Opening Night (Day 2)

It didn't seem like a new day when I arrived in Brisbane, but I assure you, it was.


In fact, two days had passed since I left home. Mostly because I crossed the International Date Line, but no matter. I had traveled through time and made it. And the future looks bright. My retina were burning a little.


Despite my worries about getting through customs without knowing any of my own information, I had no concerns with what I was going to do about it. I had complete faith that Whitey Wallace, Assistant General Manager of the Brisbane Bandits, was going to find me and point me in all the right directions.


After all, I had been speaking to him for all of a week about my plans to come and help out the team. Surely if that was enough time for me to get ready to leave my home country for a few months, it was enough time to at least remember to get me at the airport.


And he did remember. My first impression of Whitey was (in my head of course), "Whoa. What a dirty moustache." It was actually quite impressive, though I don't want to inflate any egos. For a blonde guy, the black dye job was a good one. He was going full handlebar in jet black with a little more detail than I care to describe. I hate Movember. And in that moment I thought of his girlfriend. Kind of felt bad for her, though I knew nothing of her. They should rename Movember to "No-sex November". Good luck fellas.


The day of my arrival inconveniently also happened to be the home opener for the Bandits. I didn't know whether this was good timing or incredibly bad. I knew Whitey had to be super busy, far too busy to want to come and get me at the airport and drive me around with too much luggage, but I was grateful for the ride and the reassurance that someone knew what I was doing here. Or at least that was what I hoped.


Probably before we even got to the car did I realize just how busy he was. He was answering nonstop phone calls, trying to explain things to me on the way and point things out. I should have known that Opening Night wouldn't be the best time to arrive but I pretty much felt like the biggest inconvenience ever at that point. My intentions were to get to Brisbane as soon as I possibly could, which was after I was finished volunteering for the New York City marathon, and to help as much as I could. Not to show up and make more work for everyone around me.


We went straight from the airport to the office. I had the chance to meet a Mac and Cole, which I believe to be their names, who work for Baseball Queensland. It seems to be a similar operation to that of Baseball Ontario, though on an even smaller scale if you can imagine. I also met 'Watto', who happens to be a coach for the team but also a player of sorts. I'm not really sure how that works but I had asked Whitey about him the first time I checked out the team roster and he was listed in both categories. Everyone welcomed me with open arms as they busily answered phone calls and did whatever last-minute stuff they were trying to do before the first home game.

I got a chance to let my mom know I had arrived and pretty soon after that we were off to the races. Right to the ball park. There were plenty of things to do at the park and I was here to help. Though I am not sure how much of a help I actually was at all.


I did meet some of the people that I would soon be spending the majority of my time with though. I was first introduced to Andy and Carl. My memory isn't great and unfortunately I just tune people out sometimes so really I am lucky to have remembered their names, but I believe Andy is some sort of strength and conditioning coach for the Bandits and Carl is a media relations type of person. I can't be sure. I also eventually was introduced to Paul Gonzalez ('Gonzo'), the General Manager of the team. Everyone seemed great but there was a lot to be done.


I also met the evening's starting pitcher, Simon Morriss. Apparently a carpenter in the day, starting pitcher at night, he was putting together some press-box-like contraptions in anticipation of the evening. Secretly, I thought that was fantastic. I'm not sure how he felt about it, but nonetheless. It reminded me a little bit of the Canadian Football League which is the only other league I have been associated with where the players have to have day jobs. But it's a little bit better when you feel like you're working with/for real people. And I would have to say that Morriss became a real person to me in that moment. I expect a few more moments like that in the future though.


My time was spent mostly running around seeing who needed my assistance. And then by the time I could get to a task someone needed me to do something else. It would have been great if I hadn't been wearing not only pants, but black pants to go with a black shirt, in the midday sun of Australia. Other than that though, it was a good time. Running around a ball park all day. Can't complain about that.


The only thing missing really was my own cleanliness. I was definitely shower-ready and also hopeful that no one around me was taking notice of that fact. I had been traveling for about 25 hours and then working outside in the heat for several more. I didn't receive any major complaints but I would try to be polite with someone I had just met for at least half a day too.


I did finally get to go to the place where I am temporarily staying so I could at least drop off my luggage and have a shower. Whitey took me there and gave me almost a half hour before he would come back and get me so we could get back to the park for the game. By the way, I believe the balllpark is called RNA Showgrounds. It stands for something, obviously, but just like I can't remember names, I can't remember what it stands for. It could be Really Nimble Australians for all it matters right now. But I showered and we headed back to the park.


I had my brand new Bandits shirt on and I was ready for action. I wasn't completely sure what I was going to be doing for the game, but it was my understanding that the team might have some need for someone to do the sound effects and/or walkup music for the players during game time. Since sound effects really are the essence of minor league baseball in my mind, that sounded not half bad to me.


Before the game started I ran around trying to see if anyone else needed anything but things actually seemed to be running relatively smoothly for an Opening Night. There were little odds and ends to figure out and sort through but no major disasters. And during the game I would be making an attempt at running the players' walkup music. Someone else was going to be running the sound effects so I only had half a job to do. It's a good thing since I was sleep-deprived and confused about pretty much everything.


The game wasn't exactly exciting enough to wake me up from my daze. Brisbane had a rough time and only came back in late innings to make it somewhat close. But they were the losers this time. I thought Morriss was given an earned run or two that he didn't deserve, but I'm not the official scorer so what do I know? Better luck next time I guess.


Compared to whatever state I was in before the game, post-game was much worse for me. I wanted to try and go to bed, but I didn't want to complain or have anyone think that I wasn't where I wanted to be. I was certainly back in my element, talking baseball, watching baseball, taking in the game...but I was pretty exhausted.


I was kind of relieved when Carl offered to drive me home, but I felt bad knowing that he, Whitey and others still had things to do at the park and I said I could stay to help. Probably in the best interests of everyone, he convinced me that I didn't need to try to be helpful any longer and I could just head home. On the way he joked that I would probably wake up at like four o'clock in the morning, and I laughed not knowing that his commentary was really foreshadowing later events.


Since I didn't have a phone or Internet as far as I knew, I wasn't sure how I was going to find these guys tomorrow. So Carl decided that he and Whitey would just show up at my place at some point in the late morning. That seemed like a sound idea, though it was a little lacking in details. Didn't seem to bother me at the time though. I figured things would just work themselves out.


Embarrassingly enough though what didn't work out was me knowing where I actually lived. When Carl dropped me off, I definitely went to the wrong building first, thinking it was where I was supposed to go. I figured it out but I'm sure he saw me take another walk to the other place. Oops. But I made it.

And it was finally time to sleep.