Monthly Archives: March 2012

Drum Roll Please…

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So after a very long wait…it has been 100% confirmed that we will start the season with the Trenton Thunder, the AA affiliate for the Yankees. We are so excited to have a set destination FINALLY! In two short days we will make the 19 hour drive with our jam-packed car and our little co-pilot, Lili! (This is her…isn’t she a cutie?!) In the past 48 hours or so I have figured out our living arrangements, got our baseball season boxes out of storage, and completely cleaned out our car. Did I mention I’ve been sick throughout this whole process? My immune system decided to take a nap on the job and allow me to get a cold at maybe one of the worst possible times ever! Thankfully I’ve had help through all of this so far, or I might have gotten stuck at the part where I reserved our apartment for the season. So big thank yous go out to : our wonderful soon to be roommates for all the help with the apartment, my sweet mother-in-law for helping me get our junk out of storage, and my loving hubby for helping me clean out the car. We still have LOTS to do so I’m going to make this post short and sweet so I can get back to packing. I’ll be back at blogging next week once we are all settled into our home sweet home away from home!

Journey through the Unknown

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Here we are less than a week away from the end of spring training and our great journey to the destination we will call home for a period of time. You would think we would know where that drive is going to take us by now, but we do not. Yes, you read that right, we still have no clue what team we are going to start the year with. It doesn’t shock me in the least bit, as we are very used to being told everything at the last minute when it comes to baseball. But it is quite frustrating when you are trying to find a place to live and people to live with! Currently Addison is playing spring training games with the AAA team, Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees (although this year they are nicknamed the Empire State Yankees because their home field is undergoing a complete renovation making the team practically homeless, left to bum off all the other teams in the North East). Just because he is on this roster now still does not give us any indication on which way the wind may blow us. He still has about a 50% chance of ending up with the AA team, the Trenton Thunder. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the unknowns in this lifestyle. Most plans we make, if we can even make them, have to be made at the very last minute. Planning ahead is a phrase not found in a baseball family’s vocabulary. It does make it difficult, no doubt about that, but it is also extremely liberating. Not many people actually get the opportunity live a life so unsteady, unreliable, unexpected, and exciting. I consider us very fortunate. We get to let go of everything and just have faith in what the future may hold for us.

Feelin’ Superstitious

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Baseball = superstition.

This isn’t an opinion, it is a fact. If anyone involved with baseball tries to tell you otherwise, THEY ARE LYING!!! Of course there are varying levels of superstition, from the mild “I have to eat the same thing before every game” to the extreme “I have to eat the same thing, wear the same underwear (without washing them), tape my wrist even though it doesn’t hurt, talk to the exact same people, take the same amount of practice swings before an at bat….etc, etc, etc…”. It can get really serious. I’d say Addison is only mildly superstitious…me on the other hand, well that’s a different story.

Before every game I either have to talk to Addison on the phone (if I’m not with him) or when I drop him off at the field, and I have this thing that I’ve told him before every game since he was playing in college. I’ve made slight changes to this thing I say to him if I felt that it wasn’t working as good as I thought it should be, but the base of my little speech to him has always remained the same. I’m sorry but I’m not going to tell you what I say to him before every game, my superstitious self doesn’t want to jinx it!!! :-) The seats I sit in at the games are also very important. If he has a really good game, you bet your bottom that I will be sitting in that exact same seat until the magic of that seat wears off. There was once a game where I happened to be standing up during an at bat and he got a hit, needless to say I was standing up in the same spot for every single at bat for the next few days!

I feel like I am influencing his every move on the field with these silly little things that I have to do. I know why I do what I do though. It’s because while sitting in the stands watching my significant other play this game, I have absolutely no control over anything. And with these little things I make myself more connected to him and his game. If I can do anything to help him succeed, you can bet that I will do it. So my superstitions will probably never go away, my guess is that they will get even more intense. Just so you know, I wasn’t always this crazy, I became this crazy after being around so much baseball!

 

Getting Back into the Swing of Baseball

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This weekend has been so good! Minor league spring training games started yesterday, so for the past two days I’ve got to watch my man do what he does best! There is nothing like the start of spring training games. It’s when you get back in the habit of watching baseball every single day, and you sit there thinking “this is what has been missing in my life for the past 6 months”. I’d definitely say that even though the off-season is always wonderful and much needed after a very long 6 months of non stop games, there is absolutely nothing like the feeling of baseball season. I have so much pride while watching my husband play ball. He is talented and determined, and puts 110% into everything he does! If you don’t know us, I’ll fill you in on our current situation…Addison was drafted out of college as a short stop and he had a little bit of experience at 3rd base. Fast forward to today, he is a “super utility”, meaning he plays basically all positions (shortstop, 3rd base, 1st base, and catcher mostly…but there have been a few days in the outfield, and even one day in the bullpen).  He truly does play every single one of those position very, very well…not that I’m biased or anything ;-) . Today he caught, and yesterday he played 3rd. Both days he went 1-2 at the plate. Yep, I’m a happy girl!

I also had the opportunity to attend a conference for the women of baseball and had such a wonderful time meeting the wives/girlfriends/fiances of players from different organizations and from all different levels of the game. I have some of the best girlfriends, but they just don’t always understand this lifestyle (nor would I ever expect them to without living through it themselves). So it was really nice just to be able to sit and talk with these ladies because they were all at varying points in their “baseball life”, just like me. So all in all I am completely happy with my very first baseball filled weekend of the year.

Oh yeah, my baseball tan is starting to come back again :-) !!!

 

The Countdown

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We only have about 3 weeks left of spring training and that means moving day is going to be here before we know it! I am getting REALLY excited, but my brain is starting to go into overdrive…over think is more like it. I’ve been looking up places to live in the possible locations we may end up. I’ve been going through my clothes, which had already been drastically reduced when we packed up our apartment, and pulled out even more items that I will not be taking :-( . And I’ve been trying to do some meal planning so that during the season I can make it as easy as possible on myself to ensure that we eat well and don’t have to resort to eating out. About a week before we leave I will get the boxes labeled “baseball” out of storage and go through them to 1) make sure I have what we need 2) make sure to leave behind things we don’t need 3) pack up the car…eeeek!! I have really, really NOT been looking forward to this part of the adventure. Thankfully there are a lot of really smart baseball wives and girlfriends out there who have been through this very same predicament and who have blogs/have left posts on the MiLB ladies facebook page on the how to’s of moving multiple times in a year. I have picked up so many helpful tips on things to bring and how to pack it all into one little ol’ car. Another thing that my brain has been working hard at, is NOT thinking about being so far away from my family. I have never lived more than 2 hours away from them, and in a few short weeks I will be around 18-20 hours away from them for the next 6 months! Thank goodness for telephones and skype so we can somewhat fill the void (and of course they can always come and visit us!!…Hint-Hint: Mom & Brian, Dad & Anna, John & Karen).  So yeah, even though traveling with Addison is what I want more than anything, I have no doubt that it’s going to be anything but easy…in the words of A League of their Own, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard…is what makes it great”.