Monday, April 2, 2007

no SUV's?

It's 1 PM here on Monday and I'm on some serious recovery mode from the weekend.
First, a few notes on European living...
*the showers don't have bathtubs in it here (erwin's place, patsy, and the hotel in holland - i will further investigate this phenomenon)
*learning the language will be harder than expected - i'm carrying around a book to write down words and sentences, however, beyond the standard dutch that's in print or you read on the website (www.pioneers.be) there are various dialects, flemish, antwerpen, etc. that are almost unrecognizable to regular dutch speakers in holland. what's even more impressive is that many of the people i meet here are at minimum tri-lingual (enlgish, dutch, flemish) and additionally most are fluent in german or french or both
*jamiroquoi is still pretty big according to some of my teammates as we listened to him on the way to the game at 10 am saturday morning...(something ball players would never do in the states)
*the pace of the european lifestyle and taking time to enjoy leisure activites (will be further discussed below)

Friday: standard lifting and hitting but no throwing because 5 days in a row = day off, found out i was being moved to the sunday game and that would also allow me to lift upper body and then take a nice toss in on saturday to get loose.
alain lambeau (probably the best belgian name i've encountered thus far), our second baseman and stud hitter (one of the most patient hitters i've seen in a long time) had been making arrangements to show me the fun side of antwerp for a few days, so around 21:00 (that's how they tell time here) he picked me up in his auto (what they call cars) that was a stick (have not seen one automatic yet, thus goes my chances of stealing a car for a little ride around the country-side this season) and we went to a bar for some pinjers (juliper on tap - probably the most amazing just regular beer i've ever tasted). what struck me about this bar, as the inside, seemed like any old modern-uppity watering hole that could fit in any urban u.s. downtown area was the atmopshere inside. i had never seen a crowd so mixed of young-hip 20 somethings, 30 year old looking like they were definitely in their 20's (like the crowd i was with) and plenty of 40 and 50 year old parents, just absolutely enjoying themselves. a chill crowd, everyone conversating in their own circles, pretty packed, and a techno, electronica, u.s. top 40, and non-pop obscure u.s. classic fusion is the only way to describe what was played. As previously mentioned, the crowd's age and mix struck me as something that i don't ever see on a friday night at 11 PM in new york, chicago, dc, detroit, etc. and had me thinking more broadly, that i have noticed that the folks in belgium really take their leisure time seriously. the pace here considerably more calm, people seem to make time in their day to eat dinner at home (the fewest amount of restaurants i've ever seen is in hoboken and parts of antwerp), people really seem to make time to just have a friendly conversation with a complete stranger too or a good friend, almost in no-rush to move around (whether it be on to the next person, on to the next club, or on to the next task). As I learned, Alain had planned to go to a few different places to show me but we ended up being at this spot for a few hours, not because it was all that special, but everyone was just conversating with no breaks and there was really no rush.

Saturday: after about 4 hours of sleep i woke up in a rush to pack for our overnight trip to holland, really not all that exciting aside from the 3 teammates that i drove with speaking the entire hour long drive in flemish so i was basically rendered useless, although on a positive note i only saw one mcdonalds off the highway for an entire hour long drive. the spring training tourney that we participated in was with three other teams all from holland's second division, good baseball but they do use aluminum bats and we stuck with our wood obviously, so it made the playing field a little unfair, however, we weren't really there to win the entire tournament, and that's why we used wood, just getting the timing down, live reads in the field, and for our pitchers to get the pitch count up a bit. we made a lot of errors in the first game before our pitcher tommy settled down and threw a gem, however, the damage was pretty much done and the bats didn't come alive until it was too late. in the second game, we won pretty handidly (not sure if that's a word, my english has gone bad in the 3 weeks that i've been here and trying to learn flemish/dutch/or whatever hybrid like antwerpen that is used). Jurgen our lefty specialist tossed a good game against the most annoying american pitcher i think i'll see over here, from claremont mckenna college a D3 school out in california. the lad was a classic annoying american baseball chatter box, who was constantly yelling from the dugout the most obvious and obnoxious standard baseball comments, every pitch, and of course louder than anyone else. i wanted to bean him, badly. back at the very nice hotel, the guys all ate at mcdonalds, which of course i could have any time in the states (but really fun for them i guess...) and i just ate at the hotel before retiring early to bed
Sunday: pitched the 1145 am game against a dutch team...because there was a game before us i poorly mismanaged my warm up time and didn't start a (flat ground) bullpen until already 1 out in the top of the 1st, i rushed through it but managed to get out there and shut the team down fairly easily in the first and second innings. in the third inning, the catcher i work very well with, sammy, was pulled because his arm was pretty sore and i was paired with thomas, a good hitting and very young (17) OF who is our emergency 3rd string catcher. he is going to be quite the ballplayer but we definitely struggled communication-wise and things were definitely lost in translation. i never really got comfortable or into a rythym after the 2nd innning, the third inning, i loaded up the bases before escaping unscratched, and because we were only playing an 80 min ball game, we went into the 4th (maybe it was the 5th) leading 4-0 (although at the time, i have to admit, i was completely, ok not completely (rosenau) but definitely unaware of the score...thomas and i had been struggling because since it had been a while since he caught he didnt really grasp the concept of adding more than one sign when runners on second base could peak in and see, and because it was only a practice game i was going to let it slide, but then the other team started motioning to their teammates what the pitches were (definitely a no-no in a meaningless game in my baseball etiquette book), so i called thomas out to talk things over, so he started doing the first sign in a series of what i thought would be five or six, but he ended up only doing 2 or 3 and making it fairly obvious that it was the first sign when he would put down (1 - for a fastball, then followed by wiggle, and 2 fingers) of course after i throw a fastball the other team would easily figure out that it was the first sign. so i called thomas back out to the mound again and told him to do more signs. before the last inning i told him give me 5 signs and it would be the third one. in retrospect, i should have, at that point, just taken control of my pitches, since i knew what i wanted to throw anyways and i would repeatedlly be shaking him off, until the batter would step out and call time because it was taking too long. i guess i really never devised a system for that, mainly because as a younger ball player i was fortunate enough to have some great catchers call great games and both of us be on the same page like austin poole in high school, and bob schmidt during the summer (who now plays at wayne st university) and at albion, in college, guys like pete grostic or matt cook or matt shook, but i've never fared well with catchers i don't agree with on pitch selection like our back-up at albion or our catcher my senior year of high school or our starter my senior year at GW mainly not because they don't know what they're doing, but as a thinking pitcher and one that relies on my ability to out-smart hitters not necessarily blow fastballs by them, i take an unorthodox approach to my game plan and this made it especially difficult for young thomas and i to be on the same page sunday. he started off the inning by giving me 5 signs, even with no runners on, i got lazy and didnt feel like calling him out there again, but when i walked the first batter on 4 straight pitches (2 of which were definitely strikes but i think the umpire blinked because thomas didnt even move his glove) thomas continued to give a series of 5 signs and then shaking him off from the change-up to the slider to the fastball took forever (usually if he gives a 4 and i shake off you go back to 1, but instead he went to 2, then to 1) so i called him out again and said only give the series when a runner reaches second. i dont recall how but that runner reached second and somewhere in between a botched double play, 2 singles, and a batter that i drilled with a 1 ball and 2 strike slider to load up the bases and gave up a few runs, thomas started giving me 6 signs instead of 5 and sometiems 4 and i kind of got lost on where the number 3 sign was falling... again, i should have at this point just told him what i was throwing, basically take command, but i continued with the step-off, the redo the sign, and the shakes, mentally draining and taking the game for my usual fast pace to a grinding halt. at pitch #85, after making the batter with 2 outs and a 1 run lead look absolutely silly with 2 knee buckling sliders to get ahead, when thomas put down a fastball, i decided, that even though i should probably throw another slider, i was too impatient to shake off and go through the whole ordeal again, so i tried to throw a high fastball by him...big mistake. tired arm, didn't get the ball high enough with 2 strikes and out of the hitting zone, the pitch was stomach high and he belted it beyond our centerfielders reach for the game winning hit. not much to say about that last inning other than i screwed up, i let the game go out of control on my part and i didnt make the proper pitch when it counted. as many pitching gurus will tell you, if you don't believe in the pitch you are about to throw 100%, if there is doubt in your mind, it won't be successful. i'm not that worried about the game, other than the loss, because i probably won't be pitching with thomas behind the dish during the regular season, the mound will certainly not be a gravel pit, and aluminum bats i will see no more...otherwise some good things to learn from the outing. prepare better pre-game with the time frame, take control of my pitches and pitch selection, don't let the umpiring defocus you (always the hardest thing to do for pitchers), and choose a pitch and stick with it and sometimes the obvious pitch will work the best (don't try to get to fancy).
the second game i played a non-action right field, no balls hit to me, batted lead off in which i opened the game by walking and scoring, and we cruised to an easy victory, i also hit the ball not hard in two ground outs to third base, finding myself lunging a lot and being out in front of these pitchers a lot this spring. (so the past few days i've been really working in the cage with dennis on staying back and also thinking opposite field and just letting my hands take over and do the work).
upon my return to the friendly confines of belgium i finally connected with ilse fimmers, who is good friends with my cousin jodie in chicago...(the long story shortened is that ilse and her family moved to highland park for a year (or maybe 2?) and upon the family's return to their native antwerp, they have kept in touch with jodie, who notified her of my arrival and she got in touch with me). erwin dropped me off downtown that evening for her husband phillip's birthday party where we ate hamburgers, drank champagne, and i met and chatted with many interesting people about my upcoming season, baseball in general, and life in belgium. i had a great time and i think a lot of people were interested in checking out some games, with the regular season beginning in less than two weeks - april 14th against the antwerp eagles.

in other exciting news, i can watch the detroit tigers try to repeat as AL Champs this year because erwin ordered mlb.tv package that includes every single major league baseball game in great picture quality, in real time, on the computer (if i didn't need a real excuse to keep me in this summer and not explore the city)...

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