Plane Ride & More ...

Welcome to my blog. I’m sure you are all eagerly awaiting to read about the complexities of my life along with that of the Oberlin College baseball team. Today we leave to commence our spring trip to Phoenix, Arizona.

As I write I’m currently on our flight to Phoenix, AZ where the team will play nine games this week. It’s pretty mind boggling that I am already in my junior year at Oberlin College. The start of each season is very thought provoking, even scary in a certain respect. This being my fifteenth year in organized baseball is hard to fathom, maybe even harder to swallow is the fact that it is my second to last. To recap my day, I woke up and did a little laundry, made a brief stop at the bank, and then came back and packed up all my gear. I was pretty excited all day as this trip has been highly anticipated by myself and the rest of the guys. Spring trips in retrospect are some of the best times I’ve had. I’ve been going somewhere for baseball during Spring Break since my sophomore year of high school.

At about 7:00 we finally arrived at the airport, all of us lugging our suitcases to the checkout counter. There was a sense of excitement among the guys, as we are just all eagerly awaiting our arrival in Phoenix. We all checked in and headed over to the security checkpoint. Of course, Eric Gibbs, one of my good buddies and current roommates packed his shaving cream and mouthwash in his carry on bag and was probably a few words away from being strip searched (I’m sorry Eric, but it was pretty funny). Anyways, I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seats reading about our escapades through airport security.

At this point in time I was really hungry and with a few hours to kill, Nick Monroe and I decided to head over to Great American Bagel. A fun fact for all is that Nick’s choice of bagel is cinnamon raisin, toasted with cream cheese. Just in case everyone was wondering what I got, I stayed pretty bland and got the traditional plain bagel with cream cheese. At this point in this blog entry half of you might think I’m out of my mind, which might not be a totally incorrect assumption. I figured that I’d spice it up a bit, and that meant recapping our bagel adventure; I mean who doesn’t love bagels

Anyways, enough about airport security and bagels, although I might include a short anthology about the later trip to the classic airport pizzeria Sbarro’s. At about 8:15 I met up with my dad, who is coincidentally on the same flight as the team. We moseyed on over to the gate, C11 to be exact (I know another piece of information that is imperative for all to know). With the inclement weather, the plane boarded about a half hour late so we just sat there and talked. It was also a pleasant surprise to sit next to a pretty cute girl at the gate, I must admit who looked an awful a lot like one of my ex-girlfriends.

Finally, we were able to board the plane, and I comfortably took my seat next to Coach Lahetta and Jeremy Simon. Unfortunately, being Cleveland, Ohio, home to in my opinion the worst weather in the world, we were stranded at the gate for about an hour because of the incoming snowstorm. That hour, I must admit was pretty eventful for my standards. I’ll take the time now to point out that I am pretty much a sports connoisseur. Moving on, the guys and I decided to reminisce about athletes along with a debate about who Shane Hisner should take with his fifth pick in this year’s fantasy baseball draft. In case anyone wanted to know, Shane picked Corey Hart, a sub par selection in my book. The highlight of the conversation had to be Tyrone Hill, the one time Cleveland Cavalier who couldn’t catch a pass with his life depended on it and who also takes the cake as one of the most interesting looking fellows I’ve ever seen to stay to politically correct.

After a fourty-five minute wait, the plane was finally de-iced and ready to take off. However, Ben Master, one of the more comical human beings I’ve ever met, deemed it necessary to brush his teeth literally two seconds after the flight attendant said to remain seated for take-off. For Ben’s sake, it’s a good thing there wasn’t an air marshal on the plane or we might all be stuck in the snow filled Cleveland today. I guess you have to commend the man, he likes to keep his teeth clean. Can you blame him?

To shorten the duration of the flight Jeremy Simon (our stud first baseman) and I decided to watch the movie Rudy. I always watch Rudy before every season but for some reason neglected to do so this year so it was definitely necessary to pop it in during the flight.

Now that you all have the minutes of the airport extravaganza and all the events leading up to boarding the plane, I think it’s time to expound upon the team itself. After two years in the program, the team finally looks poised to develop into a legitimate contender year in and year out. My freshman year I came into a team that to be quite frank, was not very good. My goal was to help turn Oberlin College baseball into a winner by the time I graduated. The team made great strides last year, finishing 17-23, but we established that we are here to play ball. Teams no longer just look over Oberlin College when they see us on the schedule.

This year we got off to a bit of a tough start in our opening weekend but I’m fully confident that the team is ready to bounce back. We have a very talented group of players, but a very young squad as well. Many freshman and sophomores are expected to perform right away so naturally there are some growing pains. Baseball is a very humbling game and I think some of the young guys received a little “welcome to college baseball” present last weekend. Last weekend was a learning experience for many of the guys. Whether it is life or baseball, nobody will ever give you anything, you have to take it. I think some of our young guys just expected to come in right away and be handed wins and that’s just not the case no matter what level of baseball you are playing. Despite coming up short in the four contests last weekend, I think we can draw a few positives from the experience. Anyways, this spring trip can not come at a better time. The guys are very eager to get back on the field and prove to people that last weekend was a fluke and that we are a very good team. Nobody expects us to win so it’s all about proving people wrong. I think this team has the persistence to break through and have a great year.

It’s about 2:00 AM right now and we have two games tomorrow so I’m afraid I’ll have to end my session for the day. Until then, wish us luck and tune back in tomorrow for some more exhilarating news about your Oberlin College Yeomen baseball squad.