Cotton Candy, Beer, and a Proposal

Clinton, IA, home of the Lumberkings which is minor league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Sitting just on the west bank of the Mississippi River sits one of the oldest stadiums in all of Minor League baseball, Alliant Energy Field. Built in 1937, this historic site has hosted thousands of baseball games throughout the better part of the 20th century. Given all the games that have been played here and all the players that have had the blessing to compete between it's lines, I'm sure the stories are endless. Well...I have one to add to the list!

Just before the seventh inning of a game two nights ago, I was eating some peanuts on the bench talking with a teammate, and I heard a voice over the P.A. system that didn't sound like the announcer. It was a young man speaking of his love for a girl and I froze. Before I could find out where this was happening on the field, I immediately realized what was about to happen. Have you ever been in a moment when you see a car about to get in a wreck or a collision waiting to happen on a football field, where you actually cringe in anticipation of the moment of truth? So, the brave young man falls to a knee in front of the 1200 fans, two teams, a few umpires, and a million bugs that decided the lights of the stadium meant they were welcome at the game too. Now I am not dismissing the fact that these two love birds could very easily have met at a Lumberking game, had their first date there, or maybe they both grew up in Clinton and had gone to games here their entire lives and this was just an appropriate way of capitalizing this once in a lifetime moment. Though I wonder, what is it about the game of baseball with all the players covered in grass and dirt stains, crazy fans eating cotton candy and drinking beer, and the screaming kids that makes it so romantic?

In fact, once when I was in Ogden, Utah where I played my rookie season in 2007, I actually took part in a wedding ceremony at home plate right before the first pitch of a game. Our whole team stood in two lines facing each other and formed a 'bat' tunnel and the bride walked from the on deck circle through it to get to home plate for the quick ceremony. True story. Guys, if you are near that decision time and want to make a memory that will last a lifetime...and give stories for the rest of us...find your nearest baseball field and make her dreams come true!

Oh, and the girl from Clinton said yes!

A Dirty Jock?!?

Something that makes baseball so unique is the vast amount of failure that is involved. In fact, it is just as much a part of the national pastime as the peanuts and cracker jacks. You have a round bat, hitting a moving round ball, with only 4/10 of a second to make up your mind to swing or not, as well as 8 players out in the field waiting to get you out. If one connects with the ball and finds green grass and not another player just 3 out of 10 times then he is considered very sucessful. But logistics reveal that even if a hitter does everything perfectly he will still get out at times. Due to the nature of the 'lucky' breaks that a player gets when a batted ball becomes a hit, it creates an entire plethora of weird superstitions to keep the 'baseball gods' in your favor.

On my team there have been guys who haven't washed their jock strap for 2/3 of the season, worn different colored socks than the rest of the team under their pants, used the same torn batting gloves, not shaved if things are going well, and others who have eaten Reece's Pieces, pizza, or a Red Bull before every game. Certain pitchers on our team will walk around the mound a certain way before they pitch and another kneels down and sniffs the grass behind the mound to get ready. These are just some of the many weird tactics that fill every baseball team in every league dating even back to high school. Personally, I don't believe in superstition, but I do believe in routine. Call it what you want, but I do many things the exact same way every day. I keep my locker in the same order, I use certain cleats and batting gloves for warm ups and different ones for the game, I run to center field before each game and push the wall before slapping it four time, and then when I get ready to hit I always rub the pine tar stick on my bat before doing the exact same warm up every time I am in the on deck circle, and I never step on the white chalk lines. Do I believe that any of these things will get me more hits, heavens no, but you will find me doing all the above every game in fear of breaking my routine. Or do I really believe in the 'baseball gods' deep in my subconscious and I'm only kidding myself when I say I don't? Who knows, but I did grow a mustache once, played well and thus kept it for almost a month.

The one other thing that I find with many baseball players, is that God is thrown into the superstitions. All you have to do is turn on the T.V. and see players point to the sky after hitting a home run, striking out a batter, and winning a game. I am all for honoring the Lord with our success, but the only problem I have is that when was the last time you saw a player point to the sky after striking out, making an error, or giving up a home run? Do we really want to honor the Lord, or do we want to get what He can give us in terms of success on the field? Just some thoughts, but truth be told baseball is so mental that players will do anything to be confident...anything!

So, next time you watch a baseball game look a little closer and see what you can find as far as 'routines' of certain players. Seriously, where else in life does one believe they will be successful because of eating a certain type of candy before going to work?

PB&J with a Side of Crackers please

With the schedule of playing a game basically every single day and from having to be at the ball park normally around 6 hours before the game even starts, the question might be asked, 'what does a player do for food?' The answer my friends is what we have grown fondly to call ' the spread.' This is what they lay out for us to eat around 5 o'clock after we hit batting practice during our hour or so break before we have to go back out for the game. At home, our clubbie conjures up a hot entree' for us normally in the likes of mac n' cheese, sloppy joes, chicken sandwiches or taco salad. This is a set menu that is repeated every home stand on a 4 game rotation. On the road we aren't so lucky; given there are no ovens or microwaves in the visiting locker rooms, we are thrust into the world of PB& J, raisins, cheese crackers, pretzels, granola bars, apples, and oranges. But unlike the home games where this meal changes every day, for the road games we get the same 'spread' for every single game, every single night, throughout the entire season. Now I don't know about you, but after awhile you learn to just eat because you need to as opposed to liking it. Throughout the seasons I have learned to try and mix it up as much as I can. One day I might mix the grapes with the pretzels, and another the crackers with the raisins, and at times I might even hold my head high in view of my 'Chef Boyardee' abilities to keep such a stale meal fresh, but the one thing that I can't escape...the PB&J. It's the no questions asked, main dish of our meal on the road. 70 days of 'the spread' does wonders to your taste buds (and also your waste line), but in the end it's just another part of what makes this what it is and I'm grateful for the free meal. But for some reason I just hear my mom in the back of my mind asking me if I want rectangles or triangles in my lunch box that day....