Christmas in the Summer

It took me about a week to get adjusted to the time difference but now I'm on board. Of course, just as I was getting properly caught up on the sleep/time diff, the "travel-cold" hit me AKA the "went from snow and cold in detroit to warm in LA to hot in Australia to cold and rainy the day before Christmas and back to hot again for Christmas." Christmas, was a blast, as the family I'm staying with - the Crabb's, the son, Adam, who is my teammate and good mate from the Israel league, have pretty much adopted me for the winter/summer (throughout this blog I will use those interchangably, since even though it's summer here the majority of my audience is still in that winter perspective) and included me in their Christmas celebration-Aussie style which consisted of a lot of eating, drinking aussie beer and wine, and exchanging presents, sitting out on the patio looking out on a stunning view of the ocean/gulf st. vincent while spitting american sunflower seeds which cannot be purchased here (i "smuggled" them over) and of course watching the beginning of the 5-day cricket match between australia and india on Boxing Day, a Aussie tradition!

and now my first installment of Aussie Observations (Not to be confused with Belgium or Israel Observations):
words here tend to be shortened at every conceivable chance... examples:
Breakfast - Brekky
Dodger - Dodgy
Dinner - Tea
Tasmania - Tazzy
Every 2 weeks - fortnight
Dude/Guy - Bloak
Female/Gal - Sheila
Think - Reckon
Tons/Lots - Heaps
Scandals - Thongs
Ketchup - TomatO sauce
Red Pepper- Capsicum
Barbecue - Barbie
Pop/Coke/Soda - Soft Drink
How Are You Doing? - G'Day
Thanks - Cheers
Candy - Lollies
Fries - Chips
Chips - Crisps
Cookies - Biscuits
Bars/Club - Pub
Adam Crabb - Poof
Sweatshirt/Long-sleeves - Jumper
Steal something - Pinch
Bad - Brutal
Complain - Winging



other things:
hungry jacks instead of burger king
fosters (ya know Australian for beer is not even served here)
haven't seen any kangaroos or koalas yet (sorry rachel prinstein)
pool tables are half the size of american ones, and the balls are the size of ping-pong balls
driving on the left?! insane!
jack daniels and jonnie walker in a can with coke - premixed! (see picture above)
ordered a hamburger and it comes standard with a sunny-side up egg, pineapple and beats (yes those purple things!)
the phrase "No Worries" every five seconds
throw "mate" at the end of every sentence, even when talking to parents, females, teachers, cops, doesn't matter...
wearing heavy zinc oxide (sunblock) on face and lips
meat pies and pastys need to find their way to America - so tasty
as the value of a gold coin increases the coin size decreases
as the value of a silver coin increases the size increases
however the biggest coin is a 50 cent piece while the dollar and 2 dollar coins are smaller - CONFUSED YET?
all the "notes" aka dollar bills - are different colors - starting at 5 dollar bills (no singles)

and i'm sure plenty more to come...

Landed, Jet-Lagged, and playing ball...

Just a quick update...
living at Jim and Marg Crabb's house in Hallet Cove, just outside of the metropolis of Adelaide.
breathtaking view looking out over Gulf St. Vincent (from the house!) that leads into the Pacific Ocean.
league is pretty competitive on Saturday - I was held out of the game due to jet-lag related reasons but we faced a Cincinnati Reds AA - farmhand, who we jumped on for an early 3-0 lead before surrending it in the last inning and eventually losing the game in extra innings by 1. So we head into the 2 week holiday break in 3rd place, a good spot. After the break, I'll be making my debut on the mound Jan 6th - so stay tuned for that.
Saturday night we went out for the first time since I've been here and surprisingly my plain-old American midwest accent is widely held to be absolutely adorable but the female adelaide population.
Got a phone, gym membership, sunny summer of baseball...
No worries mate!

traveling...and traveling...

I knew I had a long trip ahead of me but this was nothing like flying to Belgium or traveling through Italy on train. On Monday December 10 I packed up everything in D.C. and drove through rain, sleet, ice, fog, darkness, construction, accidents through the state of Pennsylvania and Ohio (making a brief stop to see a dear friend from Albion - Rachel Fortino in Amherst, Ohio) before arriving in Farmington Hills Michigan at Dayle and Jay's house a mere 11.5 hours on the road at 1 in morning. After only 4 days at home, I began the trek to South Australia by flying to Denver, having a delay (of course!), and changing planes to continue on towards Los Angeles where I spent the Saturday night with my best amigo from college, Jonathan Thompson. After some Roseco's Chicken and Waffles ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe's_House_of_Chicken_'n_Waffles ) I was ready to leave the States for 3 months...
First up: the flight to Hong Kong (19 hours, crossing the international date line, all sunshine all the time - which meant 2 hours of sleep in which I thought it was 2 AM E.S.T. when I went to bed and woke up 2 hours later when we landed at 7 PM in Hong Kong and proceeded to eat dinner) after a 6 hour layover - in which I almost didn't make it out of H.K. (apparently I had to purchase a visa from the airport because i was misinformed on the paper work needed to get through to Australia...so after almost being stranded in China (i've seen movies about this and it can't be good) they somehow let me board with about a minute to spare, last person of course.
Next up: the flight to Adelaide (12 hours, red eye - total darkness, 2-3 hours of sleep on and off but it was tough because it was really the middle of the day in my Eastern Standard Time Zone Detroit/D.C. sleeping pattern) and the best part i ordered a special kosher meal but the stewardess brought the breakfast at midnight (eggs and potatoes) and before we landed at 10 am she brought the dinner (chicken) - Standard.
The summation: overr 40+ hours of flying time, 20+ hours at 5 airports, 4 days of traveling. 80 million time zones, 40 million miles, you get the point.
And the best part?
How about stepping off the plane in Australia and 4 hours later having to go to my first baseball game (hadn't ran, worked-out, hit, thrown, nada for 5 days) ... and with my eyes half-shut just trying to stay awake during the game - trailing 2-0, in the 4th inning of a 7 inning game, I was startled when the coach told me to grab a glove and head into the field at 3B (a position I hadn't played in a game since the summer after Freshman year of college). The reason behind this absurdity, was the very reason I had to rush over to Australia in the first place - if I didn't appear in a game by Tuesday December 18 (that day) I wouldn't be eligible for the playoffs in March. The key word being APPEAR. Little did I know, that as I was dozing off on the bench, I was actually going to have to play the field or have an at-bat instead of the pre-discussed appearance simply as a pinch runner. In the top of the 4th with former Philadelphia Phillies farmhand and 1999 Holland Pitcher of the Year, Taj Merrill on the mound, I was at 3rd Base and with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd base, a slow ground ball was hit to my left - methodically I moved over to coral it but a few odd hops made me rethink just scooping it up and going to 1st base, instead I smothered it to make sure it didn't get past and as the runner from 2nd base glided past me and began to round 3rd base and head for home with 2 outs, I gave a full pump fake throw to first then wheeled around and saw the runner on 3rd dead in his tracks too far off the bag to get back. As fans of Sandlot will recall - "Pickle" is what ensued and as we chased him down for the 3rd out I felt lucky that in my semi-conscience state I hadn't done anything not to put the team in a worst position. However, after the short run-down I was definitely out of breath and that meant heading up to the plate to lead-off the inning while still sucking wind. As I watched 2 pitches sail by high for 2 balls and no strikes. I had a perfect 2-0 count to sit dead-red fastball and while delusions of grandeur began to conjure in my head I let my hands (and pretty much everything else) fly at the ball, way out in front - timing totally off - and one handed off the cap of the bat a bloop single into right field. At this point, just getting to first base without passing out was also an accomplishment then on the next pitch a bunt was laid down, right back to the pitcher, and as I peaked in at the play while dashing for second I noticed I was going to have to actually hustle in there. As the throw came in, I barrelled into the SS hoping to take him out of what could have been a devastating double play, instead, the throw pulled him off the bag and everyone was safe with no out. So now I'm starting to feel good about myself in my delusional state of "where am i" and as I wondered aimlessly off 2nd base, by the time I heard "BACK!" like the response time of a dinosaur, what I heard didn't seem to register with the rest of my body. I was a little too far off the bag and just a tad (ok, heaps - as the aussie's say) late getting back and so after starting the year so high - i ended picked off, a serious no-no in baseball, and not a very good impression in a tight-knit ball game. Luckily, my inspired play may have motivated the troops (that or I pulled myself out preventing any further damage) we rallied back in the last 2 innings and pulled of a 7-2 win.
I don't remember much else from the next 24 hours - trying to get adjusted to the 16.5 hour time difference and next day... but I'm in the Land Down Under playing baseball, enough said.

Year 2

In the midst of studying for the LSAT a few weeks ago in D.C. I received a phone call, from of all places... Australia, it took me about 5 minutes to decide...
to accept an offer to play winter ball in the South Australian Baseball League for the last 3 months of the season (December 18 - March 18). Thus beginning my 2nd year of pro ball - with an incredible opportunity to do my training during the off-season (which usually is confined to a cold dreary gym during the off-season in D.C.) in the gorgeous land down under, during their summer in Adelaide, Australia. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelaide ).

I will be moving back to Detroit on December 11th but only will be there for a few days before I go to Australia where I will be playing for the Southern Districts Baseball Club - Hawks ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Districts_Baseball_Club )
in the South Australian Baseball League. The league is a very high quality winter league, easily one of the best in the world, that many pro ball players that play world-wide and in the U.S. play in during our winter months. Luckily, unlike last year where I was in 2 countries that did not have English as a primary language you can sort-of follow me on this website ( http://www.southerndistricts.baseball.com.au/ ) however, I am unsure how frequently they update it so - as I did last year I will keeping a blog on my baseball games, experiences, travels, etc. on www.justprin.blogspot.com

I just want to thank so many of you for the support and well-wishes from the past year and I can't name everyone but particularly there were a few individuals that I really felt gave me great motivation to keep trying to attain my goals in baseball and live out my dreams that I've had since i was 7. From Philip De Wulf, to James Rosenau, to Paul and Joel Winston, to Joena Wattenbergh, to Chris Newell, to Michael Weinstein, and Brad Gooding, each of whom spoke with me at length and gave me so much encouragement to keep working and going down this path - and now, things are slowly coming to fruition and as the opportunities continue to open - I hope I can make all of you proud, or at the least provide some good entertainment with stories of my baseball exploits around the world.

First Start

After days and days of waiting...(technically our team, the Netanya Tigers, were schedule to play this game Tuesday, however, personally I had been waiting since May 14th) I was finally set to start our second game of the season against the Petach Tikva Pioneers at Yarkon Field. We had lost a heart-breaker in our first game against the Blue Sox on Monday, giving up 2 runs in the 6th inning, after leading 1-0 all game, and then to not get our last chance at-bat because the umpire called the game due to darkness. I was ready to get our team on the winning track and ironically was starting against the Pioneers (my former team in Belgium) to add to the irony even further, in my start in Belgium, I threw a no-hitter, that only stood up because in the 4th inning, after walking the leadoff batter I gave up a flare/blooper to right field that dropped neatly in front of our RF who threw to Second Base because it was hit so shallow he was able to get the force out at 2B, thus keeping my no-no intact. The game unfolded similarly, in which I struck out the first batter of the game and then cruised through the first 4 innings without yielding a hit, after walking a batter in the 4th inning the next batter hit blooper into right field that dropped just in front of our RF Ben Engleheart, so shallow, again, that he was able to pick it up and throw the ball to 2B to go for the force out that would keep my no-hitter intact, however, this time, the throw sailed high pulling our SS Hector De Los Santos off the bag and giving the Pioneers their only hit off me in 5 innings. Coach Baran pulled me after 5 innings, telling me it was a long season and so early in the year we had a good lead and I didn't need to be out there any longer. He also let me hit for myself which felt great especially when I helped out my own cause by lacing a double to the right field fence and putting the ball in play all 3 times up...I felt very comfortable up there and hope to see a lot more action hitting when I pitch or at least in the DH role. Afterwards, I went out with Rees to celebrate "White-Night" which happens once a year on a Thursday in June where the whole street (Rothschild) shuts down and people just cruise up and down the boulevard until all hours of the morning. The most entertaining part of the night was undoubtedly trying to actually get to this street because we must have hopped into 3 taxi's and no one knew the english name Rothschild, only after calling my friend Joey Sherman, on the Tel Aviv Lightening who has a place in Tel Aviv that I slept at a few nights early in my stay, who told me to say something like "Rawshee" (although I'm still unsure on the translation or correct pronunciation) but sure enough those were the magic words to get us there. Upon arrival I glanced at the street sign to see some crazy spelling but instead, my eyes were met with my gut instinct - "Rothschild" plastered upon the sign across the street. The club/bar was pretty much something I experienced a number of times in Belgium, same style music, same type of dancing, just a number of very tan incredibly gorgeous girls. Ah, The Life.

Did I mention we have peacocks, hundreds, that roam aimlessly (seemingly) around our rooms, and squak like you've never had a bird squak before... just a warning in case you plan a visit to Ramat Hasharon.

it's buzzzzzzzing...

How can I describe today? There is no humanly possible way without you being there – to feel the buzz, the anticipation, the smell of burgers, the loud speakers, the fans… I’ve played in front of 6,000 people before, on many professional and major league fields, with important people and scouts in attendance, with games so important that you could cut the tension with a knife. But I never have been a part of something so big, so new, so exciting in my life….and I didn’t even play. I will remember tonight forever.

We loaded up on charter buses by team, wearing our jersey’s and team hats. Upon arriving, we found about 100 or so media members running around trying to grab interviews with players, the 4 teams not plying of course, while the two teams playing warmed up on the field. There was a concession stand and 4 TV camera towers but still not nearly that many fans as they had seats for… We had some team meetings, talked with reporters and television cameras, walked around and admired the absolutely beautiful playing surface. I interviewed with the Globe Times – an Israeli economist like magazine and a woman from the Detroit Jewish News and also Nokoma Baseball Company (supplier of a lot of our equipment – we got free bats, nice batting gloves, etc.) Afterwards we were introduced on the field and the pre-game ceremonies began, ceremonial first pitch, the Israeli national anthem, the place was buzzing. When we came off the field we noticed a line stretching the entire block for entrance to the game and it remained the entire first two innings. We stood in line to get a burger from the really good concession stand and it took 50 min there were so many people there they didn’t anticipate. In fact, there were 2,000 seats, but another 2,000 people walked up and paid to get in just to stand. There were around 4,000 people there according to an official count – one word – pandemonium. The game itself wasn’t all that special except that the fans were going nuts with every play, tons of “oohs and aahs,” I mean they have never seen pro baseball in this country before. Modi’in Miracle beat the Pet Tikvah Pioneers 9-1 but the game was even more electric for the players not playing. I barely even watched the game because every time I turned around I was being mobbed by a little kid, really excited adults, or teenage girls, or 20-something guys that were huge baseball fans to sign their hat, their baseball, their program, their shirt, their arm, their baby?! Yep I signed so many autographs I don’t think I can pitch for a week, we estimated that I signed between 200-350 autographs, by the time dusk came upon us and the lights beamed down on the stadium, almost all 4,000 fans remained despite the results of the game being out of reach. An strong armed 6 foot 8 inch Dominican took the mound in the 9th and delivered 93 mph fastballs, yet, that was the first glimpse of the game I saw since the 2nd inning because I was so busy meeting fans, talking to kids, and getting wished good luck from ecstatic adults telling me how happy they were that pro baseball was finally in there country. No one, I mean no one expected this turn out, this electricity, and this much fan interest. All of our jersey’s were sold out at the concession stand in 20 min. Every team’s hat is on back order, and people were offering us hundreds of shekels for their hat, even girls were offering us dates if we gave them something – a jersey, a glove, a hat, I mean no words can explain the atmosphere.

Yes there are still problems.
Yes sometimes I wonder why I do all this?
But today I begin the most important two months of my life – I don’t need to have a crazy experience in tel aviv, going out and enjoying the city ever night or letting my social influences, such as friends and teammates here persuading me to "go out" because playing well, and playing great, and being the best will be fun enough and that’s what I plan on doing. It begins today and I can’t wait…

Arrival

The flight out of Belgium from Brussels left around 6 PM headed towards Frankfurt, Germany…stopping over there for a few hours before heading off to Israel around 1130 PM and with an hour time difference and an hour delay on the ground due to rain, I finally got into Tel Aviv around 330 AM with no sleep. By the time I got through customs and my luggage at 430 AM, we were only an hour and a half away from a group coming in from U.S. via London so I waited around with the commissioner, Rio (my teammate from Japan), and my coach Ami showed up around 830 AM. After waiting for a group from NYC as well we finally left the airport at 930 AM and at this point I couldn’t tell the difference between yesterday and today.

Originally we were supposed to room with our teams but they were so unorganized they didn’t have that ready yet, so when we showed up they simply said just find a spot and we’ll move you guys later…so I picked to room with Adam Crabb, my aussie mate that I met at the Israel workouts in Massachusetts last august and whom I hit it off with right away, and who I stayed in contact with sending at least monthly emails. He was also the first person to sign with the league so he has become quite a celebrity in baseball circles and esp. in Australia and Israel. The other roommate is Mick Ashton’s (my good buddy from Antwerp Eagles), best friend also from Australia and is really a good guy. Stud baseball player, good looking, good talker, and sensitive and compassionate at the same time…reminds me a lot of myself. We are all on 3 different teams, which makes things interesting but we have a great time together and it’s nice to talk openly about your team with other guys and guys you can trust. We have a lot of fun going out or just staying in and goofing around. The strangest part is that since I’m coming from Belgium and I was learning and speaking Dutch, now I’m in Israel, where I still sometimes think and speak in Dutch when I’m trying to learn Hebrew or attempt to communicate with my Dominican and Columbian teammates in Spanish, yet, since I hang out so much with Crabb and Rees, they’ve got me saying Australian sayings and basically everyday I sound more and more like a fake Aussie with some Belgian/Spanish/Hebrew words. Quite the combination.

Today we had our first official team practice at one of the fields. Our first game is Monday June 25th so our coaches Ami Baran, an Israeli who has basically accomplished everything in the entire world – law school, physical training, Olympic coach, world renown softball player, head of Israeli police and investigation, etc. and Mike Ibbostern, a great guy and good baseball man from the land down under, had about one day to figure out who are starters are going to be and what the pitching rotation will look like. It looks like I’ll start the year as our #2 pitcher in the rotation behind Leon Fiengold, and imposing 6 ft. 8 inch, hard throwing righty who I would like to give him the nickname “Big Country” in the future, of course, if he lets me. He played pro ball with the Indians, so I’m definitely not disappointed to be behind him in the rotation. Also, I hit well enough to make an impression that I will be allowed to handle the bat when I pitch and possibly see some time at the DH spot. Meanwhile, the rest of our team looks pretty solid, we have a deep pitching staff, two solid lefties that bring different looks and pitches and funkiness to the table. Vladamir Guerrero’s brother, Julio, is also going to be pitching for us, and a journeyman Columbian pitcher named Rafael will also be part of the rotation. We also have another pitcher Fabian with some funky arm angles and deliveries, and our lone Japenese player in the league Rio, who has the classic Japanese import hesitation move and seems like he could be very effective with his assortment of oddities and junk. Our hitting also looks pretty solid 1-9, but I like our like our field a lot. Defensively, Ty Erikson at first looks like a hidden gem, up the middle with Ray Rodriquez and Hector De Los Santos we can have some exciting double plays and Ryan at 3B does not look intimidated to knock stuff down and keep things in the infield. Our OF though goes real deep with 6 guys that can all run, throw, and catch very well. I think that might be our strongest area.

Last night we went out to a café in Tel Aviv near the city, it’s only a few minutes away on the bus or the cab and we had an enjoyable evening. In our first time out we began talking to some locals, and the Israeli women were much nicer to us (English speakers) I found, then some of the Israeli men who had numerous futile attempts during our conversations. Not all of the girls were good English speakers surprisingly and so just a few of them carried the conversation, and she said she was only good because as a kid she watched way too much TV. One thing I did notice about the scene was that the women were either really young looking or an older crowd and not a lot of people my age and the reason for that being, all citizens are required to serve from 18-22 in the Army and then afterwards, many of them go on extended vacation out of the country. So the girls are actually as young or as old as they appear sometimes…Interesting.

From Antwerp to Tel Aviv... playing ball worldwide

As the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League, the first professional baseball league the small country of just over 7 million people has ever seen, begin this week, many of the 120 players of the league’s 6 teams are getting their crack at pro baseball for the first time, however, in my first year out of college I see this league and opportunity as a continuation. The background on how it is I became a member of the Netanya Tigers has been labeled compelling or crazy by some but you can decide for yourselves. Although, I could write a book about my experiences in getting to this point I will just briefly provide a condensed introduction to how I got here and then a few times a week update the blog with experiences in a land that I have never been and that has never seen baseball at this level. The fascinating stories, the cultural exchanges, and the interactions amongst vastly different people held together by a common bond – baseball.

I had a decent senior year playing at George Washington University in 2006, in which my season was marred by excellent outings against top ranked schools in the country, and also inconsistency in pitching repertoire against what I presumed to be some inferior competition. Nevertheless, I had some looks from some Major League teams around draft time followed by a number of workouts and some looks from some independent ball teams as well. No one, however, was willing to commit substantial money to a 5 ft. 11 inch right handed pitcher who sat between 84-88 mph, despite my best efforts to rely on my movement, deception, off-speed (circle change-up in particular), ability to outthink hitters, and other intangibles like controlling the running game and competitiveness, the velocity was the key and crucial element that stunted my advancement into pro ball. I had a former coach that was playing in Holland and he helped me through a couple of people facilitate some interest overseas in a number of leagues in Europe for the 2007 season. Meanwhile, I had been hearing from a number of people about a new league forming in Israel that was looking for ball players especially those of Jewish heritage. A good friend of mine from George Washington University, Scott Rapkin, was really keen on the idea and after working out for the Cincinnati Reds who had just drafted my friend and former teammate at GW, Derrik Lutz, I made the trek up to the mountains of Hinsdale, Massachusetts to see what all the fuss was about.

Upon arriving, I believe I was the 2nd or 3rd guy there; I met a tall lanky Australian going by the name of Adam Crabb. We began talking and throughout the two-day workout continued to become fast friends and over the past year, even upon his return to Australia we stayed in contact minimally once a month through email. The workout was something totally unexpected for both Adam and I, being the first “tryout” for the league, and also being in a remote location, the level of competition was something I was not used to and we both clearly dominated inferior opponents at the plate. I left the workout with a good feeling about my performance but not of the competition it had offered.

For the next few months as I began working at a lobbying firm in downtown Washington, DC, I mulled over 20 or so offers to play pro ball all around the world. By the time November rolled around I was in serious negotiations with a team in the First Division pro league in Belgium, called the Hoboken Pioneers, before I heard from coach at GW that a man named Martin Berger of the IBL was looking for the best Jewish baseball players in Division 1 baseball and was trying to contact me. After brief introductory emails from Martin I received a few phone calls and they offered me a contract. He made me feel very wanted and I have to admit it was quite a difficult decision, with the league’s loose affiliation to MLB and other big backers behind it…in terms of advancing my pro baseball career I had to make a tough choice between a new start-up league with great potential or a league and a team with an already established pretty good reputation. Despite the ability to run my own life and make my own decision, I felt very partial to Hoboken in the Belgium league, they made great efforts in trying to accommodate me and sign me and I had virtually given them my word by the time I heard from the IBL and to me my word is bond so that’s who I went with.

Fast forward through the winter months that involved me working at the firm from 830 am to 630 pm everyday, then working out in the gym – throwing, running, hitting, and lifting until midnight then making the 35 min walk back to my apartment in the blistering cold wearing my suit around the early morning hours before finally settling down to eat dinner and do it all again in 5 hours… I got to Belgium on March 19th with 6 months worth of packed materials and ready to start my venture into pro baseball but also having no idea what to expect for this was the first time I was outside of North America.

Having already discovered that I am a wordy blogger, it might not surprise you to tell you that I have no way to sum up my experiences in Belgium in one brief paragraph, so I will try to stick to what happened in baseball and keep the cultural and personal experiences to a minimum since I already have another blog that was devoted to that over the season and you can check it out if it so interests you at www.justprin.blogspot.com.
The Belgium league was structured so that we played only on Saturday and Sundays, practices were twice a week and I coached the junior team (basically their minor league team) twice a week as well. The Belgian Federation only allows up to 2 foreign born players per team and levies a pretty costly fee in order to bring in foreign players, in hopes that the teams will look within Belgium to build-up the game and it’s players to further the advancement of the national team and program. So as the only foreign player on my team this year – the focus and pressure, especially as a starting pitcher is really directed at myself.

I lived at my general manager’s house, and since he was a traveling businessman I had the place almost entirely to myself all the time. Free to come and go as I please, my own bedroom, huge plasma TV, computer with high speed internet, they also paid for my gym membership in the city at one of the nicest gyms around, all my food was paid for from at the clubhouse to anytime I would eat out or buy groceries, also including all my beer at the club after games and practices, in addition to my monthly salary. One could say I lived very comfortably to play baseball there but as I stated and will reiterate, the inordinate amount of pressure came with the territory of being well off living in Belgium.


I stepped off the plane and at 6 AM, after an all night red-eye the first thing my General Manager says to me is “I thought you were taller…” This would prove to be very telling later in the season. As for the people of Hoboken and my teammates I was treated like royalty, I was having a great time and by the time the regular season began the second week of April I felt confident and relaxed. Making my first professional start against the Antwerp Eagles in Game 2 of the season, I pitched my first career no-hitter and only yielded one walk on a 3-2 count. After picking up my first win and doing it in that fashion I felt pretty relieved, but this is where things began to go strange. Amidst my many congratulations I heard from my G.M., who I was living with, that “they” were worried because I was “falling behind too many hitters early in the count.” Come on! I threw a no-hitter. It’s pretty ridiculous to say that to someone regardless if it’s true or not after first pro win and the fashion they did it in. I felt the pressure mounting. In my 2nd start, again at home, I thought my performance was even stronger – going 8 innings just over 100 pitches, and only giving up 2 walks and 1 hit on my way to striking out 9. Although I lost my shutout streak we won the game 10-2 and I began the year 2-0. Similar to the game before although I was complimented I could feel that they weren’t entirely happy with my 1 hit performance over my first two starts. They claimed that this was expected and that I needed to strike out more guys against that team, as the pitcher from the previous year did (a flame thrower they had who is now playing in the top European pro league in Holland, who rolled through the competition last year on his way to a microscopic 0.90 E.R.A. or something to that effect). I was expecting to move into the Saturday game for the 3rd series of the season since that was a home game, however, they said due to my “inconsistency” they were going to keep the young 18 year old Belgian kid in the Game 1 spot, I almost felt like they were saying you need to throw a perfect game every time if you want to go on the first game of the series. I didn’t think it really mattered when I threw, I was happy to just be pitching at a pro level, but my performance certainly warranted going Game 1 of the series, if that’s what they were looking to do. By this time I felt the pressure coming from all angles but especially on myself, I really felt like I had to throw a perfect game to move up to Game 1 and it didn’t help that there was no communication from my coach on what I had to do or what he thought I was doing wrong. In my third start of the season I had mediocre day on the hill, I don’t think I was mentally as focused as I should have been letting a number of the distractions fill my head throughout pre-game (including the coach, the flat ground surface I had to warm-up on) and then into the game (the terrible umpiring who decided to call the game where the catcher was catching my pitches and not where it was crossing the plate, the horrible conditions of the mound where I was digging a hole to china, every time I landed, and especially the defense ineptness of my teammates). I had a shaky first walking a few guys but it was compounded by 2 botched double play balls at second base. Although I settled down for a few innings, I walked 3 more guys but also was on the unfortunate side of 4 more errors. I went 5 innings, giving up only 1 earned run but 5 more unearned, although I still left the game with the lead, only to see it squandered in a walk-off home run in the last inning. I was pretty upset about the loss and hold expectations for myself higher than anyone else but when I was blamed for the loss and told that it was unacceptable how many people I walked I couldn’t believe it. 6 errors in 5 innings is over 1 extra out given per inning, additionally the umpire was so bad the opposing team pitcher got into a heated debate with him over balls and strikes and was almost run from the game. By my next start, no one was really talking to me on my team, especially the coach and general manager, I felt they were really disappointed in me despite the fact I had only given up 1 extra base hit in 3 starts, nevertheless, all these things caught up to me as I didn’t have my good stuff against the Namur Angles and was yanked after 3 innings and 4 earned runs (not a horrible performance, especially considering I could have lasted another 3 innings and held those runs, but definitely my worst performance of the year. We ended up coming back in the latter in innings and winning the game which made me feel good but I didn’t feel much like sticking around celebrating and drinking in the victory since I performed so bad so I went back home and worked out and worked out harder that week than ever before in preparation for the undefeated and top team in the league, the defending champion Greys, who we had coming up the next weekend. I had already pitched briefly against them in pre-season, after not pitching for over 9 months in a game, I came out on a blistering cold March afternoon and tossed 3 and 2/3 innings while only giving up 1 hit, 2 walks, and no runs, while striking out 2, so to say the least I was confident that I would perform well against them now that we were into the season and my velocity and feel for pitching was up. After we lost game 1 of the series, I was then informed by my coach I would be in the bullpen for the next game, I nodded and accepted it as I have always done with coaches, and prepared myself to come in and dominate despite how disappointed and confused by his actions, I was. However, I saw no action on Sunday during the game that we lost again, further agitating me. I went back home and wrote my coach a simple email saying that I was disappointed in losing but especially that I was given a chance to help win, despite how well I pitched against them in pre-season and overall with my performance on the year, I was confused with what they expected from me and if I was doing something wrong I would appreciate them communicating to me. On Monday I went to coach the junior team as usual, and despite the rain, and the fact the balls and bats were all in the head coach’s car who didn’t make it, I ran a great practice teaching the guys how to lead off, how to steal properly, how to think like a pitcher in the running game and vice versa. My G.M. picked me up from the field as it began to pout and upon returning home informed me of the team’s decision to release me from my contract, effective immediately. I was stunned. Floored, might be a better word, sure I had one bad start, ONE bad start, but that’s baseball, and although he stated this was nothing personal, they all loved me and thought I was great with the team and how well I coached the juniors, he said they simply thought I could not get them to the championship and beat the best teams (ironically who I was not able to even pitch against). Obviously, from a baseball standpoint this made no sense and though things came to light during the next few weeks that made things more understandable for me, at the time, I was feeling as low as you could. Within hours I had conversations with the American coach from the team in our league whom I had thrown the no-hitter against, who was interested in signing me, another team in Holland’s 2nd Division in Rotterdam wanted to bring me in to pitch, and I followed up with Martin Berger to see if the IBL offer was still on the table.

I had seen the great strides in the league from what I had been hearing from people back home and just following sponsorships, signings, etc. on the amazing website they had. I had to make a decision… to me, it was difficult enough to turn down the offer in the fall and I wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice. I thought that a league bringing in players from all over the world and with a higher pay scale and with all the endorsements, MLB backing, and people affiliated with pro ball in the states, it would be a better opportunity to advance my career in baseball than any European opportunity had to offer. Additionally, I had never been to Israel before, and that was a very important element to me since I am Jewish.

For the past 4 weeks I stayed in Belgium, instead of going back to America, as the Hoboken Pioneers hoped I would. I continued to work out, and pitch practice with the Antwerp Eagles the team I no-hit and even helped them in preparation defeat the Pioneers in their rematch a few weeks ago. Although I had to move out of my place and leave behind a lot of my friends and teammates, which was difficult, I was able to stay with an amazing family I had met there, who lived in a community 20 minutes outside of Antwerp that took me in, fed me, helped me out in so many ways that I am truly indebted to them and so appreciative of their graciousness and hospitality. I continued a daily grind of working out, throwing, and hitting, traveling on public transit at all hours of the day and night and picking up rides wherever I could, in order to stay consistent with my baseball workouts, while also trying to spend the last remaining days there with some amazing people and friends I made during the months I was there, including, one gal, Joena Wattenbergh, who I spent seemingly everyday with for a span of 2 months, and made it very difficult to leave Belgium, because I will really miss her and not see her again for a long time.

I learned a great deal from my experience in Belgium that I hope will prepare me better for pro ball in Israel. Despite the language barrier in both countries, people are people, and that means that you have to be weary of the circumstances around you as they unfold. Now, I don’t think what happened in Belgium, which turned out to be something more personal and contrite, in which, before I even had my bad outing they had already made an arrangement to bring over another American pitcher to replace me (who I think is 2-2 as of now, as my former team dropped 7 out of the next 10 games) but the game is a business, and they will do what’s best for them, and while I pour my heart and soul into the team on the field and into the town, community of people, and the organization, the only person that can look out for “you” sometimes is “you.” Finally, although I don’t I fell victim to this, you can never be content with your performance, you have to keep the edge on at all times…I kind of figured because they signed me for a year, and it’s a long season they would give me a chance to work out some of the kinks with my motion or change-up that plagued me in my 4th start, obviously, the dynamics of the situation were different than a normal baseball situation, but it still taught me that you simply can’t lose that competitiveness and the desire to be the best, especially if you are going to go somewhere in baseball. With all that said, I can’t wait for this opportunity in Israel. Since May 14th I’ve been itching to get back on the field, going through bouts of withdrawal all the while as I counted down my final days in Europe. Now that I’m finally here, I plan on bringing a championship to Netanya, making the IBL as successful as possible, being the best pitcher I can be and hopefully doing well enough to get some looks after the season, and enjoying the experience in a new culture and meeting new people.

highlights because im too busy to update

i have to admit, the first month, i posted with regularity, now as the days begin to blur, i begin to have friends, and my english becomes worse and worse my desire to post has dweened. i will place blame somewhere though. i have now got a pretty good routine and this actually scares me. 50% of justin wants to enjoy his time here, not stress with the mundane daily tasks that i finally escaped in my exodus from the states, and mostly live with this wavering new perspective that one requires when they venture to a place vastyl different from their comfort zone. the other half of me, realizes it's important for my baseball career to have a regimented workout schedule along with throwing and hitting, and you can't accomplish that during the day unless you have it down. the glaring omission in my life here in europe is my independance, or shall i say, dependance on others for language help, getting to places, and of course when it comes to baseball - throwing and hitting, if you want to get real work done you have to practice with people. during the long winter nights after bonner and associates in d.c. i was able to head over to GW and hit off the tee, lift, and throw against the wall, because the space and facility existed, and the walk was managable. here, i am removed from any place that resembles an indoor baseball facility and some of the wall structures are so old i feel as if i might shatter them and be detained in belgium for life for destroying historical artifacts.
the schedule has pretty much been monday and wed wake up and type emails, clean, talk to joena on gchat, catch up with all the sports i missed in the u.s. while i was in bed then head over to the city to workout in the gym for a few hours before i coach practice from 7-9, similar scenario on tues and thurs except instead of coaching i actually practice (although, i tend to throw and run with the juniors - because i always hated coaches who would make you do something u know they were too lazy to do, so i try to say, hey if this old man can do it, so can you!) then fridays are a pretty much do errands, or walk around, or hang out with a girl who doesnt have to work and then try to find someone that will catch a short bullpen before we head out for the evening.

now the highlights -
friday april 27 - upon waking i was offered to join joena babysit here best friend's daughter (sharon is the best friend, kaya is the daughter) she is 3. she is adorable. i already asked her to marry me, but she didnt understand what i said. in fact, the entire day she didnt understand a word i said, anytime i said something in english, she would respond niet doon
(which is no, or no more) and everytime she would say something (that i also never understood) i would respond with a ja (which means yes) somehow we existed in the entire day at the park in downtown antwerp. it was quite relaxing, and to top it off i had some delcious belgian ice cream for lunch. the best part was when joena left us alone on the playground for about 20 min and kaya, who i have nicknamed the chief, was standing on a tire swing, and made movements that she wanted to go higher on it, so i started pushing it higher, and she was laughing and smiling but then kept saying nietdoon but it sounded like yiyoon *which i determined to be yipee or higher. it was only when she was about to jump off that i realized that maybe something was lost in translation. later that evening i sat on the terrace of sharon's with clio and 2 of their friends and ate spaghetti. i called it a night instead of going out to jameson's because i wanted to get in good sleeping habits for the weekend.

saturday april 28 - after our win, clio, joena, nick, and i went to barselino for our weekly dinner, it seems and then watched old school, which i swear gets funnier everytime i see it (i believe this was in the late 20s for me)

sunday arpil 29 - game against boregraudt squirrels. at their field. for some reason, i was not in a good mood going into the game. a lot of my negativity was rooted in this notion i had in my head that i wasn't doing enough, pitching wise, to please the manager/coaching staff. i had thrown 13 innings and given up 1 hit at this point with a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio, and of course 2 wins in 2 starts...i was under the assumption that i had at least met expectations, after all, you can't do much better result-wise, and that i was going to be top of the rotation (saturday guy) when someone, close to the team, informed me that i shouldnt worry about that, the foreign pitcher always takes the mound during the home games, i was quite preplexed to find that i was still pitching on sunday and not at home. now, some might think what the hell is he complaining about, he's still starting, it doesnt matter what day or where, and he's being paid to do it! true. i can't argue with that philosophy, which i tried to continuously remind myself all week, however, it weighed on me heavily because had i pitched better, according to some sources (not falling behind as many hitters in the count, i guess was the one complaint) i would have been pitching saturday. i talked a few times with a friend that i really felt a lot of pressure because of these rumblings and wasnt sure what else i needed to do. alas, i went into the game very negative, sometimes the anger is a good thing to channel. i recall, after i had been dumped by an ex girlfriend in the fall of '05 i was so angry over the situation during that week i came out and hit 86 and 87 consistently on the gun out of nowhere (i think i had been 82-83 the prior weeks) in this scenario, however, because it was something really baseball related on my mind, it wasn't as much as anger, but something in which i wanted to prove to everyone how good i was. to make matters worse, this particular field had no bullpen to warm up in, so i start getting into my head...i haven't warmed up flat ground literally since high school. let the overthinking begin. the first inning was rough. which has been my M.O. i am a rythym pitcher and some days it will take me an inning to get into that groove, but i don't think this was one of the cases. the first batter singled past the SS, and it should be noted here that our regular SS, Dennis DeQuint was out with an injury, so our usual 2B Dennis Ribens moved over to SS, and Alain Lambeau, or fine-hitting DH was entered at 2B, this was troubling from the beginning, as I walked the next batter (the umpire was literally only calling strikes from where the catcher caught it, which is very frustrating for a pitcher like me, who relies on movement, pitches in the zone, moving out and pitches out of the zone that move in, to beat hitters. 2 muffed ground balls at 2B, both could have been double plays and an infield hit, and another walk, before you know it, they push across 3 runs. We fought back in the first and second innings and in the second i regained my poise and had a quicker inning although another error forced me to throw more pitches. we took a 4-3 lead and i had an easy 3rd inning 1, 2, 3. but in the 4th i ran into trouble throwing pitches i thought were down the middle literally being called balls, i got flustered, walked the lead off guy, another muffed double play ball by the 2nd baseman then a bunt that rolled in between me and first where nothing could be done, i had bases loaded no out, i struck out the next guy but then gave up a hard single into right center (one of 2 hard hit balls) pushing 2 more runs across. i got out of the inning, but again in the 5th, another error and walk, and then a stolen base where the runner eldued the tag by running out of the baseline but was not called out, gave way to a base hit that scored their 6th run. i was taken out of the game after throwing 96 pitches, losing 6-5, only 2 of the runs being earned, but still yielded 5 walks and a hit batter. certainly not my best performance, but i didnt think i threw entirely bad after the first inning kinks were worked out. my pitches were moving, i was not missing high, or low by a lot just out and in. also, the errors were atypical since we weren't playing with a normal lineup (there were a total of 6 of them) and i think with maybe half of those errors are outs, i walk 2 or 3 guys and pitch into the 7th leading 5-2. we ended up coming back and taking a few run lead, tommy was solid in relief but ran into trouble in the 9th, another error was made and it led to a big inning were they pushed two runs across to tie it and then a walk-off 3 run bomb to win it. obviously i felt very responsible for the loss, but in retrospect, i gave up about 5 or 6 ground balls that are pretty sure outs and it's baseball - i am not aware of a game pitched that ever included 27 strikeouts for all 27 outs on a high level, so you have to play as a team and although the loss and win favorably and sometimes unfavorably will bestowed upon the man upon the mound it's a collective effort and i can't stress that enough. so i said, after that - let's go out and get smashed! the tofleje rond, quickly becoming my favorite place with sharon, joena, and clio, followed by marmite until the wee sunday hours.

monday april 30. holiday here in belgium, boy they have a lot of holidays. went with joena and clio to the antwerp zoo, located right in the middle of the city. i felt like a tourist, with my backpack, brooklyn dodgers baseball hat, and shades. it was a pleasant time except that i was disappointed they did not feed former communists to the lions as i was under the impression they do here in europe. oh well. another night at the tofleje rond after coaching practice but i took it easy because tuesday was the actual holiday (ppl just took monday off in preperation for the tuesday day) and we had to play the first game of the belgian cup. anyways, at the tofle joena and i began one of our classic 4 hour discussions this time on dating in belgium compared to dating in america. apparently, the classic approach, which i abide by...ask a girl out on a date that you are interested in and seems like they're interested in you. if the date goes well you ask for a second date, maybe you good a peck or a kiss, and you proceed with caution, usually. after about 4 or 5 times, and you haven't killed each other yet or tried to poison the other person's drink when they went to the bathroom, you usually begin the process of "dating casually" meaning you begin the "hooking up" stage or if you are not into that sort of thing, you just intensify the communication and frequency of visits, however, still keeping options open and definitely keeping your own life seperate from the"dater" the next step goes to exclusive dating, where you are on that trial basis until the first disagreement or argument, and then if you get past that you qualify for the relationship status. now it's not always that cut and dry, but there is defiintely a system in place, in the states, that makes it easier to follow. apparently, that does not exist here, and sorta lost now on how you can date a person here without "dating" them. maybe matt millen has some answers?

tuesday may 1. our first game for the belgian cup against a 2nd or 3rd division team, about 45 min away, called the bebops. a note about the cup: it's seperate from the regular season, there are a number of divisions in belgium and all the teams get a fair shot to win the belgian cup (i think we are the two seed in the entire system) and it lasts the length of the season, played on holidays instead of during the weekends. i was warned, but no warning could prepare me for the level of play by teams in lower divisions here. we beat them 38-1. it was disgusting... i don't even think some of the guys could have played on my jv baseball team. needless to say i was able to enter the game into right field and go 2-2 as well as getting beaned by a pitch. i was tyring to hit a home run and didn't really feel like moving out of the way. but then i turned and asked the umpire if i could stay in and hit instead of heading to first base...he declined my invitation and probably thought to himself "crazy american" as they all do over here. that night a group of us...nick, clio, joena, jill, and myself had dinner at a chinese restaurant. very similar to a u.s. restaurant except for the fact that instead of getting rice, you are allowed to substitute for fritjes (that is fries!) at a chinese restaurant???? i know. i was aghast in horror and disbelief, i couldn't talk for 20 min because of the culture shock.

the lions drafted another rec *i before e except after c, eiver and the polar ice caps are melting

the pistons start a crucial series in the nba playoffs against the hated chicago bulls.

and i check out the north american sports network programing, and i don't see any mention of nba playoffs on there... what am i going to do?




http://www.nasn.com/content/nasn/portal.nsf/systemcontent/tvschedule?open&dateadjust=5&
goal: find a sports bar in the city to watch the game - sat? sun?


more important goal: pitch another 0-1 hit performance and get us a win on sunday against nemur angels.





finally figured out how to upload pictures onto the blog. that's fun. now i have another procastination mechanism, oh wait, i'm no longer in college so i don't think procrastination applies in this instance.





i guess i should update my blog from last friday to today (thursday) although here it is 235 am and officially friday, except that i forgot what i did on sunday night and monday night so i emailed my friend clio (see picture above and to the right, taken on tuesday night? at the tofleje rond, my new favorite place...) to see if she can remember what i did so i can write about it and because i'm trying to keep the blog in chronological order, then i can also write about my horrible outing on sunday, our victory on saturday, my first hit of the season on tuesday, my continuing success in the language of the netherlanders, or as we refer to it as justin's belgianeese (otherwise known as dutch, flemish, antwerpen dialect, or flanders?) can someone just consolidate the labels and give me something that everyone calls it because seriously no two people refer to the language as the same thing....that's why i like belgianeese the best.





oh and in case you were wondering, the lions broke jay prinstein's draft rules by drafting calvin johnson, wide receiver from georgia tech, and not trading him... did you really expect them to not doing something ridiculous, even if johnson turns out to be a hall of famer, this pick probably costs us a chance at the super bowl...





so when can i watch the pistons again?

that time of the year

taking a break from life in belgium for a brief moment i am trying to cope with not being able to watch the pistons during the playoffs, the red wings during the playoffs, and ridiculous coverage how the lions will once again screw up a #2 pick in the nfl draft. luckily, i can watch the tigers anytime but the games don't usually start until 1 am my time and it's only april as well.
so since i have the medium i'd like to share a few thoughts on detroit sports:

pistons:
the firing of rick carslile from indiana made me think back to our first run to the conference finals in 2003 when prince and okur were rookies. i had been a huge prince fan in college mainly because of the name but i thought he would be an amazing pick for detroit in the draft but i didn't think he would last that far - he did and dumars made probably the best pick of his career (if he doesn't block that shot against miller in '04 we might not win the game, the series or the championship) anyways, prince was burried behind cliff robinson all year until dumars put some pressure on rick and finally prince burst onto the scene down 3-1 against the magic and checked mcgrady and was a force inside. he is probably the most underrated and underappreciated player in this league, mainly due to the pistons success i feel confident saying that and finally he got some recognition last night as the pistons went up 3-0 in this espn article... http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-070427

if and when we get by orlando, i think the winner of the bulls vs. heat series in the semi's is going to be tough. kinda odd that the pistons have to go through either one of the two toughest teams in the 2nd round when the cavs, raptors, and nets have not offered any real competition to the pistons all year nor do they appear to have the depth and matchup problems that shaq and wade or deng and the perimeter shooting bulls can do. one of these days i got to watch a game.

wings:
is it just me or has the strike and lack of promotion kind of stymied interest in the NHL right now. with shanny, mccarty, yzerman gone it's kind of a different look team, obviously and being away from detroit the past 3 years coupled with the hockey strike in between - i dont know these players like i used to be able to name the entire 96 wings team back in the day. the sharks clearly have superior offensive power and i'm no expert but this series might come to goaltending (duh) maybe one of these days i can catch a game, although i'm not losing sleep over it...it would be nice to see the wings make the conference finals in the first time in a looooong time.

tigers:
not worried about sheffield's average, rodney's e.r.a, zumaya's control, guillen's defense
am worried about monroe's average (he's a summer hitter and i hope they don't give up on him or play with his confidence before he gets to his peak usually around may), casey's inability to hit, pudge's body and lack of a suitable backup catcher (vance wilson on the dl), verlander and a possible sophomore slump and arm fatigue (although looks fine right now), lefty specialist in the bullpen, and most importantly todd jones inability to get punchouts in the 9th, and ability to be the weakest link on this solid team in one of the most important rolls because he has the ability to always let the other team back in. when will leyland wise up and make zumaya the closer?

lions:
jay prinstein's rules to draft:
1. never ever ever draft a wide receiver in the first round (what round was rice taken? exactly, they're a dime a dozen)
2. always trade down if you can and get more picks, especially when you suck like the lions
3. DBTH - don't believe the hype

with those guidelines in place and the draft less than 24 hours away i will take my crack at lions GM because as most people claim, anyone can do a better job than millen.

i think the lack of quality quarterbacks or should i say franchise quarterbacks are causing russell and quinn to be overhyped. russell had a good year and a great bowl game - he's like leftwhich but maybe lacking the heart and determination that leftwhich shows (by the way - i think he would be a great pick for the lions, leftwhich that is, if they can get him from the jags who seem to be burnt out of him, because he can take hits and our line always has and always will suck). quinn, meanwhile, has the rick mirer - notre dame itis going on in which i never saw him win or play a really great game in college and being from where he is from causes his stock to increase? meanwhile, not only was harrington a winner in college he had some outstanding games and victories unlike quinn. i think drafting a quarterback with the 2nd pick and taking the necessary time to develop one 2-3 years (since they didnt with harrington and they should've) will only set the organization back another 2-3 years because they still dont have the other pieces.

joe thomas: i'm still in the aaron gibson - jeff backus you must be weary of overhyped lineman in a weak lineman draft (the number 3 guy is from central michinga) you're telling me that there are no animals from tenneesse, florida state, miami, usc, etc. that can go in the first round - be weary of the OL this year then. plus you can get solid OL guys in the 2nd and 3rd rounds especially if you trade down

adrian peterson: i'm on the kevin jones bandwagon, yes he needs to stay healthy but why is he running in the 2nd to last game of the season in a blowout loss in the 4th quarter. you don't do that to your franchise running back - so not entirely his fault, and a freak injury. meanwhile, anyone who runs as fast as he does and as powerful as he does (ran over literally ran over Ray Lewis last year, never seen anything like it) is special and as long as they spell him with Bell and Duckett, i think they'll be alright there. so pass on peterson

calvin johnson: this is obviously the most intriguing scenario beacuse yes - he is a freak, yes - he is the best PLAYER in the draft, yes - he has great work ethic and character, and yes - the lions mangled 3 drafts already by taking WR with the first pick. so basically they're set up to fail here. it's a lose-lose, even if he turns out to be amazing, you lose out on an impact defense player and defense wins championships (just ask the colts who never had one until this year despite their potent offense) and multiple picks. yet, we do need a receiver. wait i have a solution - jay prinstein's rule number 1. they're a dime a dozen. reports have it that ginn beccause of worries about his foot may fall to the 2nd round. sooooo....

trade the pick. get Amobi Okoye, DT, Louisville. the kid is 19 years old and already graduated from college. smart - check. he is in the julius peppers mode and got a ton of sacks in college due to freakish athleticism - check. he is 19 so he is young and healthy and will only get better (upside?) haha i hate that word - but check. addressess a huge need aka pressure on the opposing quarterback - check. and then we can maybe squeeze a low end first round pick if we get a 2nd and 3rd and package those together and take a robert mechem the incredibly fast wide reciever out of tennesee. or even better we get another defensive guy in the low first round by that type of trade like lawrence timmons "LB from FSU or david harris the LB from michigan. if we can't strike a deal like that - you get your extra 2nd round pick and 3rd round pick and that's where you pick up a dwayne jarrett or steve smith from usc or if ginn falls and drew stanton from msu who has better skills, clutch performances, and potential than i think brady quinn does at quarterback and address OL in the 2nd and third with your real picks as well. okoye and extra picks in the early rounds are sure bets to me that's how i would go.
or pick johnson trade him to TB for thomas once they feel the pressure and get their 2nd and 3rd round pick. but let's be creative here geniuses in ford's office.

we'll see what happens.

yesterday was the most intense workout day i've ever had. bike, upper lifting, lower lifting, grueling practice in 80 degree heat where i was long tossing a ton after the lifting, the dan pfau theory of breaking down your muscles and throwing exhausted so you can replicate this in later innings of games, followed by OF catching and sprinting drills, followed by more running while shagging balls in BP and continuously switching up groups at the plate, and then sprinting 10 poles, for the first time in a while i was winded at practice, sucking air big time - it feels great to work that hard though, but i'm definitely in recovery mode all day and afternoon until i throw a light pen this evening.

last night was the typical thursday night group of all the people that don't have to work on friday... joena and i. we were going to go somewhere pretty happening but went by jameson's where she knows the owner real well, first, and ended up staying there for about 5 hours all while he poured us continuous champagne. so i can't argue with that. i didn't drive home (champagne) unfortunately because i was looking forward to it like last week at 5 am, but she does have this amazing radio system that you can just simply plug your ipod right into it, i have never seen any gadget like it and i was mezmorized by it, so that made up for the last of practice on the stick shift since i was able to DJ from my ipod. oh and apparently robbie williams is a big deal here, i can't tell you any song he's ever sung but they were playing it all night long at jameson's and everyone at the bar knew the words. interesting. i will investigate.

am i almost caught up yet???

i've been having issues with the blog page because someone or somehow the language was changed to dutch so i've been trying to figure out how to edit and post the past few days while being to lazy to figure out how to change the language - so sorry DAYLE PRINSTEIN.

let's get caught up on the 2nd start on sunday april 24.

all week people were giving me crap about the fuzziness growing on my face...apparently i haven't reached puberty yet and when you throw a no-hitter, at least i'm told, it's custom to not change anything and that includes shaving so things grew or what little i have grew for about 2 weeks and maybe that's why i can't get a date yet?

nevertheless, i wasn't able to continue my no-hit streak i went 8 innings, 3 walks, a hit batter, 6 strikeouts ( i think - i actually still haven't seen the box score, so it might be 5 or it might be 7), 2 Runs, 2 Earned Runs, and 1 hit. Yeah, so in my first 13 innings of the season i've given up only a hit - it was in the third innings, as mr. stan would have predicted in 11th grade english class while reading crime and punishment all bad things come from 3's. i walked the first two batters and after a base hit to left-center i proceeded to drill the next batter in the back with the first pitch and then gave up a fielder's choice that pushed a across the 2nd run, but we easily won the game 10-2 with great defense and great production once again from our hitters. dennis ribbens who replaced dennis de quint at shorstop in the 2nd inning due to an injury by DQ, made a play where he ranged behind 2nd base on a hard hit ball up the middle and from the grass threw out the runner at first...one of the most incredible plays i've ever witnessed in a game i pitched.

i have to say whether it was the weather or the pressure or my practice during the week but despite the one rough inning (which, hey it's baseball those things happen) i felt pretty zoned in, i couldn't even hear ilse (who took some amazing pictures that maybe once i figure out how to get this page back to english i can figure out how to post) yelling my name... i strained my back in the 5th inning and got really tight and ended up going into the 8th and came 1 strike away from striking out the side. the first half of the game, sammy called on point - we just went after them with 2 seam fastballs on the hands but mostly stayed outside with the four seam that was moving a ton - i would start it down the middle and it would move to the corner for a strike or i would start it on the corner and it would move out of the zone for a ball and they would flair it to right or weak grounder to the right side pretty much all day. the change-up finally got going but after the 5th inning we went exclusively with the slider and fastball so sammy really did a great job of making them guess and not seeing all 3 of my pitches in one at bat, in fact, i can't recall one batter that i threw all the pitches too. because of dennis' injury the DH was lifted so i hit for myself - the bad news is i went o-3. the good news is i stayed back and the pitches and tried to let my hands do the work. liner back to the pitcher, hard groundout to 2nd that moved a runner over and a flyball to right but i felt like i got some good wood on the ball and everyday i feel more comfortable with my swing and stance.

we have now started the season 4-0 and are tied with the greys for first, it's real early though so we'll see what happens. but the boys are playing great ball behind me, and we're getting great pitching from everyone.

after the game joena, clio, nick and i tried to get some mexican but had to settle for italian, after we headed out to a cuban dance club playing salsa and merengue music - i felt right at home in adams morgan - washington dc style.

to sum up monday - wednesday =>
lots of running in hoboken. it's been beautiful out in the 20s all day and ive been doing my 45 min circuit through the town to nil's house and back to erwin's.
lots of lifting. finally figured out how to get to the gym by myself so i dont have to depend on dennis, although alain came through clutch when he dropped me off after practice on tues and when erwin picked me up tuesday night because i was waiting for the bus for about 40 min at 11 pm.
lots of going to numerous stores, including the same store 3 seperate times (confusion over when it was open) with joena, joena's mom, and joena with her mom all 3 days before i finally got an adaptor and now can charge my labtop so i can watch dvds that i brought, that won't play on erwin's system and got a headset so i can talk to important people i.e. DAYLE PRINSTEIN over skype. www.skype.com for free.
lots of coaching. frank, the juniors coach, is out all week so i've been running their practices and surprisingly have been able to teach and coach without too many lost in translation problems. we strictly did hitting practice and had a good time on monday. today (wednesday) we got after some defense drills i taught them courtesy of George Washington University Baseball and instituted and practiced various bunt plays and coverages, how to take proper angles to fly balls, and some base running techniques instead of just making them run for the heck of it. i think they all respected where i came from so they listened very well and tried hard in what i was teaching them. i was also able to joke with them and be on their level even as to go as far as to run with them, throw with them, and stretch with them which helps them accept me more because i'm participating in what they're doing and not asking them to do anything i wouldn't (what i hate about american coaches)...unfortunately i'm supposed to coach their game on sunday but because i'm pitching, i find it too difficult to focus all my attention on their game for a few hours before we play ours....and they have no one to coach them so tomorrow i'm going to have to figure out that situation. hmmmm.

i just got back from my 2nd whirlwind at driving stick, from erwin's to the city about 8 minutes i was doing great going from 1st to 3rd but at the red light i stalled out 3 times in a row because i was not good going from clutch and break to 1st, before i finally got it right and made a left turn before stalling out again and then having joena jump out in the middle of the street and switch with me. i have to say i was quite surprised when her and clio showed up to pick me up this evening and they immediately jumped out of the front seat and basically forced me to drive.
i was more nervous than when i pitch, no joke - true story.
so i think i'm finally caught up, although i'm still not sure how the milk can stay fresh outside of the fridge. on gan nam (it's belgianeese for nice to meet you - i'm trying hard to learn at least one phrase and word a day) although i didnt spell it right that's how it sounds.

so let me tell you what i've been up to...volume 2

Monday April 16th - my boy dave, my best friend from college, had a day to do nothing before he was due to meet his girl in the south of France, so on a whim, he says to me Sunday night, let's take a train to Brugge (in Belgium) it's supposed to be the Venice of the North.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruges

In early afternoon we headed down to the central station in Antwerp and ended up making the 2:53 train by seconds - it was about an hour and 15 or so minutes and when we arrived we took a bus to the center square which was one of the most beautiful sites i've seen. The city literally looks like it's been stuck in the 13th century and hasn't changed a bit...3 stunning cathedrals loomed from each direction in the city. we walked around for a while and ate, noticing that every other store was a sit-down restaurant but as the evening approached, and every restaurant was open, not only were none of them filled, almost all of them were empty. we figured that the proportion of restaurants to people in the town that evening was 3:1.

we went searching for a hostel (the first time for me but dave has been doing this throughout his european excursion the past month) and the first one we came upon was only 15 euros for the night but upon entry to our room, there about 10 bunkbeds in there and already a really strange looking and smelly smelling man laying down, so we exited quickly and told the man we would be back later we weren't sure if we were going to stay the night. we came upon one that was pretty good. private room only 22 euros, included breakfast (which i stuck around for in the morning - included bread and butter and orange juice - luckily dave missed it with his 530 am train to france).

that evening as we went out, there wasn't much to do...although we saw some beautiful sites and ate amazing chocolate as we noticed the tourist season really hadn't kicked off yet on this chilly april night. we ventured into a restaurant where i attempted to use my belgianeese on the waitress (ik frogh hut an - meaning "i want you") it's a famous belgian song on the radio right now but apparently she didn't understand me (they never do) and i had to settle for the "mach ik twe pintjes astublief"(can i have two beers please) upon hearing this attempt of mine at flemish, the waitress blurted out that i should just stick to saying pintjes because i say it very adorable. i told her that's the only thing i know how to order so far so it wouldnt be a problem.

the night turned into an adventure of escalating dares for dave and i - who could take the worst looking pictures (which he still needs to send me, of course) who could make the biggest fool of himself in one of three bars that were open, who would be the person to start up conversations with random girls (i like dave's opening line to a group clearly speaking some european language - "my buddy and i have have a bet, are you guys from australia or belgium, i think u guys are from australia?" - they were from holland, close dave, so close.) he also supplimented the - do you ladies know what baseball is? my friend over here pitched a no-hitter yesterday (he really needs some new material like mine) at the local watering hole i asked a girl if she came here often, she said "actually i live next door" and it concluded with who could drink the heaviest beer - with me winning, i guess you could call it winning, although i definitely didnt feel anything after drinking this - 11% http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/acatalog/Beers_of_Europe__Kasteel_65.html

Tues April 17 - i survived my first experience at a hostel, but on the train ride back i cant say i was so lucky. i entered the train (without a shower, there was no way i was showering at the hostel, it looked like a toliet stall and probably was used as a toilet stall and for everyone that knows me, i cant function in the morning without a shower - sort of like coffee sans the caffiine) and sat down in a seat that looked very familiar to a seat i sat on the way to brugge. about 50 min into an hour and 15 min train ride, as i was gazing beyond the pastures of greeness consuming my window view, i hand waving in front of my face sort of startled my trance-like state (i think the 11% was still kickin in my system) and a man wearing the most ridiculous hat, i almost felt bad for him (something to this effect - http://www.vvvmaastricht.nl/cms/images/stories/groepsgewijs/P39_1.jpg )

starts yelling at me in that other language, yeah...the one i DONT know. i tried to tell him that i couldnt understand him. at least 3 times, he repeated what he said. so finally i said in english i can only understand english (apparently he thought i was making this up) he points at the carpet and says can't you see you are in first class and you only have a coach ticket you have to leave now!!!! ok man, first off - on the way here, i was in "coach"i guess, i didnt realize on these trains they had first class? and it had carpeted floors, so if that's the only way you can identify first class, how am i supposed to know that? well you to need to leave now and you should know that carpet is first class. so of course not wanting to get arrested after exactly one month in the country i said, truthfully it's my first time how are you supposed to know that carpet = first class. in my country, usually marble floors = first class, and speaking of first class i dont think you should be allowed in here with that hat.
so for the last 15 min i sat in coach. next to a girl that smelled, of course.
that was brugge.

lifted after a week of nothing due to the sickness and then practice...standard tuesday. gotta love having nothing to do all day but practice baseball, write in the blog, and work on my belgianeese.

wed april 18 - back from my sickness hiatus i was able to help coach the juniors which was a blast. the kids are from 14-18, and they are pretty solid...some of these guys have potential and all they need is some good coaching, a little insightfulness, and direction and hopefully over the next 6 months i can provide that and make a difference in their games and attitudes (most take a very non-shalont approach) although i think everyday i work with them it gets a little better.

thurs april 19 - see tuesday
because i was pitching the home game on sunday, and most people go out friday and saturday nights, and because i'm pretty serious about my baseball game and don't like to indulge in any sort of drinking, debauchery, or tomfoolery to close to game-time, and because in d.c. we always partied on thursday night i thought i would test my luck with the 8.7 friends i have thus far and see if someone wanted to go out with me.
alain - work the next day
nick - listening to music i gave him last week
sofie - school the next day
sammy - had a date, dinner, or both
wendy - work the next day
erwin - out of town
dennis - with his gf
sven - had to work
dennis ribbens - had to work the next day
so i made plans with clio, but she apparently fell asleep and then was too tired to go out (and had to work the next morning) luckily i found out that joena doesn't have to work on friday and convinced her to help me explore the city which started at a new spot she took me to, that apparently is a favorite stomping grounds of her and her friends on monday nights, but apparently thursday night is the night for hardcore techno fans as we couldnt even hear ourselves think in the bar. so we ventured back to the tofleje rond (my favorite place) for a few drinks before heading to the river with a friend of hers we met up with there (tom) whose english was great because he is always visiting his cousin in the states, as we compared notes about the differences. with tom we went to a club on a boat that is on the river, it was sweet, except for the fact when you went to the bathroom the floor was uneven. more bathroom experiences to come.... we got up to VIP where i have to say it wasn't that much different from the u.s. other than all the guys looked the same, hair slicked back, unless they didnt have any it was completely shaved, and button down shirts with the first 3 buttons undone so the chest hair was in full effect, some guys had the sunglass thing on and some had them hanging on the shirt or on the top of their head, because it was pretty bright in there (not). big difference here is how they dance - joena claims that you just move your knees in belgium. in the u.s. we like to incorporate the feet and also the shoulders into the mix, so i did my thing but practiced theres a little bit (too easy) while also noticing that guys don't dance too much in belgium and guys and girls definitely don't dance together (i thought they were supposed to be more forward here?) and by no means are you supposed to make eye contact, so everyone pretty much bends there knees, looks up at the ceiling, and it's a lot of techno, house, and trance. luckily, this place played a glimpse of hip-hop for me, otherwise it was a pretty typical belgium club night. now the bathroom experience - as i walk out of the bathroom, the uneven one due to the water, a girl grabs me by the arm and yells at me in the other language (yep, that one again) and so i stare at her blankly (she probably thought i was drunk - i wasn't, sorry ladý it's called americanitis, it means i act and look drunk bc i can't understand anything including that sign in that other language you are pointing at) so in english she says to me it costs 50 eurocents to use the bathroom. that's a first. paying to use a bathroom in a club. actually not a bad idea though ... i might take it back to the states with me. upon my return visit, i had the 50 eurocents waiting for her and was like "see i got it right this time" she didnt smile back. apparently i was making no new friends that evening. moral of the story - dont drink 4 liters of water in the afternoon before you go out to a club that charges to use the bathrooms.

after the club as joena and i discussed the differences in cultures, customs, languages, oh and cars, she thought it would be a great idea for me to learn how to drive stick-shift, right then and there, on the cobblestone road leading from antwerp to hoboken at 430 am, with people driving behind me! after about 16 stall outs, 1 wrong turn, 3 niet panikerans! (dont panic in flemish) i made it back to the house only that i didnt know how to park and upon my excitement that i actually made it i decided without permission to take it on one last cruise - two problems - didnt know where i was going and the place i started to go turned into a number of dead ends that took me further and further away from where i wanted to go, so after a solid 10 min i was starting to get the hang of things, got back to the house, and then proceeded to figure out the parking thing, except while using the clutch this time to stop, as i didnt last time, couldnt do that and use the brake at the same time, and almost parked the car in the front hall of the erwin palace, which would have been a great surprise gift for him upon his return from the earthquake he experienced in mexico city. luckily i had a great coach and she wasnt agitated or worried a bit. apparently she has a lot of faith, good because she's the only one.

fri april 20 -
ive become great friends with ÿo/jo as he prefers me to call him at the bakery/butcher. and because of erwin's abscence i have basically run out of food supplies and had been going every morning to get a pastry or in belgianeese (a coffee-cuk? - forgive my spelling) unfortunately yo/jo was closed at 1245 pm, so my travels took me into the heart of hoboken the "kioskplaats" where i knew of 4 other bakery places that existed, and could not find one that was open only the one i went to thursday morning was, and bad experiences from that one (a oridinary looking coffee-cuk turned into a conglomerate of yellow pudding filled ooze that consumed the entire pastry, and seeing that they had no more of the rolls with the rainsins left that i love, i had to take one for the team and skip breakfast. luckily, joena, who apparently isnt sick of me yet, came by to take me grocery shopping which i had an interesting experience doing.
1. the milk sits on the shelf, in the warm, until you open it
2. ditto for the eggs
3. weigh all the fruit by fruit section yourself and not at the register, they even have these cool stickers with the price that you can put on it yourself
4. big fish section - bigger than the u.s. i dont like fish
5. very affordable prices
6. no aquarias (like gatorade only better) in the plastic bottles? so odd
7. they dont have marinade for chicken...interesting
8. if i think of some other interesting things - and i'm sure i will, i'll be sure to throw them in at the next post, just remember if there is a number next to oddities that have to do with grocery shopping then it stems from this post.

aside from going to get her car fixed (no it wasn't from me on thursday night) and driving around the city and enjoying the beautiful, and not typical belgium weather of 24 degrees (celcius, of course) it was a pretty relaxing day off.

i also began testing out an arm band lent to me from dennis ribbens, called phiten.
http://www.phitenusa.com/accessories06.htm
it supposedly contains titanium in the sleeve and compresses your arm (elbow for a pitcher) and because of the iron in your blood, it alledgedly causes your blood to circulate faster, thus healing your arm better. although, my father, jay prinstein, is not a believer in it, i have to say it did make the arm feel a lot better after some intesne long tossing on thursday so i threw my bullpen friday evening at 8 pm with sammy (again) and it felt great.

because i didnt have to pitch until sunday i went out with clio, sharon, jill, joena, nick, joeron (pronounced yur-roon), and met up with alain and helga later on at this place called jamesons which was a blast. a bar, with club atmosphere and club music, only more relaxed on the dress and the pretentiousness...so it was a good spot, we stayed out pretty late but had a blast, practicing my belgium dance moves and brought back some old school moves from first grade to the techno music that i'm so learning how to dance to...like the hokey pokey (which the apparently also do differently here... they do this whole thing called... in/out in/out...real fast at the chorus part. it's a learning process. of course, i was a soot/suit, just drinking water and paying 50 eurocents to use the bathroom for the water but got to hang out with a lot of people and got to see some nightlife...unfortunately, too many people in the car on the way back meant that was i wasnt allowed to drive.

saturday april 21 game 3.
ride to brussels with the group - sammy, nick and dennis ribbens. last time we all drove to holland it was flemish the whole way, but this time they did some english and i got to participate. this point can not be understated. these guys make such big adjustments to include me and make me feel welcome, they alter their conversations and how they talk just so i can participate and understand. truly amazing. imagine if you spoke good spanish and you and your friends only speak spanish in american when an exchange student from spain came to visit. pretty much what they do for me. unbelievable.
we faced a pretty solid american pitcher who was an all american at amherst college in massachusetts last year but he left balls up in the zone all day and we pounded out 3 HR. steven our cf, phil the leftfielder, and our 17 year old phenom thomas in right field who hit his ball out after he confused the bunt sign with hit and run (so he swang at a ball above his hands and still hit it out). kenny pitched a real good game once he got some food in him (he eats between every inning i've never seen anything like it) and we walked over them 13-3. so we are 3-0 on the young season and with my taking the ball tomorrow i think there is a lot of pressure on me to replicate my performance of no hit ball last week, but with a tougher team who showed they could hit the ball pretty well on saturday if you are't sharp and hit your spots.
just relaxed with my phiten arm sleeve the rest of the day and watched mlb on tv.
go pistons. go wings.
erwin gets back to the continent tomorrow which means no more parties at his house....crap.