I knew I had a long trip ahead of me but this was nothing like flying to Belgium or traveling through Italy on train. On Monday December 10 I packed up everything in D.C. and drove through rain, sleet, ice, fog, darkness, construction, accidents through the state of Pennsylvania and Ohio (making a brief stop to see a dear friend from Albion - Rachel Fortino in Amherst, Ohio) before arriving in Farmington Hills Michigan at Dayle and Jay's house a mere 11.5 hours on the road at 1 in morning. After only 4 days at home, I began the trek to South Australia by flying to Denver, having a delay (of course!), and changing planes to continue on towards Los Angeles where I spent the Saturday night with my best amigo from college, Jonathan Thompson. After some Roseco's Chicken and Waffles ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe's_House_of_Chicken_'n_Waffles ) I was ready to leave the States for 3 months...
First up: the flight to Hong Kong (19 hours, crossing the international date line, all sunshine all the time - which meant 2 hours of sleep in which I thought it was 2 AM E.S.T. when I went to bed and woke up 2 hours later when we landed at 7 PM in Hong Kong and proceeded to eat dinner) after a 6 hour layover - in which I almost didn't make it out of H.K. (apparently I had to purchase a visa from the airport because i was misinformed on the paper work needed to get through to Australia...so after almost being stranded in China (i've seen movies about this and it can't be good) they somehow let me board with about a minute to spare, last person of course.
Next up: the flight to Adelaide (12 hours, red eye - total darkness, 2-3 hours of sleep on and off but it was tough because it was really the middle of the day in my Eastern Standard Time Zone Detroit/D.C. sleeping pattern) and the best part i ordered a special kosher meal but the stewardess brought the breakfast at midnight (eggs and potatoes) and before we landed at 10 am she brought the dinner (chicken) - Standard.
The summation: overr 40+ hours of flying time, 20+ hours at 5 airports, 4 days of traveling. 80 million time zones, 40 million miles, you get the point.
And the best part?
How about stepping off the plane in Australia and 4 hours later having to go to my first baseball game (hadn't ran, worked-out, hit, thrown, nada for 5 days) ... and with my eyes half-shut just trying to stay awake during the game - trailing 2-0, in the 4th inning of a 7 inning game, I was startled when the coach told me to grab a glove and head into the field at 3B (a position I hadn't played in a game since the summer after Freshman year of college). The reason behind this absurdity, was the very reason I had to rush over to Australia in the first place - if I didn't appear in a game by Tuesday December 18 (that day) I wouldn't be eligible for the playoffs in March. The key word being APPEAR. Little did I know, that as I was dozing off on the bench, I was actually going to have to play the field or have an at-bat instead of the pre-discussed appearance simply as a pinch runner. In the top of the 4th with former Philadelphia Phillies farmhand and 1999 Holland Pitcher of the Year, Taj Merrill on the mound, I was at 3rd Base and with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd base, a slow ground ball was hit to my left - methodically I moved over to coral it but a few odd hops made me rethink just scooping it up and going to 1st base, instead I smothered it to make sure it didn't get past and as the runner from 2nd base glided past me and began to round 3rd base and head for home with 2 outs, I gave a full pump fake throw to first then wheeled around and saw the runner on 3rd dead in his tracks too far off the bag to get back. As fans of Sandlot will recall - "Pickle" is what ensued and as we chased him down for the 3rd out I felt lucky that in my semi-conscience state I hadn't done anything not to put the team in a worst position. However, after the short run-down I was definitely out of breath and that meant heading up to the plate to lead-off the inning while still sucking wind. As I watched 2 pitches sail by high for 2 balls and no strikes. I had a perfect 2-0 count to sit dead-red fastball and while delusions of grandeur began to conjure in my head I let my hands (and pretty much everything else) fly at the ball, way out in front - timing totally off - and one handed off the cap of the bat a bloop single into right field. At this point, just getting to first base without passing out was also an accomplishment then on the next pitch a bunt was laid down, right back to the pitcher, and as I peaked in at the play while dashing for second I noticed I was going to have to actually hustle in there. As the throw came in, I barrelled into the SS hoping to take him out of what could have been a devastating double play, instead, the throw pulled him off the bag and everyone was safe with no out. So now I'm starting to feel good about myself in my delusional state of "where am i" and as I wondered aimlessly off 2nd base, by the time I heard "BACK!" like the response time of a dinosaur, what I heard didn't seem to register with the rest of my body. I was a little too far off the bag and just a tad (ok, heaps - as the aussie's say) late getting back and so after starting the year so high - i ended picked off, a serious no-no in baseball, and not a very good impression in a tight-knit ball game. Luckily, my inspired play may have motivated the troops (that or I pulled myself out preventing any further damage) we rallied back in the last 2 innings and pulled of a 7-2 win.
I don't remember much else from the next 24 hours - trying to get adjusted to the 16.5 hour time difference and next day... but I'm in the Land Down Under playing baseball, enough said.
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