This was an interesting week. When I look back a few weeks, or months, or years from now... I'm going to ask myself one question. How and why the heck did I do all this?
It started last Saturday April 16, as I wrote about a few days ago. After the double-header, I came back home and packed for Budapest and attempted to finish a constitutional law paper that was due Monday at 3pm (European time)... The only problem; I hadn't written a word, it was 8pm, I was waking up at 5 am, my flight was at 645 am and I was coaching from 11-7 in Hungary. I packed a backpack, to store my laptop with some papers (to study crim law) and some toiletrees (how do you even spell this word?), and then a mini-bag with a pair of shoes, a few pieces of clothes to work out in and maybe even go out in, who knows it's Budapest after all, honestly one of the best cities I've been to in Europe. Of course, I'm only one week off the plane from the States, so the jet lagging is still not entirely kicked, making it almost impossible to get to sleep by 12 to try to get the 5 hours I was hoping for. I was maybe also, admittedly, nervous? anxious? I had never coached a national team before... I had no idea what I was getting into, I had this paper due that was barely started, and I was maybe going to see my girl, who I hadn't seen since she visited Detroit in October. After a brief stop in Frankfurt, another flight got me to Budapest by 1030, and was whisked by Andras, the guy who basically runs the Hungarian national team program, to Szendentre Hungary for the national team training.
I didn't know what to expect, and maybe that's a good thing. I arrived just as the team finished warming up. It was a mixture of really young and older guys, and the field was much nicer than the one I had visited the previous summer a few minutes outside of Budapest. There was actually a fence and dirt spread about the base-paths, the field looked symmetrical and it had a bit of a mound as well. I worked with the pitchers all day, a few older than me and some younger... they were all pretty attentive and really tried to incorporate what I said. With the older guys, the aces of the national team staff, we worked on holding runners, means to eliminate another team's running game, and pick-offs. Some of the things I talked about they had never even imagined could be possible, I really felt like I was in the movie Comrades of Summer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103997/ With the younger guys I actually needed a translator at all times. You start talking about baseball and then you realize you just talked for about 1 minute straight and there is no way the translator can keep up with that, so I really had to learn to give instruction and talk about pitching at 15 second intervals. We practiced until 630 or so, and it was a long day with 2 hours of sleep, the 2 flights, compounded by this brand new, and surreal experience.
By the time I arrived back at my hotel around midnight I knew there was no way I would begin to get this paper done. Set my alarm for 8, last minute Prinstein back at work. Luckily, I didn't need my alarm as I was awoken by a screaming man next door, who was literally screaming in Japanese for 30 minutes straight. Not a great start to the morning, and I hammered out this con law paper in just under 4 hours. Let me say, not my finest work, but I have to imagine it was the first time someone probably wrote a law school paper at University of Detroit Mercy School of Law from Budapest Hungary. I went for some coffee at Costa in Nyugati Square - http://gowalla.com/spots/903523 and then went to Obuda (a suburb of of Budapest where I was at last year for one baseball training) to help out with their cadet team (under 15 years old). There was only 7 of them at this practice, and we worked on groundballs and throwing mechanics (see photos above)... pretty basic stuff, but you forget this is Hungary, you can't take the basic for granted. However, there was an unbelievable talented kid that I don't even think the Hungarians realized how good he was. 14 years old and had the arm of an 18 year old. Athletic and baseball savvy, he would have been on an under-16 national team in any European country. It's awesome to see a talent like this in a country like Hungary because it goes to show you that you can find good baseball players, naturals, literally anywhere in this world. You just have to look. That evening I went to a cafe called Jubilee's for my one Hungarian friend (outside of baseball) birthday party. All of her friends showed up with cakes and delicacies... brought them to the cafe. That was strange I thought, but I try not to think too hard when I'm in foreign cultures... I just do (and go) to Morrison's 2, a club a few blocks away until 330am.
Tuesday was pretty much devoted to getting my visa sorted out and Wednesday morning I was up early going to a big park to teach baseball to a bunch of school kids who had never played the game, let alone see a baseball game before. This was an interesting experience, something I became accustomed to while playing in Holland for 3 years, and going around to schools to introduce them to baseball as part of a community outreach initiative. In Holland many of the kids at least heard of baseball (or honkbal as they call it) and maybe even knew the basic premise, but in Hungary the majority of the kids you had to show how to properly throw a ball, how to hold a bat, how to stand, how to wear a glove (actually we first had to tell them what a glove and bat even were). It was a successful morning, and after 3 hours, they were ready to try a game. I pitched to them, and they had a blast. In fact, when it was time to end the session at 12:30 they begged their teachers to let them continue to play. It was pure joy. We just threw down some bases in the middle of the park and played a game of baseball, Hungarian style, the concept of base running was the hardest to grasp, as the youngsters didn't really like to stop at the bases even when someone had the ball standing next to them. When you come from a country where baseball is arguably the most popular sport, you take for granted these simple nuanced rules that you are practically born knowing. I probably knew how to run the bases properly before I could walk... so it's funny and refreshing to be able to show 12 year olds the proper rules (with a translator of course). By 130 I was off to Andras' house for a quick Hungarian lunch of goulash (meat and vegetable stew), and then back to the city to for a quick coffee at my favorite cafe I have visited everytime I've been to Budapest since Crabby and I, first arrived in 2008: Castro. Then I had a few hours before my flight, so Andras picked up a guy from a nearby station, drove to an island with some open space, waited for me with the guy as I went on a 20 min conditioning sprint, then left me and this guy who didn't speak any english alone on a makeshift soccer field as I did some long-toss throwing, came back and picked us up and quickly took me to the airport where they didn't want to let me on the plane to Frankfurt with my 1 hand luggage, and backpack (as my laptop storage), everything fit into the little compartment measurer-thingy and I tried to explain I had no issues coming in. They were real jerks about it, and even made me wait until everyone boarded the plane (thus ensuring almost all the overhead bins would be full) and watched me show them that my backpack fit securely and neatly under the seat in front of me - which it did and which I said it did before boarding of course. Ugh. Always something when I travel... In Frankfurt they tried to say the same thing, before I had to show them that I just had come on a flight with these smalls bags from Budapest, so that really wasn't going to work... They didn't give me AS MUCH as a hassle. By the time I arrived in Hamburg around midnight, I realized I had about 36 hours until my criminal law exam. After a long practice on Thursday, and the exam on Friday, we had 2 games on Saturday in the middle of nowhere Germany that did not go very well for me. We played the last place team, and once again were in a slugfest for Game 1, we ended up winning 14-6. It looked like we were going to 10 run them after 7 innings to end the game sooner, so I got ready to pitch Game 2 in about the 6th inning. Of course the other boys scored 3 in the bottom frame so we had to play all 9, which meant that I was getting ready, not getting ready, getting ready and then not getting ready. I pitched a forgettable 5 innings. Filled with some good pitches, some bad pitches, and a lot of pitches that were borderline. Working the inside corner on their all right handed lineup due to the 275 foot right field fence, and the 20mph gusts of wind blowing straight in from left field, I really didn't get any swings and misses or swing attempts in the first place. The umpire called about 30% of my pitches strikes as I was seemingly on a full count with everyone. Their 2 american hitters stacked at the top of their lineup accounted for most of the damage driving in and scoring all 4. I departed the game and we were behind just 4-3 before they got to our bullpen in an 8 run 6th inning. We actually got our asses handed to us 14-4 in 7. After a day off yesterday where nothing was open because of the Easter holiday (technically nothing was open Friday and today, Monday, either) it's back to studying for Crim Law exam part 2, in which I have 48 hours to complete beginning in about an hour. After of which Ill be headed back to Holland (Almere, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Breda, Eindhoven, Den Haag, Enschede) for a week of scouting, baseball training, and catching up with old friends. There is the annual Queens Day celebration and then when I return to Hamburg the following week... another exam (constitutional law). Between studying for law school exams on the planes/trains, before and after games, playing and coaching and scouting... I know I'm very lucky and fortunate to have all these awesome opportunities... but it's not easy.
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