Our first series is in the books and we’re on our way back to Greensboro. I figured I have a few hours to burn so why not fill some of it with one of my favorite things to do, blog.
We ended up going 3-1 on the weekend. The first game we won 3-2, the second one 3-2, the third 6-4, and we lost the final game of the series 4-3. All four games of the series we found ourselves behind at some point in the game and in every one we ended up at some point making up the difference. Our team seems to have a lot of fight and for now everyone is pulling for each other, something that is very rare in minor league ball. All that is easy to do whenever you’re winning games, the real character of a team shows through when you go through down times.
I swung the bat pretty well for the three games that I played in, but I don’t like to dwell on either my negatives or positives too much. I’ve always thought that if they could come out with a drug that could eliminate your memory from at bat to at bat it would be that best performance enhancer ever. Like my dad has always said “It’s a short ride from the penthouse to the outhouse.”
August was a very unique city. For those of you that don’t know, the Masters is played in Augusta. If you don’t know what the Master is, it’s probably the biggest golf tournament there is. The tournament begins on the coming Thursday, with the practice rounds beginning tomorrow. Everything in the city revolves around the tournament. I can only imagine how much revenue the town makes off of the tournament. Even Augusta’s minor league team has a tie to the Masters. Their name is the Greenjackets, which happens to be what you receive if you win the Masters, a green jacket. On the trip from the hotel to the field we passed by the 8 entrances to the golf course and we also passed by about 50 scalpers on the sides of the road looking to either buy or sell practice round tickets. Another interesting tidbit about the Greenjackets is that their promotional crew wears caddy outfits with the names of famous golfers on their backs. As for their field it wasn’t too bad. The outfield was a little rough and it was an older stadium which gave it a nice homey feel.
Brock Bond, a former Missouri Tiger standout, plays second base for Augusta. I had a great time catching up with him; it’s always so nice to see a familiar face on the opposing team. Obviously I wanted to win every game but I also wanted Brock to do well. He’s one of the best teammates anyone could ask for; he literally fought for all of us. In the final game of the series I encountered a tough situation. I was on first base and there was a ball hit to the shortstop. I busted my butt over to second base so that I could break up the double play. Every time I go into the base I have the mindset that I don’t want the second baseman to be able to make a good throw to first to double up our guy. The only thing about this time was that Brock was on the other end of the collision. I slid in hard and I definitely paid for it more than he did. I caught a knee to the head and a cleat to the shin. I was fine but I thought that it was such a coincidence that the time that I break up a double play during the series it just so happens to be against one of my better friends.
Tomorrow we open our home schedule against the Hickory Crawdads, an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It should be fun; the management has said that they are expecting to have at least 10,000 people. Plus it’s supposed to be a nice night, I can’t wait. I’m sure I’ll be nervous for my first at bat, just like I was for my first game against Augusta. I got my strikeout out of the way and I was good from there!
I’ve already made it through more games than I did last year, a definite plus. I’m also having more fun than anyone right now playing the game that I love. I feel absolutely blessed every time I’m able to step out on the field and play the game that my dad groomed me to play ever since I was a little kid.
Make sure you vote on my new poll question.
*Tough times bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, in all of us.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Found the internet!
I talked the people above our apartment into giving us their password for their wireless network for a small fee. With that said I should be able to blog once again. Tomorrow is our first game against Augusta. The bus leaves at 9:00 to make the short four hour trip down to play Brock Bond's team. I'm absolutely thrilled that the start of the season is less than 24 hours away. I'll have more in a few days but I just wanted to update everyone on my status and let everyone know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.
Come back in a couple days and I will have the best blog ever!
*Play as if there's no tomorrow.
Come back in a couple days and I will have the best blog ever!
*Play as if there's no tomorrow.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Check out the new poll question...
There didn’t end up being any releases today which can be a good thing or a really bad thing. I say that it could be a bad thing because people could get really excited about avoiding the last “camp day” only to find out that they get released tomorrow or the next day. I don’t think that they’re planning on releasing any more guys but if you look at the numbers you have to assume that they still have to let some people go. That’s all for the management to decide and if you start thinking too much about it you’ll just give yourself a headache. I have heard some horror stories about some teams waiting until the last day to let guys go. Think about that, guys are planning to break camp with an organization, starting to make travel plans for their families to come see them, and start making living arrangements only to find out that they don’t have a job. All you can do is play well, take care of your business, and pray that that doesn’t happen to you.
We got done with our workouts at around 1:30 today. All we did was stretch, take a short batting practice, and played an eight inning game against the high A team. I think the score was 3-1 with their team coming out on top. I hit 3rd and played centerfield. I only ended up getting three at bats. My first at bat I hit a line drive over the shortstop’s head, my second at bat I grounded out to second, and my third at bat a hit a single to right center. On my groundout I broke my first bat of spring training and it just so happened that today was the only day that I didn’t take two bats out to the field…coincidence? I felt real good at the plate today, I definitely think that watching my swings last night helped me out a lot.
My poll question ended a couple of days ago and Carlos Beltran ended up winning the poll; definitely the right choice. Make sure you vote on my new poll question.
Kind of a short blog today but the NCAA tournament is on and I’m really tired. I hope you guys all understand!
*Being a good teammate is the best compliment that you can receive.
We got done with our workouts at around 1:30 today. All we did was stretch, take a short batting practice, and played an eight inning game against the high A team. I think the score was 3-1 with their team coming out on top. I hit 3rd and played centerfield. I only ended up getting three at bats. My first at bat I hit a line drive over the shortstop’s head, my second at bat I grounded out to second, and my third at bat a hit a single to right center. On my groundout I broke my first bat of spring training and it just so happened that today was the only day that I didn’t take two bats out to the field…coincidence? I felt real good at the plate today, I definitely think that watching my swings last night helped me out a lot.
My poll question ended a couple of days ago and Carlos Beltran ended up winning the poll; definitely the right choice. Make sure you vote on my new poll question.
Kind of a short blog today but the NCAA tournament is on and I’m really tired. I hope you guys all understand!
*Being a good teammate is the best compliment that you can receive.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
I picked a number...
Another day closer to breaking camp…Today was another day just like any other except for the fact that all the coordinators and coaches are starting to get antsy and when that happens they tend to take it out on the players. I don’t know if I speak for anyone else but I could feel it coming. As of late it seems like all the talk between players has been about being anxious to get out of Jupiter for the summer. I would definitely say that our play on the field has shown it. So today the coordinators put a little reality back into everyone’s mind by letting everyone know that teams aren’t set by any stretch of the imagination and anything can happen.
In today’s game I came in halfway through to DH. I ended up going 0-2 with a strikeout and a high pop up to the third baseman. I still feel good at the plate and I can’t wait to get back into the box tomorrow. I think we ended up getting beat 7-5, but no one really keeps track. It’s also kind of skewed because once a pitchers pitch count becomes too much in a single inning they yell out last batter and roll the inning over. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me simply because that’s not what happens during the year, you have to learn to get out of jams and that’s a huge part of baseball. Tomorrow we have our last “camp day”. Like I talked about in a past blog, these days are usually the ones where most guys are released. All we have tomorrow is batting practice and an intersquad game against the high A team. We should be done by about 1:00, which is a big difference from our usual 5:00 finish.
After our game our trainer was taking requests for numbers and getting sizes for everyone who is in our group. I had my choice of pretty much any number and I decided on…32. I also thought about 44, my number at Missouri, and 39, the number that I had last year in Greensboro when I hit two homeruns in my first two games. I figured I would go back to my roots and that definitely is #32.
Today I transferred clips of some of my swings that have been recorded during this spring training from our hitting coach’s computer. A couple years back our hitting coordinator downloaded a swing analysis program to my computer. I actually found out yesterday that the program is $2,000. When I got back to my room this evening I compared my swing now to my swing back in Jamestown. Things have changes quite a bit and definitely for the better. There are obviously still some things that I have to improve on but I’m definitely taking strides in the right direction.
Movie Update:
Even Money- This movie has one of the most star studded casts of any movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a story of three different people who all have gambling issues and how they all become intertwined in the end. I thought it was an alright movie. There were some points in the movie where I thought it became a little slow but other than that it was a good peek into the life of a gambling addict.
My rating: 6.5
American Idol Update:
Last night was the first night of the top 10 and judging by what the judges had to say Blue Springs’ own David Cook had the best performance. Everyone else was kind of average so it should be interesting to see who will get voted off tonight. At this point in the show everyone deserves to be there, it’s not like last year where Sanjaya stuck around and took up a spot.
Hopefully my blogs are giving everyone insight into what Spring Training is like and how hard it can be on some people. It is considered a job because we do get paid for it, but I mean come on…we’re playing a game and that’s definitely not a job and never will be in my mind.
*Having fun makes everything so much sweeter.
In today’s game I came in halfway through to DH. I ended up going 0-2 with a strikeout and a high pop up to the third baseman. I still feel good at the plate and I can’t wait to get back into the box tomorrow. I think we ended up getting beat 7-5, but no one really keeps track. It’s also kind of skewed because once a pitchers pitch count becomes too much in a single inning they yell out last batter and roll the inning over. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me simply because that’s not what happens during the year, you have to learn to get out of jams and that’s a huge part of baseball. Tomorrow we have our last “camp day”. Like I talked about in a past blog, these days are usually the ones where most guys are released. All we have tomorrow is batting practice and an intersquad game against the high A team. We should be done by about 1:00, which is a big difference from our usual 5:00 finish.
After our game our trainer was taking requests for numbers and getting sizes for everyone who is in our group. I had my choice of pretty much any number and I decided on…32. I also thought about 44, my number at Missouri, and 39, the number that I had last year in Greensboro when I hit two homeruns in my first two games. I figured I would go back to my roots and that definitely is #32.
Today I transferred clips of some of my swings that have been recorded during this spring training from our hitting coach’s computer. A couple years back our hitting coordinator downloaded a swing analysis program to my computer. I actually found out yesterday that the program is $2,000. When I got back to my room this evening I compared my swing now to my swing back in Jamestown. Things have changes quite a bit and definitely for the better. There are obviously still some things that I have to improve on but I’m definitely taking strides in the right direction.
Movie Update:
Even Money- This movie has one of the most star studded casts of any movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a story of three different people who all have gambling issues and how they all become intertwined in the end. I thought it was an alright movie. There were some points in the movie where I thought it became a little slow but other than that it was a good peek into the life of a gambling addict.
My rating: 6.5
American Idol Update:
Last night was the first night of the top 10 and judging by what the judges had to say Blue Springs’ own David Cook had the best performance. Everyone else was kind of average so it should be interesting to see who will get voted off tonight. At this point in the show everyone deserves to be there, it’s not like last year where Sanjaya stuck around and took up a spot.
Hopefully my blogs are giving everyone insight into what Spring Training is like and how hard it can be on some people. It is considered a job because we do get paid for it, but I mean come on…we’re playing a game and that’s definitely not a job and never will be in my mind.
*Having fun makes everything so much sweeter.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Getting closer...
Another day in the books and we’re all getting closer to breaking camp. It’s gotten to the point where everyone seems to be getting cabin fever, including the coaches. Everyone is getting pretty excited to learn where they’ll be going. I’m just trying to live in the moment because that’s the only thing that you can control; what’s going on right now. I still understand that there are still a lot of guys that are going to be released, but that’s something that you never want to creep into your mind.
I didn’t start in our game today but I did come in in the 6th inning. I only ended up getting one at bat and I single up the middle on the first pitch. Something that I’m definitely working on is being more aggressive. One of my biggest downfalls is that I’m overly picky at the plate. I’m positive that I’ll improve at being more aggressive because it’s basically a mental thing; it’s nothing mechanical so therefore it can be fixed with one simple change of thoughts. Our game today was against the Mets low a team. So far we’ve played the Cardinals about 10 times, the Mets twice, and the Dodgers once. The Dodgers move away from Vero Beach next year so that basically means even more games against the Cardinals. I have heard though that eventually Major League Baseball wants to have every team’s spring training site out in Arizona. It would make a lot of sense in terms of travel and being able to play more teams in spring training. The only problem with that however is that there would be abandoned complexes left here in Florida. Those plans are still at least 4 or 5 years down the road, hopefully it affects me because if it does that means I’ll still be playing.
The major league season started today with the Boston Red Sox playing the Oakland A’s in Tokyo, Japan. It just so happens that they are playing their series in the Tokyo Dome, one of the venues that we played at with Team USA. Looking back at that summer it was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and I would definitely like to go back to Japan at some point in my life, maybe even with my dad so he could show me some of the culture that I didn’t experience the first time around. But anyways, with today’s game America’s favorite past time is officially underway. It’s a time where everyone is fresh and healthy but with the realization that there is still 161 games ahead of them. It’s definitely a long season and to get through it all you have to be as mentally strong as you can possibly be.
Another positive thing that happened to me today was that I got a box of Gatorade recovery shakes for being in the top five of our fitness testing. They put our numbers together from our shuttle test and our vertical test to come up with an overall ranking of position players and I ended up being ranked third. I was happy with that but definitely not satisfied. I know that I could have done better on both of the tests but I do know that the organization took notice of my hard work in the off season.
Well that’s all that I have for today. Tomorrow’s schedule is exactly the same as todays but instead of playing the Mets we play the Dodgers. I still would like to get a picture with Hanley Ramirez and Andre Dawson so I’ll have to work on that too.
*Set your goals high because sometimes your body doesn’t know its limitations.
I didn’t start in our game today but I did come in in the 6th inning. I only ended up getting one at bat and I single up the middle on the first pitch. Something that I’m definitely working on is being more aggressive. One of my biggest downfalls is that I’m overly picky at the plate. I’m positive that I’ll improve at being more aggressive because it’s basically a mental thing; it’s nothing mechanical so therefore it can be fixed with one simple change of thoughts. Our game today was against the Mets low a team. So far we’ve played the Cardinals about 10 times, the Mets twice, and the Dodgers once. The Dodgers move away from Vero Beach next year so that basically means even more games against the Cardinals. I have heard though that eventually Major League Baseball wants to have every team’s spring training site out in Arizona. It would make a lot of sense in terms of travel and being able to play more teams in spring training. The only problem with that however is that there would be abandoned complexes left here in Florida. Those plans are still at least 4 or 5 years down the road, hopefully it affects me because if it does that means I’ll still be playing.
The major league season started today with the Boston Red Sox playing the Oakland A’s in Tokyo, Japan. It just so happens that they are playing their series in the Tokyo Dome, one of the venues that we played at with Team USA. Looking back at that summer it was definitely one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and I would definitely like to go back to Japan at some point in my life, maybe even with my dad so he could show me some of the culture that I didn’t experience the first time around. But anyways, with today’s game America’s favorite past time is officially underway. It’s a time where everyone is fresh and healthy but with the realization that there is still 161 games ahead of them. It’s definitely a long season and to get through it all you have to be as mentally strong as you can possibly be.
Another positive thing that happened to me today was that I got a box of Gatorade recovery shakes for being in the top five of our fitness testing. They put our numbers together from our shuttle test and our vertical test to come up with an overall ranking of position players and I ended up being ranked third. I was happy with that but definitely not satisfied. I know that I could have done better on both of the tests but I do know that the organization took notice of my hard work in the off season.
Well that’s all that I have for today. Tomorrow’s schedule is exactly the same as todays but instead of playing the Mets we play the Dodgers. I still would like to get a picture with Hanley Ramirez and Andre Dawson so I’ll have to work on that too.
*Set your goals high because sometimes your body doesn’t know its limitations.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Up to #2
We’re now one day closer to breaking camp and everyone is becoming pretty anxious. There still seems to be a lot of decisions and moves that the organization is going to have to make. Every team from triple a down to the extended team has at least 30 players. By the start of the season each team has to be down to 25. If you take that into consideration it means that there are at least 25 guys that are still going to be released. The organizational guys who make the decisions say that this is the toughest time of the year for them, for the sole fact that they have to basically fire people. In the business world a boss has to let people go occasionally, in the baseball world the general manager has to let go about 50 people within a four week span. It’s pretty crazy to think of it like that.
Every team does it differently when it comes to releasing guys. Some teams leave notes in lockers to go see the farm director, some teams have the positional coaches pull the players out of the locker room before they go out to the field, and other teams wait until everyone’s out on the field and have the trainers go out and get guys and bring them back to the clubhouse. There’s not a good way to do it, but it has to be done.
When we got arrived at the clubhouse today we were greeted with a drug test, our second one since spring training started. Our first drug test was conducted by MLB; today’s drug test was conducted by the Florida Marlins. If you fail the drug test performed by the MLB you receive a 50 game suspension, if you fail the drug test from the Marlins they hand down consequences depending on the severity of the positive test. There are some guys that get nervous with these tests; I’m not one of them.
Today’s game was once again against the Cardinals. I ended up going 0-1 with a walk, hit by pitch, and a fly out to the left fielder. I hit 3rd in the order and DH’ed. We don’t really keep track of the score of these games but I’m pretty sure that we got outscored today. Travis Mitchell, an outfielder in the Cardinals organization who had signed with Missouri but never ended up making it there, hit a homerun against us today.
Speaking of the Missouri Tigers they jumped up to #2 in Baseball America. I hope the university as a whole and the town of Columbia realizes how great of a thing this squad has going and comes out to support their Tigers!
Movie Update:
Death Sentence- Kevin Bacon plays a father who sees his oldest son slain by gang member in an initiation ritual. The whole movie is basically about Bacon seeking revenge on the gang while protecting his family. This is one of the best movies that I’ve seen in a long time.
My rating: 8.0
Thanks for checking in; hopefully I’ll be bringing some good news tomorrow.
*When no one believes in you look deep inside your soul and you’ll find a believer.
Every team does it differently when it comes to releasing guys. Some teams leave notes in lockers to go see the farm director, some teams have the positional coaches pull the players out of the locker room before they go out to the field, and other teams wait until everyone’s out on the field and have the trainers go out and get guys and bring them back to the clubhouse. There’s not a good way to do it, but it has to be done.
When we got arrived at the clubhouse today we were greeted with a drug test, our second one since spring training started. Our first drug test was conducted by MLB; today’s drug test was conducted by the Florida Marlins. If you fail the drug test performed by the MLB you receive a 50 game suspension, if you fail the drug test from the Marlins they hand down consequences depending on the severity of the positive test. There are some guys that get nervous with these tests; I’m not one of them.
Today’s game was once again against the Cardinals. I ended up going 0-1 with a walk, hit by pitch, and a fly out to the left fielder. I hit 3rd in the order and DH’ed. We don’t really keep track of the score of these games but I’m pretty sure that we got outscored today. Travis Mitchell, an outfielder in the Cardinals organization who had signed with Missouri but never ended up making it there, hit a homerun against us today.
Speaking of the Missouri Tigers they jumped up to #2 in Baseball America. I hope the university as a whole and the town of Columbia realizes how great of a thing this squad has going and comes out to support their Tigers!
Movie Update:
Death Sentence- Kevin Bacon plays a father who sees his oldest son slain by gang member in an initiation ritual. The whole movie is basically about Bacon seeking revenge on the gang while protecting his family. This is one of the best movies that I’ve seen in a long time.
My rating: 8.0
Thanks for checking in; hopefully I’ll be bringing some good news tomorrow.
*When no one believes in you look deep inside your soul and you’ll find a believer.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
I'm back,,,
Happy Easter to everyone out there! It seems like it’s been forever since I’ve blogged, but now I’m back and in the blogging mood. It is good to be back but it also means that I don’t have anyone to keep me company. It was probably a good thing that my family and fiancé were here whenever Jordan got released. It wouldn’t have been real fun going from a great roommate and friend to nothing. My mom, sister, and Madi left yesterday to go back home and Drew left early this morning. It’s always hard having to say goodbye to people you love so much but then I’m kind of preparing myself so that when they do leave it’s not as bad as it could be.
We had such a good time when everyone was here. We had some incredible food, some good laughs, and they were great company. They all went to the beach everyday, and I have no idea how in the heck they did it. I can only take so much of sand in my crack! With everyone gone I’m going to have to get used to life once again without a car. That means a lot of meals at Boston Market. In case you were wondering, my bike is still over at the Fairfield. I should probably go pick it back up eventually.
I’ve been playing alright in the games. I always seem to get at least one hit but that’s usually the most that I get. I’d like to put together a multi hit game eventually. There still are a lot of guys that are going to be released, hopefully I’ve shown enough so far and the organization thinks enough of me to keep me around for the rest of the year.
The first few days of the NCAA tournament have been absolutely unforgettable. It really is true that in the tournament anyone can beat anyone at any given time and that’s the beauty of it all. My pick to win it all, Tennessee, went into overtime earlier today but they were still able to pull through.
The Missouri baseball team is absolutely on fire! This past weekend the pitching staff didn’t give up an earned run and only 2 runs total. That’s even against a Big 12 opponent who happens to be the #14 team in the nation. What they are doing right now is unprecedented. I hate to put such high expectations with this team but I really think that they have a serious shot at winning the national championship. They’ve already proven that they can handle the early season hype, now it’s time to see if they can take everyone’s best shot. It’s a serious possibility that they could be the #1 team in the country after this weekend. Going back to the pitching staff, I talked to Stan Meeks the other day about Aaron Crow. Mr. Meeks is the scouting director for the Marlins and he told me that he didn’t think that there would be any chance that Crow would be around for the Marlins to take with the sixth pick. It’s going to be fun to see where this season ends.
Well that’s good for now. I’m back in blogging mode so expect a great one tomorrow; hopefully I have nothing but good news to report.
*Achieve the unthinkable.
We had such a good time when everyone was here. We had some incredible food, some good laughs, and they were great company. They all went to the beach everyday, and I have no idea how in the heck they did it. I can only take so much of sand in my crack! With everyone gone I’m going to have to get used to life once again without a car. That means a lot of meals at Boston Market. In case you were wondering, my bike is still over at the Fairfield. I should probably go pick it back up eventually.
I’ve been playing alright in the games. I always seem to get at least one hit but that’s usually the most that I get. I’d like to put together a multi hit game eventually. There still are a lot of guys that are going to be released, hopefully I’ve shown enough so far and the organization thinks enough of me to keep me around for the rest of the year.
The first few days of the NCAA tournament have been absolutely unforgettable. It really is true that in the tournament anyone can beat anyone at any given time and that’s the beauty of it all. My pick to win it all, Tennessee, went into overtime earlier today but they were still able to pull through.
The Missouri baseball team is absolutely on fire! This past weekend the pitching staff didn’t give up an earned run and only 2 runs total. That’s even against a Big 12 opponent who happens to be the #14 team in the nation. What they are doing right now is unprecedented. I hate to put such high expectations with this team but I really think that they have a serious shot at winning the national championship. They’ve already proven that they can handle the early season hype, now it’s time to see if they can take everyone’s best shot. It’s a serious possibility that they could be the #1 team in the country after this weekend. Going back to the pitching staff, I talked to Stan Meeks the other day about Aaron Crow. Mr. Meeks is the scouting director for the Marlins and he told me that he didn’t think that there would be any chance that Crow would be around for the Marlins to take with the sixth pick. It’s going to be fun to see where this season ends.
Well that’s good for now. I’m back in blogging mode so expect a great one tomorrow; hopefully I have nothing but good news to report.
*Achieve the unthinkable.
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