Local Press

My mom joined the board of directors at the soup kitchen in Torrington and came up with a great idea to raise money and food for the kitchen that serves a hot meal everyday of the year to those in need. Her idea was to have me run a baseball clinic and all the donations of food and money would go straight to the soup kitchen. The clinic was mainly geared towards younger players but was open to anyone who was interested. We were able to execute this clinic in March before I came to spring training. My mom worked hard getting the announcement out to schools, radios, newspapers, etc. and we had a great turnout. We estimated that we had about 50-60 people in attendance including about 35 kids. The clinic was 90 minutes long where I spoke on some baseball fundamentals and also had the kids out on the gym floor working on defensive fundamentals. It was pretty cool because even in that short time I could see some of the kids getting better. I asked the kids questions about different things I had talked about, and they were able to remember everything that I had talked about. And more importantly we raised almost $400 and 7 full boxes of food. There was a nice article in the local Register Citizen. http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2011/03/12/sports/doc4d7c1706e97b6329219476.txt.

I recently talked to Register Citizen reporter Peter Wallace, who I have known since my high school days, and actually talked to him more during my basketball career than baseball. We talked about my spring training experience and that I was able to dress for a couple spring training games. He put together a nice article that you can read here: http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2011/03/25/sports/doc4d8d5e77559bc327717859.txt.

And I have to give a shout out to Jordan Williams, another Torrington H.S. alum, who has been playing basketball for 2 years at the University of Maryland. Jordan just filled out paperwork to enter his name in the 2011 NBA draft, so congrats Jordan and the whole Williams family. This guy is a really hard worker and has improved so much in the last few years. I know the whole Williams family and they are always supporting me with my baseball career, which I appreciate so much; I'm excited for their family to go through this exciting time. There's not a better family that this could happen to; I've actually kept in contact with Jordan and his parents through facebook and emailing. Jordan was able to hook my buddy and myself up with tickets to the Terps games at UVA and Virginia Tech during this basketball season. I was able to take a video from our second row seats just before tip-off at Virginia Tech.

There is an article about Jordan putting his name into the NBA draft where I was quoted, as he was a freshman at THS when I was a senior.

http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2011/03/30/sports/doc4d92b1421c32d452779977.txt

Parents Weekend

It has been an exciting weekend and start of the last week of spring training. I got to meet Rickey Henderson who is a coach with the A's, dressed for another major league spring training game with Ubaldo Jiminez as the opposing team's starting pitcher, and my parents were visiting for a long weekend. I will post another time about Rickey because he is quite the character and a legend. He is still in great shape; I think he could still be a successful base stealer in the major leagues. And getting to dress for another major league game was exciting again, probably more for my parents who got to see me on the field with all of the big league guys. I should have some good pictures from my mom's camera. Our game was at the Rockies spring training home, who share a brand new complex with the Diamondbacks. It is perfectly groomed and could be a major league stadium if they added seating. I dressed on Sunday and it was a sellout of over 12 thousand fans.

Picture that I took looking down the walkway
 to the field from the clubhouse

 Compared with the exciting nights of hanging out in a hotel room and watching tv, I had a blast tonight getting dinner with my parents and some former JMU baseball alums who are also in Arizona for spring training. Matt Browning, who I have mentioned before, was drafted last year by the Mariners and had a great first pro season; his spring training is in Peoria. Kevin Munson, who I've also talked about before, is a pitcher who was drafted by the Diamondbacks last year and has closer-type stuff. The Diamondbacks spring training is also in Scottsdale, fairly close to where I'm staying. And Steven Caseres is a first basemen who was drafted by the Dodgers in 2008, his spring training home is in Glendale. Caseres' parents are also visiting AZ and are good friends with my parents so we were all able to meet for dinner tonight. All of the guys were trading spring training stories and talking about how difficult the lifestyle can be at times. Tonight was special because we rarely get time to see each other and talk about each others experiences because we are all going through similar things. This came out pretty blurry, but this picture was taken of all the guys outside the restaurant we ate at tonight.

We all love what we are doing, but it is more stressful and draining than most people think. My dad tried to explain to a coworker what spring training is like in business terms. He said it would be like a company sending a group of salesmen to a business training event that lasted 3-4 weeks. You aren't being paid during that time, but you would be constantly graded and evaluated on your performance. Based on your past performances and how you are developing will determine how good your job will be and how much money you will make for the next season. If the company didn't like your progress they could fire you at any time. And in a few months, the company will be bringing in all new recruited employees who could also take your job at any time. So, as you can see it can be a little stressful sometimes trying to predict where you will be playing the next season and what the organization thinks of you. But, like I've said many times before I still love getting to play baseball everyday and compete at this level, I thank God everyday that I have been given this opportunity. The real key is to try to block out all of the stresses that can come with all of the things I talked about and remember to have fun. Having my parents in town for the last few days was exactly what the doctor ordered for me. Spring training is a mental and physical grind, but there is no where that I would rather be!

A Day in the Majors

Today started off just like every other day of spring training, similar to my daily routine that I talked about in last night's post. I had my breakfast at our facility and did some early work hitting off a tee and front toss. From there, I thought my day would consist of a morning practice, lunch, and a game in the afternoon. I guess that is exactly what I did, but there was a small change in there that I won't soon forget.

It was 10:30 a.m. and I was practicing with my team when the manager called a few of the players aside and told us we were going to the big league game..and leaving in about 15 minutes. So I rushed into the locker room and prepared to leave, trying to make sure I didn't forget anything that I would need. Naturally I quickly texted my family and let them know that I was suiting up for the big league spring training game. Apparently my dad wasn't quite convinced this was the truth as he immediately responded saying 'Are you serious?' which I got a kick out of. My sister had an even better answer, 'I don't really know what that means but it sounds awesome. Congrats!' ha, I can't help but to laugh at that. I should probably thank her for giving me some comic relief in a time when I was pretty anxious. And of course, one of my best friends was only concerned with his best player in the A's organization..Hideki Matsui. He acted like a girl seeing Justin Bieber for the first time when I told him that Matsui was the first guy that I saw when I entered the clubhouse.

Myself and five other minor leaguers arrived at the major league clubhouse around 11. Most of the other guys had been called up in spring training games before, so they knew exactly what to expect and I just followed their lead. I also should note that it is common practice for minor league guys to fill in as reserves in the big league spring games. After I was told I was headed to the big team a bunch of guys told me to 'enjoy the spread' because they have a great lunch out for the guys, that I thoroughly enjoyed. I had my full plate of food and found a seat at a table near guys like Matsui, Coco Crisp, Kurt Suzuki, Mark Ellis, Grant Balfour and the rest of the roster. It was a pretty intimidating experience and I often found myself making sure that I was acting appropriately. As excited as I was, this is the everyday routine for these guys, so they don't want someone going there and acting like an anxious fan. You want to act like you fit in, but at the same time, you don't want to give off the impression that you are better than anyone else, so I did the safe thing and pretty much kept to myself.

I spent most of my time in the clubhouse texting some friends and family, and soon enough I was on the bus driving to Mesa, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs. Many of the guys drove their own cars to Mesa, but the bus pulled up right behind the right field wall. The wall opened and there was a walkway down into the stadium with fans lined up on both sides of the walkway. I strolled through right field and all the way across the diamond into the third base dugout and up the stairs to our visiting team clubhouse. That walk from the bus to our clubhouse was memorable. My roommate, Jeff Bercume, was walking the whole way with me and we acted like that was something that we do everyday, but it was special to me. However, the average fan might quickly see that we are not everyday players because our numbers were 82 and 84 respectively. Despite our wide receiver numbers, we were still there to play in the game and even sign a few autographs after the game.

Hohokam Stadium

I spent some time hanging out in the clubhouse, listening to some music and cleaning my spikes before heading out to take the field. All of the position players stretched and got their arms and legs loose down the left field line. I had a catch with Bercume, which was a little nerve racking because if I had over thrown him I'm pretty sure I would have drilled an innocent fan..and I don't think that's exactly what the A's are looking for. It was exciting warming up in front of almost 10 thousand fans; Hohokam Stadium is one of the largest spring training facilities with a maximum capacity of over 13 thousand. It was also pretty cool to be a part of the game and to see first person the type of interactions that players have in the dugout, like talking about the pitcher or a play that happened in the last inning. I didn't end up playing in the game, but I definitely enjoyed being there. About halfway through the game Jeff and I were talking about how fortunate we were to have this great opportunity and he asked what percent of little leaguers will ever get this experience. I have no idea what the answer is to that question, but I am very grateful for the experience and hope that there are many more days like this to come. As for now, I just plan to work hard everyday and be prepared to take advantage of any opportunity that is given to me.

Spring Training 101

I have safely arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona the home to the Oakland A's spring training facility and baseball complex. I am at the minor league spring training camp and our major league team's facilities are at a different location right down the road. So some of you may have thought that I would be out here practicing with the big leaguers, but I guess that will have to wait a couple of years. There are about 150 minor league players working out, practicing, lifting, etc. everyday trying to earn their spot on a minor league team and work their way through the minor league ranks. I reported to Arizona on March 14th and for the first week we had a similar schedule every day.

Morning Routine

I set my alarm and wake up between 5:45 and 7 am and leave for the clubhouse shortly after. Breakfast is provided at the clubhouse, so I eat my breakfast before attending our morning meetings that will start between around 8:30 or 9 am. Most days before the meetings I will get some extra work defensively or hitting in the batting cages. The morning meetings have covered a wide variety of topics, from finances to motivational speakers. The first morning of spring training we had a trio of guys from Radical Reality talk and demonstrate the power of self-esteem and determination. The ultimate message they passed on was to set a goal or purpose and to surround yourself with people of like purpose. The head of Radical Reality, Donnie Moore, said that you can't get anywhere in life unless you have a purpose. Along with motivational speaking, the Radical Reality team also demonstrates some pretty incredible feats of strength. These three guys broke full soda cans with their bare hands, tore through huge phonebooks, folded a frying pan into a burrito, broke a wooden bat over their leg, and ran through a wooden 2x4..It was quite a performance You can find out more about this team at Radical Reality website.

Morning Practices
Following any morning meetings we take the fields and stretch led by one of the many strength coaches. I have running conditioning every other day with all of the hitters. The next day the pitchers have conditioning, and vice versa. Following the stretching, conditioning, we go through a throwing program to loosen our arms. Our organization preaches good base running and we practice it everyday, usually with base running stations going over the protocol at each base.

Batting Practice
Following any base running that we have, we may also have stations of bunting, defense, and hitting, but almost everyday we hit batting practice. If the average person were to watch batting practice it would seem like chaos, but it is actually a very structured event. The hitters are divided into three groups of players that will rotate between hitting, defense, and base running. A quick note on batting practice: it is common practice around baseball for hitters to work on hitting the ball to the opposite field during the first round. Practicing on driving the ball to the opposite field is something that I would advise all younger players to do. Base running during batting practice works on some of the topics we talked about during base running stations. For example, one day we might be working on 2nd base with 0 outs and reading balls that are hit. The final group is defense, as an infielder I will take ground balls and also receive throws at 2nd base from the other infield positions. Usually when batting practice has concluded everyone will head inside for lunch that is served in the clubhouse.

Afternoon workouts/games
Following lunch everyone will return outside and get ready for an intersquad or real game against another team. Many people watch big league spring training games, a lot are shown on tv, but there are also minor league spring training games. There are AAA, AA, advanced A, and low A spring training games. Today we played the Giants in our first spring training game; we had been playing intersquad games last week. On most days the game will be the last thing that I have to do, but we lift twice a week, and today was one of my lifting days.

I am usually finished with everything at the facility between 3-6 pm, and I have the rest of the night to get dinner and hang out in the hotel where most of the players are staying. Most of my time in the hotel has been watching the college basketball tournament, which is my favorite sporting event to watch. While I definitely appreciate this down time to relax each night, most of my time is spent watching tv with my roommate. My roommate and I have an ongoing joke about who is the "boss" of the room, but I clearly am the Alpha dog of this domain. Neither myself, nor my roommate, Jeff Bercume, have a car here so our choices for dinner are limited. There is one restaurant within close walking distance of our hotel; needless to say I pretty much know Ruby Tuesday's whole menu. (I would recommend the smokehouse burger and the parmesan chicken pasta) Some of the other guys drove their cars here, so we can tag along to try another dinner location. It will be a really big treat when my parents come visit later this week..I doubt we will be dining at the Ruby Tuesday's.

I usually get to bed around 10 or 11 and try to get enough sleep to wake up and perform at a high level the next day. And that is right on cue, as it is time for me to get to bed and follow this routine tomorrow. On a side note the weather has been awesome, reaching the 90s in temperature. I know Connecticut is expecting some more snow tomorrow, hopefully not too much and everyone there will be able to get their baseball seasons underway soon. Good luck in the upcoming season.

Quick Update

So it has been a while since I have been on here as I have been busy preparing for my first spring training. I trained at JMU for about 6 weeks with the baseball team and a few other fellow minor leaguers before coming back to Torrington where I am now. It was a huge help being in Virginia, I was able to practice on a field, which obviously wouldn't be possible in Connecticut with our huge snowfall this winter. And the coaching staff allowed the few minor leaguers to work in with the team and get all the work that we needed. The JMU baseball team is off to a 11-2 start and ranked 27th nationally in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

On Monday I will be flying out to Scottsdale, AZ where the A's spring training is held. I know that I have put in my work and that I'm fully prepared for the upcoming season so I'm ready to get to some warmer weather and start playing the game I love everyday. As always I just feel blessed that I have this great opportunity ahead of me, so I will be sure to make the most of everyday and keep you all updated on anything new that I learn and about my spring training experience..I hope everyone in CT has a dry basement and lets hope for some warm weather soon. Some of of you may be scratching your heads but many basements are flooding from an unusual amount of rain fall this week.