Another day at the office (Day 49)

I woke up early in anticipation of walking to the office. Though the walk was once a daunting task, it now seems like a necessary form of exercise, since I haven’t done much in the way of physical activity lately. Falling off a surfboard and flying off a tube don’t really seem to figure into that equation.

I made it to the office using the directions in my memory, though that had me a little worried at first since last time I ventured home from the office I got lost. But I was there in record time, almost not as sweaty as usual. My plan was to head in and change my clothes and wash my face and all that good stuff before getting into the office, but the place was entirely locked up when I arrived on scene. It’s a holiday here I guess. I couldn’t even get in the front door, let alone into the Bandits office or the bathroom. So I sat outside and called Whitey. I was hoping he and Carl would make it on time, otherwise I would be sitting alone outside for while.

They made it to the office relatively soon though and much to my surprise, Carl was driving. I knew Carl and Whitey had switched residences, but I didn’t know it was a complete life swap. Since Whitey’s girlfriend is out of town and Carl’s girlfriend is in town, somehow they agreed that Whitey would go live in Carl’s bedroom with his roommates and Carl and his girlfriend are taking over Whitey’s apartment. The arrangement is just for a couple of weeks, while various girlfriends are gone/visiting. But I figured Whitey would have his car at Carl’s place, which is why I walked to work and didn’t ask him for a ride, because it was no longer on his way. Little did I know that Carl had the car, and I was most certainly on his way, though he obviously didn’t think of that. But like I said, I needed the exercise.

When we got in the office I really had no idea what we were there for. I wasn’t expecting the whole place to be empty, nor did I know what business I had there. Whitey mentioned that we needed to get the information for the program out, but Carl jumped on that and said it wouldn’t take long. We should have had it done previously but I think we were all a little preoccupied. Then Whitey reminded us that we needed to send out a weekend series preview to the media, and get one on the website as well. He and Carl were discussing it, so I figured Carl would do it.

As they talked about that, I continued working on my story about Ryan Searle that I had started earlier in the month. Searle had answered a long list of questions I sent him awhile ago, but unfortunately the story fell by the wayside when my writing did. With the two homestands in a row, plus Training with the Pros and then going away for a few days, I got distracted. No excuses now though, so I got to work on it.

Carl came over to me at one point to ask if I would write the series preview but I thought he was doing it. When I asked him about it he just to me to forget about it. I guess I’d said the wrong thing. I just wasn’t sure why we both needed to be working on it, and I had the Searle story to keep me preoccupied so I thought I could just continue working on that. In the end that’s exactly what I did, probably much to Carl’s chagrin. I finished the story, got Carl to proofread it, and even got it up on the website all by myself. I might be getting good at this whole website-management thing. Well, let’s not go too far.

It wasn’t long after that when we all headed home. I felt like my time at the office could have been better spent at home, without having all of the walking in between, but I got a story done, I got some exercise and I got out of the apartment. I also got the keys to the RNA from Whitey so I could let the guys in for practice in the afternoon. That way Whitey didn’t have to come all the way from Carl’s place to the ballpark, and it certainly isn’t out of my way to go to the field.

At home I didn’t do much more than eat and get some laundry done before heading to the ballpark. I tried to come up with more storylines, knowing that I would possibly have the opportunity to follow through on them at practice.

When I got to the Showgrounds I unlocked whatever I could, not really sure of what I was doing (I need to start being a better listener). I unlocked the gate that I had to use to come in, figuring that everyone could come in the same way. I unlocked another gate but I don’t think it was accessible from the outside so that didn’t really mean anything. I opened up the locker room and as I did that, I realized how disgusting it is.

So I got to cleaning. There were cans and sunflower seed shells attracting bugs all over the place, so I made it a priority to sweep those up and get rid of them first. Then I took out the garbages because not only were they also surrounded by hovering bugs, most of them were emitting smells that were almost at the putrid level. Being around this locker room makes my roommate at home look good (no offense Chris, that was kind of a compliment). And I mean, really good.

As I was doing that some of the players started to drift in so I went outside. I saw the tarps that make up the batter’s eye in the outfield flapping around, and didn’t recall them doing that before, so I thought I might be able to make myself useful and fix them. I got out some zip ties and went out to centre field. I tried from the inside first, and then from the outside, and found zero success. I probably looked like an idiot, too, for all the guys who had come outside and could see what I was doing. I got absolutely nothing accomplished on the fence.

When the team got to practicing I tried to catch up on some journal-writing, still far behind and barely making progress from the home series and going away. When it started pouring I took shelter in the stands, watching the guys on the field get soaked. I think they probably had thoughts of packing it in when the precipitation got a little lighter, so they continued. The practice didn’t look too strenuous but I’m sure it wasn’t awesome getting caught in the rain. It started again a little while later and that’s when the practice ended. In between, there was a nice rainbow but I’m sure no one cared but me. I took a picture of it on my phone, but I have yet to figure out how to transfer pictures from my phone to my computer without having Internet on my phone. Technology is not my strong suit.

After they were finished, I grabbed KJ to interview him about baseball road trips. I already had answers from a few of the guys on the team about their worst road trip experiences (the reader-friendly versions), and I figured I could wrap the story up with some input from KJ. He was happy enough to oblige, or at least he obliged, and I spoke to him for a good, solid 10 minutes. I’d told him it would only be two, so my estimate was a little off, but he didn’t seem to mind. Another person I had wanted to catch after practice was relief pitcher John Veitch, but most of the guys were gone by the time I was done talking with KJ, so that one will have to wait for another day. 

Just as I was ready to leave the park I saw that the pitching hills in the bullpen were still out on the grass. They are supposed to be left on the track whenever they're not being used, or else the grass underneath them dies and the RNA people don’t like that. I went back to the locker room and asked the guys still left if they would help me. They did, but I’m sure moving relatively heavy objects in the rain was pretty close to the last thing they wanted to do.

I walked home after finally thinking there was nothing more for me to do at the RNA, and I started on my road trip story. In my mind I had made earlier plans to go for a run, but that didn’t happen when the time rolled around that I could do so. My excuse was that the little treadmill room in the apartment building closed at 9 o’clock and by the time I finished the story on baseball road trips, it was closed. Instead, I got the story ready to go up on the website for the morning. I didn’t post it, because I’d already posted the Searle story earlier in the day, but all I will have to do in the morning is click a few buttons and it should be good to go.

I feel like a got a little bit accomplished today.