aside from the beer, chocolate, beautiful women, historic city, friendly organization, euros, and delicacy - there is one thing that is far and above my favorite about being here: my personal "to-do list." i wake up in the morning and the only responsibility i have, the only thing i am expected to do, or want to do all day is something baseball related (workout, lifting, throwing, running, hitting). this is what i mean when i say i've been dreaming of this my whole life, simply not having school work, a job, class, other American lifestyle obligations that would interfere or take time away from baseball. it's pretty amazing - like yesterday, for example, i woke up around noon, ate breakfast, went over to the field with dennis around 2 and threw and hit for about 4 hours. i didn't have to worry about going anywhere or doing anything else...just, when we got too tired to hit anymore, we stopped. after, mark de wolf, not the coach, but the team president, made some dinner and i was welcome to join him and his family. erwin, the general manager, took me grocery shopping, and then dennis and i hit up the gym for about 2 hours, until 11 PM when they closed the place down.
sunday we had our second spring training game against the antwerp eagles and it was finally beautiful out - about 55 and sunny. at the DH spot i went 1-4, but reached base 3 times and scored once. i hit the ball pretty solid every time up and was good enough at bat for the manager to pencil me at DH for our next spring training game this saturday in holland.
that evening i went with dave to the train station and then we walked around downtown antwerp, afterwards i went out to a jazz club for a few beers with sofie, a girl on the softball club for the pioneers organization, who lives downtown in the city.
saturday night after the game in which i pitched we had a fundraiser at the clubhouse, called the playback revue. a bunch of people rehearse acts and lip synch to funny songs or famous songs and they dress up and do skits, similar things that i've seen before, but the place was packed over a hundred people, and patsy the club treasurer, who was the MC of the evening was talking before the show (of course in flemish) and all the sudden i hear my name and ''American pitcher'' in the same sentence - that i could decipher meant they were talking about me. i was pushed towards the stage and got up and was handed the microphone and even though nobody understood me i tried to do a little comedy (i don't think they expected me to actually go up there in front of all those people)... of course people thought i was the funny american who couldnt understand the language so guys were buying me the belgian beer on tap in the clubhouse all night and then giving me lines in flemish to go say to the women that of course i didn't understand and of course were not very appropriate. i had a blast though - everyone involved in the organization was there and people from all over town, it has a real community feel and everyone just had a blast drinking, conversating, and then dancing after the show.
david left for italy this morning but one of these days i'll get him to send me some pictures from that evening and maybe if i figure out how to add things to this blog page - i'll post some pictures. but the key is actually getting david to send me pictures, like my sister, he has pictures still from my birthday on feb. 4th that he's yet to send. not that hard folks, plug the camera in - upload pictures, open up gmail, click attach, then click send. maybe because the only thing i have to do all day is play baseball i can find the time for these mundane tasks that take up to 5 minutes of your time....i guess.
sunday we had our second spring training game against the antwerp eagles and it was finally beautiful out - about 55 and sunny. at the DH spot i went 1-4, but reached base 3 times and scored once. i hit the ball pretty solid every time up and was good enough at bat for the manager to pencil me at DH for our next spring training game this saturday in holland.
that evening i went with dave to the train station and then we walked around downtown antwerp, afterwards i went out to a jazz club for a few beers with sofie, a girl on the softball club for the pioneers organization, who lives downtown in the city.
saturday night after the game in which i pitched we had a fundraiser at the clubhouse, called the playback revue. a bunch of people rehearse acts and lip synch to funny songs or famous songs and they dress up and do skits, similar things that i've seen before, but the place was packed over a hundred people, and patsy the club treasurer, who was the MC of the evening was talking before the show (of course in flemish) and all the sudden i hear my name and ''American pitcher'' in the same sentence - that i could decipher meant they were talking about me. i was pushed towards the stage and got up and was handed the microphone and even though nobody understood me i tried to do a little comedy (i don't think they expected me to actually go up there in front of all those people)... of course people thought i was the funny american who couldnt understand the language so guys were buying me the belgian beer on tap in the clubhouse all night and then giving me lines in flemish to go say to the women that of course i didn't understand and of course were not very appropriate. i had a blast though - everyone involved in the organization was there and people from all over town, it has a real community feel and everyone just had a blast drinking, conversating, and then dancing after the show.
david left for italy this morning but one of these days i'll get him to send me some pictures from that evening and maybe if i figure out how to add things to this blog page - i'll post some pictures. but the key is actually getting david to send me pictures, like my sister, he has pictures still from my birthday on feb. 4th that he's yet to send. not that hard folks, plug the camera in - upload pictures, open up gmail, click attach, then click send. maybe because the only thing i have to do all day is play baseball i can find the time for these mundane tasks that take up to 5 minutes of your time....i guess.
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