Road Trip and Wrist

We just got back from our 6 day road trip this morning at 8:30.  It was a really long trip and we didn't do so hot on the field.  We lost 5 out of 6.  The trip started on the wrong foot when we got about an hour into the 12 hour drive and the air conditioner broke on our bus.  We were headed for Lincoln, NE which was our longest drive of the year so this was not cool.  I have had buses lose air before but never for 11 hours.  This was probably the most miserable bus ride to date.  I don't understand what the deal is with these buses.  You would think they would be inspected before a trip to make sure everything is working properly. 

After a couple days in NE we got rid of that bus and had another one driven up from Amarillo.  The new one we got on was the same bus that we took to El Paso the time the air went out and two bags fell off the bottom.  So we went from bad to bad!  Sunday was my 25th birthday.  Yep, getting old, but I don't feel it!  I still feel like I'm 19 or 20.  I guess playing a sport makes you feel young.  Sure hope I feel like this when I'm 30. Hard to imagine that I'm only 5 years away from that number.  Wow.  Anyhow, my 25th birthday will definitely be memorable.  Our second bus broke down.  Literally 5 minutes from the stadium.  We were on our way to KC from Lincoln and we had stopped at a gas station for snacks.  When I got out of the store I noticed the hood was open on the bus with the bus drivers working on the engine.  That is never a good thing to see.  I don't know about you readers but I know if something happens to my car, I can't fix it.  I'm just the driver, not the mechanic.  That is why I take it in when something goes wrong.  So when I see a driver working on the engine it doesn't sit well with me. ESPECIALLY when I see a roll of duct tape on the tire.  Hmmmm.  Why was he taping the engine????  Come to find out the power steering tube busted and all the fluid leaked out and they were trying to tape it back together.  No way was I getting on a bus that was taped together.  We ended up sitting there for 2.5 hours and got it fixed by a mechanic.  We should have been in KC at 12:30 but we didn't get in until 5:15! 

While I was in KC my wife, Michaela, came to visit me for two days! It might have been the most fun we have ever had in two days.  It was awesome.  KC is a really neat city.  The other thing that made it cool was that we were driving around in a 2010 Dodge Challenger, my favorite car!!!  Michaela rented it at the airport and it was so worth it.  I loved driving that car.  Fun stuff.

Now I am back in Amarillo and tomorrow is supposed to be my first day back on the field.  I'm not sure if I will play tomorrow night but I could.  I have a doc appointment in the morning to see what he says about my wrist and then go from there.  I only have a few weeks left so I might just put up with a little discomfort so I can play out the rest of my time here.  I'm tired of just sitting around doing nothing.  I think it has been 3 weeks now so my wrist should be fine by now. 

Return Date

I'm in Lincoln, NE with the team right now on our road trip.  I have good and bad news.  The good news is my wrist is feeling good now.  The bad news is I have to wait until July 21st to play.  Roster rules are weird in this league so that is why I am having to wait until the 21st.  This is how it works.  The team has two options with an injured player.  Option one, put the guy on the DL.  If they do this they have to pay you your whole salary and that counts against the teams salary cap so it makes it hard to sign another player in your place while you're out.  Option two, release the player and pay the player workers comp until they are healthy.  That way it doesn't count against their salary cap and they can get another player while you are out.  My team kept me on the roster for most of the time that I was hurt but when they found out it would be another week or so they decided they needed to go ahead and pick up another player until I am back so they had to release me on paper.  I didn't actually get released though.  I'm just not on the roster.  I still dress out everyday and I am pretty much a coach.  I have been throwing batting practice and working with the catchers.  With the rules, since they released me, we have to wait 10 days until I can resign with the team and play.  So we are looking at July 21st as my first game back and I can't wait!


Yesterday was my first batting practice in about 2.5 weeks.  I felt pretty good in there.  The first round I just hit every ball on a line to right field.  Second round more middle of the field.  Third round I hit it where it was pitched then the fourth round I tried to swing a little harder.  My wrist didn't hurt at all but I could tell it was still a little weak.  When I tried swinging hard my last round my power wasn't quite there but that will come back in a few more bp sessions.  Just gotta get that strength back that I lost from wearing my wrist brace for a week. 

Today I will hit off a tee some, play catch, and once again coach first during the game.  Coaching first isn't a lot of fun but it does keep me somewhat busy so it is better than just sitting their uninvolved all game.

In other news: I'm 25 today:( YUCK! Can I be 15 again please? Where do the years go?  I feel like just yesterday I was cruising around the courthouse in my bright red mustang listening to the engine rumble!  Oh well, I guess now I can go rent a car. 

MRI Results

Ok, I got my MRI done but I still haven't seen a doctor.  Kinda ridiculous.  The doctor the team uses is out of town until Monday.  My appointment with him is Tuesday.  So, I have been hurt now since June 27 or 28 and I haven't seen a doctor and today is July 9.  I did have a doctor look at the MRI and tell me what he saw though so I at least have a little information.  They said I had a stress reaction around a bone in my wrist/hand which could mean that I have a stress fracture but those don't show up on MRIs for a few weeks usually.  Right now me and the trainer are treating it like a stress fracture.  I have to wear a brace on my left wrist and I can't do anything.  I go to the gym and do legs every other day since that is about the only way I can keep myself from going crazy and keep in some bit of shape.  Not sure when I will be able to play again.  From what I have heard and researched these usually heal in about 2 weeks so my goal is to be playing again by July 18th.  Michaela is coming to see my in KC around that time too and I really want to be playing by then so she can see me play this year.  It will be her only chance to see me! 

MRI Trips

Yesterday was supposed to be my MRI day.  I knew something was going to go wrong when I was told that I had to be there when the place opened and I didn't have an MRI time.  In my life I have probably had about 4 MRIs and I know that I have always had a scheduled time for the MRI.  I never just showed up.  So the place I was going to opened at 8:30.  Here was warning sign number two that something was going to go wrong.  The door was locked.  I waited around for about 15 mins before being able to go inside.  So, no scheduled time, and the office wasn't open.  Not a great start.  It gets better.  For those of you who don't know me all that well, I do not do well with unorganized businesses or people who don't do their jobs correctly.  My trainer and I went up to the window together to talk to the lady working the coutner about this mythical MRI I was to have done yesterday.  Apparently there was supposed to be a note left by the doctor, who is out until July 11,  for me to get an MRI done on Tuesday and it couldn't be found.  So, either doc forgot or it was lost.  Who knows.  While the lady was looking for this note she gave me two pieces of paper to fill out.  You know, the typical stuff you get when you go to the doc for the first time.  It takes no longer than 5 mins.  After 3 mins I took the paperwork back up to the window to hand to the lady.  Oh, and during the 3 mins I was filling out the papers she told us she couldn't find the note so she would have to rewrite something and wait for some other doc to come in to write a script for the MRI.  She said he would be there in a couple of mins.  So, I go to the window to hand the papers to the lady and she is not there.  No, she is around the corner telling stories about her July 4th weekend and how terrible it was because she had to do so many things and they all went wrong.  You know how they say don't bring your work home?  Well, I don't think your should bring your home to work either.  I stood at the windo for a couple mins before I realized this lady wasn't going to acknowledge me at all so I sat back down and left the papers there.  45 mins passed before she took one breath and poked her head around the corner.  She talked non stop for 45 mins and did not do her job for 45 mins.  Then when she decided to breath at the end of her little story and look around the corner she saw me and my trainer sitting there and guess what she said.  "I'm so sorry I forgot you guys were even here...."  Really?!?! Forgot we were even there!?  I was pretty mad about that because this whole time I thought we were just waiting for the other doctor to arrive.  No, he got there about 5 mins after I filled out the papers.  Needless to say I was pretty annoyed by the lady at the window.  To make matters worse I didn't even get the MRI yesterday like I was told!  So I got up at 8 a.m. for nothing and sat in a doctor's office for an hour.  No fun. 

Today I actually did get my MRI done.  Those tubes weren't made for adults.  They are tiny!  I have not gotten the results yet.  I asked the guy who did it if he could have a radiologist or someone read it really fast so I can know if I am able to play or not instead of waiting until the team doctor gets back from vacation.  Hopefully they let us know by the end of the day or tomorrow exactly what they saw because it has already been a week since I have played and I am really getting impatient.  I want to play!!

Wrist Update

Not much has changed since my last update except that my wrist is feeling better.  I still haven't played though.  I am scheduled for my mri tomorrow morning and I should have the results back no later than Thursday.  Hopefully before that though because I really am interested to find out what is going on with my wrist.  It did hit front toss today and felt like I was about 80% which makes me feel like there isn't anything more than a sprain going on.  I sure hope I am right because I'm sick of sitting on the bench and watching.  I want to get out there and play and contribute.  The hardest part for me is not being out there for my pitchers.  I really take a lot of pride in my pitch calling and I always feel like my pitchers and I are usually on the same page.  So I'm hoping for good news and looking forward to getting back on the field!

Ft. Worth

We are in Fort Worth right now and have been for our last 3 games.  We are up 2-1 in the series and looking for the series win tonight.  For those of you that look up the box scores you may have noticed I didn't play yesterday and it may be that way for a few more games.  I twisted my wrist hitting a couple games ago and tried to keep playing with it but I just wasn't able to swing the bat good enough to try to keep playing so I am resting for a couple days until it gets better.  There is no point it trying to push through a wrist injury because hitting is pretty important!  I am pretty mad about this happening to me now since I have been swinging the bat so well over the past 2 weeks.  I want to get back in there playing everyday and feeling good!  I'll keep you guys updated on how I'm doing.  I hope to miss no more than 2 or 3 games while I let this wrist get back to 100%. 

Game of Adjustments

It has been a few days since I have written an update on the season.  Since my last post I have been doing pretty good.  Been having some great at bats and catching really well.  Tonight was the first night I didn't get a hit in a while but I had 1 good at bat and 2 great out of 4 plate appearances and I might a slight adjustment mid game to helped me have those two great at bats.  I noticed my first two at bats that I didn't quite feel right up at the plate.  I wasn't seeing the ball as well and I didn't have that same feel with my swing I had been feeling for over a week.  I realized after my second AB that I was slightly open with my front shoulder in my stance so I fixed that my next trip to the plate and walked.  My last at bat I got a fastball down the middle that I was right on but flew out to deep left field.  If I wasn't so much under the ball it would have gone way out.  But I was right on it, squared it up perfectly, just hit it up a little too high.  I think I also threw out 1 or 2 baserunners today along with 1 or 2 yesterday.  Yesterday I hit my 5th homer of the year too.  It was a line drive to left center and felt great, especially getting my homerun money.  I made like 180 buck off of it! It was awesome.  I don't know if I have described the homerun tradition here but after you hit one at our field you run to the backstop and people give you money!!!!  It is awesome!  I would like to hit a few more homers this season and keep raking in the cash.  We are on a pretty good run lately as a team.  We have one something like 11 of 14 I believe.  We play at home again tomorrow before going on a trip to Fort Worth.  We will be on the road for 6 games after tomorrow.  I will not have internet at Fort Worth so I won't be able to update unless I somehow find some internet.  If I do I will update while I'm there. 

Hope everyone is still having a wonderful summer!