Spring Training...a real American vacation!

My burnt arms are turning into a tan and my legs are sore from standing around, that can only mean one thing; we’re more than a week into Spring Training!

We finally started playing games yesterday. I forgot how great of a feeling it was to be on a baseball field, under the sun, competing and chasing a dream. It’s such a great thing when the first game of the spring arrives. Everyone begins with a clean slate so that when there’s an out made or a walk given out there aren’t that many “f” bombs thrown around, in a few days though that will definitely change. I take these games very serious but I also realize that there is a long season ahead where I’m going to be frustrated at some point, so for the spring I try and stay as even keeled at possible. One of my goals for this season is to carry a part of my spring training mentality into the regular season. It always seems that the best players are the ones who are able to forget about their previous at bats or games and learn and go forward with that even keeled attitude.

For our game yesterday we traveled north on I-95 to Port St. Lucie to play the Mets. I led off the game with a strikeout, but battled and saw a lot of pitches so for me it was a successful at bat. My next at bat I doubled to left center and my final at bat I walked. We won the game 7-4 and everyone seemed to be happy with the way that things had went. I was happy about my first game back. I saw a lot of pitches, squared a ball up, and got on base a couple times.

When I talk to people about professional baseball one of the questions that always comes up is ‘Is there any type of a team concept?’. I have honestly always been kind of baffled by that question and didn’t really know what my honest opinion was. Last year I finally began to grasp the answer to that question. One thing that I’ve learned about pro ball is that you always have to look out for yourself, because if you don’t then chances are that you’ll be taken advantage of. Our team was once told last year that you need to play for the name on the back of your jersey and collect a check from the name that’s on the front of your jersey. I agree with that to a certain extent. This will be my 4th year in pro ball and I feel like I’m beginning to figure out how to go about my business when it comes to winning games and developing as a player. Of course you’re playing for yourself but the way I look at it is that if you win everyone is in a better mood and when you’re in a good mood, things always seem to go better for you personally. When I first got into pro ball my natural feeling was that I didn’t want any of the other position players to do well because those are guys that I was competing against to make it to the show. As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that all I need to worry about is myself. If I take care of what I need to and put up good enough numbers then I’ll make it, no matter what everyone else in the organization does. Granted I might not make it with the Marlins but there are 31 other teams out there that have big league teams that hold the same dream.

One of the really neat things about being in Jupiter during this time of the year is that I feel right at home when I look around the parking lot of our hotel. It’s not often that you go to South Florida and see an abundance of Missouri license plates. As much as I dislike the Cardinals, I will have to admit that they have a very loyal and dedicated bunch of fans. I always enjoy striking up conversations with the Cardinals fans around the hotel. Most of the time they are retired couples, grouped with other retired couples, who are down on their annual trip down to Jupiter to watch their beloved Cardinals. Last night I struck up a conversation with a couple from St. Louis and a couple from Cape Girardeau. They were very excited to hear that a Missouri boy was living out his childhood dream. We talked for about a half an hour and today they stopped by and watch my teammates and I play our game against the Cardinals. That’s when you know that someone is a true baseball fan, when they go to the back fields to watch a bunch of young minor leaguers play. They made sure and said hi to me before I walked back over to our side and it absolutely made my day. I ran into them once again tonight in the hotel lobby and we talked once again for about 30 minutes about baseball, Mizzou athletics, and high school football. Anyone who is able to talk sports and have some intelligent input is a person who I can talk to for hours, and that is exactly how these two families are. I hate to say it, but my opinion of Cardinals fans is slowly shifting, very very slowly shifting!

This blog has taken me awhile to write, the NCAA tournament is such a distracting thing, so I’ll save my stories about getting to meet Chase Utley and Ryan Howard for my next blog. Not to mention that my girlfriend, Amber, has a game starting in about 10 minutes that I’m planning on listening to on the computer/radio. She’s another story too that I’ll save for a later date.

Come back in a few days and I should have a new blog posted.

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”