Day One

Today was the first day of baseball for me in Amarillo, but before I tell you about that you have to hear what happened last night. If you don't know much about minor league baseball then you don't know the hotels we have to stay in sometimes. They aren't always the greatest, or even the good ones, or even the ok ones. Well, this hotel falls into the "not even ok" category. Before I got to this hotel I looked up the reviews online and they didn't look too promising. One person said their sheets were dirty and another talked about how dirty the carpet was. So I was mentally prepared before I got here. When I pulled in the parking lot of this hotel I thought I was in a scary movie. My first thought: "this place is sketchy." When I got up to my room my roommate was already there. His name is Boomer and he is a pretty nice guy from Louisiana. Getting a good roommate is always important. A bad roommate can make for a bad year. First thing I did when I got to my room was pull back the sheets. I always do this at bad hotels because the sheets aren't always clean looking and I can't sleep in nasty sheets. Sure enough, my sheets had yellow spots all over.....hmmmmm pee? Kinda gross. Good thing there is a Target not far from this hotel so I went down there and I got a bed sheet, a pillow, pillow case, and a blanket. Problem solved. Well, not exactly. I got the wrong size sheet. I got a queen and my bed was a king so I had to try to make it work. I was able to stretch the sheet over three corners so it wasn't too bad. I had a nice little area to sleep on! Might not have been perfect but it sure was great to know I was sleeping on clean sheets.

Baseball Time:

To play baseball you have to have a physical. The physicals here weren't exactly planned out very well. 20 guys--1 doctor. Yea I didn't get seen for about 3.5 hours!!! At least there was a Chick-fil-a right down the street. After about 1.5 hours I went down there at got myself some breakfast; chicken burrito and 3 chicken minis, YUM!

Once physicals finished I got some lunch and headed to the field around 1:30. Pitchers and catchers had to be there first to do bullpens. This was my first time in the stadium and you can tell that it is pretty old. I think it is 50 years old or so. The locker room is rather small and the field is not in great shape but baseball is baseball. As soon as you step between those lines all that stuff doesn't matter. The clubbie seems to like to keep things clean and tidy which is nice because there is nothing worse than a messy locker room. Since ours is small having it clean and tidy makes it a lot better. After I got all my stuff unpacked I got ready to go out on the field. First time I have played on a field in a long time and it was great to be out there. I think I caught 5 or 6 bullpens and didn't even notice. I'm sure I will feel it a little tomorrow but that is expected. I was just happy to be in my catchers gear catching pitches. After that it was time for BP. Now, this is the first time I have had BP on a field in 9 months. I wasn't really sure what to expect so I kinda went into it with zero expectations. Whatever happened happened. Well, the first round was a little rusty as well as the second round. Then the third round came and I was already locked in. It was like riding a bike. The swing was just there and the ball was jumping to all fields. That was such a great feeling. The sound of a wood bat and to watch that ball fly off your bat is just really special. In my mind the field didn't exist. The ugly field, the old bleachers, the little locker room....none of it mattered. All that mattered was I was holding a bat in my hands and hitting baseballs really hard and it felt good. Tonight I will be going to meet my host family. I spoke to the man on the phone and he seemed really nice so I hope they are pretty cool people and have a nice set up.

Tomorrow should be more of the same from today maybe minus all the bullpens. Hopefully the pitchers take the day off and not as many guys throw so I can let my legs breathe a little because I'm sure they will be a little tired. Nothing can really prepare them for catching, no matter how much weight you lift in the off season! I am planning on going to the gym tomorrow morning and I heard it is a really nice one so I'm looking forward to that.