A couple weeks have gone by since I last posted anything on here but it is with good reason as I have been busy non stop during this time. My family and Kelsey came out to visit last week, and we had a great time together. We had some good dinners, some good partying and they got to see some great games in unbelievable weather while out here. 75-80 and sunny without a cloud in the sky is hard to beat. I pitched that Wednesday of the week they were here, had a solid outing going 4 innings only giving up a run before I was taken out because of a strict pitch count. Every game since 2 weeks ago has been a sell out up here and it feels like it...the crowd is so loud to the point where the opposing team's pitcher has to step off the mound just to concentrate. We had been on a skid until last week when all of a sudden we had turned it around. From being 8 games out to all of a sudden in the lead to get the last playoff spot from our division, the turn around has been fierce. The last game of the series while my family was here, we were down 4 going into the 9th and the chances of winning were looking bleak. However, somehow we managed to tie the game and send it into extra innings only to have our right fielder Nick Baligod come up with the bases loaded and send one over the right field fence for a walk off grand slam. I have never been in a stadium and heard it erupt like that. That started the road to this come back and now we sit on another 4 game win streak and in the drivers seat...for the most part. While my family was here, Zach, Kelsey and myself all got to go down town after the big wins and celebrate with the team. They got to see how the city treats us when we play well, walking past the lines and right into the clubs and bars and people giving you high fives that work the doors telling you good game. We had some great nights and the team had a great time making Kelsey and Zach feel right at home. We road tripped to Salem, Oregon for a 3 game series 7 hours away...a brutal place mixing the desert of the northwest with whatever kind of landscape Oregon has to offer elsewhere and basically creating a state-sized porta-potty that happens to host Nike's headquarters and has no sales tax. Yakima, Washington is to be included in that large porta-potty as well. The only place to eat there is Denny's as well as apparently the only place to go out is Denny's considering they have a full bar inside. One can ironically only have so many grand slams so I went with microwave burritos from Wal-mart. Following the conclusion of the series we head out and got back to Vancouver at around 5 in the morning. I talked to a few people at Temple from the baseball team on the trip. (Shout out to the guys at Temple, hope you all do the fall justice in all aspects.)
Anyway, that brings me to our current 5 game series with Tri-city (the Colorado Rockies). We won the first 3 games and I came out to pitch the 4th game this evening. I went 5 innings allowing 1 hit and one run, solid outing I'd say. It was our last night game in Vancouver at least for the regular season, so of course fireworks and everything were all present at the field. In the sushi race Chef Wasabi ended his 36 game losing streak, distracting Mrs. BC roll and Mr. Kappa Maki and streaking across the finish line. The grounds crew while dragging the field in their usual manner performed a dance, this time the full Party Rock Anthem dance and the crowd gave them a standing ovation, by far the most impressive of the summer and they have a lot of good ones (if you'd like to see the video, Garret Maines posted it on my facebook). It was a solid way to bring the night games to a close at the stadium and the fans were extremely appreciative. Tomorrow is our final home game and it is a nooner, which implies that it starts at noon but for some reason actually begins at 1...I know I know, Canadians...just make the game at noon and call canadian bacon "ham" because we all know what it is. Sometimes the things that make the most sense baffle those in the truth north. Bringing me to another point as I go off on a quick tangent...a case of 24 Pabst Blue Ribbon costs 25$ here...someone please vote that person out of office that decided to make the tax that high. Urine shouldn't cost 25$ even if it does have the blue ribbon on it. Anyway, tomorrow should be a good night after the game, I believe we have a team bbq after and them I'm sure the team will head out in the city to celebrate. We head to Boise, Idaho on Monday, a short 12-14 hour bus ride depending on who is telling you and finish the regular season there. If we make playoffs, we come back to the 'couve and get ready to play...if not we fly home out of Boise and I start my off season. Either way, I have at least one more game to pitch this year, hopefully more if we make playoffs. Oh, yea, if I don't post before, Temple Football please wax Nova opening night. Keep looking up.
-Ben
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Off the DL and on a plane back to Vancouver
Rehabbing my shoulder was a long and monotonous process. Everyday the same exercises, the trainers bearing down on you making sure nothing is sore or hurting, and everything that you do is watched and controlled. 95 degrees and 100% humidity everyday gets old, and the way that the Gulf Coast League is, makes you want to work that much harder to get healthy as soon as possible. Everyday the up at 6:30 and rehabbing, throwing, lifting, conditioning, usually doing extra of each just to try to speed up the entire process of getting healthy, until about 3 gets tiring. I began to throw and it felt good for the first week so I got to pitch off a mound to a catcher. I did that 2 times and then my third day I was told that I was going to throw to hitters. That went very well, my pitches were fast and moving a lot. The pitching coordinator was there to watch and told me after that I would either throw another simulated game like the one I just had or throw in a game, which to me meant that I would throw a game down in Florida...in other words he would get back to me. Meanwhile, my 3 roommates were all doing fine, the cultural differences are pretty interesting. I watched a lot of the spanish channel, and for some reason when not watching the spanish channel those guys all love watching Nickelodeon, literally I watched 3-4 episodes of Spongebob everyday.
While I was down there, the Blue Jays came down to play the Tampa Bay Rays, a bunch of us got our free tickets and went to the game at Tropicana Field. The field is weird, the dome is an interesting place to watch a baseball game, nonetheless it was a good stadium to check off the list of places to see. My night life was limited the second half of my stay in Florida, the early mornings and long days kinda get to you and you just want to relax on your day off on Sunday.
2 days went by and at about 6 o'clock on Friday night right after dinner I got a call from the manager of the GCL team telling me to pack my bags, I was going to Vancouver the next day. Without a second to waste, I said thank you and got off the phone before I could hear anything else telling me otherwise. The next day I showed up to the field and had a plane ticket waiting for me and left for the airport for my 3 o'clock flight. I had a brief layover in Dallas, and got to Vancouver at 8 west coast time. My host family picked me up at the airport and took me right to the field so that I could catch the end of the team's game that was already going on. It was great to be able to see all the guys again, I walked in to a bunch of hugs and high fives, welcome backs and just a lot of catching up with everyone about the month that I had been away. I walked into a stadium of a sellout crowd of over 5,000 and really just took it in realizing what I had been missing and how good it felt to be back in the clubhouse with my team...healthy. I was informed that I would be pitching the next day so after the game I went back to my house, unpacked and got a good nights sleep anticipating my return to action in uniform, in Everett, Washington. I threw 1.2 innings because I am on a pitch count and they don't want to rush me back right away, but I felt good, my arm felt good and that was the most important thing for my first outing. We then finished our series in Everett and left for Yakima, Washington where we are currently for a 5 game series. The drive through the country out here is unreal. Mountains, forests, its beautiful and then out of nowhere it all stops and you are in a desert, that desert being Yakima, Washington, really the armpit of the state. I pitched again last night in the 3rd game of the series, this time going 2.1 innings, feeling great, the best I had felt in months. I was sharp with my pitches and located well, just caught a stroke of bad luck along with the rest of the team. A couple of hits in the infield that you couldn't have rolled out into the field any better with your hand and a ball that took a bad hop off the wall, resulted in a couple runs but hey I felt good and next time out I'm sure they will go my way. We are in the middle of a rough patch right now, losing our last 6 for the first time ever, but with every skid a win streak usually follows so when it does, the rest of this league will have 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag, and won't know what hit them. I don't pitch again until next Wednesday but the cool thing is that my family and Kelsey will be in town in Vancouver to watch it, something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. I will be great to see them. They actually fly out today and get in late tonight so I won't see them until tomorrow but it's all good. Pretty much life is great right now, no complaints and really just doing what I've always wanted to do. Going to keep bringing the heat and living it up. Keep looking up.
-Ben
While I was down there, the Blue Jays came down to play the Tampa Bay Rays, a bunch of us got our free tickets and went to the game at Tropicana Field. The field is weird, the dome is an interesting place to watch a baseball game, nonetheless it was a good stadium to check off the list of places to see. My night life was limited the second half of my stay in Florida, the early mornings and long days kinda get to you and you just want to relax on your day off on Sunday.
2 days went by and at about 6 o'clock on Friday night right after dinner I got a call from the manager of the GCL team telling me to pack my bags, I was going to Vancouver the next day. Without a second to waste, I said thank you and got off the phone before I could hear anything else telling me otherwise. The next day I showed up to the field and had a plane ticket waiting for me and left for the airport for my 3 o'clock flight. I had a brief layover in Dallas, and got to Vancouver at 8 west coast time. My host family picked me up at the airport and took me right to the field so that I could catch the end of the team's game that was already going on. It was great to be able to see all the guys again, I walked in to a bunch of hugs and high fives, welcome backs and just a lot of catching up with everyone about the month that I had been away. I walked into a stadium of a sellout crowd of over 5,000 and really just took it in realizing what I had been missing and how good it felt to be back in the clubhouse with my team...healthy. I was informed that I would be pitching the next day so after the game I went back to my house, unpacked and got a good nights sleep anticipating my return to action in uniform, in Everett, Washington. I threw 1.2 innings because I am on a pitch count and they don't want to rush me back right away, but I felt good, my arm felt good and that was the most important thing for my first outing. We then finished our series in Everett and left for Yakima, Washington where we are currently for a 5 game series. The drive through the country out here is unreal. Mountains, forests, its beautiful and then out of nowhere it all stops and you are in a desert, that desert being Yakima, Washington, really the armpit of the state. I pitched again last night in the 3rd game of the series, this time going 2.1 innings, feeling great, the best I had felt in months. I was sharp with my pitches and located well, just caught a stroke of bad luck along with the rest of the team. A couple of hits in the infield that you couldn't have rolled out into the field any better with your hand and a ball that took a bad hop off the wall, resulted in a couple runs but hey I felt good and next time out I'm sure they will go my way. We are in the middle of a rough patch right now, losing our last 6 for the first time ever, but with every skid a win streak usually follows so when it does, the rest of this league will have 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag, and won't know what hit them. I don't pitch again until next Wednesday but the cool thing is that my family and Kelsey will be in town in Vancouver to watch it, something that I have been looking forward to for a long time. I will be great to see them. They actually fly out today and get in late tonight so I won't see them until tomorrow but it's all good. Pretty much life is great right now, no complaints and really just doing what I've always wanted to do. Going to keep bringing the heat and living it up. Keep looking up.
-Ben
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