Sarah, come visit me when you're in Australia (Day 39)

Sometimes I wake up early. Sometimes I sleep in.

Okay, so far in Australia I have just been waking up early. Somehow though, I slept in today. When I woke up I got a chance to answer some emails and messages though because I didn't have to be at the park right away. Since Carl went out last night, he wanted to meet a little later to clean up the garbage at the field. His guesstimate for me was that he would be there at 11, so I didn't really feel the need to head there before that.

During my morning communication session I learned that one of my best friends is coming to Australia. That sounds like awesome news right? Not so much. She's not coming to visit me (unless I can make this some sort of convincing plea), and she's not coming near Brisbane. She is heading to Melbourne, and I have come to understand that I'm not near Melbourne. But come on. She's coming to Australia, I'm in Australia, we've only seen each other once since she lived here for nine months last year...she should come visit me right? Maybe we can somehow meet in the middle but I don't know if that's going to work. It's probably more likely that she could hop on the Melbourne Aces team plane to come here with them since they're in Brisbane when she comes to Oz. I feel like our chances are slim. But I am still hopeful.

Sarah, if you're reading this, and I hope you are, please please please come visit me! I will beg you if necessary, but I hope you already have an indication of how much I want you to come to Brisbane, or find a way to meet me somewhere else. You love baseball (you're welcome), and you know you would love to take in an Australian Baseball League game! You missed out on it last year when you lived here and you only came to one Blue Jays game this summer. You can get your baseball fix and your Alexis fix all at once, and you know you want to. Love you! Miss you! Mom, please call Sarah and try to be convincing. Or you could both come visit. That would be ideal.

At some point during the morning I called Carl to try and make sure that he was going to be at the park when he originally said he would. He didn't answer so I thought I would head over anyway. Obviously I knew he wasn’t going to be there on time, but I was hopeful for that too. Groundskeeper Steve was there getting the field ready for game time though, so at least I had a way into the locker room, using his key.

I gave up on Carl pretty much from the start and began picking up the garbage on my own. When I was almost through with the gathering of the big stuff, he called. He said he was heading to the field and asked when I would get there. Since I was already there, my answer was not quite what he had expected to hear. Carl said he and Whitey would be making an appearance soon, so I could await his assistance with the garbage. I had to get the keys from Whitey for the members’ stand anyway so that I could get the trash from there and scrub down the seats so people’s behinds don’t get too dirty. I was forced to wait.

Almost as soon as they got there, Gonzo sent Whitey out to get lunch for us. Steve and I had been around for a little while, and I wasn’t about to say no to a free lunch. Guzman Y Gomez was ready to make burritos for us and Whitey was about to go order them and bring them back.

In the meantime I got to work on the members’ stand. Carl came and helped me for a little while, until we started arguing again, almost continuing right where we left off yesterday. Then he left and found another place to clean. Perfect solution.

We stopped when the burritos came back with Whitey and everyone had some lunch. I realized that once again I had forgotten to send Coshi a script in the morning so I needed to use a computer and the wireless Internet from someone’s phone to accomplish the task. I got through it and got back to cleaning in good time.

After the cleaning was done, I headed home for a pre-game shower. I made it back with lots of time before the game and as per usual, tried to help out where need be. Luckily, the needs become fewer and fewer as the series goes on.

During the game, I wrote the story for the website and Carl mostly controlled the soundboard. Ryan Searle made his first start for the Bandits this season, coming back after being shut down by the Cubs for part of the fall. He was with the Double-A Tennessee Smokies this summer and went 5-3 with a 3.51 ERA.

He took his first loss in a Bandits uniform tonight though, mostly because of a bad call by the umpire. Brisbane lost 4-2, but Adelaide put up three runs in the third after what I would say was a controversial call (I wrote that in my article about the game too, so it seems obvious that I would say that). With runners on first and second with two outs, it looked like Searle had Denny Almonte watching a third strike. The home plate umpire called the pitch a ball and Almonte hit a two-run double and then later came around to score. When I thought the inning was over, the Adelaide Bite found room to go up 3-1.

So that was a tough game. KJ also pulled Searle out after just 4 1/3 innings, likely because he had gone through 76 pitches in his first appearance in a Bandits uniform this ABL season, but Searle didn’t want to come out. It makes sense, being that he wanted to get into a position to win and get through some more batters on his own, but it wasn’t his decision. It did make it look kind of awkward on the mound though when Durket had run in from the bullpen and was waiting for the ball and Searle hadn’t left the hill.

Durket made it into the game on his 25^th birthday and his parents got to see him play for the first time since they’ve been in Australia. It would probably suck a lot to travel across the world to see your son or brother play baseball and not have him get into a game. That problem has been solved now though. After the game, I tried to find them to talk to them and say happy birthday to the birthday boy, but I got sidetracked helping to put tarps on the field and missed them completely.

And then as soon as I could I decided to head home, since tomorrow is an early game and we still have to clean and do all of the things we have to do before a night game. Oh the joy of picking up garbage. Can’t hardly wait.

Also, have I mentioned yet that one of the Adelaide Bite players is named Josh Cakebread? I would like to marry him just to have his last name. I think it's fantastic. I have spent a good amount of time throughout the games so far this weekend talking about both his name, and the possibilities that bread made out of cake have to offer. Mull it over.