While driving to Leksand for our next double header (about an hour and a half away--no away game is close like back home), I couldn't help but try and soak in every bit of this experience. With loud house music playing in the travel vehicle--why had I never listened to these artists and DJs in America!--massage for the ears!--i gazed outside at the everlasting green of Sweden. I know it is primarily trees and more trees, but the uneven terrain and endless green land, coupled with small Swedish villages and Swedish style homes was enough to make me feel overly thankful for my time in life. Seems sappy, but I do not give a shit--what could have been better-- bright summer day in Sweden--beginning of Spring, everything green, good music, great friends, on our way to play baseball all day--I mean really?! A site I will not forget for a long while. I find writing challenging, enjoyable and relaxing because trying to translate a physical image and express an emotional tie into a blank sheet of paper with black lettering is quite difficult!--At least in getting the reader to understand it as if he or she were there.
We arrived a little late due do a couple missed turns, but I did not care--the field was again anything, but disappointing. Leksand is where Sweden holds their Baseball Academy for kids at 16 years of age to train and learn the game for three years--it is also free!-government pays for it like school. They had a cool, old school wooden grand stand, and the field was a little choppy in certain areas, but overall, in slick condition with towering pines beyond the outfield. I had been feeling pretty good with pitching and my arm had remained healthy--I credit Crossfit with my endurance and longevity--a lot of the movements have really strengthened my joints and kept them solid in every area. I do not think I would have been pitching this well a couple summers ago--at least without any pain. I decided to pitch myself so we took a quick BP and I did what I could to warm-up and prepare myself in the short amount of time. Every weekend I learn more and more about how to improve in my coaching abilities and how to better organize the team. Since I was pitching and BP was kind of sporadic, I have decided to print out a BP sheet with details on order and swings like in college for future games. As the game was underway, we started off a little slow, but came around after an inning or two with one run. My pitching began to slip a little when they accumulated four runs to go ahead. We battled back to take the lead, and the next inning they answered quickly and had a huge inning adding a few more. A couple more later in the game and they held out with the win. We fought hard and had some great plays, but left too many on without any hits in the end. We executed a couple pick-offs very well, and though we didn't get them each time, we still had an opportunity and our timing was accurate. We also put together a great hit and run when I was on base and Morgan slapped one to right. It is the little things to make runs available that will ultimately win games. There were some crucial errors and I left one too many up in the zone at times and they took advantage. The next game wasn't much different. We held on and kept trying to get by their 6-4 lead, but couldn't manufacture any runs with runners in scoring position. A couple more bunts here and there may have helped in advancing some runners, but we also needed to attempt some more steals--we didn't even test the catcher. It is hard when your down the whole game to gamble on a steal when the conditions were muddy (oh, it rained during the beginning of the second game--and pretty much the whole game--goes from unbelievable sunny day to dark and stormy in minutes--Sweden is the land of extremes). Again, we learned a little more about what we need to work on--hitting curve balls, relaxing at the plate, more live pitching practices-- and things we did well--some good defensive plays, pitching was consistent, pick-offs, hit and run, and having longer, quality at bats. We can always improve, but we are heading the right direction. Our team chemistry makes playing much easier--we all seem to get along fine and know how to have fun and enjoy each others company--that is the hard thing to fix! I'll take baseball mistakes or need for improvement any time over not having good team players and chemistry. Sometimes I think we are all too much of team players! One of our goals is to finish top 6 to make the playoffs and it will happen.
YOUTH TEAM
After getting home late from Leksand, we had to hit the sack and get up at 5:00am to drive to a town 3 and a half hours away for our first youth games in the Intersport Tourney. I quickly found out how funny and outgoing these kids are. They are all roughly 14 years old, and each one is definitely unique. I rode with one kid, Mersad--Bosnian Mother--speaks I think 4 languages--must be nice!--another kid on our team and Mersad's step father. Mersad is a social kid and probably talked during the entire ride--I didn't mind--I felt bad because I was just tired and barely answered most of his questions lol. A good kid who loves Ludacris, thinks he is Manny Ramirez, and in a country of hockey and soccer, he reigns among the few that love baseball--I think he knows more about certain teams and players than I do. Andreas is another lip-runner that occasionally throws in English curse words and drinks too much Red Bull. I grew up with a younger brother in much the same fashion so I think I can handle any amount of annoyance. He was showing me videos he had made in school--pretty creative--stop motion-like movie. We never did anything that cool for class at his age. The rest of the team fills in with other joking nonsense that causes a nonstop laughter in any period of the day. Three of the guys are in a band together, play a lot of Metallica covers and Credence among other rock.
As we arrived, I was informed of the tourney rules, which emphasized only 50 minutes for a time limit! Most games didn't get passed the second inning! It was the first time they were allowed to get leads and steal, and since I did not focus on coaching pick-offs too much, it became a little our of hand soon. We looked a little like the Bad News Bears and I suddenly felt like Billy Bob Thornton from the recent re-make. We started with Leksand (the academy team--been learning baseball and containing roughly the same coach for years) and they were tough. Our first pitcher's arm began hurting early so he literally called time-out and told our first baseman to come in for the switch--I guess I don't need to do much coaching haha! The next guy, lead singer and guitarist in the band, threw well! When they reached base, their hard-ass coach kept having steal on every pitch--there were many balks do to early steals and confusion from our pitcher. I made a mistake by never really going over the situation and therefore, our pitcher had no clue--I apologized later for that mistake on my part. We have mainly focused on bullpens, live hitting and BP and little game situation, but not stealing. It was also frustrating to see the other teams coach complain like crazy when our pitcher would balk and the umpire wouldn't immediately call it--chill out bud, the kids gotta learn asshole! That's when the Bad News Bears thoughts crept in--we were playing the fancy baseball academy with their "tough guy" coach who continued to do nothing, but yell at his players, while we were less organized and laughing and having more fun. I give great thanks to all the players on our team for not being overly frustrated--I felt horrible about not letting them know how to pick runners off bases--felt like I let them down. One of our players was hit by a pitch and proceeded to do some kind of limping leg, break dance down the line while laughing--I couldn't help but smile with him. We got some looks for that, and I told him it was usually inappropriate, but he didn't know any better. The break in between was again full of rain and restless players--I took out a Monster energy drink and was followed constantly by those wanting a sip like it would give them special powers. The second game went much better against Karilskoga--our pitcher from another team joined us, and threw very well! He and two others were from Wersteras--since so many youth teams are lacking players, they usually mix them. He didn't give up much of anything and we began to hit the ball much better. For the amount of time given we were able to give everyone playing time--I wish everyone would have gotten more chances at hitting, but I guess that is how the tournament goes. We went up early after getting a few steals and hits. Then Karilskoga began hitting and we made some errors that got us behind again and not much time to come back. We did a better job of holding on the runners and playing better baseball. They were a little upset with the losses, but still know how to have a good time--I've never been around so many positive kids. They make coaching easy. They were non-stop ragging on one player about a girl, singing songs, throwing hats, spitting seeds, wrestling etc... I had a great time and look forward to more tournaments and games with them.
This should be a very productive week of practice and camps. I video taped everyone's swing last week--saw some great things and things to improve upon during live pitching--mainly timing and mentality. We have camps only with the English School this week. They have been good with the camps in earlier weeks and will be older so hopefully we can get some games going smoothly.
RANDOM
-Spotify is an incredible, Swedish music sharing system. You have to be invited by someone to gain free access, but once invited, can search and store endless amounts of songs and playsists as long as have free internet radio and connections to other friends lists. It is like itunes, limewire, and pandora all together
-Another random person, an elderly Swedish woman, started to chat with us at the buffet-- nice lady--talked much about immigration and travel--didn't make a lot of sense at most times--talked to another guy earlier who said she was probably boosing. The elders seem a lot more interested and are more into talking with us when they here English than the younger crowd--basically because they have been there and done that and find it interesting to have Americans in their town because it isn't that often.
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