A couple old posts...

We are now in Omaha, Nebraska playing at the Rosenblatt Stadium where the college world series is played every year. The hotel in Iowa didn't have internet connections, so the following entries are from Iowa and I will be updating the blog again (tonight probably) with what has been going on so far here in Omaha.

4/4/08
You'll have to excuse this next entry beacause, as many of you know, I am a gym nut. I really enjoy training at different gyms, using different types of equipment, etc. For me it is fun to train different places because it keeps me from getting stuck in a rut. For instance, the gym in Des Moines, Iowa had bumper plates in the free weight area and a lifting platform. Bumper plates are basically just weight plates made out of solid rubber instead of iron or metal so you can drop them and they'll just bounce when they hit the platform. The platform is made up of 4 sheets of 3/4" plywood screwed together to make an 8'x8' area that you stand on when executing the Olympic lifts (the snatch and the clean and jerk) so you can drop the bar from the finished position and not damage the floor. The first day that we lifted there, I did some cleans from the floor for the first time in ages. I forgot how much fun and how taxing those lifts are. Alright, the gym is less than half a block from the hotel, has a ton of equipment, and isn’t very crowded. Upstairs is all the cardio equipment (bikes, treadmills, and ellipticals, about 20 of each) and 2 of every piece of circuit training equipment available. Downstairs is a big free weight area. They had dumbbells from 5-180lbs in 5lb increments! I could pick up the 180’s off the rack, but that’s about it, haha. I DID however, do dumbell rows with the 120’s for 6 solid reps! I was pretty pleased with myself, haha. Well, that’s about it… oh, the hotel doesn’t have internet or wireless connections, so… whatever.

4/5/08
What a long, LONG day today. Woke up at 7am, went to the gym at 8am (had a great workout), came back to the hotel, showered, caught the 9:30 bus to the field, ran with the pitchers, had stretch at 11am, took batting practice until 12:15, the game started at 1:05 (we lost 4-3; almost had a late comeback), sat around for a bit, stretched again at 5:30, had a quick bp, and then the next game started at 7:05. Yep, long day… almost as long as that sentence I just typed, haha!

We had a day/night double header because our first game in Iowa on Thursday was rained/sleeted/snowed out. We got to the field, the pitchers got their conditioning and running, and then about 10 minutes before stretch, the game was called. At the time, it was pretty cold out, the wind was blowing, and it was sprinkling a bit. Curious, I first thought. Then it got a little colder and it started sleeting. On our way back to the hotel, it started snowing. Huge, baseball size snowflakes quickly piled up 4 inches on the roads, sidewalks, and grass. That was at about 4pm. When I looked out the window at around 9pm, it was all gone! No ice, no snow, heck the roads actually looked dry! In my experiences with snow, it usually melted in the daytime, as it got warmer... Iowa is a strange place! Take the hotel, the water wouldn’t wash the soap off your hands… it actually made them feel more soapy, or like you have been wearing latex gloves all day long. But to give them credit, they DID have a bottle opener mounted to the cabinet right underneath the toilet paper holder… so that came in handy when I was having trouble opening my beer while sitting on the throne.

In the second game of the double header, we hit a solo home run in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd innings, but gave up 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st. Then we gave up one run in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th innings. So up we come in the top of the 7th; a couple singles, a couple walks, another couple singles, more walks, a couple doubles, and next thing you know, we have scored 9 runs and are up 12-8. Hold ‘em in the bottom and then put another 4 up in the 8th and end up winning 16-8. The pitcher in the 7th gave up 8 runs and only recorded 2 outs. That gives this guy an ERA of 121.5! It’ll take a couple of scoreless outings to get that back under control, lmao! So for those of you keeping track at home, we are 3-1 on the season and won both of our preseason games.