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.