It's about that time

I've waited about 8 years to make my professional debut, so whats another day?

Tomorrow I'm flying to Toronto with (knock on wood (yeah I'm fairly superstitious)) all the paperwork I need to be approved and get my visa to be able to officially play minor league ball, finally. The Blue Jays management booked my flight so that I would be able to perhaps be available for relief once I fly home for our 6:35 start.

I'm flying Manchester to Toronto at 11:10 am, getting off that plane, walking straight out and to the Air Canada counter to pick up my return ticket. At that point I proceed directly to US immigration, where I'll need to go to an office or something to get the paperwork out of the way, and wait 4 hours to board my return flight. Upon arrival back in Manchester at 7:05 pm, I will promptly find a cab, and get to the field asap. I'm thinking (barring any delays) I can make it to the bullpen by about the 6th-7th inning, in time to maybe make my debut. I do not know if I will pitch, but I am going to go about it like I expect to, so that I will be ready no matter what.

On another note I've realized we are a hot cold team, as most teams are, streaky. We won our first three and have proceeded to lose our next three, with the latest defeat a 2-0 heartbreaker tonight.

I saw the most dominating start I think I've ever witnessed tonight, and I've seen a lot of baseball in my life. Our starter Rei Gonzalaez from Key West, Florida threw as efficienly as any starter I've ever seen. He gave up 5 hits, okay, struck out 4, okay, walked none, good. But the amazing numbers in the game were not all the zero's he put up over 8 and 2/3 innings of work, no, it's the fact that he only used 71 pitches. He never threw more than 4 pitches to any batter unless he struck them out. That's rediculous! Unfortunately he was pulled for a lefty - lefty matchup with 2 outs in the 9th that didn't pay off despite his low pitch count, so he wasn't able to get a chance for a win, or a complete game. Still, I won't forget this outing. I've been part of 2 no-hitters, and many complete games and they were nowhere near as maserful as what Rei Gonzalez did today for the Fisher Cats.

Time to get some sleep, tomorrow is potentially a very big day.

New News

Fisher Cat season kicked off 2 nights ago, and we have 3 games down, and are 3-0. 3solid pitching performances, a 2nd baseman and 2 hole hitter with 7 RBI's and 4 doubles in 3 games.

My soon to be new room mate (replacing the irreplaceable Martijn Meeuwis with Neptunus and the dutch team) is Marc Rzepczynski. Marc and I go way back, we played summer ball together for the Bellingham Bells in the summer of 2004 when we were both young and not nearly as experienced as we are now. Let me tell you some about him. He's a 23 year old lefty from southern Cali, real nice guy, a talker and a guy who doesn't realize how good he can be, well sometimes he does, but gets quickly chopped down by his team mates when is gets to that. He throws 90-92 with movement, and throws strikes. Dirty.

We are close to moving into our new apartment just off the downtown strip in Manchester, New Hampshire. We just need our furniture on Saturday, and are good to move in.

I am waiting to get my Visa approved and get the paperwork to be able to actually play for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Since I signed to near to the actual seasons start, I need to wait for my visa to be accepted, and then I can play baseball, and get paid. It should be less then a week from now when I am able to play, but you never know, and we will see.

We have 142 games this season, and I am excited to get into games, I think I would have at least 2 outings in by now. From the way I threw in spring training the double A pitching coach wants me to throw almost all submarine, which is fine with me. It's different, but I will take it, and run with it. I've been throwing strikes and despite I, and no other major league guys can throw submarine harder then 84 MPH, I am happy to make the switch, as long as the Blue Jays like it, and I succeed in that role.

Life's aright... just waiting for Shorty to get here, and for life to keep on keeping on.

Last few days

I'm learning a bit about the city here and getting somewhat settled in (but still not really yet). We're about to have our second night in the comfort inn here in Manchester, New Hampshire, and have one more night on the Blue Jays here giving us 3 days to find accommodations.

We (my wife Shorty and I, and left handed pitching room mates Nathan Starner and Marc Rzepczynski) have found a 3 bedroom apartment in downtown Manchester. It's very very nice, but we just have to put up a reasonably high (but worth the nice apartment) price per month to live there. We went out to check out some apartments today and checked out 2 of the few apartment complexes which were able to accompany our needs and give us a 6 month lease or less. Anyways, we will move is there either Wednesday or Thursday and are going to rent furniture for a Fisher Cat special price, which is about 75% cheaper than what is offered by the apartment complex.

We got a quick practice in this morning, 6 pitchers including myself got into a simulated game (pitching against our own batters without fielders) and most guys got a solid gym workout in here at the stadium. By the way, our stadium is awesome, very very nice. I think it fits about 10,000, has a Hilton hotel right behind the left center field fence, and also a Bar and grill directly behind the left field wall. Very cool looking field.

We had a meet and greet with the season ticket holders and all the local fans tonight. We sat in a row, all 24 of us and signed autographs on balls, bats, gloves, banners, hats, paper, signs, and even a water bottle. Overall it was great to meet and chat with a lot of the kids and fans that came through today.

Our first game is Wednesday night, and after that, only 139 more!

Finals Rosters

They told us in an early morning meeting about sending bags, teamwork, and the all important minor league final rosters.

I have been assigned to... Dum dumdum Duuuuum!! Double A, New Hampshire Fisher Cats!!I am very excited to get up there and be able to put together a solid campaign.

I will be a relief pitcher. Not sure which role they'll be giving me, but I hope I get some decent work in, and that I'll be able to do my best. We have 25 players on our roster, this includes 4 outfielders, 2 catchers, 13 pitchers and 6 infielders... a solid roster, with a lot of potential. We'll see how it all pans out.

I'll give you some more posts once I'm back in New Hampshire, and have a place to live!

Another missed article ...

The Edmonton Chrinicle had a nice article about me and my boys from the WBC upsets we pulled off.

Ramdom minors notes...

I had another outing today. Since some pitchers have recently been demoted from major league camp to triple A and were due to pitch today, me and 2 other double A roster pitchers threw for the high A squad at home against the Pirates high A team.

I went the 6th and 7th and was able to face the minimum, with 3 grounders, a strikeout, and 2 fly outs. I think we won, but I don't really know, they don't use the scoreboard for these spring training games. Arm feels good, weather is great and that definetely helps with that.

Several top prospects and triple A guys get to go play with the big league club every day. I did not know they did this before the past couple weeks, but every morning on the 'board' they put about 8-10 names of position players and pitchers who are to attend the major league spring training game. Most position players get into the games and have an at bat or two, but pitchers are sent as backups, and rarely get into the game. No, I haven't seen my name on the board yet, and I don't expect to since I'm just a rookie.

Alright, time to put my 13$ a day meal money to use and get something delicious.

Til' next time.

Belated WBC photo's

Here are some pictures of the World Baseball Classic, albeit a bit delayed. I have to comment my wife on the excellent photography for the first 16 pictures and Christopher Elise (copyrights by the way) for the last 6.

Enoy...

Bert Blyleven and myself pre-USA game

My wife and I about 5 mins after the second and hugest upset...

Sad Papi...

Our two games against them captured in one picture...

Tiny... greatest roommate and teammate a guy could ask for...

Hall of Famer and Mr. Baseball Tommy Lasorda... awesome guy, and gave us a great pre-game speech.

*CE* Win #1....

*CE* Crazy celebration #2

*CE* This pic sounded like this = "Shorty got them apple bottom bottom jeans, boots with the fuuuur, the shole club was looking at her..." ... don't ask.

*CE*

*CE*

*CE* This guy

*CE* This guy 3

Typical Tiger Triumph

After 'camp day' here at minor league camp (meaning intersquad) we retired to the hotel around 4ish and were able to get some extra hours of rest and relaxation.

I was able to catch the last 5 holes of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament after the UNC vs. OU game in march madness finished. Tiger Woods was in contention for his first win in 8 months since he had a left knee surgery. As usual he was wearing his Sunday red Nike shirt (which means it's time to step it up for him) and entered the day down 5 strokes to Sean O'hair, but leave it to him to catch up. On the last hole he made a remarkable approach shot tied at 14 under, and with the other players watching, he needed to drain his very long putt for the win. In typical Tiger fashion he made a dramatic shot, sinking the putt and putting himself back in golfs' spotlight with his 66th career PGA win in just over 220 tournaments, that's a 29% win rate.


You can see it in his eyes, I can almost imagine what he's thinking and how focused he has to be to succeed at that level. I am going to try and take what I can visually learn from him on a CBS sportscast, and interpret that into a pitching outing as well as I can. Tiger gets 1,080,000 for the win instead of the second place 648,000, but you can tell it's not about making that extra 432,000 for him, it's the hunger to win, and the focus that is all lifted once he sank that last huge putt. This is about the 10th time I've gotten to see him win a PGA event, it's always special and amazing to watch.


I tip my cap, cheers, prost and give my kudos to the biggest 'gamer' I've ever watched.

Oops, missed one *UPDATED*...

In my previous post I missed this very in depth article by the Globe and Mails' Tom Hawthorn, who also wrote 2 other very intricate articles.

It's a few days later I find this article from the NY times.

Some media from the Dutch team and myself...

The official WBC had a nice departing article of us, depicting how we showed ourselves in this most recent World Baseball Classic.

This is the first interview I did, before the WBC from my little dorm at Pirate city where the dutch team was training for the WBC. Interviewed by a huge baseball fan, and World Baseball Challenge coordinator Jim Swanson, who is also a writer for the Price George Citizen Newspaper.

Couldn't find the original webpage featuring this article by Tom Hawthorn or the Glode and mail in Canada, but managed to scrounge through some site and find it on his blog...

An interview I did directly after the World Baseball Classic...

This is a pretty neat site I found charting some of my movement, and talking about me and a couple other pitchers in the WBC, dad you'll appreciate this.

Another site featuring a graph of my pitches and stuff, even though apparently they think my submarine pitches are changeups.