Big League Dreams

I'll admit that I was a bit skeptical when our leaders at school announced that the next to last day would be at a park in town called Big League Dreams. I had never been to it, but I know that it is one of the main attractions that is promoted by the city. In the morning I had to take care of my car, so as I started walking towards the church I called AAA. They gave me a time frame from 8 to 8:30. I looked at my watch and saw that it was already 8. Well, once I got to a bike trail near the freeway I started to run, knowing that he would probably be there soon. I had planned on needed to do this so I had stretched before I left. It actually wasn't too bad. They called on my way to let me know that he didn't see me, so I let them know that I was running and would be there in a few minutes. After he got my car jumped I headed over to get it checked out and found that I needed a new battery, so I got that taken care of and went home to get some more Gatorade. Luckily I took some with me thinking that I would need to run. I don't recommend running on the 38th day of a fast just in case you ever think of fasting for 38 days and then think you should go running. Anyway, I am doing fine.

I spent some time checking out some great links that my Tallahassee buddy Clayton put in his blog. After gathering my first base glove, bat, disc golf discs (that I never used!), and a gallon of gatorade that would have to sit in my car (no food or drinks allowed) I headed out to the park in my car (Yea, it works!). Well, I arrived about 11:30 got my sunscreen on and went to the batting cages. Thankfully everything was paid for so we could do it as much as we wanted. It had been away since I have swung a bat, so I started out in the slow pitch softball cage. Hah! I swung and missed on the first three pitches! After that I started to improve and got out so really good hits before moving onto the slowest of the baseball machines. After a few times in there I moved up again and then repeated that once more to get up to the fastest cage which had looked quite intimidating when I had first arrived. While I was far from amazing, I surprised myself a little bit and got off some really good hits.

Wanting to see what else was going on I walked around to find some people inside playing dodgeball and others playing basketball. Not wanting to kill myself I moved on to see what else there was. I found a game of softball going on, but having just spent a lot of time in the batting cages I went inside the clubhouse restaurant. I didn't eat, but it was sweet. Tons of seats and tons of TVs, almost all on sports. Ah, it has been a little over a year since I have enjoyed that kind of experience watching the first round of March Madness in Tallahassee with a bunch of friends and some great appetizers. Best of all, it had great views of the game, so I could watch, drink some water, and cool off for a little bit. After a few minutes I went out to get closer to the action and sat right near the dugout. Seeing that sitting nearby wasn't getting me in the game I entered the dugout and immediately got put on a team.

After getting to play first base a few innings I was finally gonna get to bat when they decided to start a new game and change teams. Several innings later I got my first chance to bat, 2 swings and I was out. Yes, they decided to make it just 2 strikes for that inning, which they later changed. No worries though, I got on base every at-bat after that and scored several times. One tiem I was on first with two outs and so I was running on every pitch (we couldn't steal if the ball wasn't hit, but we could still run) and for three straight pitches the hitter lined the ball foul, with me getting to third base each time. Finally he got the ball in play and I scored from first on his single! That's what I'm talking about!

After a few errors at first, I made some much better plays like the good ole days. A few hours had passed by now and we were still going strong, rotating in new players for those who wanted to do other things. In what ended up being my team's last time hitting I hit a sharp grounder towards short. I slipped and fell in the batter's box (which I had done once already and others had done many times as well) but got up and sprinted to first barely beating the throw that was a bit wide. So I decided to go for second, barely beating the tag (I knew I could make it...hah!). After an out I was looking to score. So with two outs (I think, lol, I think I batted 6 or 7 times and got only got out in my first at-bat) I ran on a grounder to short. Rounding third determined to make it home, I scored just a second after the first baseman dropped the ball! As I walked toward the dugout I could feel something was wrong. My left shoe was hurt bad and I lost yet another shock (Maybe these guys should make a Junky Shoes Club). Oh well, I scored from second on a ground ball!

It was so much fun. I forgot to mention that we were playing on a field that was replicated to the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field. There also was a replica of Yankee Stadium in New York and Fenway Park in Boston. How cool! The game got cut short as it was time to go when the visiting team was up. My run had been the go-ahead run, but they ended up scoring 3 or 4 runs before we had to stop the game. Oh well. Hopefully someone out there has understood my baseball lingo. I was explaining the rules to one student who is from Europe. They were having trouble understanding balls and strikes (hey, it was their first time!) and the other team had first baseman that would just stand on the bag, creating more than one collision. As I hit one ball that ended up being a double I was yelling, "Get off the base! Get off the base!" as I ran towards first. Haha. Big thanks to our leaders for making the big league dreams for many people come true.