It's Good To Be Home

There’s something to be said in this vagabond baseball playing lifestyle (patent pending, thank you Brad Gooding) when after weeks, months, years of continuous traveling, team-hopping, and switching uniforms and caps, telephone numbers and addresses, when you have finally reached the baseball “security” of playing for the same team in consecutive seasons. I think much is made of current professional baseball players (and athletes on the whole) who decide to pick up and move to a new club in free agency… the decision to play for a new team is never easy, as human beings we crave stability, we lean towards security, and our psychological wiring is apt to the familiar surroundings, even we claim we love change and new experiences. Every year for the past 4 seasons I have picked up and gone to a new city, new country sometimes, and a new team. It hasn’t always been by choice. Hoboken Pioneers in Belgium released me, Netanaya Tigers in Israel ceased to exist the following season, Southern Districts in Adelaide, South Australia didn’t have enough money to bring me back the following season, the Tex Town Tigers in Holland, were playing games negotiating with me after I expressed interest in returning and Almere Magpies, offered an opportunity to promote to the highest level of baseball in Europe that Tex Town couldn’t provide, and then there was the last 6 months playing in Perth, Western Australia for the West Stirling Indians, which now brings us back to Almere, where I have officially returned for my second season with the ball club. I cannot begin to describe the jubilation or the smile on my face when my first baseman and good buddy Joey Berkenbosch picks me up from the airport at 6 in the morning, or the emotion I am overwhelmed with when I stepped foot in the locker room where just 6 months earlier champagne and Heineken was poured all over my head by the same teammates after we won the Dutch First Division championship. Walking into that locker room and feeling like I belonged, feeling at home, and hugging guys that I missed instead of shaking hands and meeting new people as I have every season for the past 4 years. To say it’s special, is not fully grasping the situation. It’s a feeling of comfort, but it’s goes much deeper in terms of performance on the field – guys knowing what to expect from you and realistic expectations as an import that has plagued me along every step of this journey. It also means there is not the first week or month or even entire season of getting to know my catcher, understanding how to work together, my pitch selection and ultimately performance can be better than ever due to this phenomenon. You see it all the time in the Majors, guys have personal catchers, guys that they have worked with for seasons on end, and in this world of international professional baseball, it’s often overlooked, teams expect the pitcher to step in and click with the catcher they have provided within one bullpen session before any game performance. In 2007 in Belgium during a practice game, I actually had to call the pitches on the mound to our young back-up catcher who didn’t understand the entire concept of calling pitches. I used my glove positioning to tell him what pitch I was going to throw. Probably not the greatest idea, but at the time, it was all I could think of to help a disastrous situation where the catcher didn’t even understand that you can ask the pitcher to throw to a different location with use of his fingers (ironically this guy is now signed with the New York Mets, playing outfield because he could flat out just hit). Its also nice to be back to a familiar city, surrounding it took me months to figure out before, and so the adjustment period, aside from getting over jet lag is dramatically decreased. This team has met my family from Detroit, my friends from Australia and the States, they have known me as a winner, and how I act in defeat. They’ve partied with me and shared memories with me in our championship and promotion season, and it’s probably the best I’ve ever felt walking into a situation 20 years into my baseball career.