An early game means early cleaning.
I took Whitey's keys last night so I wouldn't have to do any sitting around waiting for anyone to let me in so I could clean up the garbage. It was super convenient, so I think they should just give me an extra set, not that I want to clean alone, but because I didn't have to spend any time waiting.
It was weird getting to the park and being all by myself though. It was kind of eerily quiet around the RNA Showgrounds. Usually even if I arrive early, Steve or someone else is around doing something. I started cleaning up the trash and got super weirded out when I heard some voices coming from behind the members' stand. I had left the gate open so that other people like Steve and Carl could get in, but I thought that maybe some randoms had snuck by. And I didn't know what I was going to do if they had. What could I do? Fight them? Yell at them? Politely ask them to leave?
I was relieved when I realized it was people who work for RNA, coming to empty out the large garbage bins and probably clean the toilets and whatever else Carl and I don't do. I was even more relieved to have them there when I wandered over to the first-base side of the concourse and discovered that one of the large garbage bins had been somehow overturned throughout the night and garbage was everywhere. At first, I thought I should get to cleaning it up, but then I figured I would wait and see what the RNA people would do. I found another place to clean and watched as they picked up much of the trash that was all over the ground. That made things a little easier for me when I got to the stands in front of that area.
Carl showed up sometime during my effort to pick up the large trash from the ground and helped out. When he got the leaf blower out to clean up the small stuff and get rid of sunflower seed shells and things of that nature, I went up to the members' stand to start to scrub down seats once again. It's getting quite repetitive now, so I think we're almost in a garbage-cleaning routine-mode when we're at the park in the mornings. Unfortunately that routine has so far included me arriving earlier than Carl and getting a head start. I need to work on that. And by that, I mean not doing that.
Whitey must have walked to the field because I got a phone call from him saying that he couldn't get in and he was standing waiting outside. I guess Carl had his car that morning so he could get to the field early. I told Whitey I had already unlocked the gate, but apparently someone had locked it back up again because he was at the gate I'd used to come in, so I had to run around the place to let him in. I think I've said it before, but the longest part of my walk to the Showgrounds is from where I enter behind centre field, to where we do most of our work, behind home plate. And I had to go from B to A to let Whitey in.
But he successfully made it inside and I got to finishing up my cleaning. Carl mentioned that he was going to take Whitey's car home to shower so I hitched a ride on his way and got dropped off at my place to do the same. I didn't end up showering though (sorry to anyone who talked to me today), because I got caught up in conversation with Erin. We talked about the games, the team, Carl's birthday, me picking up garbage, and other such things. It was a good catch-up (ketchup) session, but I had to head back to the field shortly after to help out there. Erin asked if I wanted to head out for dinner with her after the game though and invite Carl, probably to celebrate the end of a weekend of picking up garbage. I thought that would be a nice idea and told her I would ask him. Shortly thereafter I called Carl not only to ask him about dinner but also because I figured he might be on his way back to the park soon and I was correct. I asked him to pick me up on his way and he obliged.
When we made it back to the field and I saw Coshi, it was in that moment that I realized I had forgotten to write him a script. So we decided to just wing it. He had put together some stuff from the website, which has mostly been my writing anyway, and we both figured we would just work it out. Easy like Sunday morning.
The game was not so easy to get through however. It was not a good one, to say the least. Chambers got the start and it certainly wasn't his best outing. In the end, he threw five frames and gave up seven runs, courtesy of a grand slam and a three-run home run. The relief corps couldn't stop the bleeding either and the game ended 10-1. I don't think there's any need to go into any more detail about what happened on the diamond. It just wasn't a good day for Brisbane baseball.
It seemed to be a good day for Carl though, as during the game Erin gave him a gift card for his birthday and invited him out for dinner with us. I had already asked him, but he was hesitant to join us because he didn’t have money to spend on eating out. She somehow convinced him and then we discussed heading to the 24-hour pancake place for dinner. Erin had told me about the place the night we went to see Moneyball, because we happened to walk right by it. And of course it piqued my curiosity. Who doesn’t love a 24-hour pancake house? Ihop happens to be a venue that I frequent when I am in America. Fine dining should be my middle name.
But I had told Carl about the place probably as soon as Erin mentioned it to me and we were both excited for it (or maybe just I was). I have brought it up a few times in passing though, so Carl probably wanted me to go there just to get me to shut up about it. So our plan was for the three of us to head there for dinner. Pancakes would be had, my curiosity would be satisfied and everyone would be happy.
Post-game I didn’t have a story to write because someone else was doing it for the website. As I was headed to the field to try and help with the setup for the Matinee on the Mound (putting the big screen up in the middle of the infield to play a movie for anyone interested in watching), the Durkets stopped me and I took the opportunity to chat with them before they all headed to Sydney. I got Christmas greetings and holiday hugs from Jon’s family before they took off on their tourist adventure and road trip to Sydney. I’m pretty sure his family is kind of awesome and they've definitely made me feel a little more at home every time I've talked to them. Just imagine how great it would be if my own mom would come here (mom, that’s your cue to come here...please).
When they left and I went back to trying to help with the Matinee on the Mound, things were progressing slowly on the field. The screen was being set up, but not easily by any means. There didn’t really seem to be much I could do to help either. And by the time things were finally good to go, there wasn’t anyone left at the park to watch the movie. Whitey, Gonzo and a couple of other volunteers and I sat in the infield and watched Polar Express for a few minutes just because it was happening. And then we started to take everything back down again. It was pretty sad and I felt bad for Whitey because I think he just really wanted the movie on the mound to work out and it didn’t. There’s always next year I suppose.
Before leaving, Whitey asked Carl to pick up the towels and All-Star uniforms from the other team’s locker room and so I went to help him. Alan was there already doing that when we got to the locker room, but asked us for help with not only that, but throwing out the lunch leftovers that were sitting on the table. Carl and I aren’t exactly in positions to turn down free food, so we asked if we could just take some of it home. In that moment, I felt truly pathetic and almost homeless, taking garbage scraps of food. But if you saw the spread they had, that we were about to throw away, you might have done the same. Carl got a tray of apples, a plate full of sandwich meat, slices of cheese and some buns. I zeroed in on the jar of peanut butter and loaf of bread, obviously. We also both started eating stuff while we were standing there, before remembering to save room for pancakes. But I’m pretty sure there’s always room for pancakes.
We both went home to shower after that before heading out for what I was sure would be a fantastic dinner. I think when Carl had gone home in the morning to shower he, like me, got distracted by something or other and didn’t manage to get that accomplished. So we both needed to get clean before fancy dining time at the 24-hour pancake house (I didn’t discover its real name until we actually showed up at the door...names just seem unnecessary).
When everyone was all ready for dinner, Erin drove to pick up Carl and I thought I would be able to direct her to his house pretty easily. I’ve walked the route a few times and I like to think that I am getting to know my way around Brisbane in general. What I didn’t take into account though were the one-way streets. Those kinds of things don’t occur to pedestrians, or at least not to me. We still made it, but there were probably a few extra twists and turns along the way.
The Pancake Manor is in an old church, which makes it pretty awesome-looking inside. I enjoyed the decor, though as Erin had predicted, the level of service was slightly less than impressive. The food was delicious. I had some sort of chocolate-pancake-dinner-and-dessert all-in-one meal. Erin had the same thing, and I kind of made Carl get something different so I could try his, with the promise that I would share mine with him as well. We couldn’t all get the same thing. What good would that do anyone? Everything was delicious and for some reason eating a plethora of unhealthy food got us talking about my marathoning.
I think it came up because at some point I mentioned my 12-hour bus ride home from New York City the day before I flew a billion hours to Australia. Erin wondered why I was in NYC and it hadn’t occurred to me that we never previously had this conversation. Of course, I was there for the NYC Marathon, with one of the blind runners that I guide. Then we got to talking about me being a guide runner for blind marathoners , and all that goes along with that. It actually got me thinking that I need to sign up for a race for when I get home, to get me motivated to run and train while I’m here. That hasn’t been going all that well, despite the great conditions for it.
After the wonderful pancake experience, we continued our evening at an Irish bar around the corner. I am sure I would remember the name if I thought hard enough about it but that seems unlikely to happen. The bar experience was not quite as lovely as the pancake one had been. When I ordered drinks, some drunk Irish guy started asking me questions. I could not, for the life of me, understand a word that was coming out of his mouth. Finally I just said something like, “Hey, maybe I’ll see you around later,” and walked away. Unfortunately that wasn’t the worst of it though. When Erin, Carl and I were sitting around just having a beer and talking, some even drunker Irish guy decided to try and have a conversation with me. I had to tell him several times that he was invading my personal space, and I didn’t even find success with that. I would tell him, he would back away for a second, and then come right back in and pretty much be breathing right on top of my face as he asked me another question that I couldn't understand through his drunkness and his accent. It got to be so bad that Carl finally felt the need to step in and tell him to back off. I don’t know if he would have, but I took the opportunity during that distraction to go to the bathroom. I just needed to get away from the super drunk guy who wasn’t getting it. So that was a great first experience at that Irish pub for me. Can’t wait to go back.
Since the game had ended, I had also been talking to SJ about perhaps hanging out with him. He asked awhile ago on some other day and I didn’t end up hanging out with him, so I figured we could work it out today. I’m thinking he must be kind of lonely when he’s at home, since none of his roommates are ever there, and none of the other guys live near him or anything. I’m sure he’s found ways to preoccupy himself, but I could definitely use another person to hang out with.
So after Erin dropped Carl off at his place, she dropped me off at SJ’s because it was kind of in the same direction. I felt bad, and almost like Erin was chauffeuring us around, but I said that and she said she didn’t mind. SJ and I tried to watch Puss in Boots (I don’t really know why that was the choice), but it didn’t work. The bootlegged version that was available to us was taken on someone’s handheld camera and wasn’t even focused right on the screen. What a bust. Then we tried to watch Transformers 3 but I talked through most of it (as is part of my charm) and when I finally started to watch it, I fell asleep. I still haven’t seen the end of it since starting it on the plane ride here and falling asleep that time too. Also a bust.
I did learn a little more about SJ and his family and his girlfriend though. Me talking usually includes a bunch of me asking questions and this time was no different. His girlfriend of four years lives in Texas and is a high-school teacher. I'm pretty sure that if SJ doesn't get signed anywhere for the upcoming season he'll be heading back to Texas and getting married. Seems likely.
When I went to take the bus home, SJ figured out which ones I needed and pointed me in the right direction. I felt like I could do it. I knew where to go and what to do, so you would think that was all I needed right? Almost.
I only had one mishap and I still made it home all the same. I needed to transfer buses and I knew where I needed to do so, or at least I thought I did. But before I made it to that stop, there was another stop where every single person on the bus got up to get off. I thought about standing my ground, knowing that it wasn’t the stop I needed. But then I started to wonder why they were getting off. Was this somehow the end of the line? Had I taken the right bus in the first place? Was this driver going to get off and just leave the bus sitting there, with me in it or not?
All of these questions caused me to doubt myself and get off the bus with all of the other passengers. I was very confused. And getting off at the wrong stop didn’t do much to help that. I found the second bus I needed though and everything turned out fine, except for the fact that I am an idiot.
That’s another point for Brisbane transit, while I’m still sitting pretty with a big, fat zero. I will reiterate the fact that I did make it home though. Thank you very much.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Sarah, come visit me when you're in Australia (Day 39)
Sometimes I wake up early. Sometimes I sleep in.
Okay, so far in Australia I have just been waking up early. Somehow though, I slept in today. When I woke up I got a chance to answer some emails and messages though because I didn't have to be at the park right away. Since Carl went out last night, he wanted to meet a little later to clean up the garbage at the field. His guesstimate for me was that he would be there at 11, so I didn't really feel the need to head there before that.
During my morning communication session I learned that one of my best friends is coming to Australia. That sounds like awesome news right? Not so much. She's not coming to visit me (unless I can make this some sort of convincing plea), and she's not coming near Brisbane. She is heading to Melbourne, and I have come to understand that I'm not near Melbourne. But come on. She's coming to Australia, I'm in Australia, we've only seen each other once since she lived here for nine months last year...she should come visit me right? Maybe we can somehow meet in the middle but I don't know if that's going to work. It's probably more likely that she could hop on the Melbourne Aces team plane to come here with them since they're in Brisbane when she comes to Oz. I feel like our chances are slim. But I am still hopeful.
Sarah, if you're reading this, and I hope you are, please please please come visit me! I will beg you if necessary, but I hope you already have an indication of how much I want you to come to Brisbane, or find a way to meet me somewhere else. You love baseball (you're welcome), and you know you would love to take in an Australian Baseball League game! You missed out on it last year when you lived here and you only came to one Blue Jays game this summer. You can get your baseball fix and your Alexis fix all at once, and you know you want to. Love you! Miss you! Mom, please call Sarah and try to be convincing. Or you could both come visit. That would be ideal.
At some point during the morning I called Carl to try and make sure that he was going to be at the park when he originally said he would. He didn't answer so I thought I would head over anyway. Obviously I knew he wasn’t going to be there on time, but I was hopeful for that too. Groundskeeper Steve was there getting the field ready for game time though, so at least I had a way into the locker room, using his key.
I gave up on Carl pretty much from the start and began picking up the garbage on my own. When I was almost through with the gathering of the big stuff, he called. He said he was heading to the field and asked when I would get there. Since I was already there, my answer was not quite what he had expected to hear. Carl said he and Whitey would be making an appearance soon, so I could await his assistance with the garbage. I had to get the keys from Whitey for the members’ stand anyway so that I could get the trash from there and scrub down the seats so people’s behinds don’t get too dirty. I was forced to wait.
Almost as soon as they got there, Gonzo sent Whitey out to get lunch for us. Steve and I had been around for a little while, and I wasn’t about to say no to a free lunch. Guzman Y Gomez was ready to make burritos for us and Whitey was about to go order them and bring them back.
In the meantime I got to work on the members’ stand. Carl came and helped me for a little while, until we started arguing again, almost continuing right where we left off yesterday. Then he left and found another place to clean. Perfect solution.
We stopped when the burritos came back with Whitey and everyone had some lunch. I realized that once again I had forgotten to send Coshi a script in the morning so I needed to use a computer and the wireless Internet from someone’s phone to accomplish the task. I got through it and got back to cleaning in good time.
After the cleaning was done, I headed home for a pre-game shower. I made it back with lots of time before the game and as per usual, tried to help out where need be. Luckily, the needs become fewer and fewer as the series goes on.
During the game, I wrote the story for the website and Carl mostly controlled the soundboard. Ryan Searle made his first start for the Bandits this season, coming back after being shut down by the Cubs for part of the fall. He was with the Double-A Tennessee Smokies this summer and went 5-3 with a 3.51 ERA.
He took his first loss in a Bandits uniform tonight though, mostly because of a bad call by the umpire. Brisbane lost 4-2, but Adelaide put up three runs in the third after what I would say was a controversial call (I wrote that in my article about the game too, so it seems obvious that I would say that). With runners on first and second with two outs, it looked like Searle had Denny Almonte watching a third strike. The home plate umpire called the pitch a ball and Almonte hit a two-run double and then later came around to score. When I thought the inning was over, the Adelaide Bite found room to go up 3-1.
So that was a tough game. KJ also pulled Searle out after just 4 1/3 innings, likely because he had gone through 76 pitches in his first appearance in a Bandits uniform this ABL season, but Searle didn’t want to come out. It makes sense, being that he wanted to get into a position to win and get through some more batters on his own, but it wasn’t his decision. It did make it look kind of awkward on the mound though when Durket had run in from the bullpen and was waiting for the ball and Searle hadn’t left the hill.
Durket made it into the game on his 25th birthday and his parents got to see him play for the first time since they’ve been in Australia. It would probably suck a lot to travel across the world to see your son or brother play baseball and not have him get into a game. That problem has been solved now though. After the game, I tried to find them to talk to them and say happy birthday to the birthday boy, but I got sidetracked helping to put tarps on the field and missed them completely.
And then as soon as I could I decided to head home, since tomorrow is an early game and we still have to clean and do all of the things we have to do before a night game. Oh the joy of picking up garbage. Can’t hardly wait.
Also, have I mentioned yet that one of the Adelaide Bite players is named Josh Cakebread? I would like to marry him just to have his last name. I think it's fantastic. I have spent a good amount of time throughout the games so far this weekend talking about both his name, and the possibilities that bread made out of cake have to offer. Mull it over.
Okay, so far in Australia I have just been waking up early. Somehow though, I slept in today. When I woke up I got a chance to answer some emails and messages though because I didn't have to be at the park right away. Since Carl went out last night, he wanted to meet a little later to clean up the garbage at the field. His guesstimate for me was that he would be there at 11, so I didn't really feel the need to head there before that.
During my morning communication session I learned that one of my best friends is coming to Australia. That sounds like awesome news right? Not so much. She's not coming to visit me (unless I can make this some sort of convincing plea), and she's not coming near Brisbane. She is heading to Melbourne, and I have come to understand that I'm not near Melbourne. But come on. She's coming to Australia, I'm in Australia, we've only seen each other once since she lived here for nine months last year...she should come visit me right? Maybe we can somehow meet in the middle but I don't know if that's going to work. It's probably more likely that she could hop on the Melbourne Aces team plane to come here with them since they're in Brisbane when she comes to Oz. I feel like our chances are slim. But I am still hopeful.
Sarah, if you're reading this, and I hope you are, please please please come visit me! I will beg you if necessary, but I hope you already have an indication of how much I want you to come to Brisbane, or find a way to meet me somewhere else. You love baseball (you're welcome), and you know you would love to take in an Australian Baseball League game! You missed out on it last year when you lived here and you only came to one Blue Jays game this summer. You can get your baseball fix and your Alexis fix all at once, and you know you want to. Love you! Miss you! Mom, please call Sarah and try to be convincing. Or you could both come visit. That would be ideal.
At some point during the morning I called Carl to try and make sure that he was going to be at the park when he originally said he would. He didn't answer so I thought I would head over anyway. Obviously I knew he wasn’t going to be there on time, but I was hopeful for that too. Groundskeeper Steve was there getting the field ready for game time though, so at least I had a way into the locker room, using his key.
I gave up on Carl pretty much from the start and began picking up the garbage on my own. When I was almost through with the gathering of the big stuff, he called. He said he was heading to the field and asked when I would get there. Since I was already there, my answer was not quite what he had expected to hear. Carl said he and Whitey would be making an appearance soon, so I could await his assistance with the garbage. I had to get the keys from Whitey for the members’ stand anyway so that I could get the trash from there and scrub down the seats so people’s behinds don’t get too dirty. I was forced to wait.
Almost as soon as they got there, Gonzo sent Whitey out to get lunch for us. Steve and I had been around for a little while, and I wasn’t about to say no to a free lunch. Guzman Y Gomez was ready to make burritos for us and Whitey was about to go order them and bring them back.
In the meantime I got to work on the members’ stand. Carl came and helped me for a little while, until we started arguing again, almost continuing right where we left off yesterday. Then he left and found another place to clean. Perfect solution.
We stopped when the burritos came back with Whitey and everyone had some lunch. I realized that once again I had forgotten to send Coshi a script in the morning so I needed to use a computer and the wireless Internet from someone’s phone to accomplish the task. I got through it and got back to cleaning in good time.
After the cleaning was done, I headed home for a pre-game shower. I made it back with lots of time before the game and as per usual, tried to help out where need be. Luckily, the needs become fewer and fewer as the series goes on.
During the game, I wrote the story for the website and Carl mostly controlled the soundboard. Ryan Searle made his first start for the Bandits this season, coming back after being shut down by the Cubs for part of the fall. He was with the Double-A Tennessee Smokies this summer and went 5-3 with a 3.51 ERA.
He took his first loss in a Bandits uniform tonight though, mostly because of a bad call by the umpire. Brisbane lost 4-2, but Adelaide put up three runs in the third after what I would say was a controversial call (I wrote that in my article about the game too, so it seems obvious that I would say that). With runners on first and second with two outs, it looked like Searle had Denny Almonte watching a third strike. The home plate umpire called the pitch a ball and Almonte hit a two-run double and then later came around to score. When I thought the inning was over, the Adelaide Bite found room to go up 3-1.
So that was a tough game. KJ also pulled Searle out after just 4 1/3 innings, likely because he had gone through 76 pitches in his first appearance in a Bandits uniform this ABL season, but Searle didn’t want to come out. It makes sense, being that he wanted to get into a position to win and get through some more batters on his own, but it wasn’t his decision. It did make it look kind of awkward on the mound though when Durket had run in from the bullpen and was waiting for the ball and Searle hadn’t left the hill.
Durket made it into the game on his 25th birthday and his parents got to see him play for the first time since they’ve been in Australia. It would probably suck a lot to travel across the world to see your son or brother play baseball and not have him get into a game. That problem has been solved now though. After the game, I tried to find them to talk to them and say happy birthday to the birthday boy, but I got sidetracked helping to put tarps on the field and missed them completely.
And then as soon as I could I decided to head home, since tomorrow is an early game and we still have to clean and do all of the things we have to do before a night game. Oh the joy of picking up garbage. Can’t hardly wait.
Also, have I mentioned yet that one of the Adelaide Bite players is named Josh Cakebread? I would like to marry him just to have his last name. I think it's fantastic. I have spent a good amount of time throughout the games so far this weekend talking about both his name, and the possibilities that bread made out of cake have to offer. Mull it over.
A big Friday night (Day 38)
Please note: I have some catching up to do on the journal-writing front. I believe that at some point I will indeed catch up, but it might take a couple of days with my computer. I've made notes and have a lot to say, as per usual. But I am currently working on last Friday and it is now Sunday (nine days later for anyone having trouble with the math), so thanks for your patience (or not, mom).
The tuxedo t-shirt does not make the day. The day makes the tuxedo t-shirt.
In a previous journal entry about my tuxedo t-shirt, I thought it was the article of clothing that made me happy. But I think it was because I was happy that I wore it. Because today I wore it again and it just wasn't the same.
I headed to the field in the morning when Carl and Whitey told me they would be around. I obviously haven't learned my lesson on running on their time. It didn't help anyone's day that I wasn't in the best mood to begin with either. Carl and I had already gotten in an argument over nothing in the morning, once again. I guess too much time together can do that to people. I really don't even know what we argue about sometimes.
When they finally arrived and commented on the formality of my attire, I was almost too upset to remember what I was wearing. A bad mood plus waiting around for far longer than anticipated are a recipe for disaster with me, apparently. By disaster, I mean that I just didn't want to talk to them. I put on my headphones and got to cleaning up the garbage.
During the time when I was drowning out the world with my iPod, I missed several phone calls. Chambers had called to let me know that his parents' friends' place in Byron Bay is already occupied so I should continue my search for a temporary residence for all of us, including Chambers' roommate from Czech Republic, who I found out would be joining us. One of the other calls I had missed was from a motel in Byron that I emailed previously, letting me know they still have a vacancy for the days we are looking to go. So that worked out perfectly. I called back and booked for us. We got one standard room, so that should be good for five people right? I didn't quite ask how many beds there are going to be, but I just kind of assume we'll be fine. And since I'm the only girl, I assume I will be fine, most of all.
After figuring that out and texting everyone to let them know that we have a place to stay and we're all set for Byron, I got back to my primary task of cleaning. I kept that up until Gonzo showed up with lunch for Carl, Steve and I. Steve had been doing the groundskeeping all day while we were cleaning. I also then remembered that I had to write a script for Coshi and send it to him. So while I ate my Subway I typed up a little something for him and sent it away.
The cleaning was done but I didn't know if I could leave to head home and shower yet so I stuck around trying to get some things done on my computer. I might have been able to get some journal-writing in but the locker room isn't exactly booming with wireless Internet. So I was just messing around on my computer when Chambers showed up. He was super early for the game so we had some time to talk about Byron and baseball, of course.
I found out that he is from Sydney, not the Gold Coast, where he lives now. He also went and played college ball in Florida for a year but wasn’t happy with the way it was going so came back to play here to Australia.
Chambers also mentioned the hilarious ‘problem’ he has. The team basically makes a big deal out of everything he does, which I don’t think should be a problem at all, likely why I chose to label it as hilarious. I believe it began after he made his first start for the Bandits, which was a really good outing. A blogger wrote an article that was entitled “Who is Steven Chambers?” and the guys gave him a bit of a hard time about that. And then before one of his other starts something was going on and people were bugging him or bugging everyone or something and he said something to the effect of “Come on, leave me alone, I’m starting today,” and now apparently everyone makes a big deal out of that, asking him every day if he’s starting, or if it’s okay to talk to him, things like that. And then to make it even better, at Training with the Pros, during a question-and-answer session with the players, everyone was answering with Steven Chambers answers. I’m pretty sure that the guys said their favourite player is Chambers, and when they grow up, they want to be Chambers, and stuff like that. I think it’s awesome, but I’m not sure he feels the same way. I probably wasn’t helpful to him during that conversation.
SJ arrived next, also pretty early. He didn’t want to talk about baseball with us, particularly me, so we began discussing Byron Bay again. Chambers mentioned that we should come to the Gold Coast in the morning on Thursday, before Alex gets back from the All-Star Game in Perth, and hang out by the beach before heading to Byron. I think both SJ and I figured that wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, so for now, the plan is to spend Thursday at the Gold Coast and then head to Byron Thursday night until Saturday morning.
Whitey joined in on the conversation because at some point he figured out that he would be able to come too. His original Christmas plans wouldn’t have allowed him to be away on Christmas Eve, so it wasn’t going to work out, but I guess his plans have changed. So now we’ve got Whitey, SJ, Chambers, his roommate from Czech, Maestri and me. Six people for one standard room. Makes sense to me.
Shortly thereafter I decided it was a good time for me to head home and shower before the game. Gonzo was around and had offered me a ride, so I thought I would take it. He had some errands to run so it wasn’t really out of his way. And since he already knows where I live, it took the embarrassment out of taking someone up on such a short ride. I missed several calls while I was showering, but at least one of them was Gonzo calling to see if I wanted a ride back to the park, because he had finished doing what he needed to get done. Unfortunately I was a little slower on my end though, so I couldn’t take him up on that. I also missed a call from Judy at Cricket Queensland, so I decided to call her on my walk back to the RNA.
Judy was calling to make sure I was still coming to the Twenty20 match on Tuesday at the Gabba and to let me know that she would leave a ticket for me and I should call her when I get there and she can tour me around. All of that was better than anything I could have hoped for, so it made me look forward to going to the match even more than I had been before. Special treatment makes everything a little bit better. She must have somehow known that I started the day out with a tuxedo t-shirt.
When I got back to the park I did a little bit of running around trying to help people out and tried to decide with Carl who would do the soundboard and who would write the game recap. I chose the recap, but Coshi was going to get Carl to practice some announcing during the game, so I knew I would end up doing the sound at some point as well.
The game didn’t go so well. Maestri started and didn’t seem his prototypical self. His line still wasn’t bad, giving up five runs on six hits in six innings, striking out five, but it was too much for the offense to overcome. It ended 6-5 for the Bite, another one-run loss for Brisbane. Not awesome. One of these days, that run will be on our side. Right?
Before the game ended, I stopped to talk to Durket’s family again. They were sitting just down the aisle from where I was so I thought I would head over and say hello. We chatted about hockey, the Blue Jays and my travels, to California and other parts of the US. The only places I’ve seen in Cali though happen to be each of the five Major League ballparks, and whatever might be right around them.
I went with my mom to California in May 2009. It was probably the best baseball trip we’ve done so far. We stayed in Anaheim for the first five days, traveling first to San Diego, taking in a game at PETCO Park. Then we headed to Los Angeles for a day and saw a game at Dodger Stadium, plus took a tour of the park beforehand. Dodger is my mom’s favourite park, mostly because it has a view of the mountains on one side and a view of the beach on the other side. What I remember most about going there though is that she bought a Manny Ramirez shirt for my brother (she gets him a shirt from every park we go to), and the next day he was handed his 50-game suspension. Maybe I'm not the only one in the family who is a baseball jinx.
After Dodger, we saw the Blue Jays play a two-game set against the Angels, right down the road from where we were staying. We hopped on a short flight to San Francisco after that, and we stayed there for the next five days. We first saw the Blue Jays take on the Athletics in Oakland for three games, and then we headed to AT&T Park to see the Giants. I got to see Randy Johnson pitch, and one of my favourite Molina brothers batting cleanup, so it was a good time for all. I’m not sure I got in on the vision that most people have of California though.
After the game finished and I was done writing the game over, I saw the Durkets again, this time with their favourite Bandits reliever (obviously Jon, for those of you who couldn't figure that one out). I wished him a happy birthday, since once it hits midnight, he’ll be as old as I am, but then I got pulled away for a meeting with the other volunteers.
I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but sometimes we get together after the games to discuss how things have gone on the volunteer end. I think it’s more of a way to say thank you to some people in the hopes that they will come back and give their time again. It probably works. I come back, don’t I?
Everyone also started to get into the beers, but I was too tired to do so. The guys were planning on heading out though I think, since nothing happened for Carl’s birthday yesterday. I wasn’t interested in joining them, so I decided to start my short trek home. As I was heading through the parking lot, I ran into second baseman Brad Dutton. He offered me a ride, and I reluctantly took it, knowing how embarrassingly close I live to the park. I was appreciative though, mostly because I was so tired that walking was the last thing I wanted to do.
I had intentions to write the article on the All-Star Game when I got home, but that didn’t happen. My exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep almost immediately. Big night.
The tuxedo t-shirt does not make the day. The day makes the tuxedo t-shirt.
In a previous journal entry about my tuxedo t-shirt, I thought it was the article of clothing that made me happy. But I think it was because I was happy that I wore it. Because today I wore it again and it just wasn't the same.
I headed to the field in the morning when Carl and Whitey told me they would be around. I obviously haven't learned my lesson on running on their time. It didn't help anyone's day that I wasn't in the best mood to begin with either. Carl and I had already gotten in an argument over nothing in the morning, once again. I guess too much time together can do that to people. I really don't even know what we argue about sometimes.
When they finally arrived and commented on the formality of my attire, I was almost too upset to remember what I was wearing. A bad mood plus waiting around for far longer than anticipated are a recipe for disaster with me, apparently. By disaster, I mean that I just didn't want to talk to them. I put on my headphones and got to cleaning up the garbage.
During the time when I was drowning out the world with my iPod, I missed several phone calls. Chambers had called to let me know that his parents' friends' place in Byron Bay is already occupied so I should continue my search for a temporary residence for all of us, including Chambers' roommate from Czech Republic, who I found out would be joining us. One of the other calls I had missed was from a motel in Byron that I emailed previously, letting me know they still have a vacancy for the days we are looking to go. So that worked out perfectly. I called back and booked for us. We got one standard room, so that should be good for five people right? I didn't quite ask how many beds there are going to be, but I just kind of assume we'll be fine. And since I'm the only girl, I assume I will be fine, most of all.
After figuring that out and texting everyone to let them know that we have a place to stay and we're all set for Byron, I got back to my primary task of cleaning. I kept that up until Gonzo showed up with lunch for Carl, Steve and I. Steve had been doing the groundskeeping all day while we were cleaning. I also then remembered that I had to write a script for Coshi and send it to him. So while I ate my Subway I typed up a little something for him and sent it away.
The cleaning was done but I didn't know if I could leave to head home and shower yet so I stuck around trying to get some things done on my computer. I might have been able to get some journal-writing in but the locker room isn't exactly booming with wireless Internet. So I was just messing around on my computer when Chambers showed up. He was super early for the game so we had some time to talk about Byron and baseball, of course.
I found out that he is from Sydney, not the Gold Coast, where he lives now. He also went and played college ball in Florida for a year but wasn’t happy with the way it was going so came back to play here to Australia.
Chambers also mentioned the hilarious ‘problem’ he has. The team basically makes a big deal out of everything he does, which I don’t think should be a problem at all, likely why I chose to label it as hilarious. I believe it began after he made his first start for the Bandits, which was a really good outing. A blogger wrote an article that was entitled “Who is Steven Chambers?” and the guys gave him a bit of a hard time about that. And then before one of his other starts something was going on and people were bugging him or bugging everyone or something and he said something to the effect of “Come on, leave me alone, I’m starting today,” and now apparently everyone makes a big deal out of that, asking him every day if he’s starting, or if it’s okay to talk to him, things like that. And then to make it even better, at Training with the Pros, during a question-and-answer session with the players, everyone was answering with Steven Chambers answers. I’m pretty sure that the guys said their favourite player is Chambers, and when they grow up, they want to be Chambers, and stuff like that. I think it’s awesome, but I’m not sure he feels the same way. I probably wasn’t helpful to him during that conversation.
SJ arrived next, also pretty early. He didn’t want to talk about baseball with us, particularly me, so we began discussing Byron Bay again. Chambers mentioned that we should come to the Gold Coast in the morning on Thursday, before Alex gets back from the All-Star Game in Perth, and hang out by the beach before heading to Byron. I think both SJ and I figured that wouldn’t be a bad idea at all, so for now, the plan is to spend Thursday at the Gold Coast and then head to Byron Thursday night until Saturday morning.
Whitey joined in on the conversation because at some point he figured out that he would be able to come too. His original Christmas plans wouldn’t have allowed him to be away on Christmas Eve, so it wasn’t going to work out, but I guess his plans have changed. So now we’ve got Whitey, SJ, Chambers, his roommate from Czech, Maestri and me. Six people for one standard room. Makes sense to me.
Shortly thereafter I decided it was a good time for me to head home and shower before the game. Gonzo was around and had offered me a ride, so I thought I would take it. He had some errands to run so it wasn’t really out of his way. And since he already knows where I live, it took the embarrassment out of taking someone up on such a short ride. I missed several calls while I was showering, but at least one of them was Gonzo calling to see if I wanted a ride back to the park, because he had finished doing what he needed to get done. Unfortunately I was a little slower on my end though, so I couldn’t take him up on that. I also missed a call from Judy at Cricket Queensland, so I decided to call her on my walk back to the RNA.
Judy was calling to make sure I was still coming to the Twenty20 match on Tuesday at the Gabba and to let me know that she would leave a ticket for me and I should call her when I get there and she can tour me around. All of that was better than anything I could have hoped for, so it made me look forward to going to the match even more than I had been before. Special treatment makes everything a little bit better. She must have somehow known that I started the day out with a tuxedo t-shirt.
When I got back to the park I did a little bit of running around trying to help people out and tried to decide with Carl who would do the soundboard and who would write the game recap. I chose the recap, but Coshi was going to get Carl to practice some announcing during the game, so I knew I would end up doing the sound at some point as well.
The game didn’t go so well. Maestri started and didn’t seem his prototypical self. His line still wasn’t bad, giving up five runs on six hits in six innings, striking out five, but it was too much for the offense to overcome. It ended 6-5 for the Bite, another one-run loss for Brisbane. Not awesome. One of these days, that run will be on our side. Right?
Before the game ended, I stopped to talk to Durket’s family again. They were sitting just down the aisle from where I was so I thought I would head over and say hello. We chatted about hockey, the Blue Jays and my travels, to California and other parts of the US. The only places I’ve seen in Cali though happen to be each of the five Major League ballparks, and whatever might be right around them.
I went with my mom to California in May 2009. It was probably the best baseball trip we’ve done so far. We stayed in Anaheim for the first five days, traveling first to San Diego, taking in a game at PETCO Park. Then we headed to Los Angeles for a day and saw a game at Dodger Stadium, plus took a tour of the park beforehand. Dodger is my mom’s favourite park, mostly because it has a view of the mountains on one side and a view of the beach on the other side. What I remember most about going there though is that she bought a Manny Ramirez shirt for my brother (she gets him a shirt from every park we go to), and the next day he was handed his 50-game suspension. Maybe I'm not the only one in the family who is a baseball jinx.
After Dodger, we saw the Blue Jays play a two-game set against the Angels, right down the road from where we were staying. We hopped on a short flight to San Francisco after that, and we stayed there for the next five days. We first saw the Blue Jays take on the Athletics in Oakland for three games, and then we headed to AT&T Park to see the Giants. I got to see Randy Johnson pitch, and one of my favourite Molina brothers batting cleanup, so it was a good time for all. I’m not sure I got in on the vision that most people have of California though.
After the game finished and I was done writing the game over, I saw the Durkets again, this time with their favourite Bandits reliever (obviously Jon, for those of you who couldn't figure that one out). I wished him a happy birthday, since once it hits midnight, he’ll be as old as I am, but then I got pulled away for a meeting with the other volunteers.
I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but sometimes we get together after the games to discuss how things have gone on the volunteer end. I think it’s more of a way to say thank you to some people in the hopes that they will come back and give their time again. It probably works. I come back, don’t I?
Everyone also started to get into the beers, but I was too tired to do so. The guys were planning on heading out though I think, since nothing happened for Carl’s birthday yesterday. I wasn’t interested in joining them, so I decided to start my short trek home. As I was heading through the parking lot, I ran into second baseman Brad Dutton. He offered me a ride, and I reluctantly took it, knowing how embarrassingly close I live to the park. I was appreciative though, mostly because I was so tired that walking was the last thing I wanted to do.
I had intentions to write the article on the All-Star Game when I got home, but that didn’t happen. My exhaustion overcame me and I fell asleep almost immediately. Big night.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Carl's birthday (Day 37)
I woke up and had to finish the questions that I had postponed writing. I looked at the Wikipedia page for Mike Young, knowing the information found would obviously be stellar, being that it is Wikipedia after all.
I learned a few things about Youngy that I probably should have known going into our meeting on Tuesday. He’s apparently been one of the most influential baseball people in the game of cricket. Now that may not be a huge deal, because I’m not sure that there are too many baseball people in cricket, but he’s definitely made an impact.
He’s a former minor league baseball player and manager, with a few stints managing in the Blue Jays farm system. He also managed Australia’s national team. Young came to Queensland in 1981 as a player and a coach for the Rams (baseball), and won a Claxton Shield championship right away. He won a couple more as a coach and some medals in two Intercontinental Cups, and then somehow got into cricket. He delved into the area of fielding in cricket, something not many people focus on. In cricket, errors aren’t counted or recorded, so there aren’t too many coaches who focus solely on the fielders because it’s not obvious when they’re doing anything wrong.
I came up with a bio something to the effect of that and then centred my questions around cricket and baseball and their relationship. It’s a lot easier to catch someone’s attention here when you’re talking about cricket, rather than talking about baseball. I figured I had enough to satisfy the needs of all the Bris31 viewers and a good list of questions for Campo to ask Young during the interview.
After that I put together a short list of questions for Campo to ask Justin Erasmus as well, because he will also be making his debut on The Rookie when it airs next Monday night. Hopefully the show will go better the next time around.
I tried to call Carl and wish him a happy birthday, since my attempt at midnight had been unsuccessful, but I still couldn’t manage to get through. I called and then texted and then called again. His birthday will last all day though, so there will be plenty more time. I did make him a birthday peanut butter sandwich though, the best present I could come up with.
When I got to the field I saw Whitey running around the outside of the field. I waited until he came past me, but he just kept right on going. I figured he would be done soon, but obviously not at that moment. I went to the locker room to start finding the things I would need for cleaning. Outside of the clubhouse on the other side was Steve, the groundscrew guy, with a saw and a drill, putting together two-by-fours in L-bracket form so that we would be able to stabilize the boards behind the back net. What a guy.
When Whitey finished running he wanted to try and finish putting the banner up with the boards, so I held stuff together while he tried to use the drill. Unfortunately the drill was either dead or someone didn't know how to use the charger, because it wouldn't work. It tried for a little while but it was a pretty pathetic attempt at power drilling. I mentioned to Whitey that I thought Steve had one though so maybe we could borrow it inbetween his construction of the brackets. Steve did, and we finally finished what we had set out to do. We were much more productive with a working drill than a sad, dying one.
While we were doing that, Campo showed up at the park to talk over the script for the show with Whitey. The Rookie is being filmed from the home plate lounge this week, during batting practice, so Campo got the lay of the land and then they set to work. I didn't really contribute anything to the script, aside from the questions and Mike Young bio, and while they were talking I got started on cleaning up the garbage. It's becoming routine now.
Though I had forgiven Carl in my mind for not showing up on time, since it is in fact his birthday, it didn't change the fact that cleaning up by myself sucked. Because we had picked up the garbage on the Sunday after the last series though (and it is now Thursday), it wasn't so bad. Until I got to the members' stand. I was scrubbing down all the rows of seats with a bucket of water and disinfectant soap and a sponge, but the stands were so especially dirty after some rain that I had to change the water four times. And there aren't that many seats up there. I should take pictures of the entire stadium sometime soon, so that everyone knows what I am talking about. I'll do it one day after we clean though, so you know that we're doing our jobs.
When I left the stand one of the times I had to change the water, I realized how disgusting the locker room was. So I decided to take a break from scrubbing to pick up more garbage. I got three industrial-sized garbage bags worth of trash out of there, changing the bags in their bins and picking things up off of the floor. I think the boys are supposed to keep track of the locker room themselves, but if they are, it appears that no one told them about it. I wanted to leave them a note, but in the end I decided, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all (not my usual policy).
Carl showed up at some point during my locker cleanup, only a couple hours after the time that he thought he was going to arrive. I gave him his birthday peanut butter sandwich and he was pumped about it, though I'd left the crust on. I'm still striving for perfection. Carl had been Skyping with people from home, and receiving birthday wishes all morning. Can't blame a guy for that.
BFC was ready to work just in time for Gonzo to come back to the field with a late lunch. Gonz had brought everyone hamburgers and fries, and even ordered one for me without mustard because he saw me scraping it off of the last burger I'd had. How thoughtful.
After lunch Carl got to work and I went back to work, remembering that I hadn't written Coshi's script yet for the game. I borrowed a computer and someone's iPhone to get onto the Internet and sent it away. I'm sure it wasn't the finest piece of literature I've ever thrown together, but Coshi seemed happy with it. He still adds his own information, and an Aussie touch. I also never write about the visiting team, but Cosh always seems to have information on them. He does more work than I do.
After all of that was done we still had the banners on the back net to deal with one more time. We had to untie the ones on the end because someone had pulled the nets up as high as they could go (why didn't we think of that before?) and then realized that the banners were too high. Carl and I were busy cutting zip ties and putting new ones up when the other team came onto the field. All of the Adelaide players walked by us and sat down as we were working hard on getting things game-ready.
I talked to Mike, a guy who Whitey introduced as the media person for the Bite. But if he's in the same position as me or Carl, why does he get to travel with the team? Food for thought. I mentioned to him that I need to write a story on the All-Star Game for Baseball America and that maybe I should talk to the all-stars from Adelaide so the story isn't just Brisbane-oriented. He said that was fine, but I wanted to head home to shower, so I suggested that perhaps it happen tomorrow. He was also agreeable with that, so we went our separate ways.
I did head home to shower, mostly to make everyone around me a little more comfortable, and then I walked back. Before the game, I wandered around helping out with little things, like setting up tables in the home plate lounge, where the show had been filmed, and fixing and moving other stuff.
I also had a chance to talk to SJ and Maestri about our Christmas plans. We are heading to Byron Bay, which is apparently a really awesome, beautiful destination, and one of the places on Maestri's list of sights to see while he's here. We've been talking about it for awhile but we haven't really done anything about it yet. We were waiting to see when Maestri was going to be back from the All-Star Game. He informed us that he'll be back around 4 o'clock on the Thursday after the game (a week from today) and that we should all try to head out then, and stay in Byron for two days. SJ and I had no qualms with that so I said I would find a place to stay and book it as soon as I got home after the game.
For the game, Carl gave me the choice between doing the game recap and the sound effects. I opted for the recap because sometimes the sound effects just get to be too repetitive. Plus, I don't want to be to blame if people don't like them, or if someone's walkup music is wrong, or anything like that. I don't think that either of those things would actually be my fault.
At one point I went to get food from the concourse and Gonzo wanted me to put an order in for him. He said he wanted his usual, which was tuna rolls and chicken things. It sounded pretty good to me, so when I went down and asked for it for him, I asked if I could just double the order and have the same thing for myself. While the tuna rolls probably weren't awful for me, the fried chicken embodies most of the qualities of everything that I have been eating lately, none of them good. I maybe need to take a break from eating pizza, burgers, burritos and fried food all the time. It doesn't matter if I run twice as much as at home if I eat three times as much, right? Oops.
During the game I learned that Carl's girlfriend has been reading my journals, or at least a few of them. That led to the discovery of how much I actually talk about BFC, a topic that has probably been mentioned to me before. Much of our interaction is forced, but he is my friend and neither of us really has many other people to hang out with, especially me. He's been a good all-in-one substitute for my friends, my family, a tour guide, and a co-worker. But when his girlfriend does get here, I will likely have to find some new friends. Hopefully there are some available for the holidays.
The Bandits played a good game and were up by three runs in the ninth. That's a save situation for those of you who don't know baseball. Then again, if you don't know baseball, you probably don't know what I mean by save situation. The normal closer for Brisbane has been veteran Chris Mowday, but he hasn't really appeared to have his best stuff as of late. Apparently someone else thought the same because SJ came in to close it out. I'm happy for him, if he is going to take over the closer's role, but I also wonder how Mowday feels about that.
SJ didn't have the best appearance he's ever had either. He gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, followed by an immediate single. I was writing the game over, so I thought I would be optimistic and I began my next sentence with "the right-hander settled in". And it worked. SJ got the next batter to ground into a double play. Unfortunately though, he then gave up another single. I am pretty sure those three hits are more than he's given up during all of his other appearances. When the Bite brought in a pinch hitter to bat next, I thought I would try some optimistic game-over writing once again, since it worked so well the first time. I wrote "Jarrett notched his first save of the season two batters later, striking out pinch hitter Ben Wigmore to end the game." And that worked! I should just start writing the articles about the games before they even take the field. Maybe they would win more if I did that.
Post-game, Carl wanted me to go down to the field and interview the all-stars for Fox, because they were at the game filming. BFC wanted me to do it because he was supposed to be busy sending out the game recap I'd written. But when I got down to the field and did one interview, I realized Carl was right behind me so I let him do the rest. I gave him my recorder though because I figured that if I need to write a story on the all-stars, and he is already interviewing them, we might as well kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully he managed to learn to turn my recorder on at all the right times.
On my way down to the field, I had whizzed by Durket's host family and said I would be back to see them, so I went back to where they were and spoke to not only them, but I met his real family too. His entire real family has come down under from California for both his birthday (coming up on Saturday) and Christmas. While I am a little jealous, it's awesome that they're here. I wish my family were here. Mom.
I talked to his mom and dad and his host mom for a little while, and they seem like awesome people. I asked about their plans for Sydney, which is where they are heading for Christmas, and we talked about the article I'd written about Durket. I feel like I should call him Jon a little bit now, because his parents call him "Jonathan". I feel like quotation marks are a little inappropriate there because it's his real name, but still weird. We had a good talk, but his dad was still all over me for writing that the younger Durket needs to learn to command the zone a little better. Oops again.
When they left it was time to get back to work and finish up everything. Carl still had to send the story out and he came back with my recorder, and it appeared as though he was successful with it. I'll find out later I suppose. Gonzo mentioned that we should all go out for drinks to celebrate with the birthday boy, but in the end that didn't happen at all. Whitey was too tired to do anything and I'm not sure anyone was in the right mindset, so we decided to postpone until tomorrow.
I walked home and when I got there I got a call from SJ. I almost didn't answer because he pocket-dialed me once and I figured this was probably same thing, but I did, and it wasn't. He was actually on the other end. He told me not to book a place yet for Byron Bay because Steven Chambers knows someone who knows someone who has a place there or something. I think his parents' friends have a Byron home and they rent it out to people, so the guys thought it would be smart if we waited to see if it was available. And, Chambers is going to come with us. So now Maestri, SJ and I are going to take the train to the Gold Coast, which is where he lives, and we will all drive together from there to Byron.
During my phone call with SJ, I also brought up the homer that he gave up. SJ does not enjoy when I talk baseball with him so he tried to ignore me. But if you know me, you know I can be pretty hard to ignore. Probably just when he was about to hang up on me I changed the subject. I mentioned that there is a Twenty20 cricket match on Tuesday and he should think about going. I think that some of the guys are going to go and it should be a pretty good time. SJ seemed interested so I told him I would keep him posted on that. He won't talk baseball with me, but he'll talk cricket. Go figure.
And now it's time for bed and then more of the same tomorrow. More garbage-picking, more baseball, hopefully less home runs.
When Whitey finished running he wanted to try and finish putting the banner up with the boards, so I held stuff together while he tried to use the drill. Unfortunately the drill was either dead or someone didn't know how to use the charger, because it wouldn't work. It tried for a little while but it was a pretty pathetic attempt at power drilling. I mentioned to Whitey that I thought Steve had one though so maybe we could borrow it inbetween his construction of the brackets. Steve did, and we finally finished what we had set out to do. We were much more productive with a working drill than a sad, dying one.
While we were doing that, Campo showed up at the park to talk over the script for the show with Whitey. The Rookie is being filmed from the home plate lounge this week, during batting practice, so Campo got the lay of the land and then they set to work. I didn't really contribute anything to the script, aside from the questions and Mike Young bio, and while they were talking I got started on cleaning up the garbage. It's becoming routine now.
Though I had forgiven Carl in my mind for not showing up on time, since it is in fact his birthday, it didn't change the fact that cleaning up by myself sucked. Because we had picked up the garbage on the Sunday after the last series though (and it is now Thursday), it wasn't so bad. Until I got to the members' stand. I was scrubbing down all the rows of seats with a bucket of water and disinfectant soap and a sponge, but the stands were so especially dirty after some rain that I had to change the water four times. And there aren't that many seats up there. I should take pictures of the entire stadium sometime soon, so that everyone knows what I am talking about. I'll do it one day after we clean though, so you know that we're doing our jobs.
When I left the stand one of the times I had to change the water, I realized how disgusting the locker room was. So I decided to take a break from scrubbing to pick up more garbage. I got three industrial-sized garbage bags worth of trash out of there, changing the bags in their bins and picking things up off of the floor. I think the boys are supposed to keep track of the locker room themselves, but if they are, it appears that no one told them about it. I wanted to leave them a note, but in the end I decided, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all (not my usual policy).
Carl showed up at some point during my locker cleanup, only a couple hours after the time that he thought he was going to arrive. I gave him his birthday peanut butter sandwich and he was pumped about it, though I'd left the crust on. I'm still striving for perfection. Carl had been Skyping with people from home, and receiving birthday wishes all morning. Can't blame a guy for that.
BFC was ready to work just in time for Gonzo to come back to the field with a late lunch. Gonz had brought everyone hamburgers and fries, and even ordered one for me without mustard because he saw me scraping it off of the last burger I'd had. How thoughtful.
After lunch Carl got to work and I went back to work, remembering that I hadn't written Coshi's script yet for the game. I borrowed a computer and someone's iPhone to get onto the Internet and sent it away. I'm sure it wasn't the finest piece of literature I've ever thrown together, but Coshi seemed happy with it. He still adds his own information, and an Aussie touch. I also never write about the visiting team, but Cosh always seems to have information on them. He does more work than I do.
After all of that was done we still had the banners on the back net to deal with one more time. We had to untie the ones on the end because someone had pulled the nets up as high as they could go (why didn't we think of that before?) and then realized that the banners were too high. Carl and I were busy cutting zip ties and putting new ones up when the other team came onto the field. All of the Adelaide players walked by us and sat down as we were working hard on getting things game-ready.
I talked to Mike, a guy who Whitey introduced as the media person for the Bite. But if he's in the same position as me or Carl, why does he get to travel with the team? Food for thought. I mentioned to him that I need to write a story on the All-Star Game for Baseball America and that maybe I should talk to the all-stars from Adelaide so the story isn't just Brisbane-oriented. He said that was fine, but I wanted to head home to shower, so I suggested that perhaps it happen tomorrow. He was also agreeable with that, so we went our separate ways.
I did head home to shower, mostly to make everyone around me a little more comfortable, and then I walked back. Before the game, I wandered around helping out with little things, like setting up tables in the home plate lounge, where the show had been filmed, and fixing and moving other stuff.
I also had a chance to talk to SJ and Maestri about our Christmas plans. We are heading to Byron Bay, which is apparently a really awesome, beautiful destination, and one of the places on Maestri's list of sights to see while he's here. We've been talking about it for awhile but we haven't really done anything about it yet. We were waiting to see when Maestri was going to be back from the All-Star Game. He informed us that he'll be back around 4 o'clock on the Thursday after the game (a week from today) and that we should all try to head out then, and stay in Byron for two days. SJ and I had no qualms with that so I said I would find a place to stay and book it as soon as I got home after the game.
For the game, Carl gave me the choice between doing the game recap and the sound effects. I opted for the recap because sometimes the sound effects just get to be too repetitive. Plus, I don't want to be to blame if people don't like them, or if someone's walkup music is wrong, or anything like that. I don't think that either of those things would actually be my fault.
At one point I went to get food from the concourse and Gonzo wanted me to put an order in for him. He said he wanted his usual, which was tuna rolls and chicken things. It sounded pretty good to me, so when I went down and asked for it for him, I asked if I could just double the order and have the same thing for myself. While the tuna rolls probably weren't awful for me, the fried chicken embodies most of the qualities of everything that I have been eating lately, none of them good. I maybe need to take a break from eating pizza, burgers, burritos and fried food all the time. It doesn't matter if I run twice as much as at home if I eat three times as much, right? Oops.
During the game I learned that Carl's girlfriend has been reading my journals, or at least a few of them. That led to the discovery of how much I actually talk about BFC, a topic that has probably been mentioned to me before. Much of our interaction is forced, but he is my friend and neither of us really has many other people to hang out with, especially me. He's been a good all-in-one substitute for my friends, my family, a tour guide, and a co-worker. But when his girlfriend does get here, I will likely have to find some new friends. Hopefully there are some available for the holidays.
The Bandits played a good game and were up by three runs in the ninth. That's a save situation for those of you who don't know baseball. Then again, if you don't know baseball, you probably don't know what I mean by save situation. The normal closer for Brisbane has been veteran Chris Mowday, but he hasn't really appeared to have his best stuff as of late. Apparently someone else thought the same because SJ came in to close it out. I'm happy for him, if he is going to take over the closer's role, but I also wonder how Mowday feels about that.
SJ didn't have the best appearance he's ever had either. He gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, followed by an immediate single. I was writing the game over, so I thought I would be optimistic and I began my next sentence with "the right-hander settled in". And it worked. SJ got the next batter to ground into a double play. Unfortunately though, he then gave up another single. I am pretty sure those three hits are more than he's given up during all of his other appearances. When the Bite brought in a pinch hitter to bat next, I thought I would try some optimistic game-over writing once again, since it worked so well the first time. I wrote "Jarrett notched his first save of the season two batters later, striking out pinch hitter Ben Wigmore to end the game." And that worked! I should just start writing the articles about the games before they even take the field. Maybe they would win more if I did that.
Post-game, Carl wanted me to go down to the field and interview the all-stars for Fox, because they were at the game filming. BFC wanted me to do it because he was supposed to be busy sending out the game recap I'd written. But when I got down to the field and did one interview, I realized Carl was right behind me so I let him do the rest. I gave him my recorder though because I figured that if I need to write a story on the all-stars, and he is already interviewing them, we might as well kill two birds with one stone. Hopefully he managed to learn to turn my recorder on at all the right times.
On my way down to the field, I had whizzed by Durket's host family and said I would be back to see them, so I went back to where they were and spoke to not only them, but I met his real family too. His entire real family has come down under from California for both his birthday (coming up on Saturday) and Christmas. While I am a little jealous, it's awesome that they're here. I wish my family were here. Mom.
I talked to his mom and dad and his host mom for a little while, and they seem like awesome people. I asked about their plans for Sydney, which is where they are heading for Christmas, and we talked about the article I'd written about Durket. I feel like I should call him Jon a little bit now, because his parents call him "Jonathan". I feel like quotation marks are a little inappropriate there because it's his real name, but still weird. We had a good talk, but his dad was still all over me for writing that the younger Durket needs to learn to command the zone a little better. Oops again.
When they left it was time to get back to work and finish up everything. Carl still had to send the story out and he came back with my recorder, and it appeared as though he was successful with it. I'll find out later I suppose. Gonzo mentioned that we should all go out for drinks to celebrate with the birthday boy, but in the end that didn't happen at all. Whitey was too tired to do anything and I'm not sure anyone was in the right mindset, so we decided to postpone until tomorrow.
I walked home and when I got there I got a call from SJ. I almost didn't answer because he pocket-dialed me once and I figured this was probably same thing, but I did, and it wasn't. He was actually on the other end. He told me not to book a place yet for Byron Bay because Steven Chambers knows someone who knows someone who has a place there or something. I think his parents' friends have a Byron home and they rent it out to people, so the guys thought it would be smart if we waited to see if it was available. And, Chambers is going to come with us. So now Maestri, SJ and I are going to take the train to the Gold Coast, which is where he lives, and we will all drive together from there to Byron.
During my phone call with SJ, I also brought up the homer that he gave up. SJ does not enjoy when I talk baseball with him so he tried to ignore me. But if you know me, you know I can be pretty hard to ignore. Probably just when he was about to hang up on me I changed the subject. I mentioned that there is a Twenty20 cricket match on Tuesday and he should think about going. I think that some of the guys are going to go and it should be a pretty good time. SJ seemed interested so I told him I would keep him posted on that. He won't talk baseball with me, but he'll talk cricket. Go figure.
And now it's time for bed and then more of the same tomorrow. More garbage-picking, more baseball, hopefully less home runs.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Training with the Pros (Day 36)
Waking up earlier than usual to head to the field wasn't so bad. It was a beautiful, sunny day, perfect for baseball.
I immediately had to run and find Shayne when I got to the RNA though, to get into the building where the Bandits clothes are stored. I had to grab a batting practice shirt, because I only have one Bandits shirt and I already wear it mostly every day. It's not good for me, or anyone around me. So I grabbed a shirt, and then I also swiped a pair of shorts, because I was just wearing spandex to the field, and those aren't real shorts. What am I, a volleyball player?
So once I was all set with my new shirt and shorts (that were a few sizes too big) I headed back to start helping with Training with the Pros. The program is sponsored by Major League Baseball, and also Baseball Queensland. Kids come in, they get a hat, a t-shirt, a water bottle, some Bandits stuff plus a game ticket, and they rotate around different baseball stations on the field, led by a Bandits player. It's a pretty awesome program for the kids and it looked to me like mostly everyone had a fantastic time.
For the first part of the morning, I ran the registration table. I basically just checked kids off of a list as they came through, told them where to get their hats and shirts, and then directed them to get their pictures taken with the pros. Oh, that's the other awesome part. There was a photographer taking pictures, first of the kids when they entered, with various pro players, and then action shots of them on the field. And he printed them while they were still out there and the kids got to take them home, fresh with autographs from the guys they were in the pictures with. It was fantastic!
After registration was done, I heard Shayne calling me over the loudspeaker. I found him and he directed me to a crying little boy who didn't want to join his group. I scooped the poor kid up and asked him what was wrong. He told me he just wasn't having a happy day. Awww. I get that way too, kid. Don't worry. Poor little six-year-old Jackson did not want to join his brother or any of the other kids on the field. I offered to go with him, Shayne offered to let his dad go with him, I made SJ come over to him and ask him to play, and he just didn't want to. I chatted with him for a little while, but it did nothing to make him want to participate.
When I wasn't trying to convince Jackson to play, I wandered around various stations, trying to help out, but I don't think anyone really needed me. I fetched balls and asked people if they wanted me to do anything. But most people were all set. At one point, Shayne asked Carl if he would be the mascot and he said yes, so I had to help him with the suit. After looking for the suit for far too long, we finally called around and realized that someone had taken it to be cleaned. So no mascot.
At lunchtime, Gareth started bringing in trays of sandwiches from Subway, so I was able to help him get them out of his car. I became slightly less useless, until someone dropped the tray of cookies and we all started eating them. I had far too many cookies, especially after downing a pizza last night, but they were good. Dropped or not.
Post-cookies, Carl and I slipped out of Training-with-the-Pros mode and joined Whitey and Gonzo in Bandits mode. We started getting out the rest of the boards to put behind the back net at home plate. Those things are heavy. But we brought them out, along with the two-by-fours to screw them all together, so that we were ready for the afternoon when TwtP was over.
When the kids were finishing up their own lunch, Shayne wanted to bring out a few of the players to answer their questions and he asked me to lead the conversation so that he had time to set up the pictures for the players to autograph. I tried to grab the players he wanted and they just weren't listening to me. I have that effect on people. Eventually I just told all the guys to come out of the locker room and if they weren't answering questions, they should be signing autographs. The five guys I had for questions were Ryan Searle, Rory Rhodes, Justin Erasmus, Steven Chambers and SJ.
Their first answers were a little disappointing. Kids would ask the players how it feels to hit a home run or strike someone out or something and they would say "pretty good", or something equally as short and as lame. But eventually the questions got a little better and the answers did too. When Shayne gave me the okay, we wrapped it up with one last question and the guys went to take their seats at the autograph table.
During the autograph session, Gonzo, Whitey, Carl and I got to work on the boards. I pretty much just held stuff in place while they did all the real work, but I felt like a contributor and we were getting things accomplished. I took part in that. We spent most of our time talking about lunch, and when we were going to have it. We'd had only the stolen cookies from the dropped tray, and so none of us had eaten a full meal. Plus, lunch is pretty much always a topic on our minds. So once the drill that we were using had almost died, we decided to put it on the charger and head back to Danny Boy's in Kelvin Grove. The sandwiches were so good when Whitey and I went that we had to share our experience with others.
The sandwiches were once again delicious but I shouldn't have ordered after Carl. He got a short sandwich, instead of ordering a long one, and so I felt obligated to get the smaller version too. We weren't paying for our lunch and so I guess he figured he would get a small one to not feel bad. Little did I know though, Carl went back later and changed his order to a big sandwich. I was the only sucker at the table with a little one. It was still a fantastic sandwich, but I'm just sayin' it could have been twice as fantastic.
I headed back to the field with Whitey and Carl after our great lunch, and Gonzo had to go pick up his four-year-old from daycare. The three of us tried to finish putting up the boards but the drill just altogether died when we made an attempt.
After taking fly balls during batting practice yesterday though, I'd developed a taste for it. I asked Carl to hit me some grounders and fly balls and we did that for a little while. I wasn't horrible, though I turned the wrong way for a few fly balls and I missed one grounder. I want to say it was a bad hop, but really it wasn't. Carl asked me to try to hit him some, but that's not my forte. I tried, but it didn't last long. On our walk out of the stadium we discussed once again how well not hanging out is going. But I think we're getting better at it. We went our separate ways and I headed home.
For much of the walk home I was thinking about going for a run. I had talked to Whitey and Carl earlier about whether or not they wanted to join me and they both said they would think about it, but I wasn't really going to rely on that. Plus, I don't try to do too much when I'm on my own, as opposed to running with speedy Whitey. But after answering some emails and Facebooking, I figured I really should head out for a run. After all, I did eat an entire pizza last night, and parts of a tray of cookies today. I need to do something to balance that out.
When I left I didn't know how far I was going to make it. I was super tired, especially after waking up early and being in the sun all day. But I actually had a great run. I ran about 11 miles, which is the furthest distance I've covered since I've been here (I need to step it up if I want to do a marathon when I get home). I travelled over the Story Bridge to Kangaroo Point, running around there for awhile before I headed to South Bank and to the Kurilpa Bridge. I ran over that and back, and then back to Kangaroo Point again. I tried to do a couple of sets of stairs, but it was nearly impossible. I need to work on that. I got through two sets of up-and-down before I realized that I still had to get home. I was wearing myself out. I made it though, with only one minor incident of getting lost, and disappointingly, no shark encounters.
At home, I had missed a call from Whitey, but he sent me an email asking if I could write a bio on Mike Young for The Rookie. Youngy is going to be one of the guests for next Monday night's episode. I was also to write out a set of questions for both him and for Justin Erasmus, those questions to be asked by Campo. Everything needs to be done before tomorrow, so that when Campo does the interviews, he has everything he needs. I decided to postpone that for a little while though.
I ended up watching a few episodes of House and making a card. More arts and crafts and paper and gluesticks. My favourite. I did this for so long that it was almost midnight by the time I finished. I made an attempt at starting the Campo stuff for Whitey, but I decided it would be best left until the morning.
I called Carl at midnight to wish him a happy birthday, since I'd told him that I would, but he didn't answer. I tried one more time before I left a message and then decided to head to bed.
I also made a list of work that I needed to finish in the morning since I'd been ignoring it all night. Oops.
I immediately had to run and find Shayne when I got to the RNA though, to get into the building where the Bandits clothes are stored. I had to grab a batting practice shirt, because I only have one Bandits shirt and I already wear it mostly every day. It's not good for me, or anyone around me. So I grabbed a shirt, and then I also swiped a pair of shorts, because I was just wearing spandex to the field, and those aren't real shorts. What am I, a volleyball player?
So once I was all set with my new shirt and shorts (that were a few sizes too big) I headed back to start helping with Training with the Pros. The program is sponsored by Major League Baseball, and also Baseball Queensland. Kids come in, they get a hat, a t-shirt, a water bottle, some Bandits stuff plus a game ticket, and they rotate around different baseball stations on the field, led by a Bandits player. It's a pretty awesome program for the kids and it looked to me like mostly everyone had a fantastic time.
For the first part of the morning, I ran the registration table. I basically just checked kids off of a list as they came through, told them where to get their hats and shirts, and then directed them to get their pictures taken with the pros. Oh, that's the other awesome part. There was a photographer taking pictures, first of the kids when they entered, with various pro players, and then action shots of them on the field. And he printed them while they were still out there and the kids got to take them home, fresh with autographs from the guys they were in the pictures with. It was fantastic!
After registration was done, I heard Shayne calling me over the loudspeaker. I found him and he directed me to a crying little boy who didn't want to join his group. I scooped the poor kid up and asked him what was wrong. He told me he just wasn't having a happy day. Awww. I get that way too, kid. Don't worry. Poor little six-year-old Jackson did not want to join his brother or any of the other kids on the field. I offered to go with him, Shayne offered to let his dad go with him, I made SJ come over to him and ask him to play, and he just didn't want to. I chatted with him for a little while, but it did nothing to make him want to participate.
When I wasn't trying to convince Jackson to play, I wandered around various stations, trying to help out, but I don't think anyone really needed me. I fetched balls and asked people if they wanted me to do anything. But most people were all set. At one point, Shayne asked Carl if he would be the mascot and he said yes, so I had to help him with the suit. After looking for the suit for far too long, we finally called around and realized that someone had taken it to be cleaned. So no mascot.
At lunchtime, Gareth started bringing in trays of sandwiches from Subway, so I was able to help him get them out of his car. I became slightly less useless, until someone dropped the tray of cookies and we all started eating them. I had far too many cookies, especially after downing a pizza last night, but they were good. Dropped or not.
Post-cookies, Carl and I slipped out of Training-with-the-Pros mode and joined Whitey and Gonzo in Bandits mode. We started getting out the rest of the boards to put behind the back net at home plate. Those things are heavy. But we brought them out, along with the two-by-fours to screw them all together, so that we were ready for the afternoon when TwtP was over.
When the kids were finishing up their own lunch, Shayne wanted to bring out a few of the players to answer their questions and he asked me to lead the conversation so that he had time to set up the pictures for the players to autograph. I tried to grab the players he wanted and they just weren't listening to me. I have that effect on people. Eventually I just told all the guys to come out of the locker room and if they weren't answering questions, they should be signing autographs. The five guys I had for questions were Ryan Searle, Rory Rhodes, Justin Erasmus, Steven Chambers and SJ.
Their first answers were a little disappointing. Kids would ask the players how it feels to hit a home run or strike someone out or something and they would say "pretty good", or something equally as short and as lame. But eventually the questions got a little better and the answers did too. When Shayne gave me the okay, we wrapped it up with one last question and the guys went to take their seats at the autograph table.
During the autograph session, Gonzo, Whitey, Carl and I got to work on the boards. I pretty much just held stuff in place while they did all the real work, but I felt like a contributor and we were getting things accomplished. I took part in that. We spent most of our time talking about lunch, and when we were going to have it. We'd had only the stolen cookies from the dropped tray, and so none of us had eaten a full meal. Plus, lunch is pretty much always a topic on our minds. So once the drill that we were using had almost died, we decided to put it on the charger and head back to Danny Boy's in Kelvin Grove. The sandwiches were so good when Whitey and I went that we had to share our experience with others.
The sandwiches were once again delicious but I shouldn't have ordered after Carl. He got a short sandwich, instead of ordering a long one, and so I felt obligated to get the smaller version too. We weren't paying for our lunch and so I guess he figured he would get a small one to not feel bad. Little did I know though, Carl went back later and changed his order to a big sandwich. I was the only sucker at the table with a little one. It was still a fantastic sandwich, but I'm just sayin' it could have been twice as fantastic.
I headed back to the field with Whitey and Carl after our great lunch, and Gonzo had to go pick up his four-year-old from daycare. The three of us tried to finish putting up the boards but the drill just altogether died when we made an attempt.
After taking fly balls during batting practice yesterday though, I'd developed a taste for it. I asked Carl to hit me some grounders and fly balls and we did that for a little while. I wasn't horrible, though I turned the wrong way for a few fly balls and I missed one grounder. I want to say it was a bad hop, but really it wasn't. Carl asked me to try to hit him some, but that's not my forte. I tried, but it didn't last long. On our walk out of the stadium we discussed once again how well not hanging out is going. But I think we're getting better at it. We went our separate ways and I headed home.
For much of the walk home I was thinking about going for a run. I had talked to Whitey and Carl earlier about whether or not they wanted to join me and they both said they would think about it, but I wasn't really going to rely on that. Plus, I don't try to do too much when I'm on my own, as opposed to running with speedy Whitey. But after answering some emails and Facebooking, I figured I really should head out for a run. After all, I did eat an entire pizza last night, and parts of a tray of cookies today. I need to do something to balance that out.
When I left I didn't know how far I was going to make it. I was super tired, especially after waking up early and being in the sun all day. But I actually had a great run. I ran about 11 miles, which is the furthest distance I've covered since I've been here (I need to step it up if I want to do a marathon when I get home). I travelled over the Story Bridge to Kangaroo Point, running around there for awhile before I headed to South Bank and to the Kurilpa Bridge. I ran over that and back, and then back to Kangaroo Point again. I tried to do a couple of sets of stairs, but it was nearly impossible. I need to work on that. I got through two sets of up-and-down before I realized that I still had to get home. I was wearing myself out. I made it though, with only one minor incident of getting lost, and disappointingly, no shark encounters.
At home, I had missed a call from Whitey, but he sent me an email asking if I could write a bio on Mike Young for The Rookie. Youngy is going to be one of the guests for next Monday night's episode. I was also to write out a set of questions for both him and for Justin Erasmus, those questions to be asked by Campo. Everything needs to be done before tomorrow, so that when Campo does the interviews, he has everything he needs. I decided to postpone that for a little while though.
I ended up watching a few episodes of House and making a card. More arts and crafts and paper and gluesticks. My favourite. I did this for so long that it was almost midnight by the time I finished. I made an attempt at starting the Campo stuff for Whitey, but I decided it would be best left until the morning.
I called Carl at midnight to wish him a happy birthday, since I'd told him that I would, but he didn't answer. I tried one more time before I left a message and then decided to head to bed.
I also made a list of work that I needed to finish in the morning since I'd been ignoring it all night. Oops.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Sorry if there's been any confusion (Day 35)
Cricket instead of baseball?
My day started with a meeting at Cricket Queensland, with Mike Young. But baseball was involved. When we got to the dual grounds of CQ and Cricket Australia we first took a tour of the place. I saw one of the fields, and the offices for both of the organizations. I met the head honchos of the Brisbane Heat, the local Twenty20 cricket team. And before we settled in for our meeting, I had only one awkward conversation. That's pretty decent for me, at least for the start of a day.
Mike kept introducing me to people and telling them that I am a statistician for the Toronto Blue Jays and that hopefully because of that I might be able to help out with some newfound cricket statistics. When he introduced me to one of the guys in the office that way, the guy started talking about Moneyball.
The guy asked me something like if the Blue Jays got that guy from the movie to be the General Manager in Toronto right after the time of the film. I responded that yes, we got J.P. Ricciardi from Oakland but it was before 2002, the season that the movie is about, so Ricciardi would have been already in Toronto at the time. He was adamant that I was wrong and that Paul DePodesta (in the movie his character name is Peter Brand) had come to Toronto from Oakland to be the GM of the Blue Jays. I tried to be polite but in the end, I probably wasn't.
DePodesta was never the GM of the Jays and he didn't come to Toronto from Oakland. Instead, Toronto got J.P., who obviously missed the Moneyball boat, considering he gave out several massive contracts to guys like Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett. So that was weird. What a great way to make an impression in cricket land.
The conversation during the scheduled meeting actually went much better than that. I suppose it almost had to. Mike did most of the talking but I threw in some wisdom every once in awhile, as did the woman we were meeting with. Her name is Judy and she is one of the official scorers for the Brisbane Heat, and she obviously also does something in the Heat office, though I'm not sure what it was. She did make it sound like it would be beneficial to have someone come in and keep track of defensive statistics for cricket, giving out errors and helping runs after errors not count against the bowlers, and stuff like that.
Brisbane has their first home T20 match of the season on Tuesday at The Gabba, so I mentioned that I was going to head to that. Mike asked Judy if I might be able to get into the scorer's box with her and the other scorers, just to see what goes on and how things work. She mentioned that while it is often very busy and quite crowded, she would try. But I'm not sure I hold out much hope for that because she didn't sound too optimistic. I do believe that she will try, but I just don't know if it's a remote possibility.
I do plan on heading to the match anyway though. I think Carl and maybe a couple of the players might be interested in going as well. Tuesday nights are usually reserved for practices, but since it's the week of Christmas, I suspect that the guys might not have to practice. There are no games next weekend, so I am thinking that perhaps we can all head to the cricket match. I am probably going to make an attempt to write down some notes and keep track of defense and errors and things like that, but I'm still not sure if I know the sport well enough to do a great job of it. We'll see next Tuesday.
Mike offered to drop me off at the office when we were finished our meeting, but I instead asked him to drop me off at home. It was perfect timing to call my mom and I thought I would take the opportunity when presented to me. So I called home and had a chat with my mother. We discussed some cricket and how my meeting went, and of course the weather and sun is always a topic. I'm glad I'm not in Canada for winter. Let me just point that out once again.
I had plans to make myself useful at home but before I got to any of that, I fell asleep. I had a nice little midday nap to get me ready for the afternoon. Perfect.
When I woke up I realized that I really should be more productive so I headed to the grocery store. I got a few groceries, enough to tide me over for a couple of days, which is how I operate, and checked out the names of the cereals to see if I might have any Rice Bubbles incidents in the future. Nothing else jumped out at me as being as ridiculous as that, but I might have to take another look next time.
Before I'd left the apartment I had made plans in my mind to head to the bank as well, but that wasn't about to happen since I'd left my bank card at home. Just think, I was all up in arms about not having a bank card for a couple weeks and not being able to do anything at the bank, and I haven't used the card once since I received it.
So I went back home and decided to come up with some questions for people I am hoping to interview in the near future. I wrote down some questions for David Nilsson, with whom I am still hoping to have a chat so I can write a story on him and Graeme Lloyd. But so far, I only have one half of that story. It's not the Nilsson half, in case you didn't happen to catch that.
I also jotted down a bunch of random questions for the Japanese players. This upcoming weekend series will be their last with the Bandits, as they head back to Japan for Christmas and they stay there for the remainder of the Australian baseball season. They start their own season in February and will essentially take January off to train I think. My plan was to talk to them at practice tonight, and I had informed Monna, the interpreter, of this so I was hoping we could work something out.
I also put down on paper the questions that I had emailed the guys, just in case anyone wanted to be so kind as to answer them at practice, instead of emailing them back to me.
And by the time I was through with all that, Carl was already at the park before practice, so I headed over there. The Japanese guys are always the first to get to the field and I figured I would be able to catch them before they started running and hitting and getting into game mode.
No one was around but Carl when I got there though, so instead of working or doing anything like that, we got out my gloves and started playing catch. Carl still seems to have a fear of breaking my face or something every time he throws to me, so he is very inaccurate and I end up chasing a lot of balls down. At least he blames it on not wanting to hurt me but who really knows?
Much to my surprise, the Japanese players were not the first to arrive on this day. Durket and James Albury showed up super early and Durket took the opportunity to finally hit me the ground balls he's been promising me. I wasn't so bad, though he wasn't hitting very hard. Everyone's afraid to hurt me I guess. But Durket was kind enough to play until he had to go for his pre-game run. Or pre-practice-game run as it were.
After doing a little more of nothing, I introduced myself to Albury and we talked a little about what I do and where I’ve worked and when I said I live in Toronto he asked how far it is from London. I told him London is where I am actually from and it’s only a couple hours away. He knew of the city because of the new team in the Frontier League, the Rippers of course. He mentioned the same thing that Durket did, that a lot of American guys might run into difficulties with the league if they don’t have passports, because they won’t be able to travel to the games in Canada. Apparently it’s a lot more difficult to get a passport in the US of A.
Several people joined us at different times when we were sitting around. Chris Mowday came over and we started talking about his time in Canada, playing for Medicine Hat when he was 16 and 17 years old, and then later playing for Edmonton and Calgary. Mowday signed a million-dollar contract at 16, and went straight to professional ball. He didn’t finish high school, and I asked him if he regretted that decision. He said he wouldn’t necessarily go back and do anything differently, but he doesn’t really take pride in the fact that he’s a now 30-something-year-old without an education playing at home on nights after which he’s laboured all day. I would love to actually sit down and talk to him and write an article about him, but I don’t know if he’d be up for that. Maybe I’ll find out one day down the road. For now, I have material with which I need to start writing and I already don’t have enough time for that. So it will wait.
Carl and I got to work when Gonzo arrived and we started setting up the field for the practice game. Mostly everyone came out to help and in no time, they were doing it themselves. The Bandits were once again facing the Brisbane All-Stars, though this time the opposing team had only nine players I think. That was good news for me though, because it meant that Carl and Gonzo and I got to take some fly balls in batting practice since there weren’t enough fielders to go around. I fielded decently, despite wearing sandals. It must have been all the practice I’d had earlier. Thanks Durket.
I decided to score the game on paper while we were there, so that I would have something that I could take back to Judy and show her, and try to compare to cricket scoring. It turned out to be a slightly more difficult task than I’d originally thought since the Bandits were using three designated hitters in their lineup, and they were batting out of order. Perfect.
Near the beginning of the game, Carl, Gonzo and I had all started a discussion about how hungry we were. We decided the best plan of action would be to order a pizza to the field. It took us a little while to figure out a phone number for a pizza place, but finally our order was in and we only had 30 minutes to wait. It was probably the longest 30 minutes of my life though. I kept asking Carl how much longer probably about every five minutes. I don’t know why I was so hungry but I was, and when the pizza arrived, we crushed it. We had two large meat-lover’s pizzas and a loaf of garlic bread and I’m pretty sure I ate a whole pizza and half the bread to myself. And by pretty sure, I mean I definitely did. It was delicious. But I am probably going to regret that later. I’ll have to run a marathon every day for the next couple weeks if I want to make up for it.
After the game, we redressed the field with its various tarps and such and Gonzo gave me a ride home.
Also, Carl is concerned that people think we're dating. We're not. He's also concerned that I make it sound that way in these journals, and though I don't think that's the case, I will try to make it clear. We're not. Sorry if there's been any confusion. We're friends and we have been since I got here, though we may be getting sick of each other at this point. Friends for now, I should say.
But at the end of the day, it was bedtime early to be ready for tomorrow’s events. Early baseball.
My day started with a meeting at Cricket Queensland, with Mike Young. But baseball was involved. When we got to the dual grounds of CQ and Cricket Australia we first took a tour of the place. I saw one of the fields, and the offices for both of the organizations. I met the head honchos of the Brisbane Heat, the local Twenty20 cricket team. And before we settled in for our meeting, I had only one awkward conversation. That's pretty decent for me, at least for the start of a day.
Mike kept introducing me to people and telling them that I am a statistician for the Toronto Blue Jays and that hopefully because of that I might be able to help out with some newfound cricket statistics. When he introduced me to one of the guys in the office that way, the guy started talking about Moneyball.
The guy asked me something like if the Blue Jays got that guy from the movie to be the General Manager in Toronto right after the time of the film. I responded that yes, we got J.P. Ricciardi from Oakland but it was before 2002, the season that the movie is about, so Ricciardi would have been already in Toronto at the time. He was adamant that I was wrong and that Paul DePodesta (in the movie his character name is Peter Brand) had come to Toronto from Oakland to be the GM of the Blue Jays. I tried to be polite but in the end, I probably wasn't.
DePodesta was never the GM of the Jays and he didn't come to Toronto from Oakland. Instead, Toronto got J.P., who obviously missed the Moneyball boat, considering he gave out several massive contracts to guys like Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, B.J. Ryan and A.J. Burnett. So that was weird. What a great way to make an impression in cricket land.
The conversation during the scheduled meeting actually went much better than that. I suppose it almost had to. Mike did most of the talking but I threw in some wisdom every once in awhile, as did the woman we were meeting with. Her name is Judy and she is one of the official scorers for the Brisbane Heat, and she obviously also does something in the Heat office, though I'm not sure what it was. She did make it sound like it would be beneficial to have someone come in and keep track of defensive statistics for cricket, giving out errors and helping runs after errors not count against the bowlers, and stuff like that.
Brisbane has their first home T20 match of the season on Tuesday at The Gabba, so I mentioned that I was going to head to that. Mike asked Judy if I might be able to get into the scorer's box with her and the other scorers, just to see what goes on and how things work. She mentioned that while it is often very busy and quite crowded, she would try. But I'm not sure I hold out much hope for that because she didn't sound too optimistic. I do believe that she will try, but I just don't know if it's a remote possibility.
I do plan on heading to the match anyway though. I think Carl and maybe a couple of the players might be interested in going as well. Tuesday nights are usually reserved for practices, but since it's the week of Christmas, I suspect that the guys might not have to practice. There are no games next weekend, so I am thinking that perhaps we can all head to the cricket match. I am probably going to make an attempt to write down some notes and keep track of defense and errors and things like that, but I'm still not sure if I know the sport well enough to do a great job of it. We'll see next Tuesday.
Mike offered to drop me off at the office when we were finished our meeting, but I instead asked him to drop me off at home. It was perfect timing to call my mom and I thought I would take the opportunity when presented to me. So I called home and had a chat with my mother. We discussed some cricket and how my meeting went, and of course the weather and sun is always a topic. I'm glad I'm not in Canada for winter. Let me just point that out once again.
I had plans to make myself useful at home but before I got to any of that, I fell asleep. I had a nice little midday nap to get me ready for the afternoon. Perfect.
When I woke up I realized that I really should be more productive so I headed to the grocery store. I got a few groceries, enough to tide me over for a couple of days, which is how I operate, and checked out the names of the cereals to see if I might have any Rice Bubbles incidents in the future. Nothing else jumped out at me as being as ridiculous as that, but I might have to take another look next time.
Before I'd left the apartment I had made plans in my mind to head to the bank as well, but that wasn't about to happen since I'd left my bank card at home. Just think, I was all up in arms about not having a bank card for a couple weeks and not being able to do anything at the bank, and I haven't used the card once since I received it.
So I went back home and decided to come up with some questions for people I am hoping to interview in the near future. I wrote down some questions for David Nilsson, with whom I am still hoping to have a chat so I can write a story on him and Graeme Lloyd. But so far, I only have one half of that story. It's not the Nilsson half, in case you didn't happen to catch that.
I also jotted down a bunch of random questions for the Japanese players. This upcoming weekend series will be their last with the Bandits, as they head back to Japan for Christmas and they stay there for the remainder of the Australian baseball season. They start their own season in February and will essentially take January off to train I think. My plan was to talk to them at practice tonight, and I had informed Monna, the interpreter, of this so I was hoping we could work something out.
I also put down on paper the questions that I had emailed the guys, just in case anyone wanted to be so kind as to answer them at practice, instead of emailing them back to me.
And by the time I was through with all that, Carl was already at the park before practice, so I headed over there. The Japanese guys are always the first to get to the field and I figured I would be able to catch them before they started running and hitting and getting into game mode.
No one was around but Carl when I got there though, so instead of working or doing anything like that, we got out my gloves and started playing catch. Carl still seems to have a fear of breaking my face or something every time he throws to me, so he is very inaccurate and I end up chasing a lot of balls down. At least he blames it on not wanting to hurt me but who really knows?
Much to my surprise, the Japanese players were not the first to arrive on this day. Durket and James Albury showed up super early and Durket took the opportunity to finally hit me the ground balls he's been promising me. I wasn't so bad, though he wasn't hitting very hard. Everyone's afraid to hurt me I guess. But Durket was kind enough to play until he had to go for his pre-game run. Or pre-practice-game run as it were.
After doing a little more of nothing, I introduced myself to Albury and we talked a little about what I do and where I’ve worked and when I said I live in Toronto he asked how far it is from London. I told him London is where I am actually from and it’s only a couple hours away. He knew of the city because of the new team in the Frontier League, the Rippers of course. He mentioned the same thing that Durket did, that a lot of American guys might run into difficulties with the league if they don’t have passports, because they won’t be able to travel to the games in Canada. Apparently it’s a lot more difficult to get a passport in the US of A.
Several people joined us at different times when we were sitting around. Chris Mowday came over and we started talking about his time in Canada, playing for Medicine Hat when he was 16 and 17 years old, and then later playing for Edmonton and Calgary. Mowday signed a million-dollar contract at 16, and went straight to professional ball. He didn’t finish high school, and I asked him if he regretted that decision. He said he wouldn’t necessarily go back and do anything differently, but he doesn’t really take pride in the fact that he’s a now 30-something-year-old without an education playing at home on nights after which he’s laboured all day. I would love to actually sit down and talk to him and write an article about him, but I don’t know if he’d be up for that. Maybe I’ll find out one day down the road. For now, I have material with which I need to start writing and I already don’t have enough time for that. So it will wait.
Carl and I got to work when Gonzo arrived and we started setting up the field for the practice game. Mostly everyone came out to help and in no time, they were doing it themselves. The Bandits were once again facing the Brisbane All-Stars, though this time the opposing team had only nine players I think. That was good news for me though, because it meant that Carl and Gonzo and I got to take some fly balls in batting practice since there weren’t enough fielders to go around. I fielded decently, despite wearing sandals. It must have been all the practice I’d had earlier. Thanks Durket.
I decided to score the game on paper while we were there, so that I would have something that I could take back to Judy and show her, and try to compare to cricket scoring. It turned out to be a slightly more difficult task than I’d originally thought since the Bandits were using three designated hitters in their lineup, and they were batting out of order. Perfect.
Near the beginning of the game, Carl, Gonzo and I had all started a discussion about how hungry we were. We decided the best plan of action would be to order a pizza to the field. It took us a little while to figure out a phone number for a pizza place, but finally our order was in and we only had 30 minutes to wait. It was probably the longest 30 minutes of my life though. I kept asking Carl how much longer probably about every five minutes. I don’t know why I was so hungry but I was, and when the pizza arrived, we crushed it. We had two large meat-lover’s pizzas and a loaf of garlic bread and I’m pretty sure I ate a whole pizza and half the bread to myself. And by pretty sure, I mean I definitely did. It was delicious. But I am probably going to regret that later. I’ll have to run a marathon every day for the next couple weeks if I want to make up for it.
After the game, we redressed the field with its various tarps and such and Gonzo gave me a ride home.
Also, Carl is concerned that people think we're dating. We're not. He's also concerned that I make it sound that way in these journals, and though I don't think that's the case, I will try to make it clear. We're not. Sorry if there's been any confusion. We're friends and we have been since I got here, though we may be getting sick of each other at this point. Friends for now, I should say.
But at the end of the day, it was bedtime early to be ready for tomorrow’s events. Early baseball.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
The Rookie (Day 34)
I woke up early after sleeping so much yesterday throughout the day.
And you may not believe this mom, but I did some ironing. I actually got out the iron and board and got to work. It might be because I did laundry last night, so most of my clothes are hanging to dry and I’m almost out of options. But it could also be because I am turning into a more responsible and awesome person. Right? Okay, I was out of clothes. But I still put the effort in.
Gonzo called me before I left to let me know that he was around the corner at the bank and was wondering if I needed a ride to the office. When I told him that I was heading to 31 Digital to help Whitey with the show for tonight, he then wanted to talk about the new commercial the Bandits have. It can be found here and it’s pretty awesome, in my biased opinion. Please note that I have now figured out to add a link into my journals without having to copy and paste the whole website address. Look at me go.
So we’re going to try and get the word out on the commercial by writing something for the website and putting something on Facebook. Gonzo wants to set up a meeting for me with the guys who put together the commercial and we’ll get something out about it this week, linking to the commercial and hopefully helping to get the word out about the Bandits.
Shortly after that conversation, I had to head outside in anticipation of Whitey picking me up. I wasn’t waiting long before he arrived and we headed to 31 Digital. I think someone else was in the studio when we got there because we ended up sitting out in a hallway-type area for awhile. I got on my computer and started working on getting back to my emails and sending out questions to the Bandits players.
I’m hoping to get started on writing some stories for the week that the guys are off, and actually for this week as well. I’ll need to talk to David Nilsson before I can finish the story I want to write on him, though I have the input I wanted from Graeme Lloyd. Ryan Searle, Cubs prospect and Bandits pitcher (though he hasn’t pitched yet for the team) also got back to me with a bunch of answers to a large number of questions that I sent him when he said he would do an interview with me via email. So I have those stories to work with, and then hopefully I will start to get some answers from the team for the other stuff.
I asked the players about their plans for Christmas, what they want for Christmas, and if they have any New Year’s resolutions. Then I sent a few questions about road trip experiences for a piece I want to write about that kind of thing, and about pre-game routines and stuff like that. I’m just hoping to give the fans a little bit of a side of the game they haven’t seen or that we haven’t written about yet. Like I said before, it’s not going to be award-winning writing. But I think it will be interesting enough for readers. I sent all my questions by email and told the guys they could email me back or just give me their answers at practice tomorrow night. I’m hoping I have made it easy enough to get a good number of responses.
I sent the email to Carl for approval before I sent it to the team, just in case I was missing anything or making additions that I didn’t need to make. Carl was okay with what I’d sent him and told me to get it out to the players, though Carl was distracted by the Giants game, so I’m sure it wasn’t the first thing on his mind. I’m just going to assume that he actually did read my email but I can’t be sure.
After that, Whitey had finally gotten the footage that he was waiting for and I had to come up with something to voice it over. The team’s video interns put together a 30-second package on Buster the Bandit and I needed to write a script to go with it. Jess, the Australian in-game host, came in to read the script I’d come up with in her Aussie accent. We got through it and then I had to write some questions for Campo to ask KJ during the interview. It was at that time that I realized I'd forgotten to make a Bandit Baseball Buddy, but the details of that are not important. It was supposed to be a gimmick for people to participate and win stuff, but it didn't really end up that way. Probably because I started it by forgetting about it. Oops.
Filming the show took a long time. It really seemed like forever. There were technical difficulties when the talent was getting everything right and then the talent would mess up when the technical stuff was all going well. Inbetween takes (because there were a lot of inbetweeners and a lot of time during them), Campo and I talked to KJ, asking him questions about his playing days, his history in the game and what he's going to do with the team moving forward. Campo was mostly asking him general questions, like what was his first day in the bigs like, and I was trying to get down to brass tax, asking about what's going on in the bullpen, who might emerge as the team's new closer, that kind of stuff. That's mostly what's important to me. There's a time for winning and that time is now. Might I remind everyone that this is a six-team league and four teams make it into playoffs. The Bandits need to make it. So let's get on track.
After spending hours and hours at the studio, and finally getting through the show, Whitey and I were starving. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was already past 4 o'clock. Just about time for my cranky pants to come out if I didn't get food in me immediately. So we went to a sandwich place in Kelvin Grove (where I took all the pictures of the mascot roaming around the one day), called Danny Boy's. It was amazing. Probably the best sandwich ever. I had their specialty, the Danny Boy, as would make sense, and it was delicous. I might have been a little over-hungry, but there's no mistaking a good sandwich.
On the way home from amazing sandwiches, I almost drove Whitey's car. I started talking about driving and he offered to let me and then I chickened out. I'm too confused by the roundabouts here. I think I get the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing, and the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-car thing, but roundabouts are confusing. I barely think I can manage them at home, let alone here. It would also make me nervous to drive Whitey's car with him in it, judging me the whole time. I'm not necessarily saying that he would be doing that, but I am saying that I would feel like he was. So no driving for me yet. Or probably anytime soon either.
Filming the show took a long time. It really seemed like forever. There were technical difficulties when the talent was getting everything right and then the talent would mess up when the technical stuff was all going well. Inbetween takes (because there were a lot of inbetweeners and a lot of time during them), Campo and I talked to KJ, asking him questions about his playing days, his history in the game and what he's going to do with the team moving forward. Campo was mostly asking him general questions, like what was his first day in the bigs like, and I was trying to get down to brass tax, asking about what's going on in the bullpen, who might emerge as the team's new closer, that kind of stuff. That's mostly what's important to me. There's a time for winning and that time is now. Might I remind everyone that this is a six-team league and four teams make it into playoffs. The Bandits need to make it. So let's get on track.
After spending hours and hours at the studio, and finally getting through the show, Whitey and I were starving. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and it was already past 4 o'clock. Just about time for my cranky pants to come out if I didn't get food in me immediately. So we went to a sandwich place in Kelvin Grove (where I took all the pictures of the mascot roaming around the one day), called Danny Boy's. It was amazing. Probably the best sandwich ever. I had their specialty, the Danny Boy, as would make sense, and it was delicous. I might have been a little over-hungry, but there's no mistaking a good sandwich.
On the way home from amazing sandwiches, I almost drove Whitey's car. I started talking about driving and he offered to let me and then I chickened out. I'm too confused by the roundabouts here. I think I get the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing, and the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-car thing, but roundabouts are confusing. I barely think I can manage them at home, let alone here. It would also make me nervous to drive Whitey's car with him in it, judging me the whole time. I'm not necessarily saying that he would be doing that, but I am saying that I would feel like he was. So no driving for me yet. Or probably anytime soon either.
When I got home I changed and set out to get my nails done again. Girly, I know. But I broke a couple nails when we were picking up garbage and glass and stuff around the field. So I thought I would make an attempt to fix that.
On my way to the nail place Gonzo called me about Durket. He's been on the roster all year, and we have his headshot and bio and everything, and yet he hasn't been in the program for the first two series. I'd mentioned it again to Gonz because Durket's family is coming to town and they would probably be pretty disappointed if they paid for a program or two and he wasn't in it. Even if they got them for free and he wasn't in it, it would be a disappointment. So Gonzo was calling to confirm the spelling of his name and then to get me to send the bio and headshot once again to head office. I told him I would do it as soon as I got to a computer.
After I got my nails done, I started walking to Carl's place so I could watch The Rookie on Bris31. Since I don't get that channel and Carl does, it made the most sense. When I got there I checked my email and sent away Durket's information. I had answers from a couple guys already on the questions I had sent out. I figure the people who reply right away are the only ones who are actually going to answer me. Everyone else will probably put it on the back burner, or just delete it and forget about it. But I'll run with what I've got, even though SJ said his pre-game routine is mostly just putting his belt in his beltloops and stuff like that. Thanks for that, SJ.
Before the show, Carl and I went to the park and threw a football around. We had some time to spare before it started and Carl is still struggling to find things that he might be better at than me. Okay, maybe not, but I'd like to give myself some credit. It's been awhile since I've thrown a football but I did alright for myself. It got a little too dark to continue for long though, so we headed back for the show.
The show was a pretty big disappointment. After being at the studio all day and working around it and seeing how things were done, I guess I just expected a little better. When The Rookie aired, it was missing the entire first segment and in my eyes, that threw everything off. It didn't start with a welcome or an introduction to baseball or anything. It started where Campo was supposed to come in after the first commercial break and so nothing made sense. It was hard to tell what he was talking about. And Whitey had forewarned me that the producer called him and told him the show was short, so he ran an entire five-minute video on the Phanatic, the Philadelphia Phillies mascot. That sucked, but it sucked even more because the show would not have been short if it had included the entire first segment. I was pretty upset about it and I expressed that to Whitey, who I probably made even more upset than I was. He said he would have them fix it before they air it again though, and before it makes it to our youtube channel. So that's good at least. Some people might not see the awful version that aired.
After the show, Carl and I walked to South Bank because he wanted to go to the movies. New Year's Eve was Carl's choice (though I must admit, there wasn't a whole lot to choose from), and we played for it. We went back to the arcade basketball and played for the tickets. I lost, and I'm not going to say it was on purpose, but I'm not going to say it wasn't either. Carl did match my high score from last time. So I had to buy the tickets to the movie.
I think Carl actually liked the film, though I can't really say the same. It wasn't the worst thing I'd ever seen, but I do think I would have liked it better if I were about 13 years old.
It was kind of late when it finished, especially since prior to the movie starting they showed about 45 minutes (literally, no exaggeration) of commercials before the previews even happened. Once again, Carl went into mom mode and tried to get me to take a cab home. I took this under consideration and decided that I don't make enough money to cab home. Mostly because I don't make any money. But when we parted ways I decided that maybe it was too far to walk. So I ran.
I made it home in a little less than half an hour, which makes me hopeful that it's about a five-kilometre jaunt, otherwise I was going a lot slower than I thought I was. But I made it.
When I got home I told Carl/mom that I was safe and sound. Then I also suggested that perhaps we start hanging out a little less. I know that sounds rude, but we spend every minute of every day together and it's going to be a shock to the system when that ceases to happen. And Carl's girlfriend (okay, ex-girlfriend) is coming to visit him for two weeks over Christmas, meaning that he'll be busy and I need to find other people to hang out with. For future reference, I will probably just call her Carl's girlfriend, because it's less letters to type out, and because she is coming all the way around the world to spend the holidays with him, so come on.
But I am going to be on my own then so I thought that maybe I should get a head start now. I'm pretty sure Carl thought I was being ridiculous and told me to take some time to think about it. It was kind of like an awkward breakup, except we'll be working together again tomorrow. Even more awkward.
It's not me, it's you.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Hangovers and garbage collection (Day 33)
Picking up garbage is the best thing for a hangover.
No wait, it's not.
Carl and I headed to the field in the morning slightly later than we said we would, though it didn't really matter because we were the only ones there. I'd gotten the keys from Whitey the night before so we didn't have to make someone else let us in. When we did manage to make it there, we were both feeling pretty lazy. I think we sat around on the couch in the locker room for a good amount of time before we did anything. Whitey had called just as we arrived and said he was going to stop by though, so it gave us a little bit of an excuse to sit there while we waited for him.
I'm not really sure what the point of him coming was. He asked if we needed anything but we didn't, except maybe to feel better than we did, but Whitey couldn't help with that. So we sat around some more, chatting, but probably not about much since we'd all been together just a few hours before. Whitey didn't stay that long though and when he left, Carl and I figured that we should actually try and get some work done.
We put in a team effort, going to the same sections of seats and picking up the trash together. It wasn't the most efficient plan we've ever had, considering we were going different directions and missing parts at first. But we got the first area done and decided to take five. There were a few breaks inbetween the working. The job probably could have been done much faster had we been motivated or had some sort of time limit.
During the breaks we headed into the locker room and played ping pong or cards. There aren't that many card games that we knew that worked for only two people, but after we played War a few times, Carl taught me a new one. It's called Spit and it is definitely a solid two-man game. It's name is not reflective of anything that goes on during the game, just in case you're wondering. At first Carl was trying to be nice about his effort in the game but eventually I got better, maybe even good, and he wasn't happy about it. That game ended before there was an official winner.
We played some more ping pong after we were finished garbage-collecting, because Whitey was coming back to pick us up. It had started pouring rain as soon as we got the last bags in the dumpster, so we headed to the locker room one last time for the day. Ping pong didn't go well becuase Carl was trying to get me to play an official game and I refused because I'm just not that good yet. And I'm a worse loser than he is so there's no need for us to get into that. Eventually Whitey came and saved us from ourselves.
I took a ride home and by that time I was pretty hungry. The fact that Erin was cooking when I got home didn't do anything to help my hunger. She told me she was making a fritatta, but I wasn't sure if she shared that information because she was going to share the food with me or not, so I had a banana and put some bread in the toaster. After I'd finished eating that, she cut me a slice of the now-finished fritatta. Lucky for me, peanut butter on toast and a banana aren't incredibly filling and I had two slices of the eggy wonder that she had put together.
Erin also mentioned that after making and eating the fritatta, she was going to make crackles. I obviously asked what crackles are and she said they're basically just chocolate and Rice Bubbles. So I then of course asked what Rice Bubbles are. Seriously, it's a whole other language over here. And I learned that Rice Bubbles are the Australian version of Rice Krispies. And by version, I mean they are exactly the same thing but they have a different, confusing name.
When Erin set to work on that I definitely fell asleep for the majority of the afternoon. The hangover and garbage pickup had tuckered me out. I didn't feel much better when I woke up hours later though, which is what I was hoping would happen. So I mostly stayed in bed answering emails, creeping Facebook and wishing I hadn't lent The Sandlot to Carl so I could have been watching it.
At one point I thought I would try to be useful by doing my laundry. I must have messed something up though because when the washer stopped my clothes were still soapy. I had to run it again. Obviously me trying to make myself useful wasn't extremely efficient. So I definitely went back to laying around in bed and trying to sleep after that.
The next time I got up I downloaded one of the players' walkup songs because I think it's great. It's My Life Be Like (Ooh Aah) by Grits, and it's Josh Roberts' walkup music. It's perfect for its purpose. So I added that one to the iPod. Before I know it, I'll have more walkup songs on my iPod than anything else. But really, who needs anything else?
I got a little bit of writing done and received answers to a set of interview questions I'd sent out previously to Ryan Searle. He's a Cubs prospect and after the season this North American summer, the Cubs shut him down, so he hasn't pitched for the Bandits as of yet. But I didn't know that until after I asked him a couple times if I could just interview him at practice. Now I know that didn't make any sense since he wasn't practicing with the team. Oops. He'll be around at this week's practice though (after he's already answered my questions) and he will start pitching for Brisbane next weekend against Adelaide I think.
My night ended with a very long Carl phone call. I think I had called to ask him something earlier but he didn't pick up. He called me back when he was walking home on a very long journey from somewhere and pretty much wanted me to talk him through his walk. He kept asking me to tell him stories, and so that's what I did.
If you've never met me, you should know that I could probably talk all day every day and never run out of things to say. It might be evident by the amount of words I can write about one single day here, each and every day, but just in case you didn't catch that, I'm a talker.
I am also a very curious person, so I constantly have millions of questions about everything. It helps with the whole journalism thing. I hope.
No wait, it's not.
Carl and I headed to the field in the morning slightly later than we said we would, though it didn't really matter because we were the only ones there. I'd gotten the keys from Whitey the night before so we didn't have to make someone else let us in. When we did manage to make it there, we were both feeling pretty lazy. I think we sat around on the couch in the locker room for a good amount of time before we did anything. Whitey had called just as we arrived and said he was going to stop by though, so it gave us a little bit of an excuse to sit there while we waited for him.
I'm not really sure what the point of him coming was. He asked if we needed anything but we didn't, except maybe to feel better than we did, but Whitey couldn't help with that. So we sat around some more, chatting, but probably not about much since we'd all been together just a few hours before. Whitey didn't stay that long though and when he left, Carl and I figured that we should actually try and get some work done.
We put in a team effort, going to the same sections of seats and picking up the trash together. It wasn't the most efficient plan we've ever had, considering we were going different directions and missing parts at first. But we got the first area done and decided to take five. There were a few breaks inbetween the working. The job probably could have been done much faster had we been motivated or had some sort of time limit.
During the breaks we headed into the locker room and played ping pong or cards. There aren't that many card games that we knew that worked for only two people, but after we played War a few times, Carl taught me a new one. It's called Spit and it is definitely a solid two-man game. It's name is not reflective of anything that goes on during the game, just in case you're wondering. At first Carl was trying to be nice about his effort in the game but eventually I got better, maybe even good, and he wasn't happy about it. That game ended before there was an official winner.
We played some more ping pong after we were finished garbage-collecting, because Whitey was coming back to pick us up. It had started pouring rain as soon as we got the last bags in the dumpster, so we headed to the locker room one last time for the day. Ping pong didn't go well becuase Carl was trying to get me to play an official game and I refused because I'm just not that good yet. And I'm a worse loser than he is so there's no need for us to get into that. Eventually Whitey came and saved us from ourselves.
I took a ride home and by that time I was pretty hungry. The fact that Erin was cooking when I got home didn't do anything to help my hunger. She told me she was making a fritatta, but I wasn't sure if she shared that information because she was going to share the food with me or not, so I had a banana and put some bread in the toaster. After I'd finished eating that, she cut me a slice of the now-finished fritatta. Lucky for me, peanut butter on toast and a banana aren't incredibly filling and I had two slices of the eggy wonder that she had put together.
Erin also mentioned that after making and eating the fritatta, she was going to make crackles. I obviously asked what crackles are and she said they're basically just chocolate and Rice Bubbles. So I then of course asked what Rice Bubbles are. Seriously, it's a whole other language over here. And I learned that Rice Bubbles are the Australian version of Rice Krispies. And by version, I mean they are exactly the same thing but they have a different, confusing name.
When Erin set to work on that I definitely fell asleep for the majority of the afternoon. The hangover and garbage pickup had tuckered me out. I didn't feel much better when I woke up hours later though, which is what I was hoping would happen. So I mostly stayed in bed answering emails, creeping Facebook and wishing I hadn't lent The Sandlot to Carl so I could have been watching it.
At one point I thought I would try to be useful by doing my laundry. I must have messed something up though because when the washer stopped my clothes were still soapy. I had to run it again. Obviously me trying to make myself useful wasn't extremely efficient. So I definitely went back to laying around in bed and trying to sleep after that.
The next time I got up I downloaded one of the players' walkup songs because I think it's great. It's My Life Be Like (Ooh Aah) by Grits, and it's Josh Roberts' walkup music. It's perfect for its purpose. So I added that one to the iPod. Before I know it, I'll have more walkup songs on my iPod than anything else. But really, who needs anything else?
I got a little bit of writing done and received answers to a set of interview questions I'd sent out previously to Ryan Searle. He's a Cubs prospect and after the season this North American summer, the Cubs shut him down, so he hasn't pitched for the Bandits as of yet. But I didn't know that until after I asked him a couple times if I could just interview him at practice. Now I know that didn't make any sense since he wasn't practicing with the team. Oops. He'll be around at this week's practice though (after he's already answered my questions) and he will start pitching for Brisbane next weekend against Adelaide I think.
My night ended with a very long Carl phone call. I think I had called to ask him something earlier but he didn't pick up. He called me back when he was walking home on a very long journey from somewhere and pretty much wanted me to talk him through his walk. He kept asking me to tell him stories, and so that's what I did.
If you've never met me, you should know that I could probably talk all day every day and never run out of things to say. It might be evident by the amount of words I can write about one single day here, each and every day, but just in case you didn't catch that, I'm a talker.
I am also a very curious person, so I constantly have millions of questions about everything. It helps with the whole journalism thing. I hope.
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