What a difference a day makes

Bali Blog update... full day 1, day 2-5 Notes... more to come at some point. Merry Christmas to everyone! Much Love,

Ethan

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday, Rachel and I were frantically packing to get ready for our trip, I was playing in my last game of the first half of the season in Australia (9-1, get some) and were in an English speaking country.

Today, we woke up as the plane touched down in Bali, the first stop on our SE Asia odyssey. Before getting here, I was told that this place was something special, and it has certainly lived up to those expectations and then some.

Our first thrill was the cab ride from Denpasar airport to Ubud, at 5 am. Traffic was already making for some close calls as we drove away from the coast and towards our first stop. No sidewalks and a disregard for any sort of lanes means that men, women, and infants are walking, biking, crawling, driving, or scootering (sometimes with up to 5 people on a scooter) in the street, narrowly avoiding each other. Amidst all this chaos, everyone is calm. Business as usual in Bali. A natural calm is in the air and this place seems special.

For brekky, we dine at Green Field, our hotel for the next two nights. For only $28/night, we have a room with a/c looking out onto rice fields, a beautiful swimming pool, a porch, and it includes free breakfast which you can take at your room or at the restaurant. I dive into some noodles, loving every bite. Pretty exhausted from the late flight, Rach and I decide to take a cat nap before we start the day. After waking up, we spend no time monkeying around and head for the Sacred Monkey Forest, located a short stroll from our hotel. The forest and temples within are the home to some several hundred macaws (spelled horribly wrong). They are certainly not scared of humans and go about their business. You can feed them bananas, but one of the first monkeys that we saw was chillin’ out on a tree eating an ice cream cone. Somewhere close by, I’m sure there was a small child crying, scarred for life by the monkey would stole his ice cream. What monkey wants, monkey gets… which I found out the hard way a little later.

After strolling through the forest, admiring age old temples and the surroundings, witnessing monkeys grooming each others testicles and babies jumping around like a tether ball as their mothers held their tails, we had our first up close and personal encounter. We came across a couple that had monkeys crawling all over them. We walked up to snap a picture and see what was going on. Before I knew it, the guy asked me if I wanted to have one on me and without a chance to answer, I had a monkey on my back. I didn’t really know what to do, but it was a pretty cool experience. Rachel had a go, but the monkeys liked her too much and started to get a little frisky.

After putting the monkeys down, I took out the hand sanitizer so that we could try to get rid of the plague that was probably now all over us. Bad idea. One of the more aggressive monkeys shot up my leg, onto my back, biting my hand and shoulder in an attempt to steal the hand sanitizer. I didn’t know what it was after, and when I realized it I quickly relinquished the bottle. I was free from the attacking monkey, but our hand sanitizer was definitely not out of the clear. As the monkey chewed up the bottle, we got one of the workers. “Don’t worry, monkey knows what to eat and what not to eat,” he said. He threw a sling shot at the monkey, who released the bottle and ran away yelling. We got the hell out of the forest, delighted with the monkey business that we had encountered, but scared of another attack.

After the forest, we walked around Ubud, checking out the main drag and downtown market. A few hours into our touring, we decided it was time for a bit of luxury. We stopped into one of the many spas, signing up for hour-long full body massages. Does life get any better? Yes. The massage and post massage shower cost the equivalent of $5. I think I have found my paradise. I think I can hear all my friends who I constantly pester for massages taking a collective sigh of relief. With the massage over, it was now time to eat. We found a small hole in the wall join on a side street and ate some delicious food. I had a chicken dish that tasted like it had a sweet caramel in the sauce, and Rachel enjoyed a tuna curry.

Next was our first attempt at bartering at a market stand. Fail. Turns out that being a hard ass is a little bit harder than it seems. Overwhelmed and a bit confused by how it worked, Rachel made some old woman’s day with an overpriced purchase of two sarongs. No worries. Since then we have gotten a better feel for how the haggling goes down. I guess the Oregon Trail computer game fomr elementary school didn’t prepare me for an Indonesian Market.

The night wrapped up with a delicious dinner at a chill restaurant. A few notables from our first day… there are offerings everywhere here. Little bamboo baskets with flowers, rice and other goodies being offered to presumably some God or ancestors. Even the motorcycles and cars have them on the front or the hood. The people in Ubud are extremely friendly. Although there are a fair share of tourists around, it is certainly not swarming with tourists and aside from someone on every corner asking if we need a taxi, really doesn’t feel touristy at all. A good start to the trip. Day 1 in the books.

More on the rest of the days…. Here are some notes:
Day 2: Bali Belly 

Today we signed up for a Cultural Biking tour of some of Ubud’s surrounding villages, breakfast, coffee, rice fields, temples, traditional home and caste system, biking in rain, villages with everyone busy, arrange to travel to padang padang or elsewhere and share cab with dutchies
Met Dutch travelling buddies, ate at dewa warung, met William and friends, local joint, got food poisoning, tough night

Day 3: Got well enough to make car ride to Chocky’s or Nyo Man, get to bingin beach parking lot, dirt lot, labrynth to get there on little muddy alleys, get there, right on beach but not suitable for dutchies… booked up at leggies, walked to dreamland beach, more of a disaster, nice walk along ridge to get back, saw python, hung out at leggies, played yahtzee, listened to music, planned to go surfing the next day. Massage ladies

Day 4: Got up, went surfing with ketut, caught some waves… ate lunch, tried to plan where to go, ended up taking a cab to leggian, more insane scooter action, got to leegian, kuta by night, legian by night….

Day 5: Legian by day, bus ride to padang bai met interesting characters on bus, walked to blue lagoon, and hotel,

It Begins...

Tonight's Jay-Z and U2 concert definitely lived up to the hype. My ears are still ringing like crazy, but at this moment that is a good thing. In my time away from rap (Europe and Australia), I had seemed to forget how unreal Jay-Z is. He was awesome, setting the stage for a great night of music. U2 put on an incredible show, playing for two hours and I left a happy happy man.

I have worked every day this week and between preparing to leave on this trip, moving out of the Broadway apartment and the holidays, there has been little time for anything... sleep included. I just wanted to leave a little skeleton of what the next 3 weeks look like, in case (in all likelihood this will be the case)I don't get to update my blog on the regular. Here is the trip in a nutshell... the finer details will be made up as we go along... should be crazy and fun.

Dec 20, 1 am: Fly from Perth to Bali
Dec 20-22 stay in Ubud, in the mountains of Bali
Dec 22-26 Make our way towards Kuta and the main tourist center of Bali
Dec 26 Leave Bali
Dec 27-29 Chiang Mai
Dec 29-30 Bangkok
Dec 31-Jan 8 Ko Phi Phi, Koh Lanta, Koh Lipe, Koh Adang (Southwest Thai Islands)
Jan 9-Jan 12 Malaysia travel
Jan 12 Fly back to Perth (me), Rachel back to Bangkok to meet wit people and move our north of Bangkok.

I'll try to give regular short updates but I am not planning on being on the computer very long on this trip. Before the trip, first things first... Bears return to the Bear Cage to finish up the first half of the season on a high note against UWA... Go Bears Go!

Bears Win, Move to 8-1

Yesterday we moved to 8-1 on the season in a nail-bitter turned blowout. It was 2-2 going into the 8th, and despite having multiple runners on base almost every inning we were missing that big hit. After 7 innings of working through jams and throwing a lot of pitches, Curtin’s import inevitably couldn’t hold us down as we KO’d him pushing across somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 runs. After a short bottom half of the 8th, we tacked on another 5, batting around for the 2nd consecutive inning. I was on the hill and pitched well. I controlled the zone, striking out 9 and walking 1 in the complete game effort. My only blemishes coming to the same batter, who hit a solo homer and then a 2 run job with the game well out of reach in the 9th. The solo shot was hit well, but the second one was nothing more than a fly ball that our CF would have caught had he not tripped over the 3 foot high home run fence (that is legitimately how high the portable fence was). All in all, a good start and another good win for the bears.

In other news, I have been working a lot and started a second job today. I started working at the Uni Sports Camp for Kids, teaching and facilitating sports for a group of 5-12 year-old day camp goers. The job seems like it should be a lot of fun, but definitely will test my patience, as I already wanted to kill a few of the campers by the end of the day.

I also got in a small fight with the bread slicer at the bakery the other day, cutting a few nice bread slices into my thumb and adjoining nail. That was a hellish day at work, having been woken up at five fifty something by the owner of the bakery asking why I wasn’t there opening the shop. It would have been nice if they had told me they switched my shift from a 9-1 to a 6-2, as I am not that great of a mind reader. I got ready in a hurry and got down there, but wasn’t very happy as a mix up, as I take pride in being on time and have slight panic attacks when I am not. Okay, lets be honest… nothing puts me in a worse mood than something making me late… I go sour pretty quickly. When I get blamed for being late when it’s not my fault and it wakes me up at 6 am… not a great start to the day.

I rebounded nicely, spending the afternoon doing some shopping with Rachel at the Freemantle Markets before heading to the Free residence for a BBQ and some good, old fashioned weekend shenanigans. The night reminded me a little bit of a few nights I had in Davis with the boys back in the day. Got to love it.

This week promises to bring more craziness, culminating in a U2/Jay-Z concert on Saturday, a ball game on Sunday at home, and the beginning of the holiday break and Rachel and my 3 week trip to Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Perhaps the biggest news of all, however, is that Rachel will be staying in Thailand for 3 months after I return to Perth to volunteer in an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS. While I am very sad that she will be apart for 3 months, we are both very excited that she will get this opportunity, as she has been unsuccessful in finding volunteer work around Perth. It will be a challenge for her and no doubt a rewarding experience for her and those she works with. Let’s just say my last 3 months in Perth will be much different than the first 3.

I’m out for now, thanks for reading. Miss you all… Cheers, E.

Photo Update

Girl in background is wearing American flag shorts, and a belly shirt that reads "Indiana"... Rachel's face just about sums up the Perth fashion scene, with the Jack Johnson concert amplifying that by about 10



Insert sexual innuendo here................ . Rach enjoying a brat at the JJ concert.




The man, the myth, the legend, the environmental savior... Jack Johnson.



Rach and I at Kings park, Perth central Business district and Swan River in the background...



A four shot sequence of how to steal third base and then call yourself safe...

Liftoff

Saturday started what promised to be an epic 6 weeks. It is easy to throw the word epic around and take away from the value of using such a word, but I genuinely mean this... the next 6 weeks have epic potential. I will throw out a few happenings just so we are on the same page from the start. Jack Johnson conert, U2/Jay-Z concert, baseball games, Christmas in Bali, New Years in Thailand, first week and a half of 2011... more Thailand and a bit of Malaysia, finish with a touch of Singapore before returning to my second girlfriend, baseball. Sound delicious? We are off to a good start...

After a solid days work at the bakery, I went to the field to hit and throw before swinging back to the house to pick up Rach en route to the Jack Johnson concert. We got there early and were rewarded by some good opening acts. Then JJ hit the stage and absolutely rocked it. Pretty much 2 hours and 20 minutes of musical heaven as the chill beats made their way through my ears and into my soul. The bloke was awesome, played for forever, donates all his tour proceeds to charity, and with his band puts on a killer show. Oh, did I mention that from where we were standing (about 10 rows deep), I could throw a baseball at him and 1. actually hit him and 2. it would still be traveling fast enough to cause him pain. I say this not because it is something I would want to do, rather to illustrate without just coming right out and saying that we were about 60 feet away. Would pay to go see his show again in a heartbeat. Epic start to the 6 weeks... check.

Day 2 of the 6 week plan was not so shabby either. After sleeping in a bit, it was game time at the Bear Cage against Kelmscott. A little refresher... they were the first team I played when I got out here, we beat them 35-3. This time around, the result was slightly more competitive, as we won 25-0. The game featured some exciting moments. Drumroooooooooll..... and you may not believe this.... continue drumroll, but I hit my first home run in probably 6 years. I know, I can't believe I hadn't hit one in that long either but the oppo poppo was in order and I sent a 3-1 solo shot over the right center fence.
The more "sexy" play of the game was a near webgem. A ground ball to my backhand side up the middle, that I glove flipped to Lee who came across and gunned it to first. The guy was safe by a step, but I will guarantee that by the end of the year this play gets completed for an out. In fact, I won't leave Oz until it does.
For some reason, the peanut gallery that is the PL2s and 3s decided that it was my first ever home run... come on guys, does my swing struggle that bad? Being my first home run ever, after fines session, I was treated to a continuous flow of Doug-o's... the worst drink ever if you are having more than one. After about 6, my gut was rotting, things were getting out of control, and it was time to head home. After a pit stop at the Stephenson house around the corner, it was back home for a dinner of pickled onions straight out of the jar. Yum. Day 2... success.

Day 3 brought more 'nanigans... for the second week in a row, Rach and I headed to the Free residence in Ballajura for some good eats. And man was it goooood eats. Great food, great company, and the beginning of a weekly dinner ritual? I can only hope so. Another awesome day in the books with good food and company. I also rescued, for the second time, about 10 sandos and 30 lbs of bread from the rubbish bin... Doing my part to spread the love... handles.

I hope day 4 continues the streak... with a day off work, things are looking up, down under.

Until next time, Cheers Mate!

Ps More pics and possibly video to come soon

Quick Pics

Game time at Barbagallo for the USA series



Nice illustration of going out to get the potential low strike




Luke Hughes taking a hack



Watch out for them sea snakes... only the 11th deadliest thing in Australia or something like that



Entrance to paradise... still safe from sharks




Chasing Rachel towards paradise... now in danger from sand sharks



Funny license plate on a Toyota, however, still second to DRPTHBEAT plate I saw the other day



Santos and friend practicing Capoeira at sunset, Cottlesloe Beach



Surfer at sunset, Cottlesloe Beach



Kayaker post sunset, Cottlesloe Beach

Bears Dominate, move to 6-1

With a dominating win, one that was never in question, The Bears move back into a tie for first place, with a Carine win over Rockingham this afternoon. The hot bats were back, thumping out 17 runs in 7 innings and Freezer filled the zone on his way to a CG Shutout. Look for more of the same against Kelmscott next week before the competition heats up again into the winter break.

In other happenings, I rescued and found eaters for about 25 sandwiches from the garbage at work yesterday. Working in a restaurant has its perks, but it is also pretty sad how much food gets wasted. Unfortunately, I couldn't possibly eat all the food in the warmer and fridge. Damn.

Sorry for the quick update, more interesting stuff coming soon.

Feeling Lucky

It being Thanksgiving (well, just after Turkey Day), it is only natural to be thinking of things you are thankful for. Even thousands of miles from the Turkey Day celebrations back home, the thought of thankfulness and appreciation did not escape me.

Rachel and I had a low-key but very nice Thanksgiving together. Thanks almost entirely to Rach's persistence and efforts, I arrived from practice to the heavenly smell of diner. As a side note, one of my favorite things in the world is the smells that waft out of homes at dinner time. As a kid I used to love riding my bike home from practice, getting a whiff of what others would be enjoying...but I digress. The end product of Rach's hard work was a bird (chicken... Turkeys are hard to come by around here), stuffing, cranberry sauce, whipped sweet potatoes, grilled veggies, gravy, and of course apple pie, apple and blueberry crumble, and vanilla ice cream. A meal fit for a king. Although the company of friends and family miles away was sorely missed, it was nice to have a celebration, albeit a small one.

I was thankful for the meal to be sure, but my thankfulness runs a lot deeper than that. I consider myself to be the luckiest guy in the world, and I say that in all seriousness. My whole life, I have essentially been able to do what I am passionate about and be surrounded by GREAT people. I have the best family, friend, girlfriend, blog readers, teammates... and the list goes on... that anyone could ask for.

All the places I have been able to go, things I have been able to do, and people I have been able to meet starts with my parents, who did as good a job of raising children as you can do. From there, it has been a trickle down effect of wonderfulness that makes up my life. For fear that I am sounding cheesy and too sappy to be fun to read, I am going to cut this writing short. But before I sign off, I just want to thank you, because if you are reading this right you are someone who has helped to make my life better than I ever could have asked for. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and is doing well. Sending much love to everyone.

Thankfully,

Ethan

Things are Heating up in Perth

Dear Faithful Readers,

It has been a while since a proper update, and for that I am sorry. Things on my end have been a little more hectic with the lack of internet at our apartment and a busier schedule.

1. I can't believe it is almost Thanksgiving. It is 80-100 degrees here on a daily basis and winter holidays are the last thing on my mind.

2. This last week, the Bears went to Rockingham to face our biggest challenge of the year in the Rams. Two teams putting their undefeated records on the line during the last game of the first round. The game lived up to its promise, with the game going down to the last out. Unfortunately, we were on the short end of a 5-4 ballgame. While 5-4 hardly seems like a pitching duel, in a game with two teams averaging more than 15 runs per game (in mainly 7 innings, due to mercy rule), it was ultimately a day for pitchers.

I was on the mound and threw arguably the best I have this year. Looking at my stat line wouldn't give you any indication of this, but in terms of hard hit balls and stuff, I was on my game. In the end, it was my inability to keep the ball in the yard that led to the loss. *** Those stars are the bells going off in your head, letting you know that something is not right. If this were the SAT reasoning section, you would be screwed. If they didn't hit the ball hard, how can one give up 3 (solo) home runs? The answer, my friends, is my new nemesis. His name is metal bat/small field combo. I would go into a spiel about metal bats right now, but am not sure if children are reading this or if the long list of curse words would be found online years from now and cost me a job ( A disease known as Boynonsky-phobia). Basically I feel like none of the home runs would have gone out with either or all of the following... a) a normal size field or b) woods bats. I am not trying to make excuses, it is just frustrating when you feel like you made a good pitch that should have been an our and it ends up being a home run. Regardless, I threw well and feel like 8 times out of 10, we would have won a game of that nature. Unfortunately we didn't, and now its time to start a new win streak. Go Bears, Go!

3. Last Friday, we had Race Night at the Bear Cage in the famous (or infamous after Friday night) Stephenson room. Using a grid to simulate a race track, player nicknames with bios full of low blows as horses, and two big foam dice to represent which horse moves and how many spaces the, everyone in attendance was hoping to spend most of their time sipping champagne in the winners lounge. At the end of the night, winners and losers alike all seemed satisfied. I don't know whether that was the alcohol consumption or the merry spirit of Da Bears, but it didn't matter. Rach and I left up a hundred or so dollars and had a great time.

4. We did not bounce back to go to the real races like some other Bears, no names mentioned, Clint and Timmy Free, Gabbo, and Spooner. We did however go check out the Perth Heat V. Adelaide Bite game at Barbagallo ballpark, which was a good game and fun affair.

5. I am still scared of sharks.

6. I have been working a lot.

7. Rach and I just booked tickets for a 3 week trip to Indonesia (Bali), Thailand, and Malaysia through Christmas and the holidays... I pretty much can't wait for that.

8. Probably also gonna pick up some U2 and Jay-Z concert tickets...

9. Is the best number.

10. Happy Turkey Day to everyone.

11. Finished two of my 3 grad school apps today...

12. Running out of time...

13. skipping it like a hotel building

14. Skipping out of here for a Thai dinner

Peace and Love,

Ethan

Team USA Photo

A bunch of studs.

Quickie

Despite a poor showing at the plate by our leadoff man (0-3, 2 bb, rbi, r), The Bears again won in a blowout at The Bear Cage by a score of 14-4 or something of that nature. With the win, we stayed in first place by a half game over Rockingham, who we will play next week in what promises to be our toughest game yet. Rockingham is fresh off putting up 30 against UWA, and surely will be gunning for us.

I am looking forward to personally playing a little better brand of baseball. I feel like I have come no where close to my potential, so I look forward to next weeks challenge. I will be on the mound, looking to keep us in first place.

In other news, Rachel and I are fully moved into our new apartment and settling in nicely. Unfortunately, our internet situation is not ideal and it will be a little tougher to update but I'll try my best.

Hope all is well on the home front!

For the Last time

The link to the article on the last USA v. Heat game... because I love torturing myself and find Hughes' comments interesting... looks like I should have gone with the fastball.

http://web.theabl.com.au/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101109&content_id=16039306&vkey=news_t4068&fext=.jsp&sid=t4068

To me his comments are thought provoking and really get into pitch selection, pitch patterns, good in-game awareness and making adjustments...

Here is a scenario, I am interested in your thought process:

Good hitter comes up. You fall behind in the count. He is ahead of a 2-0 pitch, and hits it hard but foul down the left field line. What do you come back with?

My thought process was this: Throw something slower to try to get him out front.

His was: He is probably going to come back with something soft to try to get me out front... So should you try to come back soft and execute the pitch better, or know he will be looking for that and try to catch them off guard with something harder?

Let me know what you think.

One Bad Pitch...

This weekend, we wrapped up our second series against the Perth Heat. The series, which unfortunately went in the Heat's favor was full of close games. On Thursday, as I already wrote about, we tied. Boo. On Friday night, I spent all game hoping I would get a chance to come in and nail down the W. We jumped out to a 4-0 lead and like all week, had great starting pitching. I watched from the bench as we ran into trouble in the late innings and ended up going down by 1 in the 7th, before tying it up in the 8th, and then losing the lead for good in the bottom of the 8th. We failed to get that big hit to put the game away in the middle innings in a game that I think we all felt like we should have won. I wish I had gotten a chance to come in, but that chance would have to wait until Saturday night.

Saturday nights game, the last game for Team USA, was another nail biter. In front of probably the biggest crowd in the 6 games, we again got great starting pitching. The pitching was strong on both sides and we got through 7 innings with the score tied at zeros. I took the ball in the bottom of the 8th to face the heart of their order. Among the hitters I faced were Evan McArthur, a former player at Cal State Fullerton who plays in the Giants system, Luke Hughes of the Minnesota Twins, and Allan de San Miguel, the AAA Catcher for the Twins.

I was throwing well and making good pitches. I got the first batter to fly out to right on a change up and then struck out McArthur with a curve. Things were feeling good until Luke Hughes stepped into the box. He had had a tough series so far, striking out a lot in the first two games, but was heating up and had laced a few balls earlier in the night. My first mistake to Hughes (http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/H/Luke-Hughes.shtml)was falling behind in the count. I lost my grip on a first pitch curve high and then missed with a second pitch low. What followed, will no doubt be a good story to tell, but one I would rather not be telling. I would have really liked to strike him out, get back in the dugout, score a run, come back out and nail down the W. That didn't happen. Instead, I did something very rare...I gave up two home runs to the guy in one at bat.

I threw a 2-0 curve ball. Not a great pitch, but the location was such that when he teed off on it, it was a foul home run by about 10 feet. He pimped it, never leaving the box. Hr number 1.
Trying to get him out front, I came back with a change-up. This was really my one mistake of the night, and happened to be a really bad mistake to a really bad person to make a mistake to. He teed off on the belt high blunder and deposited it about 10 feet beyond the left field wall. Fair. Hr number 2. I wasn't looking, but some teammates told me he basically stayed in the box admiring it until it landed.I don't really care about that, but am pissed at myself that I let myself get beat with not my best pitch. Mistake 2, or maybe 3... whatever it was. I tried to throw the change too hard, leaving it up over the middle. In retrospect, I should have come back with another curve (he had been swinging over a lot of them throughout the series), or executed the pitch better. I broke de San Miguel's bat inducing a grounder to short, but he reached on a throwing error. I got the next batter to fly out to end the inning, but the damage was done.

At the moment, the fact that he hit a home run in his first Big League AB doesn't make me feel much better, but like I said it will make a good story to tell. Right now I am just disappointed that I gave up the winning run, and cost us a ballgame. On a positive note, it was a lot of fun to be challenged by some good hitters and play in front of a sizable crowd in a good baseball atmosphere. I made one mistake and it made the difference in the ballgame. That is why baseball is the best and hardest sport. The small things make a difference, and when the game is on the line, you can't pass the ball off to a teammate. You can go all game in the field without a ball and then have to make the biggest play or sit on the bench for 7 innings and come in and have to pitch in a tie game. You can't beat that. I wish there were more games so I could face him again but it will have to wait for another time... for now, its just a story to tell.

After the game, I went to a bbq at the Free's place with some of my teammates from the bears. Despite the loss, it ended up being a good night and I look forward to the many bbqs that are still to come.

Sunday, Adam (one of the Stephenson boy's from the bears) and his wife Liza with their two sons and Lee showed us around Perth, where we checked out King's Park, Freemantle, and along the coast. Another good day and a big thanks to them for showing Rachel and I around.

This morning was my first real day of work at Lawley's bakery and cafe, where there are about 3049403 different pastries and 3409823 different breads for me to remember and about 309393 other things to serve. For a first day it went pretty well, especially considering that you could not hear anything because they were re-doing the pavement outside. There was one customer who was a huge you-know-what because 1) she said she wanted a pre-toasted sandwich toasted, so I thought she meant the un-toasted sandwich with the same name and 2) because I had to ask her twice. Basically she can .... aaaah customer service. The best part is that I work the 6-12 shift, meaning there is plenty of beach time left in the afternoons, which is where I am going now... comments, questions, and fan/personal letters are all welcome... miss you all!

E

And the game ends in a... Tie?

I feel like I have seen this scenario before... great baseball game involving USA All-Stars (okay, maybe I shouldn't group the Perth USA team with the actual All-Stars, but hey...), down to the wire, a late comeback... and then... it ends in a tie. What the!?!??

That is pretty much how it went down last night in our game against the Perth Heat. Great game... 0-0 going into the late innings. We appear to have scored the go-ahead run on a great slide by Zack McMillan, but he is called out on what appeared to be a bad call. So what does Zack do? Keeps having a day, gunning a guy down at the plate with a perfect throw from right to keep us down by only 1 going into the 9th. Then, with two outs, two strikes and the tying run at 2nd, he fouled off 5 pitches before lacing one into left and tying the game up. A great all round performance by him and by our team. The staff did great, but never got the chance to finish off the comeback. The game was called because a lack of pitching from their side, something I find a little hard to believe seeing as that we still have two more games to play in the next two days. In the end, they are exhibition games to get the Heat ready for their season, but it just doesn't feel right to end a baseball game in a tie, much less a game as sharp as that one. What can you do.


In other news, I am finally gainfully employed and we appear to have found an apartment to rent.

A Baker Boy is Born:
A few weeks ago I saw a sign in a bakery window down the street from where we are staying indicating that they were looking for part timers with experience. Like most jobs I have looked into here, my lack of restaurant experience killed my chances for a job. This week, I went to check back up on it and noticed that the sign now had the experienced part crossed off... Alllll Riiiight! I popped in to have a chat with the manager, the next day I had a trial, and after the trial, which was basically a 30 minute crash course on the million different hot pockets, pastries, breads, and sandwiches, they threw me into the fire to deal with orders. To say it wasn't a little rough would be a lie, but mainly I just hate feeling like I am getting in the way of the other employees. Hopefully with a few more shifts I will be handling things no problem, and can actually be more of a help than a nuisance. Regardless, I got a job which I needed. The better part is that the shifts run from 6-1, leaving me beach time in the afternoon. Yeah buddy!

Rachel and I also found a good deal on an apartment to rent for a few months in a good central location. Still waiting on details, but looks like we will be moving in within a week. Only downside to this is that I may have to cut back on the internet time, as the apartment uses 3G, making it harder to stay in touch with you all. Anyways, the Heat series continues tonight if anyone wants to listen in the middle of the night... I'll leave you with a picture of the beach, which I plan on frequenting when at all possible, and the best looking girl on it. Unitl next time, peace

P.S. Welcome back Big Papi

From F to W...

Halloween in Australia was on Sunday, which also happened to be a game day with the Bears. I started the game on the hill, in what was by far the worst game I have had on the bump in memory. What started out as a dirty trick, turned into a sweet treat and a W at the end. All is well that ends well, right?

Well, unless you have KNIGHTmares about your performance for days...Before I verbally abuse myself like Pedro's rant against Kareem Garcia, I should say how pumped I am that my teammates picked up the slack and we remained perfect on the season. The bats stayed hot and Gabbo threw some huge innings for us in relief. It was awesome. In the end, what I care about is getting that team W. Since we got that, I am 1) relieved/pumped/disappointed we have a bye next week, and 2) feel like I can spend less time worrying about us losing and more time grilling myself.

What follows will be a brutally honest account of my pitching because while it is much easier to write about success... to leave out the failures would be painting a false picture of the game... because let's face it, it's not roses all the time.

Guevin Bashing Guevin:

I am a pretty positive guy... In baseball, I try to take something good out of every bad situation. For the last 3 days, I have been searching for that positive spin, but just find my blood boiling.

I didn't have it Sunday, that is for sure. Having said that, there are plenty of games I "haven't had it" and found a way to compete and battle and pitch productive innings... Instead on Sunday I was pretty much a joke. I was actually embarrassed by the way I pitched. I didn't have good stuff, I wasn't locating, I wasn't consistent, I had poor pitch selection, I didn't trust my 3rd and 4th pitches, I relied too much on my curve, I was mechanically off... this recipe resulted in me giving up 10 runs in 4 and 2/3 innings, including 3 HRs. I blew leads of 4-0 and 6-4, exiting the mound with us trailing 10-6.

During the implosion that was my 5th inning, I had thought I had batters struck out before I gave up a 2-run hr and then a 3-run dinger, but didn't get the calls. I say this not as an excuse, but to point out my frustration. Much of the damage came with 2 outs. Baseball is a game where you can be so close, yet so far. That is also part of the reason why I think it is the greatest game. The worst part about my pitching performance is that I don't get to take the bump for the Bears for another 3 weeks, as we have a bye and then league rules prevent me from throwing in our next game. Also, I F-ing hate metal bats with a passion.

From F to W:

At the end of the game, the boys picked me up big. We jumped right back into the game in the 6th, trailing 10-9 only because of an atrocious call on what should have been ball 4 with the bases loaded on Matty. I chipped in with a nice defensive play in the 7th or 8th at 2b, laying out full extension and finishing the play off to get the guy at first. This proved to be a big defensive play, as they would get a few more runners on that inning. We went ahead for good in the 8th on a 3 run bomb from TJ with 2 outs. Gabbo slammed the door, getting a 6-4-3 DP to squash the threat they were mounting in the bottom of the 9th... Bears Win. I went from F-bombing to a W. And now I can forget about my ineffectiveness in the game and move forward.

Gigantes:

I have been getting up relatively early to watch the Giants all post-season. While I can't claim that the Giants are my number one team, it was great to see them do well. I remember going to Candlestick as a kid, even painting GIANTS on my bare chest during a summer game, and more than anything, imitating the old Giants Will "The Thrill" Clark, Kirt Manwaring, Robby Thompson, Jose Uribe, Matt Williams, Kevin Mitchell, Darren Lewis, Willie McGhee, Rod Beck, John Burkett, Atlee Hammaker, Dave Drevecky, Rick Ruscheul, Billy Butler, Royce Clayton, and Barry Bonds in my backyard (pre satellite TV and Sox games on NESN). Glad that all my friends get to feel the thrill of waiting a long time for this and getting to celebrate. Giants had an awesome team and have been fun to watch in the absence of the Sox. Love the beards too... only thing better would have been fear the 'stache.

Rachel and I celebrated the win with a day at the beach and a drive along the West Coast Hwy, a scenic stretch along the coast. Life is tough when you are unemployed...
which brings me to my next point...

I have been somewhat picky, but dropped off resumes at probably around 20 different places... I have a job for later in the summer, but have been rejected by all but 2. The main problem... no experience in restaurants/retail. For some reason I think if I could make it through Carleton, I could pick up on how to bus tables and run food.


Anyways, that's all my griping for now... hope everyone had a good Halloween and got out to vote.

USA series continues this week, stay tuned!

Quick Rundown

Team USA Series:

I have spent the last two nights playing with Team USA against the Perth Heat. It is a pretty cool set up and compared to the level of teams I have been playing against lately, very good competition. Actually, regardless of who I have been playing lately, it is really good competition.

Our roster is littered with pro players mainly from the US but also Canada and Sweden. Guys on our team have played all over, a lot in Indy ball, others in the minors, some up to AAA. Their squad is also mainly pro players, mainly Australian born (I think) guys who are currently or have been in the minors. For example, their starting catcher is the everyday AAA catcher for the twins.

Here are the links to their website and the write up for us:
http://www.perthheat.baseball.com.au/
http://www.waprovincialleague.baseball.com.au/default.asp?Page=70218

If you guys are up at crazy hours, you can listen to tonight's game online and we have another 3 game set next thurs-sat that will also be broadcast. You can find it on the Perth Heat website link above.

Game one on Thursday was much more exciting than last night, but we dropped a close one 9-7 after going back and forth with the lead for a few innings. I threw a scoreless inning, getting the first two guys, then giving up a single and walk, before getting their catcher to fly out to deep center. It felt good to get out there and while I didn't pitch great, it was good enough to keep us within 2 heading into our final AB.

Yesterday's game was much less exciting. We played sloppy baseball, making several errors to quickly erase our 1-0 first inning lead. They took the game 6-1. I got a pinch-hit opportunity to lead off the 9th, and got blown away. After one of the guys on my team told me the pitcher can be wild sometimes, he painted the outside black twice and I was quickly down 0-2. After a slider in the dirt, I was sent back to the pine with a swinging K. Ugly AB that made me appreciate the professional PHs all the more. Not sure if I will see any action in tonight's game, but I am on the hill for the Bears in an important game against UWA in tomorrow's provincial league action.

You can find links to Australian websites that write about the league I am playing in and the TEAM USA stuff in this post and on the side bar of the blog.

Other than baseball, I have been running to stay in shape, looking for jobs, learning to drive (more successfully), and beach bumming around. It's funny how sometimes it feels like you have less time to do things when you have nothing going on.

I think I was hit with a bit of culture shock the last two weeks or so, having made the quick transition from Belgium to the States and then down here. Even though things here are similar to the US in some respects, they are much different as well. Despite the common language (although dialects can be hard to understand and I haven't gotten a grasp on the numerous sayings and slang),I have felt a bit out of place and stressed out, which is not really typical for me. Things are slowly working their way to normal though, and I am starting to be able to enjoy everything Perth has to offer. The beaches here are amazing and the water a crystal blue that reminds me of Croatia. Looking forward for the temp/water to heat up so I can get out there a bit more.

Anyways, if there is anything you guys want to hear about shoot me an email or just post a comment. It always helps me to write more frequently when I get comments or feedback, and know people are reading. So if you want to hear more (or less haha) blow up the comments section.

A big happy birthday to my Uncle Jon, Cuz Rowan, and bro Tristan! Hope everyone had good ones!

Until next time,

Peace

First Week in the Books

I have spent the last week or so getting used to being down here and getting over jet lag and now that the dust has settled, I can fill in what has been going down with a little more detail.

First and foremost... Baseball.

Today we battled Curtin in my first home game for the Bears. After going down by one in the top half of the first, we took the lead for good in the bottom of the frame. We capitalized on errors and continued to hit the ball hard this week. I don't think we had any strikeouts as a team and under pressure, their defense cracked. We finished them up in 7 for a 14-4 win behind a strong pitching performance from Gabbo.

While down here, I will be playing for two teams... my main team is the Balcatta Bears. We play in the provincial league of Western Australia, second in level to the State league, from what I understand. The other team I am playing for is a Team USA, a team comprised of all the import players from the provincial league and state league. We had a practice for Team USA on Friday and start competition with a three game series against the Perth Heat this coming Thursday-Saturday. The Heat are the pro team for Western Australia. The games promise to be a lot of fun and good competition. In talking with a few guys on the team, one grew up playing with my roommate from college, big Willie and another has a good family friend playing at either Carleton or St. Olaf (he couldn't remember). Small world.

The main baseball thing to get adjusted to here is playing with metal bats in the provincial league. Although we have yet to play the top teams in the league since I have arrived, the difference between playing with metal and playing with wood has blown me away. I have made the transition from metal to wood and vice-versa in the states, but playing with metal here has been kind of scary. There are a lot of big, strong dudes playing ball out here and the ball jumps off metal bats at insane rates. As a pitcher it will be a constant challenge to keep the ball down and keep the ball in the yard. In that sense, I look forward to playing with metal and hope I can avoid screaming come-backers. On the offensive standpoint, hitting with metal should definitely help. Unfortunately I know I will still have WTP...

Driving...

Pretty soon I will be getting a car from the team to get around Perth with. I took our player/coach's car out for my first try at driving on the left (wrong) side of the road. What resulted was a MAJOR FAIL. Me and one of the young guys went on a mission to pick up drinks for everyone else. I had the poor kid scared for his life... turns out he had good reason. I was so focused on staying on the left side of the road that I stayed a little too far left and smashed the left mirror. Luckily the mirror was already broken and there was no other damage caused, other than to the underwear of the kid I went with when he soiled them. He decided it would be better for him to take over driving and feeling my confidence waning, I forked over the keys. It was only after we were already back on the road that he told me he didn't have his license yet and only had his learners permit. Not sure the legality of the whole situation, but the bottom line is that we survived and managed to get drink orders right. Yes, I am an idiot.

Work...

For some reason, I decided it would be a good idea to drop off an application at a surf shop at a mall. I was offered a trial run, which I felt went pretty well. They wanted me to be more outgoing and energetic. They offered me a second trial. I said thanks but no thanks, opting for different work. I guess I just don't have the energy or qualifications needed to sell bordies, singlets, and rashies... Carleton you have failed me haha.

Night Scene...

After practice with Team USA on Friday night, me and some of the other guys went out for a night on the town. We went to Northridge and Mustang Bar for a few drinks. I didn't stay out ridiculously late or showcase any of my Belgian dance moves, but it was a nice first taste of the night scene out here. Aside from the fact that a pint cost $8.80... the night scene here promises to be a good one. Looking forward to more good times to come.

Also, discovered Kebab places here... so I will definitely not starve. Although I doubt they will give Belkan a run for the KOTY. Time will tell.

That is it for now... so far Perth has been good to us and promises to be a lot of fun... With 4 games this week, should be plenty to write about... if I can survive learning to drive and come-backers whistling by my head. Until next time... Peace.

Misadventures Continue

Tomorrow is game time again and we take on some team that I don't know. Looking to make it a perfect 2-0 down here in OZ.

Since you heard from me last, I had my first drive (and crash... oops) on the left side of the road, my first trial run for work (not a success), first night out on the town (kind of a success), caught up with old friends (after mistaking them for someone else), and plenty more... I will try to fill these stories in soon, but for now I am off for some music and fun... oh yeah and I have a few new nicknames... Hawk and I don't know (ask Rachel)... Stay tuneeeeeedddd...

G'day from Perth

Hey All,

About time I updated this bad boy. If I wasn't a complete failure at computers than I would have updated the blog to make it a little more flashy, but basically I will look to continue what I started in Belgium here in Oz.

The last two weeks have gone by in a flash. The season ended in Belgium, I worked the spaghetti feed and the next day I was out like a light. I flew into SF on the morning of the 4th and flew out of Sacramento the next day at noon. In between I spent the night hanging with Marcus, Reza, and Erika in Sac. It was great to see them, but way too short. The next morning I flew up to Sitka, meeting Toby in Seattle and to quote my sister-in-law, "the wild rumpus" began almost immediately. We dove head first into a week of wedding festivities... family, friends and tons of fun. It was a great week that gave us two unexpected days of sunshine (allowing us to climb Verstovia), and culminated with what we all got together for... the beautiful wedding ceremony of Tristan and Johanna. The wedding went swimmingly, the reception was a blast, it was great to meet Jo's family and best of all to gain a new family member.

The fun in Sitka lasted a week and with the last of the wedding guests, Rachel and I were headed back to SF where we stayed with Drobny and Mrs. Drobny for a night. We spent the next day walking around SF, met up with Tyler for a drink before it was back to SFO to catch the flight to Sydney and then to Perth. The flight was miserable, but we made it and it was great to be picked up by Debra from the airport. I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen her, but it has been great to catch back up with her. Less than 24 hours after we stepped off the plane I was on the hill and batting leadoff in my first game down under. The game was only a game for about... 1 batter and quickly got out of hand. I doubled to lead off the game... it should have been a triple but I missed second base like an idiot (although it wasn't entirely my fault... I'll explain shortly) and about 15 batters later we were winning 9-0 in the top of the first. We ended up stomping them 35-3 and it was nice to be on the good side of a lopsided victory.

Like in Belgium, it seems like baseball in Australia will have its quirks. Example 1, and why I missed second... A number of the fields are actually converted Australian Rules Football to baseball fields. As such, there are no mounds and instead they use fiberglass pitching mounds. I didn't know this ahead of time and ended up playing in my running shoes. Hence, when I took a hard shoulder lean to hit the inside of the bag at second, and since it actually was an old school bad with a pin in the center of it that made the corners curl up, i missed the inside corner of the bag and almost ate it trying to stop from full speed in running shoes.

It was a fun first Australian baseball experience and more importantly, all the guys on the team seem really cool. I have a good feeling that like in Belgium, there will be plenty of good times down under.

I'm off for now, but more updates to come soon. I have plenty to fill in about the ridiculous ravens, the meathead gym manager, driving on the other side of the road, job applications, and plenty more. And of course a HUGE thanks to Debra for putting me and Rachel up while we get settled here in Perth. More later, mate!

Last Hours in Belgium

As I sit here, 4 hours before I leave for the airport and yet to pack, I am trying to reflect back on my time here. A lot of things come to mind, but mainly all I can do is think about how great the people here have been. Absolutely amazing. Although some might say I am a bit rushed at the moment, I just wanted to take this time to thank The Cats for this wonderful opportunity and everyone for making me feel right at home. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!


The other day we won our decisive game against Gent to secure the team's spot in 1st position for next year. After that it was the Spaghetti Zwier, which was also a blast. Great people, great times. I will elaborate more on my final days later but I before I left I wanted to attach an article I wrote about my time here in Belgium for the annual Cats Spaghetti Zwier magazine. I have to pack so without any more rambling... here it is. Off to pack.

ARTICLE FROM CRAZY AMERICAN NUMBER 1

Man, man, man... Where do I even begin? First, let me just come out and state the obvious. What can be said about my time here in Belgium that hasn't already been said about this country's finest beers...

Amazing, world class, dank je wel... nog eenje, second to none, it is always better with the right (protective) cup, and the list of positive adjectives goes on.

For me, my experience coming over to play for The Cats has literally been second to none. From the day I stepped off the plane ( and walked right past Ruud, who was expecting a bigger guy-- I guess now would be a good time to apologize for not being bigger and hitting home runs as all Americans are supposed to do), I have been welcomed into the club like I was family. Since day one, people have bent over backwards to make me feel comfortable and welcome, and for that I will forever be grateful. Sometimes I wonder what I have done to deserve to be among such a great group of people. This leads me to a little self-analysis…

Ok, so so far I am a short, weak American who can't hit home runs (like all Americans do). Strike 1. As if that isn't bad enough, a month into my stay here and I am also bringing my girlfriend over. Talk about a way to ruin the fun, right? Strike 2. Then the crates of beer keep coming and I can't drink as much as the last Americans, and am drunk after 4 pintjes. Strike 3. At this point, I really should be struck out and sent back to the States. Luckily for me, umpires in Belgium can't count strikes (or do much else right) so somehow I am allowed to stay on this amazing adventure. Yes, Belgium has been good to me. While other Americans had their time in this lovely country cut short by tooth aches, kidnappers in London, and torn muscles, I somehow avoided these tragic fates. And so for this lucky American, the adventure continued…

On this adventure, I have met so many great people, lived in four awesome homes, and Rachel and I were helped and supported by so many generous people that I could take up this whole magazine thanking you all. Instead I just want to offer one big thank you to the entire Cats Club for your part in making this the best summer of my life. You have all been so amazing, I just wish I could somehow return the generosity and hospitality that has been shown to me and Rachel the last 6 months (man, time flies).

Like the thank yous owed, the good times are also too numerous to speak about all of them. Instead, I will do what I often do on my blog... pick out a top list, so here it goes.

Thank you Belgium for... 5. Showing me I'm not the worst dancer in the world ( I guess that is a thank you to just Bart); 4. Letting me urinate anywhere I please and in front of anyone I want; 3. Your delicious food/my new love handles; 2. Having at least one game where it didn't rain; 1. Forever ruining the taste of American beer for me.

Top 5 highlights: All of our wins, ok that was easy. Ok, maybe a bit too soon. The only reason I say this jokingly is because in a few years when The Cats are atop the standings, people will be able to laugh about the trials and tribulations of seasons past. I may not be here then, so I am laughing now.

The serious Top 5 highlights:
5. Hanging out after practices and enjoying the social aspects of the club ( I have always said that the best part of baseball is the relationships and lifelong friends that I have made through playing and The Cats only strengthened this notion); 4. Trips to Leuven;
3. Travelling all over Belgium and Europe; 2. All the parties... Kermis week, Gala Ball, Vlinderball, etc.; 1. The relationships I have formed (with people especially, but also with the bullet special, about 100 new kinds of beer, different cities, the Belgian countryside, dinosaur cookies, chocolate, The 7 Oaks, and the list goes on…)

I could go on for pages, but the bottom line is that I will FOREVER BE GRATEFUL to this club and group of people for this opportunity and for all that you have done to make me feel like part of the Cats Family. Until next time, the warmest of thank yous to everyone. Thanks for everything and keep in touch.

Peace and love from the only American left standing.

Ethan Guevin

The Final Countdown (Dananaa naa da naa nut na naa)

Ladies and gents, boys and girls, it is that time. It seems like just yesterday I was getting to the airport here in Belgium for the first time, and now it is six months later and on Monday I am off at sunrise.

I may not get a chance to post in the frantic next few days, but this is how I am feeling, what I have done lately, and what I will be doing the next few days before leaving Belgium.

At the moment, I feel a mix of many emotions... sad, excited, confused, curious and much more. Sad to be leaving the wonderful people of The Cats and a country that has continued to grow on me since my arrival. Excited to see family and friends and of course for my brother's wedding. Excited too for the Australian adventure that lies ahead. Confused in many ways. A lot of times when I am asked a question, my response is an unintentional combi of English and Dutch with the occasional Spanish mixed in. Instead of saying yes I often say ya, even when asked in English. My horrid spelling has gotten worse... linguistically I feel like a mess. I don't see that improving in the near future. I am curious for what the future hold, how my new teammates will be, and the list goes on.

I have spent my last few days as I typically have for much of my time in Belgium. A lot of time during the day alone and with teammates/housemates at night. I have gone to hit the last 12 days in a row. I taught the Merchtem police how to play baseball. I mowed the grass at the field. I spent one last night out in Leuven. I have biked and ran all over Opwijk and Merchtem and Aalst and Londerzeel and everywhere in between. I led practice for the minimen team, which went awesome for the last time. I ate delicious meals at the Cassiman residence. I built part of a brick wall. Took the train. Shared a gaze with farm animals as I passed by on bike. Almost got hit by a car several times on the bike. Typical stuff.

The next few days will pass wuick, I know. Tomorrow was a planned trip to Bastogne but due to how difficult it is to reach, I have since had to cancel the trip. Instead I will spend tomorrow packing things up and getting ready to go. Friday I am off to West Flanders for some WWI history and sightseeing with Bram's mother, Mieke before returning for a last meal at the Wambacq residence.

Saturday morning will be spent setting up for the Spaghettis Zweer, the annual Cats fundraiser spaghetti feed. After setting up, I have a front row seat to the laser show that will be the Cats offense against Gent in the final and deciding game of the season. Then I will cash in my won bet for the batting title, sorry Kleine but you never had a chance. Then back to the zweer for a celebration/drunken debauchery/feast. Sunday is again the 2nd day of the zweer and then hopefully one last drink with the fellas before taking off the next morning Cali bound at 7am.

I then have less than 24 hours to get from SF to Sac-Town, where I will spend the whole next day flying (again) up to Alaska.

Then next two weeks promise to be great and I will try to keep everyone posted on what is going on. Stay tunned! Hope everyone is doing well, much peace and love.

Tot Straks

Unable to stop the bad KnightTime in Gm 2

This weekend was the openning two games of our playdown series versus the Gent Knights. Dan Matthews, better known as D-Matt, was also in town to catch a game and seee some Belgian sights. Friday we kicked around Brussels, showing him the main tourist sights and meeting up with Joris, Winne and eventually Bram for dinner and drinks. It was a great time and great to see him. He got the Belgian experience in one day... Beer, Chocolate, frietjes, and Waffles. Fast forward to the next day and the game...

Before game one on Saturday, I told the boys to have their popcorn ready because it was about to be a show. Actually, it was more like "GETCHA POPCORN REEEADY!" but you get the point. A show is what transpired, but it was not as planned. The lovely Belgian weather decided to show up and show up in a big way. Rain and Cold. Daaaaamn.

The beginning of the game started out pretty well. All my pitches were working and other than an unearned run, I was dealing with 6Ks through 3 innings and we had a 2-1 lead. Then came the rain. I had just finished pitching the top of the third and it started pouring rain for about 20 minutes. After the 25 minute (or so) delay, our offense woke up with a 5 run inning. If you do the math, that is a lot of sitting around letting the arm get cold.


When I got back out to the mound, my arm didn't feel so great anymore and the mound had morphed into muddy swamp. No problem, time to get on the grind. It definitely was a grind. The zone was floating like a Wakefield knuckle ball, the landing was different every pitch, but I turned out a good outing... going 8 innings and giving up one earnie.

My bat was definitely not altered by the weather and with popcorn on hand, the show was delivered. My teammates set the table for me time and again with patient quality ABs and like a good Belgian guest, I cleared the table. I ended the game 4 for 6 with a double, triple, 7 rbi and 3 +/- 1 runs. My last rbi was a walkoff single (could have been double if I had ran to second) that scored Kleine and sealed the 10 run rule victory, 14-4.

Things were looking good, everyone was happy and we were contemplating not letting D-Matt leave the country before our season was over. We decided to celebrate with frietjes and a movie at the Kinopolis in Brussels. This is when our fortune started to turn.

1. We went for a drink while waiting for our movie to start. First bar we tried, we couldn't get in because Bart was wearing shorts. I guess his model legs are getting too old to show off and the bouncer wasn't feeling it.

2. We ended up in a bar with crazy decor and lights.

3. We went to see "The killer inside me"... turns out it was not the most uplifting movie ever. Intense for sure.

Fast forward to Sundays game...

4. Setting the table... It pretty much had been raining in Belgium non-stop for about 12 hours.

5. We get to Gent's cracker jack box of a ballpark and it is more like a swamp with bases and a mound. Well, kind of a mound but not really.

From there it was a story of missed opportunities, bad everything and disappointment. We started the game with bags loaded and 0 outs and only got 2 runs. Two times we had bases loaded with 1 out and hit into inning ending double plays. Not to be a Negative Nancy, but to be a Negative Nancy but we simply put blew it. We left millions of runners on base, chased bad pitches, and the list goes on. We never should have lost, but that is baseball and next week we come out swinging.

In the end, we still had a chance. Down 3 runs in top 9 with two on and me on deck, the game ended.

We never should have let D-Matt leave...


I finished the game 3 for 4 with a walk and 2 rbi, but flied out in a critical two out, two runners on situation. I want the AB back so bad, but it will have to wait til next Sat when we play the 3rd game of the best of 3. Winner stays/goes to first, lose is in 2nd Division for next year.

I am getting the ball on the bump, I hope you have your popcorn ready...

Last Regular Season Games

This weekend was our last regular season games of the second part of the season. Yesterday we dropped a close one, 3-1 with me on the bump. They scratched a few runs across early before I settled into a rhythm not giving up any runs after the 3rd inning. I couldn't find the floating zone and walks proved to be the killer. Despite hitting ball hard, we failed to get the clutch hit we needed and ended up leaving a lot of runners on base. On the positive side of things, our defense didn't make any errors and it was the first game in a while where people were obviously enjoying being out there and playing the game.

Today Bram took the hill and I played my first game at shortstop in ages. Bram threw really well but a few untimely errors put the comeback out of reach and we lost 8-4. Again there were a lot of positives, and we are playing much better baseball heading into our last 2 and most important games of the year. Next week we play in the best 2 out of 3 play down series against the 2nd place 2nd division team from Gent. There is a lot on the line as the winner of the series earns the final spot in 1st division for next year.

On a personal level, since we have had the funky second half of the season schedule where every two weeks we have an off week, I have yet to have any consistency at the plate.

Next week is go big or go home... actually I am going home either way, but I am looking forward to getting some hits and us getting some wins to end the season on a positive note.


Lastly, a question to consider: If baseball was played with 89 feet between the bases, how would the game be different?

Lagos, Baby!

Troy's Cameo... tell me what you think about his post and maybe he can get another crack at it...

The Way I Remember It


July 15, Lagos, Portugal


First came the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, then the Moors and Christians. Somehow the Australians discovered this land and they invited all their friends, almost completely wiping out any sounds of Portuguese. Then came Rachel, Anj, Bart, Ethan and I. My memory of our arrival in Lagos is a little blurry because I was asleep as we entered town. I do remember beaches, seagulls and a long journey through another Carrefour. Ethan and I went crazy over finding canned fruit, and to our delight, everyone else was grossed out by it. With no exact destination for the night, I thought I found an answer in the grocery basket of a group of American girls. They had a lot of toilet paper and were coming from the beach. When asked if they were staying at a campsite they looked at me and said, "Do we look like the camping type? We are stocking our beach house." We checked out and drove around town looking for a campsite.


The splendor of seeing the outrageous Australians reminded me of the scene in Road to Perdition when Tom Hank's son sees Chicago for the first time from the back seat: Impressed, overwhelmed, and ready to explore.


Eager to go out and see what else Lagos had in store for us, we tried to set up the tent fast, but on this night it would take some time. Up until now we had improved our tent building skills immensely, but the hard ground and wind from the ocean slowed us down. We tied the tent to any support we could find: light post, van, tree trunks.


After losing a lot of precious money at a terrible Indian restaurant in Lisbon, we were all in need of cheap, American-sized portions. The Three Monkeys is pretty much an American diner run by Australians and a cook who looks like Manny Ramirez with dreads. A better find than even a gini in a bottle, we were brought a large plate of comfort food and all the beer you could drink in one hour; all for ten euros. This power hour we found ourselves in didn't go by clear cut rules, but started as soon as we received our first beer. Our Irish waitress brought Bart the first beer of the night. In order to get our moneys worth we decided we would make her work a little harder tonight. When she came back with my glass Bart had already emptied his and then I did the same before she came back with Ethan's. This little circus we started continued for another round and each time she came back she pretended to not believe we drank everything. Hell, when would we ever find a deal like this again?


Our power hour went into fifteen minutes of overtime and once again Bart was telling Anj about his vegetarian theories, we all stared at Rachel's odd looking dish, and Ethan and I narrated a small video in order to capture the scene of the bar. More Australians sat at the table across from us and soon we were talking to them about places to go out to in Lagos. The bartender came over, we chatted him up, and he said, "I was supposed to leave two days ago, but I was hanging on the beach, partying, and ran into a friend of my sister's who offered me a job here." We figured out we were all staying at the same campsite to which he replied, "LET'S TAKE SHOTS!" He brings over a cocktail mixer and one at a time has us lean back and pours some of that sweet nectar into our mouths. Feeling at home we stay until close and agree we will meet up with our new friend at a bar called The Three Blind Monkeys. The bar promoter, another enormous Australian, tells us how great his bar is but didn't need to since we were going there from the beginning. We enter the bar to a crowd of people dancing on the rail and beer bongs hanging from the ceiling. Behind the bar there is a board showing how many beers have been funneled by visiting countries. We dance through the night and eventually return to the campsite. We all wake up either in the van or in the tent. Another success.

Baseball, baseball, baseball

It has been ages since I have written about baseball, which is partly due to lack of time/computer, frustration from how the season has gone, and the fact that since June, there really haven't been that many games.

It has been a frustrating season on the diamond to say the least. We are 5-25 or something like that and have suffered many losses that easily should have been wins. Through the ups and downs, I have been able to keep a perspective that I don't think many could do and an optimism that I wish was more contagious. I still go into every game thinking that we are going to win and still get fired up by bush league acts and bullshit calls, of which there have been many. I also recognize that baseball here simply cannot be like baseball in the United States for obvious reasons.For starters, working full time and playing baseball full time while having a family is simply not possible. However, when running our practices or youth practices I have still tried to instill a sense of the right way to play the game and prepare yourself for success. I hope that some of this has stuck, especially with the younger guys.

Personally, I think I have been able to learn more things from the failures of the season than I have from our successes. As someone who aspires to coach in the future, seeing what hurts a team and what not to do can be as helpful as seeing a great program. I should say flat out that I love the Cats Organization and wish that the season had taken a different direction, but with several games left, we still have the opportunity to finish strong.

Anyways, enough blathering about it... here is a run down of the last two months or so of baseball.

I experienced some problems with my liscence which caused me to miss two games at the end of June against the Hoboken Pioneers, a team I had been looking forward to facing since the first time we played them early in the season. These were Aaron's first games with the team.

Aaron had a bit of bad luck and tore his hamstring in his 5th game since being here. It really hurt to lose him as a player and he came back to pitch a gem against the Angles, but rushed back too soon wanting to help the team. He ended up making the injury worse and is now out for the season. Aaron was a huge asset to the team, both on the field and off. He had some of the worst luck while pitching, and even though someone who didn't know the game might think that his performances were nothing special, had he received good support behind him, we definitely would have won a few more games and competed with the leagues best. It was also a shame that we never got to pitch the way we had in college, with me starting and him closing the games out. I think that would have been a powerful combination but will have to wait until next time we play together. After he got hurt, he led us to two wins as a coach.

I had a few very disappointing weekends on a personal level at the beginning of the second round, but have since got back in the swing of things. I feel like I have played well and consistently all season and at the moment I lead the team in all major batting and pitching categories. When Kleine is there, him, myself and Bram provide a nice start to our lineup. Last weekend of games I was 4 for 7 at the plate and also threw 10 innings giving up 0ER and getting the extra inning win against Mortsel.

The Balachelijk (ridiculous): I'm not one to criticize umpiring and I think that way to often bqd umpiring is used as an excuse, but I have never experienced anything quite like this. Whether they are trying to or not, the umpires here influence the outcomes of the game. They are not invisible, as a good umpire should be. I am sure they are great people and mean well and this should in no way be considered a personal attack... I hate umpiring and appreciate that there are peole willing to do it.... BUT, 1)you do not have to come set for 2 full seconds to avoid a balk 2)If you only have 1 eye, you should not be allowed to umpire competitive games 3)a ball at the top of the knees anywhere over the plate is a strike and lastly, believe it or not, it is possible that a curve ball is a strike even if the batter doesn't swing at it.

Looking forward: We have upwards of 5 important games coming up and can finish strong.

After this season is over, I have agreed to a deal with a team in Australia and will be moving to Perth with Rachel for the Summer (Oct-April). I will be playing for the Balcatta Bears in the provincial league of WA, and am looking forward to the opportunity to compete for a championship. That said, I am not looking beyond this coming weekends games with Namen.

I think that about brings things up to speed, hopefully I didn't forget anything. Hopefully have 4 wins coming up and will have a higher batting avg that kleine for the season, winning a crate! Until next time, Go Cats!

Catching up on life Back in Belgium... FInally all caught up

Since I arrived back in Belgium from my travels, I have lived in 3 different spots. All of them have been very different, but AWESOME! I have had the best luck with host families and I continue to be welcomed into amazing peoples’ homes, where people bend over backwards to make me feel welcom.

Our first two weeks back in Belgium, Rachel and I lived smack in the middle of Brussels with Winne, a friend on the softball team. She was a great host and her apartment had an amazing location. It was a short walk to all of the cities main attractions and we were surrounded by good food, good bars, and great company. Troy came into Brussels several times a week and we got to know our way around Brussels quite well. For such an international city, the city city is actually quite easy to walk from end to end.

Highlights from our time in Brussels:
Becoming good friends with Winne
Edward Duvel/Kebab hands in the park across from the Kings Palace. Drinking in the park with the Brussels Hash runners.

Meeting Winne’s friends

Brussels’ Asia town, with awesome Asian cuisine and grocery stores

Trips to Delirium

Living 5 minutes from the Grote Markt and the rest of Brussels sights

Algarfijf dance party in Merchtem, where an old barn is turned into a dance party with lights, smoke machine and the whole nine


After two weeks at Winne’s, we moved to Londerzeel to live with my teammate Stef and his family. Living in the small town of Londerzeel was quite different from Brussels for obvious reasons, but was an absolute blast. The Wambacq’s welcomed us into their family with open arms and treated us like family, but better. They spoiled us from the start, having graciously built an apartment above their garage to give Rachel and I some privacy. The apartment had a shower/bathroom, cable TV, internet access, radio, and they stocked it with chocolate and toiletries.

We were spoiled with pretty much everything, as they always treated us and filled us with great food and many pintjes. They have a beautiful family and Rachel and I enjoyed spending a lot of time with the kids, Jens (6) , who is a baseball fanatic and Britt (11) who is good at everything she does. The grandma, Oma, also spent almost all of her time at the house helping out with the kids, cooking, cleaning, and pretty much anything else you could think of. Oma helped me out a lot, giving me rides to practice and making sure I always had a pintje.

The first week I was there was also the Merchtem Kermis (town fair), which is a really big deal. The whole town comes out for the week long event that features a lot of live music, rides and games for the kids, dance parties and plenty of good fatty food and booze. The weeklong party also coincided with Elka’s (Stef’s wife, who is awesome I might add) birthday on the 21st and mine on the 22nd. That week we went to two concerts and one dance party, on Tuesday it was Duk, a local cover band that rocked it and put on a really good show and on Friday/Saturday for Elka’s birthday and Ringing in my birthday was another cover band, The Flying Thunderbirds, who are big in Belgium and also rocked it. Each of the concerts were great, as the guys from the team got together for the shindigs, drinking way too many pintjes and staying out until the night dancing and partying. For Elka’s birthday, we also had a party/bbq during the day with bomb food and drinks before heading to the concert. I must admit that I am falling in love with the Euro music, and when the concerts were over, the DJ continued to keep the good beats coming until the wee hours of the morning.

For my birthday, the Wambacqs took us to their beach house in De Haan on the North Sea to spend the day. Another example of how they spoiled us and made us feel right at home.

Highlights from my time in Londerzeel:

The concerts, birthdays, drinks, dancing, and Kermis

De Haan and the beachouse

Playing with the kids

All the good food and drinks (especially Oma’s mussels and frietjes!)

Rachel and I made a trip to Ypers for a day and went to the In Flanders Fields WWI museum

Anytime Tonight’s Gonna be a Good Night came on
I could go on and on.

Rachel left for the states at the end of August and about a week later I moved from Londerzeel to Denderbelle with the Huttener family.

One would think that after living with such nice people, that moving out would come with disappointment, but this family is just as welcoming and awesome as the others have been.

Denderbelle is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, and the family mom+dad, Kristien and Wim, and two baseball/softball playing kids Quinten and Indy live on a farm with no shortage of cool things to do. They have also spoiled us, (Troy is living here too) giving us our own room again with cable, bathroom again with toiletries (I could seriously start a toiletry store with all the stuff I have, especially since Rachel left all of hers), brommers (moto scooters) for us to drive, horses, big trampoline, and the list goes on. Troy and I bromm all over the place and have coined the terms “brommen out of control” and “ET bromm home”. It is 17 Km to the field and we make the trip by brommen most of the time.

They have also been stuffing us with great food and bending over backwards to help us out. Yesterday, they took us Horseback riding (they have 5 horses) and today my legs and ass are absolutely killing me. Apparently when it was my turn, Wim told Aaron that he was gonna have the horse ride hard so I would feel it the next day haha. It was a lot of fun but I don’t think I am cut out to be a cowboy. The horse, Montana galloped about 20 km/hr and I though I was going to die. I can’t imagine riding a horse at full speed or for any longer than half an hour.

Yesterday was another wild night, as it was Kleine’s bachelor party. He is getting married in 3 weeks, and to celebrate we went out and kept the drinks coming. We started in Mollem, went to dinner in Merchtem, then a bar in Merchtem before heading to the final party spot. There was a dance party by the baseball field, again with a DJ and bar. It was pretty funny, especially since the average age at the party was somewhere around 15 or 16 excluding our group of “old men”. Needless to say at 5 am this morning, I was lying on the floor of the cantina with Bart and Troy trying to convince me to go sleep at Bart's, which I eventually did… otherwise I would probably still be on the cantina floor.


Today is recovery day, but the gist of this is that I have still been having an awesome time.

Highlights from time in Denderbelle

Kleine's bachelor party

Riding Horses

Brommen out of control

Watching discovery channel

Being given way too much good food ;;; becoming a trend, I know

again, could go on and on but will stop here. The cats are a bunch of really great people

I haven’t talked about baseball in forever, but will make a post soon bringing everyone up to speed on this season and my future plans of moving to Australia to play for the winter. Pictures will come sooner or later but probably later than sooner. Hope everyone is doing well… peace and love


Ethan

PS after I wrote this they took us out for drinks at the Bierpaterstoel in Dendermonde. It was an awesome time. The good times keep rolling.

End of the Trip: Pompeii to Rome...back to BE

July 31:

We caught the early 6:30 am bus from Minori to Pompeii, arriving at 7:50, a good 10 minutes before the ruins opened. We went into a café to get a cappuccino and talked to an awesome old guy who helped us order, warned us of dangers of traveling in Italy, and gave us a hard time about our future plans and reminded me how lucky I was to have a beautiful girlfriend. After finishing our drinks, we headed for the old ruins of Pompeii.
As we walked by the main church, a dog came running out after us and started following us. When we went into restaurants in search of a cheap lunch, the dog waited patiently for us outside. When we entered the old city of Pompeii and the ruins, the dog joined us. We gave her the name of Pompita and let her lead us through the ancient streets of Pompeii.

Pompeii was amazing, and I recommend it to anyone who is able bodied enough to walk around the cobble stone streets. I wrote a lot more about it but lost it for some reason when my computer froze, despite saving. Basically it was amazing and we spent a good 8ish hours walking around. We then caught the train to Rome via Naples. There were some hecklers at the train station and it was hilarious. We got into Rome circa 9 pm.


Rome:

Aug 1:

At our hotel in Rome, we started off with an uh oh here we go moment. After the long day, I got in the shower only to have the shower knob fall off completely. They switched us to a different room and we were happy to find everything in working order and no bed bugs.

The next day we got up early, cashed in on the hotel buffet breakfast and then headed for the center of Rome. The number of people everywhere was absolutely insane, and the man purse did work in keeping all our belongings safe. Being the tough manly man that I am, of course the first thing we went to was the coliseum. We signed up for a guided tour of the coliseum and the adjacent Palatine Hill where the wealthy Romans lived. A fun fact, the term coliseum actually came from slang/abbreviations/laziness. There used to be a huge statue of Nero outside the structure which served as a nice meeting point, so people said lets meet at the colossal statue of Nero, which turned into lets meet at the colossal statue, which turned into colossal and eventually gave way to the Coliseum. The tour was very informative and skipping the line to get in on your own made it well worth the money. The Coliseum was an impressive structure with its intricate underground hallway system, dungeons and cages, and sheer size. It was fun to go inside, but the best part of the tour was when we got lost and joined another tour whose guide was better and funnier. We went through Nero’s Hallway, saw Cesar Augustus’ palace, got a view of the Circus Maximus ruins, saw two of the three remaining arches, walked around the forum and on the old senate building steps where Julius Cesar was not killed, went to the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, and of course got ice cream. We finished the day off at Piazza del Popolo, with more ice cream and watched a Michael Jackson impersonator dance.

Aug 2:

We started our second full day in Rome off at my favorite place in the city, Piazza Navona. The piazza boasts 3 awesome fountains, including my favorite, the Fountain of 4 Rivers, and by night is buzzing with people, performers and life. Next stop was Vatican City where we toured the art galleries, saw the famous Sistine Chapel, where no one listens to the countless reminders to not take pictures, and caught mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. I thought about baseball pretty much the entire time we were listening to the drones ramble on and I have since decided that that would be a good last church going experience for my life.

We left Vatican City in search of food, and ended up close to Piazza Navona again. We found a good restaurant to eat at and enjoyed a nice long meal. Afterwards, we headead back to Piazza Navona which was now full of life. At one end was the Miss Roma beauty contest, where the mainly not so attractive contestants were going through the rehearsals and what we think were Italian celebs began to show up. On the opposite side of the plaza were several really good street performers and people playing music. One guy impressed with an awesome rendition of Angie, which he played flawlessly even while holding a cigarette in his hand. Our last sight seeing in Rome was Trevi Fountain which was impressive, but hard to appreciate since there were half a million people standing around it.

Rome was quite an impressive city and the number of ruins and things that seem to be important is just flat out ridiculous. Everywhere you turn are reminders of the Roman Empire. I would summarize my feelings on Rome as such… It was nice to see Rome, but also nice to be done seeing Rome. Because there is so much to see and so many people trying to see it, it was pretty exhausting, but definitely a great way to finish out an absolutely amazing 6 weeks of travel.

Aug 3:

Travel days are always hectic, but this travel day was particularly crazy. It took us 2 hours to get from our hotel to the airport by public transport, then we flew for 2 hours, and then it took us another 2 hours by public transport to get from Charleroi to Opwijk.
Immediately upon arrival, we were told that we had an hour to pack up all our stuff because we were moving to Winne’s place in downtown Brussels after practice. After frantically packing things up, I went to practice, then hauled all our stuff into Brussels. What a day.