Spring Training

Hello Passion for Pitching Family!!  Hope everyone is doing well out there in the baseball world and that your seasons have started out as you would have liked them to.  Currently I am in Jupiter, FL for the start of Spring Training with the St Louis Cardinals.  I thought since this is the first year I have been doing this blog and it just so happens that I am starting the professional season, that I could change up the format a bit.  For the next 6 months I have decided to let you the viewer in on what it is truly like to be a professional baseball player and coach in the minor leagues.

The daily work, the processes, the rituals, the long bus rides, the extended spring training season, the new draftees, the daily fundamental work, the sandwich lunches, the early mornings, all of it I will share with you!!

So, let's get started!!  On March 3rd I started a long trek, 2600 miles cross country, to get from San Diego, where I live in the off season, to Jupiter, FL, where I will be for the next three and a half months.  It took me three full days of driving to get here and now I am "home" for a while.  The drive felt unusually quick this year.  The days were sunny and clear, the mornings were exceptionally crisp and it was very nice to see the sunrise for the first time in a while.  I never really get to see the sunrise when I am in San Diego, although I can't really complain because the sunsets make up for it!!  Either way it was a nice change of scenery and it makes you remember how many different reasons there are to love this earth we are living on.  Driving cross country gives me a chance to think a whole lot.  There is nothing like being alone in a car for ten hours a day with nothing but your thoughts rolling across your mind.  Sometimes it is nice to have that alone time to ponder on some subjects in your life and to gain a new perspective on things.

I arrived on the night of the 5th at about 10pm.  The hotel we stay at here in Florida is a beautiful place.  All the coaches get there own rooms and have plenty of room on the big King size beds to spread out!!  Whenever I get to a new spot I immediately like to get unpacked and organized.  I rolled the luggage carrier about a half mile around the hotel building until I finally arrived at my car for the unloading process.  With all the "stuff" I bring I feel like a woman. (no offense to the lite packing ladies out there)  I piled all my stuff about 5 feet high on the roller and then headed to the elevator and then on to my room.  About 30 minutes later I was all set up and ready to get into my big, comfortable bed for the night.

The next morning came and it was March 6th, one day from the start of meetings and the first official day of Spring Training 2010.  This is my third year with the organization so I am already familiar with the area and know exactly where all the best places are to eat.  Breakfast is great, it is right across the street from the hotel and is only about 6 bucks to fill my stomach.  It is a neat little spot.  The owner is definitely from the northeast because he has banners up from the Yankees World Series win, the Patriots last Super Bowl victory and the Boston Red Sox championship from 2004.  It feels good to be back in a place that is familiar to me although I can't lie that it is tough to leave San Diego.  After breakfast it was on to the clubhouse to get set up for the start of Spring Training.  It always feels good to first walk into the clubhouse and see all the coaches again and get reacquainted with everyone.  We all look at each other in wonderment that we made it through another season and that we are crazy enough to do it again!!  I don't mean that in a bad way because the experiences are well worth the grind, but it is funny what us coaches go through each year during a season.  There are so many different emotions that come into play during a season and so many different personalities that you come across that it is definitely one of the most challenging professions a person could choose.  The growth you take as an individual is truly amazing, as long as you allow yourself to take the growth of course.  There is so much to learn on and off the field from the players, other coaches, the game itself that each year at the end of it all you are left in amazement at what you have been through and made it out alive...lol!!

Well, that is it for me tonight, it is time to make some phone calls to friends and family and then hit the sack.  Tomorrow's day begins at 8am and it is another full day of meetings.  I'll fill you in later!!  Goodnight Passion for Pitching Family.