The End

Please feel free to check out all of my past columns on pursuing my dream of playing professional baseball for a summer.

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Final Thoughts

It’s been an odd week.

Since I started this website back in November, my mind has been completely transfixed on baseball and pitching. No matter what I was doing, my thought process would invariably return to this journey and my attempt to play professional baseball.

And now it’s over. It’s both disappointing and liberating. Being forced to quit thinking about the game day in and day out for eight months cold turkey is not easy. Also, it feels good because I accomplished, both directly and indirectly, what I wanted to at the start of this quest.

It kind of sounds like I’m retiring from baseball — that’s not the case at all. I want to continue playing the game for as long as I can, but now I can play confident in the knowledge that I achieved the overarching goal I devised back in the fall.

Now that the IBL season is over, it’s time to take stock of my performance and the summer in general. One of the reasons why I trained so hard in the off-season was to counter the inevitable weight and strength loss that would occur due to not being able to train with the same fervour during the season.

Once again, just like last season, I flew too close to the sun at the start of the summer and tried to maintain too high of an intensity during my workouts and that led to a couple of nagging injuries. Luckily, I didn’t let hubris get the best of me and became a lot smarter in the designing of my workouts.

I sit here now at a bodyweight of 192lbs, only three pounds down from the start of the season. Conversely, last year at this time I weighed around 175lbs. My strength numbers are also pretty much where they were at the start of the season which I’m very enthused about. However, I am in terrible cardiovascular shape. I’m like PFC William Santiago in A Few Good Men: I can’t run from here to there without falling down.

Of course, the entire point of maintaining that strength base was so that I’d be fresh to pitch deep into August. Oops.

Statistically, I didn’t throw that well this year. The season started off great with the five shutout innings I tossed on opening day, but quickly unravelled on me due to an illness and a shocking loss of confidence.

As I mentioned before, pitching success depends on confidence. Without it, you will just be a shell of yourself on the mound. The middle part of the season was terrible for me from a performance standpoint — I didn’t know where I was throwing the ball. It’s every pitcher’s worst nightmare.

I managed to claw my way back to respectability at the end of the year with a string of strong performances.

There were two questions I wanted answered and one goal set forth for my future self at the beginning of this journey. Truthfully, they’re all interconnected.

How good of a pitcher am I? How high could I travel up the ladder of professional baseball? The goal was to do my best to answer these two questions so I wouldn’t regret never finding the answer once the prime of my athletic career was over.

Answer #1: a very good amateur pitcher, a decent semi-professional pitcher, a non-existent professional pitcher.

Answer #2: The Intercounty Baseball League is my professional ceiling.

Playing against greater competition this summer and watching a bevy of talented pitchers take the hill over the past few months has really opened my eyes to my own shortcomings. I mean I always knew I didn’t possess otherworldly stuff, but seeing very good pitching most games has reiterated that point.

I’ve always prided myself on preparing myself mentally and physically to pitch by working on my craft and spending hours in the gym. Well, at this level everyone cares that much and works that hard. It’s that much harder to differentiate yourself.  

Pitching in front of crowds can be unnerving. I got used to it by the end of the season, but still the crowds IBL teams have to deal with pale in comparison to higher levels of professional baseball. I can unequivocally say that I don’t have the mental strength to pitch in front of 30,000 screaming fans. I couldn’t hack it in affiliated baseball.

Most importantly, I have zero regrets. I’ve got the answers I was searching for. Plain and simple, I am not good enough to play a higher level of baseball. And I’m fine with that. I’d much rather be content in that knowledge than always have that nagging “What if?” at the base of my skull.

Thus, I have no problem deeming this journey a success. Thank you so much to those of you who followed along these past eight months. Now that the faint possibility of a professional baseball career has been extinguished, it’s time to focus on other career aspirations (which may not be hard to figure out after seeing the stories I’ve written and video blogs I’ve posted to this space).

While this is the final Pro Ball or Bust column, I will be unveiling a new website in the next six to eight weeks which will encompass my next big project (hint: it involves both baseball and writing, but doesn’t involve me playing).

Until then, feel free to follow me on my new Twitter account: @MikeGArsenault which will detail any and all career news plus links to articles and videos and perhaps some funny observations (and also a link to my new website). No boring stuff.

Thanks again for reading.

P.S. The title of this blog is I Dream of Long Bus Rides. It took me one road trip to Ottawa to realize that’s a crock of shit. They are terrible – just a horrific experience. A nightmare, really. That may go down as one of the dumbest things I’ve ever said.

Final “Life with the Majors” Column  

The Fat Lady Sings

The London Majors have been eliminated from playoff contention in a first round loss to the Ottawa Fat Cats in five games.

Based on our play in the regular season, I honestly believed this team was poised to make a run at an IBL Championship. Just writing that first sentence of this column felt odd. After having baseball consume my life unlike any summer before it’s weird to sit here and not have to go to the ballpark.

I’m not really sure what to do with myself.

Unfortunately, after equating the regular season to foreplay last week, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make an obligatory premature, uh, “finish” comment to assess our playoff performance. It was like we were fumbling with a bra for the first time, got so excited about the prospects of what lay ahead, and ruined the fun before we had a chance to enjoy the, ahem, fruits of our labour.

Was that both clear and needlessly complicated at the same time? Good.

Truthfully, I’m not really sure what happened in our series against the Fat Cats. Basically, we just got beat by a team that played better than us. It’s really quite that simple. We didn’t play bad – we just didn’t play as well as Ottawa.

They got timely hits when they needed them and we didn’t. We had a very difficult time hitting with runners in scoring position and couldn’t capitalize on opportunities to put their pitchers away when we had them on the ropes.

It was a tightly contested series and unfortunately for the Majors, the better team – in those five games – won and will move onto the second round.

There’s not much to report from a personal standpoint since last week’s column as I was unable to see any action on the field. It was disappointing not to be called upon to pitch in the playoffs as I felt I was at a point where I could contribute and help the team win.

That being said, it took me a long time after my start on Opening Day to rebound from my early season struggles and get to a point where I could throw strikes consistently and replicate my mechanics. My success in the last ten days of the season may have been a case of too little, too late.

Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed my time with the London Majors this year and I’ve learned a lot about myself as a pitcher.

Next week’s column will be a reflection and look back on this eight month journey to play professional baseball. I’m truly content with the outcome and I believe I’ve achieved what I set out to do back in November (with some diversions along the way).

Penultimate “Life with the Majors” column

I Can Build on This

I mentioned in last week’s column that I was hopeful to get one last appearance under my belt before the playoffs started. I was fortunate enough to get two.

I threw two innings versus the Hamilton Thunderbirds on Friday night in our final home game of the regular season. In an ironic twist, I started against the Thunderbirds in our home opener back in May and here I was on the mound versus the same opponents two months later.

I was happy with my performance. My first inning was three up and three down and included a strikeout. The first batter I faced in my second inning of work got a hold of a get-me-over fastball with a 1-0 count and deposited my offering over the left field fence.

I bore down after the home run and finished the inning off without giving up another run. The most important stat for me was that I had zero walks, which means that the command and control of my arsenal was where I want it. I was throwing all of my pitches for strikes.

It was Rock the Park in London over the weekend which is a concert that brings a variety of big bands to Harris Park, which is just across the Thames River from the ballpark. It was a surreal experience while I was on the mound to pitch while listening to Meat Loaf rock out to Rock and Roll Dreams Come True.

We played Toronto on Sunday afternoon and if we won it would clinch us second place in the league and avoid a first round match up with the Ottawa Fat Cats (an arduous bus trip that we desperately wanted to avoid).

We came out unbelievably flat and were down 8-0 by the end of the first inning. We weren’t able to recover and fell to the Maple Leafs 17-2. I threw the last inning of the game as our bullpen was short (which has become a common theme over the last couple of weeks). Once again, I didn’t walk a batter and did not give up an earned run.

That’s three straight appearances — encompassing four innings – without giving up a walk. I’m extremely happy with those results. It’s taken a lot of hard work, but I’m confident I can be an effective option for the team during the postseason. I know what I need to do mechanical-wise to throw strikes and if I feel like my command is slipping, I can get myself back on track.

That’s the most important thing: being able to make adjustments mid-game, rather than be at a loss when the ball isn’t doing what I want it to do.

Playoffs start tonight versus Ottawa. Unfortunately, we will have to travel to the Nation’s Capital over the long weekend, but, the way we’re looking at it, if we have to drive that far, we may as well ensure that the series doesn’t need to come back to London next week.

The three months of foreplay is over. Now it’s time for the real thing.

A Breakthrough

The Labours of Hercules-like stretch I mentioned in last week’s column has mercifully come to an end. Our shortened bench only made the task at hand all the more difficult.

I missed last Thursday’s game because of my work commitments as a reporter with the Metro News London. We lost 7-6 to Kitchener in a game that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicates. We fell behind early and often and only managed to score the runs in our last three at-bats — otherwise we couldn’t muster anything offensively.

I was to be the second guy out of the bullpen in Friday night’s rematch with the Panthers from Kitchener. This game was the reverse of the night before. We jumped out to an early lead and managed to hold on for dear life, closing out a hard-fought 10-7 victory. I was in the bullpen warming up in the ninth inning ready to come in if our reliever wasn’t able to shut the door.

He did and I was able to get some much-needed work in on my mechanics and delivery.

The doubleheader in Barrie on Saturday was a disaster from the time we left London. Horrible traffic made us late for the game and we were forced to forgo batting practice and jump right into a contest against the first place team in the league.

The lack of preparation showed as our hitters couldn’t get anything going offensively in either game. I was the lone reliever available out of the bullpen. We had just three pitchers to get us through 14 innings against one of the top lineups in the IBL.

The heat and humidity was unbearable at times. I was drenched in sweat just by walking from the dugout to the bullpen. I entered the game to pitch the 6^th inning of Game 1 to face the top of Barrie’s batting order. I had a 1-2-3 inning, three up and three down.

It’s the first perfect inning I’ve pitched since my first start of the season on opening day. I retired the three batters I faced on two groundouts and a strikeout. I was throwing strikes with good velocity and I was able to command my off-speed pitches as well. It felt like I’ve really turned a corner and that I’m back to where I was at the beginning of the season.

It took me long enough, but better late than never.

Unfortunately, we came up on the short end of the stick in both games, losing two straight games to Barrie, basically eliminating ourselves from contention for the regular season pennant.

However, we bounced back beautifully on Sunday against Brantford and hammered the Red Sox 11-1. That win basically assures us of second place in the league, barring a horrible collapse this week in the remaining four games of the season.

Our pitching staff is still pretty thin so I will most likely have one more appearance before the playoffs start. I’m hoping I can build on my performance on Saturday and be counted on to throw important innings in the postseason.

"Life with the Majors Column"

A Work in Progress

The London Majors pitching staff has been decimated in the past week. Where we once had a complete bullpen with a full complement of arms, we’re now faced with the difficult task of wading through our most difficult stretch of the season with a roster of arms that, at best, would be considered a minimum requirement to field a competitive team.

Between injuries—two guys have been shut down for the summer with arm troubles—and work commitments forcing guys to miss games (myself included; I’ve been working regularly at the Metro News London as a reporter in addition to my weekly column), we’ve been forced to take an all hands on deck approach.

Case in point Sunday afternoon: we travelled to Hamilton for an afternoon tilt against the Thunderbirds with exactly three pitchers, one of whom is a starter and could only be called upon to throw an inning at most.

I was designated as the first—and I guess by default, only—arm out of the bullpen. We were cruising along through the first five innings of the game up 8-0. However, in the sixth, our starter—typically a reliever all season long—ran out of gas and Hamilton began stringing some hits together.

A three run home run chased our starter and I was brought into the game with our lead cut to 8-5. I was hoping to build on my previous outing and continue my long, arduous climb back to respectability and hopefully the talent I showed in the home opener.

I gave up a run in my first inning on a loud double to the leftfield corner. My command wasn’t great to begin the outing but I got out of the frame without further damage. Our bats went silent for the remainder of the contest and it was left to me to hold onto our tenuous lead.

My control started to come around and my confidence continued to creep upward. Any command issues that did arise were purely the result of a lack of focus on my part. Not a lack of focus in the game, but a lack of focus in terms of replicating my mechanics. I would forget to hit my delivery checkpoints and the ball wouldn’t cooperate as it headed towards the plate.

Oddly, I felt the best and most confident in my stuff in the 9^th inning as we tried to close out an 8-7 nailbiter. Unfortunately, this was the time when every ball Hamilton hit bled into the gap for a cheap single. I was pulled with two outs in the ninth. Luckily, we won mere minutes later by picking off a guy wandering too far off of second base.

We got the win and I was able to throw three serviceable innings to help the team. I’m enthused about keeping the lead, but I still know there’s lots of room for improvement. And I need these improved results for these next few days. We play tomorrow, Friday, a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.

That’s five games in four days. And we’ll only have six pitchers available. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it’s going to be a dogfight to come out of the weekend with a .500 record. I will definitely be throwing again soon.

“Life with the Majors” (back after a one week hiatus)

Back in the Game

I pitched in a game for the first time in a little less than three weeks over the weekend. It was an emergency type situation as our starting pitcher only lasted two innings. I was brought in to bridge the gap to later in the game and hopefully eat some innings, while not letting the game get further out of hand than it already was.

I wasn’t expecting to pitch, but I was ready for it because we had a short bullpen available for the game. I’ve been working on my mechanics every time I’ve thrown recently and I really focused on throwing strikes in the bullpen warming up. I wasn’t concerned with velocity in the slightest.

I’ve had difficulty throwing strikes in my last three outings, so I needed to right the ship and pound the zone. And with our team down by several runs when I came into the game, it was imperative that I force our opponents to hit their way on base. I had to let our defence have the opportunity to defend; I couldn’t do that by walking batters.

I came into the game wanting to be aggressive and wanting to show my teammates and coaching staff that my first start of the year wasn’t an aberration.

I threw strikes but I ran into an insanely hot offence. I forced the opposing hitters to swing the bat, but by being so consumed with pounding the strike zone, some of my pitches caught way too much of the plate and veered right into their wheelhouses.

I threw three innings total and gave up five runs, but also struck out three. I pitched with more confidence than I have in my last couple of outings and I was pleased with my command. Of course, the results weren’t very good and I’m by no means happy with my performance, but after the struggles I’ve gone through—not to mention being inactive for about three weeks—it’s a step in the right direction.

Ironically, in an odd twist, I actually had the lowest game ERA of all four Major pitchers who threw on Sunday. That just shows you how honed in their bats were. It didn’t matter what we threw or how hard we threw it; they hit it and they hit it hard.

It happens from time to time. Just one of those days. However, those days seem to be occurring more frequently for the London Majors.

We are now 14-8. We have fourteen games remaining and the regular season has to be finished by July 24^th. There’s a lot of baseball coming up in the next few weeks. We’re going to need all hands on deck.

I will be counted on again. And now I’m confident I can throw strikes with all of my pitches.

Facing Some Adversity

The Majors are in the midst of our first losing streak of the 2011 season. We lost to the second place Barrie Baycats last week, shrinking our hold on first place to one game. Baserunning mistakes were our undoing and we couldn’t capitalize on Baycat errors to put the game out of reach.

We should have beaten them by six or seven runs, but instead we allowed them to keep hanging around until they started to play well. That’s one thing we can’t do versus good teams. When you have a chance to put runs on the board against one of the top teams in the league, you have to do it.

That’s what championship calibre teams do. When you have your foot on an opponent’s throat, you don’t release the hold and allow them a chance to breathe. You bury them, destroy their morale, and don’t let them back in the game.

The Majors are going to need to acquire that killer instinct if we want to win an IBL championship as opposed to just a regular season championship. Message received and we were able to push that game out of our memory and focus on our trip to Ottawa.

We left at seven o’clock in the morning on Friday destined for the Nation’s Capital. The schedule called for us to play Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

We ran into a great pitcher on Saturday and were not able to mount any offence. The Fat Cats shut us out 4-0. It was the first time a pitcher has been completely able to neutralize our offensive attack. It was a shock to our entire team. We hadn’t been punched in the mouth like that all year.

The team talked it over after the game and we were confident in our ability to rebound and come out firing on all cylinders the next day.

It didn’t work.

We lost 5-4 on Sunday to finish being swept out of Ottawa by the Fat Cats. Three of our six losses have come against Ottawa this season. We didn’t play that bad in Game 2, we just didn’t score as many runs as they did.

We’ve lost four games in a row. This is the time of the year where we’ll find out what we’re made of.

On a personal note, I haven’t throw in a game since my last appearance. It was remarked to me by a teammate during pre-game warmups that I have a lot of moving parts in my throwing motion and I should try to clean up my delivery in order to maintain consistent mechanics.

It was a salient point. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard it. Now that I’ve gotten my leg mechanics in order and able to derive power from my hips, I need to remove any extraneous motion from my arm movement to have better timing in my delivery.

And though I’m not throwing in games right now, I’m able to throw three or four times a week in the bullpen during games and practices to keep my arm strong and work on becoming a better, more consistent pitcher.

We are now in third place in the IBL with a 13-6 record.

Here’s my latest "Life with the Majors" column.

Coming Back

As I mentioned in last week’s column, I—and to a lesser extent the London Majors—had to bounce back from a desultory outing. The team rectified our poor performance against Ottawa with statement games against Hamilton and a doubleheader against our first place co-conspirators from Barrie.

From a personal standpoint, I didn’t rebound quite so quickly—and with as much dominance—as the rest of the team, but I definitely took a step in the right direction towards getting back to the form I showed in the season opener.

We crushed Hamilton 12-1 on Friday night in a game that quickly turned into a laugher. Our team was out to prove that the lacklustre loss to Ottawa was an aberration and would not be indicative of our play for the rest of the season.

The lopsided score allowed me to get into the game in a low-pressure situation and work on my confidence to attack the strike zone and throw with vigour. I threw the eighth inning when the outcome of the contest was no longer in doubt.

I threw much better than I did in my last two appearances, but still fell short of the success I had in my first start. However, the most important thing about my one inning of relief is that I threw with a confidence that had been lacking previously. My velocity was better than it had been from the mound and I was able to throw good pitches down in the zone.

I was still a little wilder that I’d like to be and I only threw fastballs in Friday’s appearance, but I was emboldened with the uptick in command and control. Plus, my ERA went down, which is always a nice bonus.

There is still a disconnect with my control and velocity from flat ground during warmups and in a game atmosphere. I seem to throw harder and command my tosses more easily while playing catch than I can when facing batters. I need to eliminate that discrepancy. I am on my way to doing so; it’s just going to take some more work.

I’m close to where I need to be. I just need to continue to work hard and the results will come.

The team went into the doubleheader feeling good about our chances and we certainly sent a statement to Barrie that first place is going through London this season. We won the first game 9-1 and won the second 4-3 in a nailbiter that lasted 15 innings.

It was a great sweep by the Majors and gives us a two game lead over the Baycats in the fight for first place in the IBL.

We are heading to Ottawa this weekend for a two game series in our Nation’s Capital. Time for some payback after the hurt they put on us two weeks ago. We’ll be at the midpoint of the regular season when we come back, hopefully still in first place.

5^th Metro News Column

Need to Regroup

The Majors are now tied for first place in the league with a 10-2 record on the season. We had our first bad game of the year on Sunday afternoon against the Ottawa Fat Cats. We ended up losing 16-11 in a game marred by shoddy fielding, bad umpiring and ejections. 

Truthfully, it’s nothing to be worried about it. These games happen throughout the course of a season. Baseball is a fickle game. It’s not like we weren’t prepared or that we weren’t focused. Murphy’s Law just happened to kick our ass.

We made a plethora of mental and physical errors that enabled Ottawa to grab a lead and never look back. There’s no need to read into our play any more than necessary. It was a terrible game on the defensive side of the ball, but it’s definitely not a harbinger of things to come.

To succeed in this game, you need a short memory and never get too high or two low with your emotions.

It’s just unfortunate that we laid an egg on Sunday afternoon because it was our “Pack the Park” fundraiser for charity. As I mentioned in my last Metro News column, our goal was to sell as many tickets as possible for Sunday’s game to get Labatt Park crammed with spectators. I’m not sure of the official tally, but it was estimated that our crowd was between 1500 and 2000 people.

It was a great turnout.

Although we lost, we can’t be accused of putting a boring product on the field. Our offence continued to roll, racking up twenty hits to go along with eleven runs. We are hitting well over .300 through the first third of the season and are averaging almost two home runs per game. These are batting practice numbers.

If I was unfortunate enough to have to face our offence, reading stat sheets before the game would keep me up at night. There are literally no holes in our lineup one through nine in the batting order. I’m just glad I get to watch my teammates hit from the comfort of the dugout rather than ten inches of dirt and clay.

I’d have whiplash by Canada Day.

Speaking of succeeding in the game of baseball with a short memory, I need to heed that advice with respect to my pitching. Physically, I feel great. My arm strength is back where it should and my legs feel as strong as they did before I got sick.

The problem I’m having right now is between my ears. I chalked up my wildness and ineffectiveness in my second start to my lacklustre health at the time. As I discussed last week, my throwing sessions have been feeling good and my mechanics are back where they are supposed to be.

However, I couldn’t carry that out to the mound in a game situation. I was brought in for the ninth inning on Friday night as a situational lefty. I was to face the leadoff hitter of the inning. I felt really good with my stuff in the bullpen, but couldn’t translate that to the mound.

I was so transfixed on throwing strikes—to remove any lingering doubts about my command from my second start—that I was babying the ball to the plate. I wasn’t throwing free and easy. It was like I was scared to throw a ball.

That is no way to pitch. I ended up walking him on eight pitches and was promptly pulled from the game, failing to do my job. I didn’t feel comfortable throughout the entire appearance.

Now I need to focus on the mental aspect of the game to get my head on straight. I’ve proved I can throw well in this league; I just need to gain that confidence back. I had a good bullpen session yesterday, I’ve cleared my head of any negative thoughts and I’m ready to prove my worth to this pitching staff.

4^th Metro News Column

Felled by Hubris

I wasn’t healthy when I took the mound for my second start of the season last week and it definitely showed. I didn’t make it out of the second inning, giving up three earned runs, two hits and walking five. 

It was an admittedly terrible performance. My mechanics felt awful and my body felt extraordinarily weak. I was deriving zero power from my legs and all of my pitches were finishing high in the zone. I didn’t have the strength to follow through with my delivery and attack the bottom half of the strike zone (which is where I have to live with my pitches to be successful).

In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have taken the mound. It was my ego that implored me to take the ball. I short-sightedly thought I could get Intercounty Baseball League hitters out at less than full strength.

It was a foolish decision. Not only was I still suffering adverse health effects, but those health problems forced me, as I mentioned last week, to abandon my between outing throwing and strength regimen. Over a two week span—between my first and second appearances—I was only able to workout in the gym once and throw once.

Such a lacklustre conditioning program is not going to cut it in the IBL; I found that out the hard way.

Luckily, the offensive juggernaut that is the London Majors saved me from a loss and we ended up winning the game 18-7. My poor start was inconsequential to the final score.

Have I mentioned how much I enjoy pitching with this offence?

So, I learned the importance of pitching at full capacity and I will no longer put myself in a position to throw when all signs point towards resting and getting healthy. It’s never too late to learn something new.

Over the past week, I’ve concentrated on getting healthy and getting my arm and body back in shape. I’ve been training in the gym, struggling to regain the strength that I lost during my layoff. I’ve also fine-tuned the mechanical deficiencies that cropped up in my last outing and I’m convinced that I’m back where I need to be to succeed. I’m running at 100% again and I’m ready to throw this weekend if I’m called upon.

The London Majors have continued our hot start and we are now 7-1 on the season with three home games coming up this weekend. If we can somehow manage to win all three games, we should have a foothold on first place in the league through the first third of the season.

Of course, there is still a lot of ball to be played over the summer.

And that might be an understatement. We had a doubleheader rained out on Saturday, which means we now have four games to make up in an already packed June and July schedule. We are playing well now, but we’re really going to have to focus over the coming weeks to build on this early season success.

Here is my latest “Life with the Majors” column for Metro News London.

The Majors are on a Roll

Now that the rain has actually managed to subside for the time being—although the threat of Mother Nature blanketing the London area with more hellacious storms always seems to be a distinct possibility—we are playing tremendous baseball when given the opportunity. 

The Majors are 5-0 to start the 2011 season and we currently sit in first place in the Intercounty Baseball League standings. Our starting pitching has been very good, but our offence has been absolutely crushing the ball each and every game.

The hitters are making it very easy on the pitching staff by bludgeoning opponent’s pitching with a plethora of extra base hits and home runs. I have never been on a team with a stronger batting line-up than the 2011 edition of the London Majors. Every hitter in the order has a professional approach at the plate and goes into each at-bat with a plan in mind. It’s been a treat to witness and has given me insight into how the mind of a batter works; very interesting stuff.

I was scheduled to pitch over the weekend but a rainout on Friday complicated matters. My outing was pushed back, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I am having some further health issues that piggybacked on the sickness that felled me after my first start of the season.

I don’t want to get into any gory details, but let’s just say that I am suffering from a lower body injury and I’m forced to sit on a donut. Take from that what you will. Let your imagination run wild. Actually not too wild; let’s keep things PG. I don’t know if it’s living in a dorm environment, but I’ve never had health issues like this since I started working out heavily after I left university.

Due to my throwing schedule and my feeble condition last week my workouts have fallen by the wayside. I need to get healthy fast. We have a lot of games coming up and I will be counted on, as will the rest of the staff, to throw a lot of innings over the coming weeks.

We need to continue to press the gas petal to the floor and try to keep rolling on this undefeated stretch. The worst thing that could happen is that we get complacent about our hot start and stop giving the effort that saw us get to this position in the first place. We can’t think games are owed to us because we’ve gotten an early taste of success; we need to continue to battle hard each and every inning.

From everything I’ve seen of our team in games and practices, I’m confident we have the necessary mental toughness to continue to work hard. We could be set up for a very special season.

I just hope I’m still alive to see it.

Here is the link to my second Metro News London column.

Right into the Fire

After my training session at Goodlife and a couple of throwing sessions last week, I was feeling some pain in my upper back, left tricep and elbow. It had flared up a week earlier, but I didn’t pay too much attention to it. My woefully uneducated guess is that my supposed ‘maintenance’ strength training program is still a little too intense for an in-season workout program, so I’ve taken steps to make it a little less taxing on my body.

However, the discomfort I was feeling gave me the opportunity to experience another one of the seemingly never-ending perks of being a London Major: free chiropractic services. Doc did some minor chiropractic work on my back, but he spent most of my two sessions last week (did I mention that it’s free; amazing) using Active Release Therapy and electrical currents to heal my sore areas. He also used something called laser acupuncture which mimics traditional acupuncture with electrical waves. It’s very cool stuff and it works. My arm and back felt fantastic afterwards.

And it’s a good thing my arm felt good because at practice last Tuesday I was informed that I would be making the season opening start on Friday against the Hamilton Thunderbirds. There were a myriad of scenarios running through my mind when I was called into the manager’s office, but starting the 2011 season on the mound was not one of them.

I was admittedly anxious for the rest of the week as Friday moved closer. This was my first start in the Intercounty League and in front of fans who actually pay to watch the games; I’ve never experienced that before. I pictured a mass exodus of people demanding their money back after seeing me atop the mound.

Also adding to my stress and anxiety was the news that I’d been offered to write a weekly column in the Metro News London newspaper: here is a link to the column intro and a short biography I wrote. My first column was posted the same day as the game and in it I talked about being named the Opening Day starter, so I was putting my neck on the line. If I threw poorly, it would be a spectacular and very public flameout (here's my first column)

(My weekly allotment for the Metro News is only 300 words per column so I will continue to write a weekly article for this blog on topics I am not able to cover in my Metro News column)

Friday arrived and I just wanted to get to the park and begin throwing. Waiting around at the dorm watching the clock move was excruciating. I’m comfortable with a ball and glove in my hand; I was not comfortable alone with my thoughts of various ways I could screw up the first game of the season.

I got to the park about ninety minutes before the first pitch (I already went through my pre-game stretch and light workout at the small gym located in the basement of the residence hall). Instead of heading out to the field to throw, I was directed to the dugout where I would be interviewed by a columnist from the London Free Press who wanted to talk about my baseball and writing career.

There seemed to be quite a large build up to this start and I hadn’t even thrown yet. The nerves got to me a little more and the pressure seemed to close in a little further. I was fine once I started throwing in the outfield and cracked a few jokes with my teammates. I felt good in the bullpen and as people started to stream into the stadium to get a look at the 2011 edition of the Majors.

Because it was the Home Opener, there was a lot of excitement around the stadium and a lot of things going on that made it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. There were speeches, the singing of ‘O Canada’, sponsor recognition, youth baseball involvement, an appearance by the Town Crier (I didn’t even know such a position existed) and the announcement of the starting line-ups.

The above video is from the latter; my only goal was to keep one foot in front of the other and not fall flat on my face.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the game began and I walked out to the mound. I tried to remain calm and cool on the outside, but inside my heart was thundering away in my chest like a jackhammer. Typically, I can tell what type of outing I will have by the result of my first pitch. I threw a high fastball and the leadoff hitter mercifully took a hack at it, popping it up to the second basemen for the first out of the game. And I could breathe again.

My stat line for the night: 5IP, 0R, 1H, 2K, 3BB. I was not happy with the walks and I will need better control if I want to continue to be successful in this league. However, I am ecstatic with that start to the season (we ended up winning the game 6-2).

Here is the link to the London Free Press article to show that I am not lying about my stats.

However, my body fell apart on Saturday morning. I had an extremely sore throat, fever and every muscle in my body was wracked with pain. I’m not sure what the cause was, but I can only assume that my body was so stressed and focused on pitching well on Friday that it had nothing left for the weekend. I was still trying to recover fully yesterday. It knocked me on my ass.

But I need to get better soon as I’m due for my second start of the season this weekend. Now I know what to expect from pitching in this league; I can’t wait to get back on the mound.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Mother Nature is wreaking havoc on the 2011 baseball season and, also, on my ability to post interesting articles to this blog. We are smack dab in the middle of the third week of May and the London Majors have yet to play anything other than an intrasquad game thus far. Oddly enough, we are the only team who hasn’t played a regular season game in the entire league.

In fact, it probably seems like I’m completely fabricating my place on the team and I’m stringing readers along until I can no longer keep up such an elaborate ruse. However, I am nowhere near clever enough to hatch such a scheme. Therefore, here’s proof that I am actually a member of the London Majors: my website profile.

As I mentioned last week, the season opener was supposed to be on Sunday afternoon, but a torrential downpour that literally did not stop for the better part of three days quickly put an end to that possibility.

It was doubly disappointing that the season did not get underway as I found out that I was scheduled to pitch as the first or second guy out of the bullpen. I was really looking forward to the opportunity to prove myself on an Intercounty League mound, but I suppose I will have to wait until our next scheduled game on Friday. I was pleased that I was entrusted with the chance to throw in the first game of the year even though I am new to the team and league; the belief in my abilities gives me further confidence moving forward.

I suppose since there isn’t much baseball stuff to discuss this week, I can touch on some happenings off the field in order to make this a full-fledged column.

The Major players are taken care of very well here in London. We are housed in spacious, suite-style dorms at the University of Western Ontario, complete with housecleaning service once a week (an absolute must with twenty-something guys living in close quarters). The players are also provided with a complimentary buffet continental breakfast each and every morning. This has been instrumental to someone who eats as much as I do.

(And yes, I have no problem saying that we are incredibly spoiled; the organization treats us very well)

Each member of the team is also provided with a free membership at a Goodlife fitness club for the duration of the summer. I’ve mentioned in this space before that I train at Crossfit Oshawa, a no frills facility in an industrial park that is proud of its hard core look and uncomfortable training atmosphere (no fans or air conditioning). That, and hard work, is the secret to the results achieved there. Blood, sweat and heavy weights are the only options at Crossfit Oshawa.

The gym is not for everyone.

Conversely, Goodlife is a typical big box mainstream health club. That means mirrors galore, a plethora of machines and cardio equipment and the amenities one would expect from such a facility (juice bar, tanning salon, even massage chairs). I showed up on Sunday morning after learning the game was cancelled with my weightlifting shoes, a bag of chalk and a four foot long chain I use for weighted pullups and dips; I was like a fish out of training water.

I wasn’t sure how I would be received; truthfully I had visions of being escorted off the premises by the time I finished my warmup. In reality, I had no issues. I did get a few weird looks from the spinning class and a few pregnant ladies going through some prenatal workouts (I think one woman thought the chain was some Medieval torture device; she gave me a wide berth), but overall I was left alone to do my work.

It would be impossible to follow a Crossfit type strength and conditioning program at such a facility, but the Goodlife gym is perfect for my maintenance program over the summer. I should have zero issues doing what I need to do to stay in the best shape possible throughout the season.