Stay posted...

Fight for what's right...

The weather man was waaaay off!

First off...Happy Valentine's day to all you lovers out there! I hope everyone was able to share this day, somehow, with someone special.

Turns out today was one of the nicest, most refreshing days that there's been since I've been down here. It was a perfect 75 degrees with a calm little breeze, it was b.e.a.utiful. Since the weather hadn't cooperated the past couple days, we got to hit on the field (normally we only hit on the field on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays). The little breeze that there was happened to be carrying the ball out to right field. The guy that threw BP to our group threw cutters up and in, so when you put all those variables together it was definitely one of those confidence building types of BP. My swing feels pretty good right now, I'm just absolutely chomping at the bit to get going with everything.

There will definitely be a wrinkle thrown into my routine on Monday. Big league spring training starts on Sunday for the pitchers and catchers. Basically what that means to me, and all of the other minor league guys, is that we can't show up to the field until their workouts are over with. So starting on Monday we aren't even allowed to arrive at the field until 1:00 in the afternoon. I'm not really sure how it's all going to work out, whether or not there will be coaches there or how long we'll be able to stay in the weight room. Monday will definitely be different, hopefully in a good way.

Sorry I haven't kept you guys up to date with the movies that I've watched lately. Earlier today I finished up a movie called The Architect. This movie has 3 or 4 little plots that all roll into one major theme. It's basically about a Chicago woman who lives in the projects that is trying to get the backing from the architect who built the apartments to tear them down. I definitely wouldn't suggest this movie, it's kind of slow and some parts are a little bit disturbing. The best part of the movie was that it had my girl in it, Hayden Panettiere.
A couple days ago I watched Keeping Up With The Steins. I really liked this movie. It's a comedy about a boy who's dad is gung hoe on trying to throw a better bar mitzvah than the Steins did. The boy always seems to be put in akward situations, everyone can relate to that.
Finally, I watched The Illusionist with Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, and Jessica Biel. This one is basically about a magician (Norton) who is trying to win over the heart of a woman (Biel) with a much higher standing than his own. The best part of this movie is the crazy ending, you'll have to watch it to find out what happens.
Two out of the three movies that I watched over the past couple days were pretty enjoyable. The best part about these movies was that two of them had my absolute favorite actresses in them, Jessica Biel and Hayden Panettiere.

I also caught up on some Slingbox over at Duffy's today. I watched the latest episodes of The Gauntlet 3 (the most popular show from the poll), Rob & Big, and Life of Ryan. I also watched one of my favorite shows, Dinner: Impossible. For those of you who haven't ever seen the show, it involves a world renowned chef named Richard Irvine and his team of chefs. He is thrown into a situation, usually without food and with limited resources, and has to prepare a meal for a group of people. He always has a limited amount of time and is always rushing around the kitchen frantic as can be. I don't know how he does it, but he always ends up making it in the right amount of time and the food always seems to be first class. He's definitely the kind of chef that I need running my kitchen whenever I open up my restaurant.

It was another great day, I just wish that I could've spent this special holiday with the girl of my dreams. I'm not worried one bit though because I know there will be many more to come that I will be able to spend with her. The poll is getting pretty good...I'm just surprised that I'm the only one who's voted for Johnny's Beanery, I mean they do have the best tacos in all of town! Always remember to keep on keepin' on...

Gloomy day...

It rained for the second straight day here in Jupiter. A really weird thing happened last night, there was a tornado worning in southern Florida. I didn't even know that it was possible for there to be a tornado down here, apparently I was way off. You could tell by watching the news last night though that it's a very rare occurence to have tornados. Not only were they not very informative but they never really gave any information as to where you should take cover if a tornado was to hit. It was also different to experience something like that at night. Everytime I've been in the situation where there has been a tornao warning it's been during the day. I would think that at night it would be a lot more dangerous because it would harder to spot the tornado coming. It's supposed to rain all day again tomorrow, all that means to me is that it's going to be a great nap tomorrow.

Today might have been the best day of food since I have been down here. It started off with a great breakfast, 4 egg whites, a piece of toast, non- fat strawberry yogurt, a packet of oatmeal with raisins, and a cup of orange juice. During my workout I munched on a protein bar. After the workout I went with Kyle Winters to Duffy's and had the chicken and broccoli stir fry. It's definitely my favorite dish at Duffy's and to make it even better it was 40% off because of my MVP card and it was between 2 and 4 o'clock. In between lunch and dinner I had one of Drew's protein bars...unbelievable. Then tonight Kyle and I made a trip of to Chili's (a new one for me) and got the guitless ckicken breast platter. It consisted of a chicken breast, broccoli, rice, and corn on the cob. It was an absolute great day for food!

Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee went head to head today in fron of Congress. This whole situation is just getting out of hand. It just doesn't make any sense why they are still pursuing this case. Neither one of them is going to change their stories if they haven't by now, so to me it just seems like they're wasting their time. I mean doesn't Congress have anything better to do with their time than to worry about steroids in baseball? They started out saying that this was good for the youth of America but it's obviously changed and their intentions are now completely different.

American Idol is now down to the final 24 competitors, 12 guys and 12 girls!! I was a little disappointed with a couple of the decisions but for the most part I was pleased.
-First off I forgot to mention one of my other favorites that ended up making it tonight. His name is David Archuleta and he's 17 years old. When he was younger he lost his voice and ironically now he has a great voice. He kind of has a raspy voice and America is going to love this kid.
-Another success tonight was Carly Smithson, the Irish rocker with the half sleeve tattoo. She made it through and should be pretty successful in the weeks to come. I read something tonight about Carly on an American Idol message board. Apparently she already had a contract with a recording company worth 2.2 million and after a couple years got dropped by the label.
-The Australian guy, Michael Johns, also made it through. Once again the judges showed how much they love this guy. But this is American Idol right? I'm just concerned that people aren't going to vote for him simply because he isn't American.
-My favorite, Asia'h Epperson, also made it to the final 24. You absolutely have to feel for this girl. She's going to give everything she has for her Dad with every performance and I'm almost positive that America will fall in love with this girl. On top of all of that she's representing Missouri, you have to love that.
Now for the disappointments of the night:
-Josiah Leming, the kid who has been living out of his car, failed to make the final cut. He just hurt himself a little too much with his final performance in Hollywood. He was the most emotional of all the contestants.
-The next to last cut of the night was Kyle Ensley. Kyle was the kid with the dark rimmed glasses and curly hair. The judges were split on their decision with Kyle. Ironically enough Simon was the only one that wanted him to go on. He said he didn't agree with the decision, an absolute rarity. Usualy what Simon says, no pun intended, goes.
After all that said it was still a good night and some of my favorites are still in the hunt.

I'm looking forward towaking up once again tomorrow and enjoying another great day pursuing my dream. Remember to always dream big. It's doesn't take any effort to be negative, being positive all the time takes a big person...so take that challenge head on!

Idol is taking off...and an updated poll question

Turns out I left off one of the best restaurants unique to Columbia. I originally had 7 or 8 choices but apparently Blogger only allows you to have up to 5, so I guess it automatically deleted some of the other ones that I had. So anyways, with that said I have reposted the poll question and added Booches and taken off C.J.'s. If you have already voted be sure to put your vote in once again. I give the credit to my Dad, Dave Mense, for pointing that one out.

It was another good day at the field. Got some good cage time in with some big leaguers and got plenty of time in the weight room. As of now there are about 50 people that are attending the "winter workouts". So you can imagine how crowded it can get in the weight room. Luckily about 3/4's of those guys are pitchers so they don't require a whole lot of time in the weight room.

Apparently it's not 70 to 75 degrees and sunny everyday here in Jupiter. It rained for awhile today, but it still wasn't bad. I mean everyone needs a rain day every once in awhile, they make for great napping in the afternoon. Even that though was rudely interrupted by the maid though. I say that like it's a bummer but in reality I love nothing more than clean sheets and a new bottle of shampoo.

The first night of American Idol "Hollywood Week" was on tonight. It was a 2 hour show, so it definitely made my night. I've come up with my own favorites for who I'd like to win and the contestants who I think have a good shot at winning. I'm still not sure of everyone's names, but I'm sure that will change in a couple weeks. Anyways, here are my favorites:
-The 18 year old kid who ran away from his home and has been living in his car for the past year. You can't help but feel for the kid, everytime he gets on stage he just gives it everything he's got. If he makes it to the final 24 I think he has a good chance at winning because of his likability factor that he possesses.
-The Irish girl who made it to Hollywood last year but wasn't able to come because of a visa problem. The now has a half sleeve on her right arm, obviously her most noticeable feature. I like her simply because she can sing with the best. She'll have a good chance of winning because she's easy to remember and her voice is unbelievable.
-The person who I think has the best chance of winning the entire competition is the Australian guy with the shaggy hair. This guy kind of reminds me of a John Mayer type with the way that he performs. This guys seems to have it all; great personality, great voice, and is very charismatic.
-This next guy I'm not sure how good of a chance he has of making it to the final 24 but I think he's awesome. He's the dorky looking kid that wears the black rim glasses and has curly, shaggy hair. If you don't like this kid then there's something wrong with you. His last performance he sang a Josh Groban song and I thought that it was absolutely amazing. I'm not sure he has a legitimate chance of winning the whole competition but I would just love to see him make it to the final 24.
-Last but not least is my favorite competitor, the girl from Joplin, Missouri. This girl has an amzaing story. Two days before her audition to go to Hollywood, she received news that her father had been killed in a car accident. For her to go through with the competition with all of that on her mind was absolutely amazing. On top of that she has a great voice and is a very good looking girl. I'm definitely pulling for this girl to win the whole thing.

So those are my favorites, tune back in tomorrow and I'll be sure and give an update on whether or not my 5 favorites made it to the final 24 or not.

I just saw on the bottom line on ESPN that Stefhon Hannah had been kicked of the Missouri basketball team. I think Mike Anderson has finally seen enough and is going to make a statement by dismissing Hannah from the team. Hopefully this is where Anderson differs from Quinn Snyder. Snyder was, as everyone knows, terrible with handling disciplinary issues. That eventually led to him being forced to resign. Anderson it seems has a good grasp on this issue and doesn't want it to get out of hand before ultimately it is out of his hands. It just makes me believe that Hannah really was in the wrong considering that Darryl Butterfield has been in trouble with the law twice and still remains on the team. I like Mike Anderson as a coach and as a person (he always made small talk with me whenever he came in to the athletic director's office).

I'll save some of my recent movie critiques for tomorrow. Until then remember, when times get tough shake it off and step up. Tough times don't last but tough people do.

Random Thoughts...

I just turned on the TV to Deal or No Deal and they're on the million dollar mission. The lady that's playing has 11 million dollar cases on the board. If this lady doesn't win the million dollars then there is definitely something wrong. I just hate watching this show sometimes. People get so greedy and I love to watch it bite them in the butt in the end.

The latest poll is over and the winner was the Real World/Road Rules challenge, the Gauntlet 3. That was my choice also. It's a great show, it's got great competition and just the right amount of real world drama. Be sure and vote on my latest poll question.

More and more people are beginning to arrive for spring training. There were about 10 more big leaguers that showed up today. Needless to say, it was absolutely packed in the weight room today, but it ended up being a pretty good thing. A couple of the big leaguers got into the weight room later so I was able to stay in the weight room as long as they did without getting kicked out. There's no way that a big leaguer would ever get kicked out of the weight room, and I am definitely going to take advantage of that.

My Dad suggested that I look into public transportation down here in Jupiter. Apparently they're starting one up this Thursday, kind of lucky right? Wrong...For some strange reason the transit only runs on Thursdays...weird right? I mean I know that it's a lot like paradise down here in Jupiter but I mean come on, people only work on Thursdays?? Maybe they just think that all the people that live here are so wealthy that there really isn't any need for a public transit to be open for more than one day a week. But Thursday? How did they randomly land on Thursday? Beats me...

It's been a great night so far. I went over to Duffy's, ate some take out on the patio and watched some Slingbox. I mean there aren't too many places in the country right now where you can eat on the patio dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Not only do I get to go play some baseball and workout but the first day of hollywood week on American Idol is on. Hopefully this will be a great season.

Don't forget to vote...and remember, shake it off and step up when you encounter some obstacles in your life.

Sunday...a day of rest.

It's been a real nice and relaxing day. I got to eat some pizza for lunch today, something that I haven't had in a really long time. It's always good to throw something out of the ordinary into my diet. I just got back from dinner at Yardhouse with Brett and Lindsey. I missed haning out with both of them. We talked a lot about the whole engagement thing and when they plan on getting married, all that good stuff. It got me pretty excited about the events that will eventually take place in my life within the next year or so. It was a big surprise to Lindsey that Brett asked her to marry him. She said that she figured it would happen within the next year but she had no idea how soon. I don't think Drew will be that surprised...She'll have to deal with it though. She's even seen the diamond that I'm going to give to her. She asked to see it and I don't think she thought I would show her...but I did and now I think she's a little disappointed that she jokingly asked me. She's going to have to deal with it now though.

I watched a movie last night and finished it up this morning called Gettin' It. There's one word that can describe this movie...terrible. I did watch the whole thing though, only because once I put in a movie I don't watch another one until I have finished the previous one. It really had no point or plot but it did have some good looking girls.

This afternoon I started watching The Illusionist, a much more promising film. I'll have the critique tomorrow.

I'm going to try and get to bed a little earlier tonight, but before I do that I still have to take a shower and shave. Thankfully my facial hair doesn't grow that fast. I can afford to shave about once a week and still get by on our Marlins shaving rule.

I always feel so rejuvenated at the end of the weekend. Hitting, throwing, running, and lifting always seems so much easier at the start of the week. I can't wait to see what the upcoming week has in store for me.

I went to the beach....BOY!!

The first picture is of the Jupiter Inlet and the second one is where I set up shop today at the beach.

That's right, I made it all the way down to the beach today. The bicycle that I borrowed for the weekend ended up being quite the pick up. I left for the beach around 1:30 and got there around 2. It's about 4 or 5 miles to the beach from our hotel. It's not a bad ride at all because there aren't any hills. The beach was as eventful as I remember it. When you go to the beach here in Jupiter you can expect the unexpected. It was pretty crowded today, which is always good for the people watcher in me. When I first got there it was sunny and perfect, halfway through my mile and a half jog to the pier it started raining, and by the time that I got back to my starting point it was perfect once again. There was one day last year where I saw about 10 sharks all in a 20 minute span, there wasn't anything quite that exciting today, but that doesn't mean that it lacked excitement one bit. The best part, in my opinion, about the beach down here is that they allow dogs. I'm not sure how much dogs like jogging guys however. Last year I had a huge rottweiler jump at me, and today it was a doberman. They must feel threatened by the approaching beast (me), I mean who wouldn't be. As I got to the pier I saw one of the strangest sites I've ever seen at the beach. There was a man walking with one 5 lb. dumbell in one hand doing curls while he was walking. But that wasn't the funniest part, he was wearing a red t-shirt that just said "Taylor Swift" on it. I don't know if it's me but an old man wearing a Taylor Swift shirt is kind of creepy. All in all it was a great 2 hours spent at the beach. The trip back to the hotel wasn't quite as good.

Turns out I wasn't thinking very clearly when I originally left the hotel. I forgot that once I left the beach I would still be wet and still had a 30 minute bike ride ahead of me. You can imagine what that led to, I got really red in some certain areas.

On the way back to the hotel I had to make a stop at my favorite store ever, T.J. Maxx. This by far is the best T.J. Maxx I've ever been to. All I can say is that it was a great thing that I didn't bring my wallet with me. I mean they have everything, every kind of soft shirt imagineable, and all sorts of Jordan and Nike gear. I'm sure Jordan and I will be making a trip back down there once he gets here, but I'm pretty sure I can keep myself in check.

I finished up a movie this morning that I had started last night. Where The Buffalo Roam had some significance with my family and I. The movie is about a 4 year span in the life of Hunter S. Thompson, my namesake. After watching that movie I'm really beginning to wonder what my parents were thinking when they named me. First off, they wanted to call me Hunter but they also wanted David involved in my full name so they decided to go with David Hunter instead of Hunter David simply because it sounded better. For all of you that are reading this that plan on having kids, never do this to your poor kids. It was always the most confusing thing for me growing up and still is. I was even confused a few years ago when David Mense got drafted out of The University of Missouri, turns out that was me. Anyways, back to Hunter S. Thompson. Apparently this guy was an absolute nut case. This movie really portrayed how crazy this authoor was. He couldn't write a story without being drunk or on drugs, and said the most random things. All I can say is that it's a good thing I like my name!

I just got done watching Casino Royale, the latest installment of the Bond movies. It is definitely one of the better movies that I've seen in a long time. A great action movie, that keeps you second guessing yourself throughout the whole movie. I haven't even checked the IMDB rating on it, but I would definitely give it an 8.0.

So today was a pretty productive day, let's just hope tomorrow has as much promise as today did.

Is this bad?

Is it bad that I never have the desire to go out?? I mean baseball players are supposed to go out every night, right? I mean this is the sport that Babe Ruth was able to play drunk and David Wells was able to throw a no-hitter hung over. It's Friday night and I'm sitting in my room watching TV and blogging while everyone else is out at the bars. It doesn't seem like a hard choice to me but I guess for some people it is a tough decision. All I know is that to sit here and watch TV it doesn't cost a thing! I mean what good comes from going out?? It'll run your wallet dry, you feel terrible the next morning, you have to deal with stupid people, and for me I feel like I would just be wasting away the whole week of work that I just put in. On top of that I never have the energy to go out. I know some people look at my lifestyle and think that I'm the most boring person in the world. I look at it as making an investment, I'll be alright in the end.

Last night I played Halo 3 against some of the guys back in Columbia. It's pretty amazing how we can all play together and be halfway across the country. Halo definitely will eat up some time. We started playing at about 10 and by the time we had finished it was midnight and I thought we had been playing for about 30 minutes. I'm getting better, but I'm still a long ways away from being good.

It looks like I'm going to be able to expand on my limits this weekend. I was wandering around the clubhouse today and stumbled across a couple of bicycles. Luckily, I've gotten to be pretty good friends with our clubhouse manager so he was more than willing to let me borrow one for at least the weekend. After some air in the tires I was off. The bike looks like it might have been sitting in the stairwell for 5 years, but the most important thing is that it works and rides just fine. So now I'm thinking about going to the beach tomorrow, if I do I plan on bringing my camera and I will definitely post some pictures on here tomorrow.

The rest of my day was pretty normal. I got a to go order (so I could get double points on my card) from Duffy's. I had a turkey burger with some broccoli. A pretty good turkey burger but nothing compared to the ones that we make back in Columbia. After I got done eating I watched a movie called Outlaw Trail. It wasn't a bad movie, I'd recommend it. It's about the journey of a boy who is out to find out more about his great uncle Butch Cassidy.

I got my nap in today so I'll be ready tomorrow to soak up some sun.

Clemens vs. McNamee

This whole thing is just absolutely getting out of control. I want to believe that McNamee is telling the truth, just because I'm not a big fan of Clemens, but the more and more that comes out about this guy makes me believe that he's just making something up. I watched the press conference today that McNamee's lawyers had and also the one that Clemens' lawyers had. You can definitely tell between these two sets of lawyers who is more prestigious. Clemens' lawyers are definitely convincing. I'm sure he's paying them an obscene amount of money to clear his name, and as far as I'm concerned it's starting to work. The more and more I think about those syringes that McNamee kept the more and more I think the guy is just a creep, and if he kept that stuff why didn't he do it for everyone else that he injected? Meanwhile Clemens is going throughout Congress meeting with Congressmen and is basically brown nosing. I just don't know what to believe anymore. That crap all gives me a headache anyways, cheaters should be punished and if he did in fact do what McNamee has said along then I hope Clemens gets what he deserves.

I'm getting really anxious to start playing games, it's too bad we're still more than a month away from that happening. It's amazes me at how Missouri and other college baseball programs have been practicing for about a month now and there are some big leaguers who haven't even picked a bat up and might not do so for another 2 weeks. I do realize though that once we start playing games and spring training starts up I have a lot to prove to some people. I have to be able to show the organization that I can endure a whole season injury free, and I think that if I am able to do that everything else will take care of itself. I think that the organization likes me, they're just waiting for me to show what I can do. This has got to be the year for me, and I can't wait to show the Marlins that they got a steal in the 17th round a couple of years ago.

I watched another movie today call Stardust. IMDB has it rated at 8.1, not real sure I agree with that one. I guess it all depends on what your preference is. The plot is just too complicated for me to put into words so you'll have to watch it on your own. If I were to give this movie a rating it'd be somewhere around a 5.5.

I still pretty much have a room to myself. Graham gets done working out at around 11:30 and as far as I can tell is downstairs playing Halo until about 9:00. Doesn't bother me one bit, I just have to find out how to get online on the XBox here in our room so that I can play when he's not here.

The weekend is almost here and I have absolutely no idea what it is going ot offer. Outside of going to eat at Yardhouse on Sunday night with Brett and his fiance' I have absolutely no plans. So what that means is that I'm going to have to sleep until about 1 on Saturday and Sunday so that I can eat up some of the day, otherwise I'll just be sitting here twiddling my thumbs.

I can always watch Slingbox though...That thing gets better and better each day. I just wish that the hotel had a faster internet connection so that I didn't have to go to Duffy's to watch it. Today I watched last nights Gauntlet 3, a good episode. Then I watched Three Sheets, one of the best shows ever. The host, Zane (not sure of his last name), goes around the world drinking and learning the customary drinking styles of where he ends up. The episode that I watched today he was in the Czech Republic. The show wouldn't be as good if Zane wasn't as witty and hilarious as he is. They also have the best sound effects ever!! Back to the Slingbox...my brother and I had a funny encounter yesterday. I was trying to watch a recorded show on my computer and it kept changing the channel on it's own and everytime I tried starting the show back up it would do the same thing. After about 4 or 5 times I finally figured out what was happening. My brother was trying to watch our TV at home that has the Slingbox hooked up to it and he had already watched the show that I was trying to watch. I called the house and talked to Alex and he was freaked out and had no idea what was going on. We both got a good laugh out of it.

I did get a package in the mail today, that's always exciting. Drew sent me my sandals that I forgot (an absolute must have down here in Florida), some shorts (I somehow only wound up bringing 2 pairs), honey roasted cashews to snack on, sunflower seeds and gum for the field, and the best part; homemade protein bars. I guess she found the recipe in a magazine and I'm glad she did because they are unbelievable. I love mail!

That's all for today, no nap sadly...maybe tomorrow.

Exhausted!!

This whole week I've been trying to stay away from napping in the afternoon, and it really caught up to me today. I went over to Duffy's to watch a little slingbox, caught up on some shows that I had recorded, came back and watched a little bit of a movie, and layed down and 3 hours later it was 8:30 (halfway through American Idol). I guess my body was telling me I needed some more rest to get through the week. It's only 9 now and I'm already considering going to bed...weird.

One of the shows that I had recorded last night that I watched this afternoon was Rob & Big (great show). Rob and Big got on this Guinness Book of World Records Trip. Big ended up breaking a couple of eating world records and Rob broke 21 world records!! Pretty amazing stuff. That just made me think, with all those records that are in that book there has got to be something that I could break!

Finally the auditions for American Idol are over. Most people's favorite part of the show is watching the terrible people audition, that's not me. I love watching the people that can really sing, and listen to their renditions of songs. I'll give you one person to watch out for. The kid last night that had been living in his car for 10 months, has been chosen by Dave Mense to win the whole thing. I hate to say this but last year he really knew what he was talking about. Believe it or not but from her first audition he said that Jordan was going to win, and somehow he was right!! I'll give him credt for that one...

This whole Roger Clemens situation just seems to be getting fuzzier by the day. One day after Clemens stand in front of Congress and gives his deposition with the words "i have never used steroids or HGH" Brian McNamee comes forward with more information against Clemens. Apparently he had kept the syringes for 7 years that contained steroids and HGH that he injected Clemens with. He must have thought that Clemens would betray him at some point, I mean who saves something like that for 7 years?!?! A lot of the real answers should come out when what Pettite said in front of Congress is unveiled. If in fact Clemens has lied about all of this stuff he might just become America's most hated man. I do know one thing, Barry Bonds would be thrilled!

The weekend is drawing nearer and that means Brett will be here soon. Him and his fiance' arrive in Jupiter on Sunday. We've already planned out where we're going ot eat dinner on Sunday night.

One last thing for me to vent about...the Duke vs. North Carolina game is blacked out in our area!! Absolutely unbelievable! I've been watching for the past week on ESPN all these ads and previews for the game and it comes around and since I'm in an ACC viewing area it's blacked out. Apparently it's supposed to be on FSN down here, but it's not. I don't really care for either one of those teams anyways, I just like to watch a good game.

Well I'm getting tired, get to get up early tomorrow and start it all over once again. I'm getting paid to play baseball...don't pinch me quite yet.

Just another day in...Jupiter

I watched Over The Edge this afternoon. It's one of the older movies that my Dad's given to me. I think it was made in 1977 and got a 7.7 rating on IMDB.com (IMDB.com for those of you that don't know, is an amazing movie website). Those ratings though can be pretty deceiving though. I've seen some movies that have like a 7.5 rating but are absolutely terrible. This movie wasn't bad, it was basically about a city of teenage kids that basically take over the town with vandalism. It was based off of true events, in my opinion those are always the better movies because you know that they actually happened. It gives the movie a little validity to me.

Everything else was just about the same as a regular day, nothing too exciting.

I did find out the other day that Brett Sinkbeil got engaged to his girlfriend Lindsey. Brett was one of my roommates in Jamestown and is one of my better friends in the organization. So now my first two roommates in pro ball are engaged...Maybe that's some kind of sign or something. I don't know though, I'm not sure I can ever see myself getting married and settling down. I'm only kidding, it's just a matter of time.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow afternoon. I plan on going over to Duffy's and sit outside on the patio with my laptop, in sunny 75 degree weather, and watch all my shows that I recorded from back home.

Speaking of TV, I did watch American Idol tonight. Not a bad episode. There was a girl that was from West Palm Beach that made it through and they interviewed her on the news after the show, kinda cool. I still don't really have a clear cut favorite like I usually do by this point in the show. There is still one more night of auditions, I'm hoping I'll find the eventual winner. And for those of you who say that American Idol is down this year, you really don't know what you're talking about!

One last thing...I got into a little argument with one of our trainers today in the training room about nutrition and lifting. He was trying to tell me that you need to take in a kilogram of protein for every pound of body weight...boy was he talking out of his ass! I proved him wrong after we looked it up and he conceited that I was right. The trainers and strength and conditioning coordinators are all surprised that I didn't major in athletic training/nutrition, turns out I know what I'm talking when it comes to that stuff. But anyways, the moral of this story is: Trainers like to talk out of their asses!!