American Thanksgiving (Day 16)

I finally spoke to someone on the phone!

Alexander Graham Bell would be so proud.

And of course, I mean someone other than Carl or Whitey. I finally spoke to my mom, the only person from home whose voice I've heard in the last couple of weeks. I'd purchased a phone card last night before I went to the movies and got the chance to use it this morning.

So that was fun. I got to inform her directly that here an ottoman is referred to as a 'poof', ketchup is 'tomato sauce', tomato sauce is 'spaghetti sauce', a pharmacy is a 'chemist' and all kinds of other fun facts. I am learning. Not quickly, but I am getting there. My mother also took the time to inform me that I have been spelling 'whingeing' wrong. I wasn't getting the 'h' in there. My bad.

It didn't seem like we were talking long though before I had to go because Whitey was coming to pick me up. I went and waited outside and found today to be the coldest day since I've been here. It wasn't actually cold by any means, but it rained for the first time that I've seen last night and it cooled things off for a little while I guess. I actually thought about going back inside and getting a sweater or something, but I thought against it. It wasn't necessary. I don't even know why I brought sweaters with me on this trip.

Whitey had some errands to run in the morning and I was with him just to keep him company. I felt like I could be sufficient at doing that, so it was a good plan. We first had to go to the field to get rid of a bunch of the stuff in Whitey's car. The biggest room-taker-upper was the mascot suit and all of its pieces. It was still sweaty from when Carl wore it so that was a pleasant surprise. In combination with the bag of dirty team towels in the back of Whitey's car, I'm sure the aroma would have been overwhelming if I wasn't fortunate enough to be used to it.

We dumped off a bunch of stuff and then headed somewhere to get rid of the bag of team towels. We were making progress on both emptying out the car and helping it smell a tiny bit better.

From there we had to head to Redlands, which is a club baseball place here. I don't really yet understand club baseball because I don't think there is anything comparable at home, but that's where we were. It was a little bit of a drive, so it made me feel for the people who I know have to come from out there to the games. The facility wasn't bad though. They had batting cages inside and there were a few diamonds around. The best part of the place for me though was a poster from like 1997 of Roger Clemens and Pat Hentgen in the old Blue Jays uniforms standing back-to-back as consecutive Cy Young Award winners. What a team.

During our drive to and from Redlands, I had more opportunity to learn things about one Whitey Wallace, so that I did. I should point out that one of the most important things that I know about him, and only because he stresses it every other day, is that he has never been in a car accident. He finds it pertinent for me to know this fact. I pointed out to him that if he had been in an accident at any point I still wouldn't hesitate to take rides home from him. We were driving in the rain though and I don't think the cars here are built for rain, so I think that was the reason behind why he mentioned it to me.

We spoke a lot about American Thanksgiving and I will take the time now to wish my friends at Baseball America a happy holiday. Last year at this time I was heading over to have American Thanksgiving with one of my roommates from North Carolina. I did not know her name then, nor do I remember it now. It was a tough situation and you can read all about it in my other journal entries from last year if you're interested.

But Whitey seemed pretty homesick about not being able to be with his brother for the holiday. He missed out last year as well and I'm sure it's not an ideal situation for him. His girlfriend was going to head home after work and slave over a traditional dinner for them though so I'm sure he will be alright.

We made it back to the office eventually and Carl was heading out to a post office to mail some postcards. So I went with him so I could send some out too. I don't know how long they will take to make it back to Canada, but some of you should be expecting them soon! Ish...soon could be a relative term.  We also took some Bandits posters along on the journey in an attempt to put them up in random storefronts but that didn't really go so well.

I did learn however that Carl's job for one summer was putting posters up on windows. He's a real winner that guy. I think we put up two of the posters before we broke for lunch. I got a chicken burger for lunch and then ordered the additional option of adding a drink and chips to my meal. I kind of just wanted to see what I would end up with when ordering chips. And much to my delight, I got an order of french fries. Ordering blindly worked out perfectly.

At the office I spent most of my time dealing with emails from players and starting to get ready for more interviews. Last night I sent an email out to the team kind of trying to introduce myself to them and let them know what I am attempting to do with my time here. I told them that I write for Baseball America, which I am sure helped my cause and that BA was going to post the articles that I write about the league. This was mostly in an attempt to get the players to not blow off my interviews and realize that I am trying to help us all. It worked at least a little bit because a few of them got back to me right away.

One of my stories from Tuesday night also went up on the Brisbane website. It can be found here for now: http://web.theabl.com.au/news/article.jsp?ymd=20111123&content_id=26031894&vkey=news_t4065&fext=.jsp&sid=t4065
I also sent it to Baseball America, along with the other one I did on Tuesday and we'll see what happens. During the day today, Carl and I were emailing back and forth with one of the other writers here, Anna. I think she works for a publishing company but is trying to get into journalism, so she is writing for the Bandits. I am (hopefully) going to help her learn the ins and outs of baseball, scoring games and stats and all the stuff that I am best at, but I don't know how good of a teacher I am. Though I'm sure I taught you what a poof is. Again, you're welcome.

Anna mentioned that the publishing company she works for is re-releasing the book version of Moneyball and Carl and I spitballed about getting the article I wrote on the topic up on our website or somewhere else. My article was about Stephen Bishop, the actor who played David Justice in the movie, and his journey from minor league baseball to the big screen. But to make the story more relevant, I had the idea of talking to our closer, Chris Mowday. Mowday essentially was a part of the whole process of Moneyball. Whether he knows it or not, he was there. The right-hander was sent to Oakland in 2002 along with infielder Mike Rouse from the Blue Jays organization in exchange for Cory Lidle. The As were looking to unload the payroll of Lidle in true Moneyball style, picking up cash and prospects in Mowday and Rouse. So I would like to update my article a little bit and make it relevant to the Bandits in that respect. I think it could work out.

Whitey left the office a little early, I think because he had to go to the field to let people in, but probably also for Thanksgiving. After all, Julie was cooking up a storm for him to have all the traditional stuff when he got home. Not long after he had left and Gonzo had left, Carl decided he was going to leave too. He suggested I come with him, and I really had no idea what I was doing in regards to getting home so I figured that was a wise choice. Carl was going to have to show me how to use the bus system once again.

It wasn't so hard since Carl told me exactly where to go and exactly what to do, but he did also say that my stop was only like two stops away. I got a little worried when I was at the second stop and I didn't recognize anything. But I thought I remembered that the place I need to get off at was the end of the line, so I figured I could wait it out and just see what happened. Another two stops passed before I was where I needed to be. But I did indeed get there and I was able to find my way home from where the bus dropped me off. It seemed very efficient. I just don't know if I could do it again all by myself though. Unfortunately Carl has to hold my hand through these things a little bit. I'll figure it out someday. Hopefully.

I'm almost positive that I fell asleep immediately when I got home. I had been texting Erin to see if she could take me to the gym with her and get me a temporary pass, but I didn't get her reply until she actually got home. Which was what woke me up. So I am going to have to assume I slept for like an hour or so. Oops. I guess that happens when you don't sleep, as I eluded to in the first paragraph of yesterday's entry.

Actually, a lot of people have been asking me how I have enough time to write these entries every day. The truth is, I haven't been sleeping. My internal clock is messed up. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night hungry, or because of my awful itchy mosquito bites, or because it's too hot. And then I just can't seem to get back to sleep. But I've been feeling more tired lately, so I think that's an indication that my body knows what it wants. It better get it soon. I feel a good slumber coming on.

But when Erin got home we did head to the gym. She thought she would be able to get me a five-day pass so I could try it out. And I figured I would just talk to someone there about how much it would cost for the three months I am around.

I spoke to one of the club representatives and I was pretty shocked at what I heard. She first told me that for three months at the gym it would cost me $399. Then she told me that I just had to pay a $40ish membership fee and a $50ish card fee or something and then pay $40 something every fortnight.

Obviously, I had to stop her and ask what in the world a fortnight was. In that moment was probably the time when I felt like the biggest idiot since I've been here. It was pretty embarrassing. And I will tell you, a fortnight is two weeks. What kind of language is this? Eventually she gave me a three-day pass and told me I could figure things out on Saturday. That was good enough for me.

Erin asked me what I do when I go to the gym and I admitted that usually I just do cardio. Weights are pretty much my enemy though I know I need to use them. She mentioned that she was starting a new weights program and offered to help me out. So I said I would do them with her at least for a little while.

And I am going to be sore tomorrow. First we did some hip thing, or maybe it's for your butt or your thighs. I don't really know but it seemed complicated. I'm not sure I was doing it right either because I kept looking at the little instructional picture on the machine and he looked like he was doing something incredibly different from what I was. But it was hard and it started to get hurty, so I was working something. Erin and I switched during sets and inbetween I did lunges. I hate lunges. What a terrible idea.

From there we did some hamstring machine with squats inbetween. I also think squats are a bad idea. The last thing I did before I gave up and went to the treadmill was head to the bench press. And I will have you know that I bench pressed the bar all by myself. That's right. Just the bar. I know I've mentioned this before but let me reiterate...I have almost zero upper body strength. This is why I need to do more weights. But it's just such a bad idea. Yuck.

So to the treadmill I went. I felt relief in my 30 minutes of running. By that time, Erin was ready to head out. Goodbye expensive gym. I doubt I'll ever be going back there again.

When we were there though I had happened to ask Erin about where I could get some hangers and she took me to Woolworth's so I could do that and get some groceries. For the first time I got some of my own groceries, though my basket wasn't filled with much. I already had peanut butter and bread at home so I got some bananas, sandwich meat, yogurt and pop. I think that's really about it. Aside from the hangers of course.

So I had a great snack when I got home and set to work on putting away my clothes. Now that I had the tools necessary to put them away, I was all over it. My room was spic and span in no time. Okay, it took some time. But you get it. Clothes hanging up, food in the fridge...it's like I live here almost. Two weeks later.

And then I just set to work starting to transcribe my interview with Watto. I got distracted by my emails and Facebook a little bit, but I got a little bit done. I'll get to it tomorrow for sure.

In honour of American Thanksgiving (can you belief I spelled a word the Canadian way and referenced an American holiday all at once?), I would like to give some thanks before I head to bed though.

First of all, I have to thank my mom of course. She's helped me to get to where I am and if I mess up huge, she will help me get back on track. Hopefully you don't have to do that mom. I'm just saying. But thanks for dealing with me and my love for baseball and loving it yourself, or at least going along with all the crazy baseball things I want to do. Thanks for coming to all the ballparks you've been to and for heading out to Spring Training to suffer in the heat and warmth when everyone at home is struggling in the snow and ice. I would be more thankful though if you would come here and check out baseball in Australia! Just thought I would throw that in there.

I'm thankful next to the Brisbane Bandits for having me out here. I love what I am doing and it's been great. I get a perspective on minor league baseball that I've never had before. I get to have my hands in on a little bit of everything and I can do what I love, write about baseball. What could be better? And in that, I'll thank Whitey for setting me up, Gonzo for keeping me around and Carl for dealing with me day in and day out. The whole organization is great but they are the guys who have to deal with me the most.

My thanks then extend to Baseball America for helping me get some information about the Australian Baseball League out beyond the scope of the people who are here. I am grateful for the chance to write baseball and then for the opportunity to have my stuff on the website or in the magazine. The people at Baseball America are a part of my heart for sure and without them I wouldn't even be recognizing American Thanksgiving probably.

There are tons more people that I should thank for everything but I just realized how long I could go on like this for. So if you're reading, thanks for that.