Monday, January 7, 2008

game time in '08

On Day 26 of my Florida Marlins pitcher's off-season pitching repitoire, also happened to be my first start for the Southern Districts Hawks and my first time on the field (not counting my semi-conscience 1 inning after stepping off a 40 hour plane trip across the world on December 18th) since August. Here in Aussieland and with the Hawks, we're taking things slow... I don't have to be ready for the season until March and the playoffs for them don't really start until March, so the idea is that I slowly get my arm in shape, whereas I would be in D.C. throwing against a wall in the gym or to a catcher on the currrent GW Baseball team (can't be that reliable) now I get to build up my pitch stamina and arm strength against actual hitters and while helping SD. As of yesterrday I had only thrown off a mound twice since August, so I knew going into the game, my mechanics would be interesting to say the least. What I didn't expect was a 25 MPH ocean breeze blowing from left field to right, giving my 4-seam fastball, with my stellar movement, so much more than what I bargained for. I threw 3 innings, struggled with my mechanics and control from time to time, but with throwing pretty much all-fastballs treated it like a 3 inning 65 pitch bullpen... I gave up either 1 or 2 Earned Runs, to be honest wasn't quite keen on the stats nor was I worried, and we won 14-4. I got 2 hits in 2 at bats at the plate, driving in 2 runs, which gives me a perfect 3 for 3 hitting on the year and putting me on pace to hit 1.000 but something tells me that might be impossible to keep up. After the game, people at the ballpark were asking me how I felt and how I think I did. My answer was pretty much - I felt like I just pitched for the first time in 5 months.
I woke up this morning and the arm/body felt like I had just pitched for the first time in 5 months, so i'm heading off to the gym (taking the 16 min train ride into the city) to run, lift, and pilates the lactic acid out and get ready for a hard week of training/conditioning/baseball prep, and meanwhile since I'm in Australia - I'll try to mix-in a day-off to explore and see some of the country since all I've been doing is physically grueling baseball training since I've been here.

1 comment:

brent said...

Still full of shit...