Sausage Sizzle (Day 14)

The morning began with a near-death experience.

I now know that the Australian version of 911 is 000, though I didn't have my phone, nor did I know that number at the time of said experience.

I wasn't near my death however, for those of you who might have been worried. You should extend your worry to Whitey, whose life was essentially in my shaky, sweaty, ladder-holding hands.

Whitey picked me up in the morning and we had to head to the ballpark to get the stuff that we hadn't got to yesterday. Though we couldn't find what we were looking for, we did accomplish a task that Whitey had been meaning to get to for awhile.

He brought the biggest ladder up to the members' stand, which is very much like bleacher seating, in order to wrap a bunch of wires around one of the rafters in the roof of the structure. Now, the first important thing to note here is that Whitey is afraid of heights. Second important thing, I am not exactly the postergirl for upper body strength, or really any strength at all.

My job was to hold the ladder in place while Whitey, growing increasingly anxious with any tiny movement of the thing, had to climb to the top and deal with wires and zip ties. In retrospect, I should have climbed the ladder instead. I am not afraid of heights, though I have now grown scared of holding someone else's life in the balance. You might think I'm kidding, but I most definitely am not. Whitey was super high up with only bleachers and cement below him, and me trying to support the ladder and make sure it moved as little as possible. I'm pretty sure I was holding so tightly that I gave myself a bruise.

We did get through it though. It was touch-and-go for awhile there, with me thinking he was going to die or that I was going to have a panic attack, but we both made it. I hope I never have to do that again.

After that we had some running around to do and I got a chance to learn a little more about Whitey outside of the office. Most importantly, I discovered that he was a fake guide-dog trainer for some amount of time. It's an interesting story, but not mine to tell. It also happened to be his two-year anniversary with Julie so he informed me of his plans to make her dinner and buy her jewelry at Tiffany's. He's a good man, that Whitey Wallace. He also, as if it could get any better, decided that he was going to shave off his dirty Movember moustache to keep Julie happy. Bonus points.

Whitey and I eventually made it back to the office where I am pretty sure I just did busywork until it was time for lunch. I also managed to snap the last photo of the 'stache before its demise. I worked a little more on what I was thinking about asking some of the players at practice and how we were going to get videos of them giving baseball tips on our flip camera for the website. At one point during the day, I also helped with invoicing some expenses, falling nicely into the category of my made-up job title, Treasurer of Awesomeness.

In the afternoon, Carl and I had to head to the field so we could get some things ready for practice, get the guys on the team to sign some balls, obtain missing headshots and so I could get the material I'd been preparing for. Carl first passed off the ball-signing duties to me, so I made a very classy introduction for myself to the players I haven't yet met.

"Hi, I'm Alexis. Can you please sign Carl's balls for me? Thanks!"

So I think I've met the majority of the players and most of the people I will be dealing with at some point or another before this 45-game season is done. First impressions are not my forte. 

The practice wasn't anything strenuous on the players so I didn't really feel bad bombarding them to ask them to help me out with things. After going 1-3 over the weekend against Melbourne, I think team manager and former Phillies infielder Kevin Jordan just wanted the team to get together again. They played a game of touch footy, my first experience of the sport here. It reminded me of the time Baseball America Editor 2 (see blog: Just another day at the office http://www.livingthedugoutdream.blogspot.com/) took me to my first college football game in the States. New sports are key.

It was extremely difficult to find players willing to be on the flip cam though. All I was asking was for them to say their name, position, team and give a tip on playing ball. They could have talked about using soft hands, using two hands, turning their hips into their swing, running, throwing, bunting, stealing, whatever. But no one wanted to do it. We were aiming to get a guy for each week of the season still remaining, and I got three. Only three of them were willing. Unsatisfactory. 

While I had spent my time trying to do that, the sausage sizzle had begun. I'm not really sure what the difference is between a sausage sizzle and a good old-fashioned barbeque but here are the key points: The only meat served were sausages; they were raw meat, not just the kind that you heat up on the barbeque; they are to be eaten on a slice of bread and not a sausage bun, though I've been informed they do have buns here for those purposes; and people seemed to only put ketchup (tomato sauce here) or barbeque sauce on them. No mustard or relish or anything like that. And that's a sausage sizzle. You're welcome. 

I must say it was really good, but inbetween trying to eat, I was scrambling to get at least a couple of interviews for print. Everyone was probably a little afraid that I was going to come after them with the camera again, but all I wanted was some writing material. I managed to get three guys to talk to me before they had all left, and of those three interviews, only two were usable. I did something with my recorder and ruined the second interview. I will have to make another attempt soon but how did I manage that? And as much as I want to blame it on the recording device, I am positive the problem was a user error. I hope the guy doesn't think I am avoiding his story when the others go up. I'll just have to let him know what happened.

I had really wanted to speak with KJ (manager Kevin Jordan) also but I didn't get the chance. I approached him after practice to see if I could call him sometime this week but as it turns out he is heading back to Los Angeles for a few days just to close the selling of his house. I don't think I would do it, knowing what just the flight here has done to me. But I got his email address in an attempt to set up something at a later date.

Post-practice Gonzo gave me a ride home and I immediately started transcribing and writing the two stories I could write. The first is on Simon Morriss, starting pitcher and home grown talent. He is from Brisbane and I believe I mentioned in one of my first journals that on Opening Night I had come to the field to find the evening's starting pitcher putting together the corporate boxes. Morriss IS a carpenter after all, but really, on a pitching night? My thoughts on this are, What Would Roy Halladay Do?

The second story I wrote is on Jon Durket, one of the two players that I deconstructed the diamond with. He's a lefty reliever from California and is just happy to be here playing. In order to find out more though, you'll have to actually read my stories when they're posted on their respective websites. I'll post the links when I get them!

The story that I ruined, the one that didn't work out, would have been on Andrew Marck, one of two New Zealanders on the team. He's also a pitcher, but I will have to see if he's willing to give me another five minutes of his time a little later on.

At that point it had been a pretty long day. I left for the park in the morning around 8, got home around 8 and then worked on some writing for a few more hours.

Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good!