New Year's Eve (Day 53)

I am a disaster.

That’s a little foreshadowing for you, since I wasn’t quite a disaster first thing in the morning. I woke up still feeling a little sick though and so started the day of taking too many cold pills.

I went to clean up the garbage at the park pretty early in the morning and Alan was already there, helping out with the trash collection. What a guy. I think he had been there super early to let Steve in, and then stayed to be awesome and helpful. I appreciated it. I finished up with the garbage in the members’ stand and set to scrubbing down the seats. Once again, they weren’t too bad, but I still had some work to do. When I was close to getting the seats done, Carl showed up and got out the leaf blower.

I must not have looked very well because he said I should just go home and rest, and not even come back for the games. But I wasn’t about to do that. It’s New Year’s Eve and it would look pretty bad if I skipped work and then went out, right? My thought process was flawed though. I shouldn’t have been thinking about going out. Carl was right, I should have been thinking about getting better. Instead, I took more cold pills.

I did head home to shower and change but I came back right after that for the doubleheader. The first game went really quickly and newcomer Justin Staatz did an amazing job on the mound. He’s an American import who I believe plays club ball here in Australia, but was just added to the roster for the first time this weekend. He threw eight scoreless innings, using only 82 pitches and just allowing one runner past first base. Unfortunately he didn’t get the win, because the lead was blown in the top of the ninth, but the Bandits came out victorious, walking off with a walk-RBI in the bottom half of the inning. What a way to end it.

After the first game, I headed home briefly to take some more medicine, as if that was what I needed. I came back and got some food in me courtesy of the sausage sizzle going on for the players and the volunteers.

Post-sizzle I headed over to the Cavalry locker room because I had made arrangements to interview Blue Jays prospect Kenny Wilson. Originally the Blue Jays sent two guys to Australia, but John Tolisano was injured in the second or third week of the season and they ended up shutting him down and sending him back home. I figured I might as well write the story on Wilson though and see if any publication at home in Toronto is interested in it. If not, I think we talked about Canada and Canadians enough to make a run at getting it on the Canadian Baseball Network website. And I will of course send it to the Cavalry for use on their website, should they so choose.

Wilson is kind of tough for me to figure out because although he’s never batted better than .216 in his career in the minor leagues, the Blue Jays keep moving him up to the next level. I’m sure there’s something they see in him, or maybe they’re just hoping he can produce against pitchers at a higher level, but I’m not sure I get it. He was drafted in the second round (63^rd overall) of the 2008 draft as an 18-year-old. He chose to take the $644,000 signing bonus instead of heading to college. He’s here in Australia because he missed half the season earlier this year with Class High A Dunedin, due to a torn labrum. The Jays offered him a chance to put in some time in the ABL and he took it. So we’ll see what I can come up with when I write about him.

When I was done talking to Wilson I was stopped by Tristan Crawford and we spoke again for a little while. It was a better conversation than when I bombarded him about not playing for the Bandits earlier. We talked about his arm injury, which is kind of complicated. He had Tommy John, but during his rehabilitation he apparently recovered too well. His tendon (or something...what am I? A doctor?) was too strong and ended up injuring him further. He said there’s like a one in 500 chance of that happening, and he was just the lucky one. So he is headed back to see Dr. James Andrews again in a week or so to have another surgery. Tough break.

The second game started not long after my social visit, and it was a good one, too. Ryan Searle got his second start of the season and he did a great job for the Bandits, going six innings, giving up two runs (one earned), scattering six hits and striking out six. Once again though, the starting pitcher was not the beneficiary of the win. Brisbane tied the game up in the seventh and then came out huge the next inning, with an eight-run eighth, to take the game 10-2. John Veitch got the win, going the final three innings, not allowing a run.

Following the second game was the fireworks display. It’s the second time we’ve hosted fireworks at the ballpark this season and both times, it’s been great. And as I took in the greatness, I got into the drinking, the beginning of the disastrous evening I was about to have. When the fireworks ended I waited around for pizzas to show up. At the beginning of the second game, Gonzo asked me to order 40 pizzas for the volunteers and players for after the games were finished. The pizza guy called me once to get directions and the second time he called, he told me he had arrived. The only problem was that he wouldn’t drive down into the parking lot of the ballpark and instead I had to meet him on the street. How was I supposed to get 40 pizzas from the street down to the locker room?

Fortunately for me, as I was trying to figure that out, Chambers and Warner came out of the clubhouse and into the parking lot. I asked them to help me and they obliged. The three of us managed to carry all 40 pizzas in one trip, though before someone came to my rescue, I could not see over my pile.

Post-game was pizza-eating time and apparently heavy-drinking time as well. There happened to be free beer awaiting me and I took full advantage. I drank far too quickly, just the beginning of things to come. I had made plans with some of the guys from the team to head out with them, though I think they mostly invited me because I live near the field and they wanted to crash there afterward. But when I saw them after the game, they were all ready to go out and I still had to go home and change. Somehow I convinced SJ to come with me because I didn’t want to head out to where they were on my own.

We got a cab to the Bavarian Beer Cafe and met up with everyone. There, I continued my binge drinking, mixing alcohol further with the drugs I had taken for my cold. I didn’t feel sick though, so there’s a bright side. I did however, get far too wasted. I got denied from another bar we tried to go to for being too drunk. It was by far the worst amount of drunk sloppy disaster I have ever been in my life. I believe I also made Durket wait with me so I could try to get a cab for a long time, so there’s one apology I owe, though I am sure there are many more.  

Eventually I made it home on my own in a cab, but when I arrived I realized that I had lost my keys to the apartment. Not only could I not get into our unit, but I couldn’t get into the building. Unfortunately I don’t remember how I managed it, but I did make it into the building and up to the floor I live on, which requires a swipe card twice. At that point I just figured that Erin wouldn’t be home, so I chose not to knock on the door or to call her. I just decided to sit out in the hallway. I don’t know what I was waiting for or what I thought I was doing, but that’s just another product of me being a disaster.

Eventually Durket and Erasmus found their way to my building, with no help from me I’m sure, and called me to let them in. Since I had no way of doing that, I’m not sure exactly what my plan was. Luckily, Erin was home at the time and hearing me on the phone outside of our apartment woke her up. She let all of us in and was probably the biggest saviour of the night, not to diminish the actions of anyone else who assisted me of course. The extra pizzas that I carried home when I came to change were handy for the hungry guys, making me realize that I’d lost any level of intelligence I had at some point after that genius idea. Offering the pizza was as hospitable as I got though, since I left Durket and Erasmus to themselves in the living room as I retired shortly thereafter.

It didn't take long before I was asleep in my bed, ignoring the world and hoping to remember more in the morning.

Disaster.