New League News and Work Visa Update

I’ve spent the last week planning my attack to bombard various teams and leagues with phone calls and emails imploring the respective organizations to give me a chance to show what I can do on a pitching mound.

I figured no one wanted to be interrupted during the Christmas season and I assumed that planning and tryout logistics wouldn’t be completely unveiled until early 2011. Starting next week, the restrictor plates are off and my cell phone bill is about to skyrocket with a plethora of calls to the United States.

There have been a few changes to the roster of leagues I last discussed in my Where/How column. The Frontier League (still my top choice) and the Atlantic League remain unchanged, but the Golden Baseball League and the Northern League have disbanded.

All of the GBL teams are still in tact, but they are combining with four former Northern League teams, as well as the United League (an independent league of seemingly questionable origins based in Texas), to form a new venture called the North American League. The remaining Northern League teams have joined the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

This seismic shift in the independent baseball landscape took place over a month ago, but there are still no new details on the fledgling North American League, which is a tad disconcerting, especially since I need to start planning my tryout schedule early in the new year. For that reason, I think the Golden Baseball League and the four Northern League teams comprising the new North American League are my peripheral radar for the time being.

I also received some information from one of my contacts in regards to a work visa so I can play ball in the United States legally (the last thing I want to do is create an international incident and have Nancy Grace shriek at me from a state penitentiary). Apparently, maneuvering around the red tape in the visa application process falls under the team’s jurisdiction as does paying for it (the cost hovers around $1000).

This can be construed as both good and bad news. It’s good from the perspective that I don’t have to deal with it, but bad from the perspective that I will have to perform that much better than my American peers to warrant a visa.

There’s no incentive for a team in a league where profit margins are already razor-thin (or non-existent) to choose me over an American citizen of equal talent. Why go through the headaches and financial cost of a visa when you can just as easily pick a home-grown player?

If it comes to that, I suppose I could always offer to defray the cost of the visa if it means garnering a spot on the team. It’s a big financial hit, but ultimately worth it if it means the culmination of this journey ends on a positive note. However, I also don’t want to seem too eager, have a team walk all over me, and end up low-balling me for my services this summer (not that my ball is very high to begin with).

‘I don’t want to seem too eager’? Jesus, listen to me. I sound like a nervous high schooler terrified to approach the captain of the cheerleading team and ask her out on a date. I have to play it cool, make my intentions known, but also ensure that I’m not being played for a fool.

Wow, I am putting way too much thought into this. Over-thinking can only hurt me in this quest.

Nevertheless, because of the visa issue, I’ve decided to add two leagues to my search: the American Association and the Cam-Am League. The reason is that both leagues contain a franchise in Canada (Winnipeg and Quebec City respectively).

This is an assumption, but I think it would be easier to catch on with a Canadian team than one based in the States. I could be wrong, but this is what I plan on discovering in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year and all the best in 2011!

Cruising Recap

I am back from a week long cruise visiting ports in Mexico, Belize and Honduras. That is the reason why last week’s column was posted on Saturday night instead of Wednesday morning as scheduled. I had originally meant for the column to auto-post on Wednesday but, evidently, my computer skills are even worse than I thought.

On the cruise, I had every intention of continuing both my strength training and throwing regimen (albeit to a lesser degree) while soaking up some much needed UV rays. That plan fell apart in grand fashion on the second day. 

I went to the ship’s gym expecting a facility that, while not allowing me to train at the same intensity I’m used to, would at least let me maintain what I had and hit the ground running once I returned to the cold and dreary confines of Canada.

I figured that a ship the size of two football fields, that could best be described as a floating palace, would at least have the necessary equipment to create semi-challenging Crossfit workouts. Surely there was enough money in the $500 million plus budget to include some barbells and bumper plates.

Wrong.

The gym was a disaster. Just cardio equipment and isolation exercise machines as far as the eye could see. Not one barbell in the entire facility. There were dumbbells that were capped in weight at 50lbs. Any hope I had in incorporating dumbbells into a makeshift workout was lost when I realized the ceiling was only seven feet high, which meant there was no chance of lifting anything overhead (an integral component to any dumbbell workout).

Worst of all, there was no place to do pullups (a blasphemy that will not soon be forgotten).  I approached the Australian meathead manning the counter and bemoaned the lack of equipment. I asked him if there was somewhere else I could train and take the dumbbells with me. The Crocodile Hunter fixed me with an incredulous stare, theatrically rolling his eyes, and said, “Just substitute, mate. It’s only a week.”

Yes, while a week of shitty exercises may not matter when you’re shoving a mouthful of steroids down your gullet every day like my Australian friend, I can’t afford to go a week without training right now. This dream is too important.

What did I do? I improvised. I got in one great workout early on in the trip; it involved a mile run around the track near the top of the ship broken up by descending sets of squats, pushups, situps, and handstand pushups. I also ran through the Honduran beachfront at the end of the trip (I can’t think of a better way to explore a new country).

The rest of my training on the ship involved at least 100 pushups every day, pullups off of every structure I could find, impromptu sets of handstand pushups in front of gawking onlookers and a plethora of dips in between two metal tables in the dance club (don’t ask, but yes there was alcohol involved).

I threw the ball twice; once on the beach in Cozumel, Mexico and then again in Costa Maya, Mexico. The first session was long toss and I was not happy with it at all. The distance was pathetic (I didn’t even bother pacing it out) and my mechanics were all over the place; partly due to inactivity, as the previous week’s indoor session was cancelled, and also the sand was much too deep to find a consistent release point.

The second session was capped at 100 feet, but took place on thin, finely packed sand which made it much easier to maintain my delivery. I didn’t push the velocity at all, but was very happy with how everything felt and I’m definitely looking forward to getting back indoors and letting it fly.

Since I knew I wasn’t going to make any gains in terms of strength or throwing on my vacation, I figured I would focus all of my energy into reaching my goal of a 200lb body weight.

Luckily, the nutritional setup on a cruise ship is perfect for achieving gastronomical excess. The food offered on the ship was free and there were no limits to how much food one could order during a meal. Not only that, but the offerings were, without hyperbole, the most delicious things I have ever eaten. Everything was prepared using only the freshest ingredients and the best cuts of meat.

Each morning, I began my day with anywhere from four to six eggs and at least the part of one animal in either bacon or sausage form. For lunch I ended up eating enough pastrami on rye sandwiches to start my own delicatessen in the Bronx.

However, I saved my best work for dinner. Every night I ate 2-3 appetizers, then at least two main courses, which were followed up with some of the tastiest desserts I’ve ever sampled (and I’m not even a dessert fan). The waiter just marvelled at the size of my meals and I’m fairly certain he needed a few extra sheets of paper to jot down all of my requests.

By the end of the trip I’m confident I could have beaten Kobayashi in a shrimp-eating competition. I may have single-handedly kept the Gulf seafood industry alive with my weeklong binge.

How did the scale look at the end of the cruise? 193lbs. Up three more pounds in just seven days, which is pretty good considering I wasn’t able to lift any heavy weights to turn those extra calories into dense muscle.

Plus, I have a number of gorge-tastic Christmas dinners coming up in the next few days to hopefully add a couple more lbs to my frame.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I’ll be back next Wednesday with some updates about the logistics of this journey.

My Strength and Conditioning Program

The above video contains my maximal strength numbers at the midpoint of my off-season training regimen. I am ecstatic with the lifts as all three are astronomically above where I was at the end of the summer. It’s great to see that my hard work has paid off thus far and I’m excited to see the improvements I can make over the final three months of my fall/winter training regimen.

Heavy strength training has long been looked down upon by the baseball cognoscenti as being detrimental to pitchers. It is thought that lifting heavy weights will make you bulky and inflexible, and have catastrophic effects on your delivery. It is believed that pitchers should just run mile after mile and do a bunch of silly exercises with rubber bands and pink-coated weights meant for geriatrics.

Wrong.

In reality the opposite is true. Lifting heavy weight with multi-joint, functional movements will actually improve your flexibility, not to mention increasing your strength, power and speed. The stronger your muscles are, the more force they can apply. Thus, if your hips, glutes, back, shoulders and arms are stronger, you will throw harder.

When most people think weight lifting, they automatically picture isolation exercises like preacher curls or skull crushers or any exercise that solely works what I term ‘Venice Beach’ muscles: chest and biceps. However, these muscles have a limited practical application to baseball, throwing in particular. You don’t just pitch with a bicep or a pectoral muscle, so why would you train your body like that?

I’m talking about exercises like in the above video: back squats, presses, and deadlifts. Don’t forget power cleans, front squats, jerks and snatches. These exercises condition your entire body and teach your muscles to work as a singular, cohesive unit.

The stronger you are the more durable and powerful you become, which leads to improved athletic performance. My career would most likely be over by now had I not found the benefits of strength training after my collegiate career. I owe the majority of my success over the past couple of years to my commitment to building total body strength and power.     

Yes, some of my accomplishments are due to the fact that I’ve learned how to be a pitcher and not a thrower. I’m now able to tinker with my delivery so I can replicate consistent mechanics most of the time, but my increased strength has enabled me to throw harder, pitch deeper into games and, luckily, enjoy an injury-free left arm and shoulder (knock on wood).

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m training much harder this winter than I did last year. Why?

I lost ten to twelve pounds (down to 173) throughout the summer because, obviously, I wasn’t able to train with the same intensity during the season as I did in the off-season. Also, I felt run down by the end of the year and I think the loss of weight and strength had an adverse affect on my stamina and recovery.

Thus, I’m trying to increase my muscular bodyweight now so when the drop-off inevitably occurs I will still be at a weight where I can pitch at the top of my game. I think a good weight for me is 190-195lbs. Right now, I’ve gotten myself up to 190, which is just base camp on my march to the summit of 200 pounds. I have three months remaining to add the final ten.

Plus, playing in the independent leagues will allow me to focus one hundred percent of my attention on baseball, so I should be able to train smart enough that I can limit the loss in pounds to single digits.

I’m a big believer in the mental side of training and the atmosphere in which one trains is of the utmost importance. I train at Crossfit Oshawa, which is the gym featured in the highlight video.

Specifically, I follow their high performance programming which is a veritable mash of high weight, low rep strength training, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, running, rowing and metabolic conditioning (think a mutant form of circuit training) at a crippling intensity so high it will make  your ears bleed.

And that is the true secret to getting results from a strength and conditioning program. Literally every time I walk into that gym I am nervous at what hell I am about to be put through. I know that, more often than not, I am going to be left prone on the ground, gasping for air, wishing that sweet death would come take me away and never make me do another rep.

Here’s a question: If you’re not anxious before you workout, are you training hard enough? One of my favourite quotes is: “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.” I never want to be accused of not working hard.

Crossfit Oshawa is a great place to train because of the camaraderie and atmosphere created by the people who workout there on a daily basis. Look at the above video again. A big reason why I am able to make the lifts is because I have a crowd of people surrounding me, hollering support, helping me make each lift.

We all feed off each other’s energy in the pursuit of greater fitness. Training in such an environment keeps you accountable. There have been many days where I’ve been forced to drag my ass to the gym and just didn’t feel like putting myself through another workout. But then I look at the times posted on the whiteboard or realize that my time will soon be up there to set the pace for the gym and it implores me to dig deep and work harder.

Crossfit Oshawa is the reason why I can say, without hesitation, that I am in the best shape of my life right now.

An Outpouring of Support

After posting the final introductory column last week, my fingers trembled with the slightest bit of trepidation as they hovered above the ‘Enter’ key and I wrestled internally with the decision to inundate this site to as many social mediums as my limited technological knowledge would allow.

Besides my weekly Twitter posts letting my few, scant followers know when a new article was uploaded (my tweets will increase in frequency as I move forward in this journey), I purposely kept this website quiet, only allowing people who stumbled upon it randomly to check out my quest to play professional baseball.

I figured it made the most sense to wait until this journey was explained in its entirety to let the majority of my friends and acquaintances (and hopefully their friends and acquaintances) know what my plan is for next summer. So, there I was last Wednesday afternoon, with a number of mass emails and a Facebook wall post just ready to be unleashed to the online world.

I took a deep breath, hit send and waited for the reaction. Would I be laughed at? Ridiculed? Told that my dream is a terrible waste of time, money and resources?

The response was overwhelmingly positive.

A great number of people wished me luck on my quest and expressed admiration for me trying to follow my dreams. Not only that, but there were quite a few of my friends, some of whom I haven’t spoken to in months, offering to help out with my training, to catch some of my bullpens, and just imploring me to not give up on this journey.

Here are some quick excerpts from just some of the messages that I’ve received (and that I’ll be referring to for positive reinforcement on those days when I don’t feel like training or this all just seems like a silly pipe dream):

- I know you have the potential to do the same you did in GTBL in an independent league. Good luck big guy, hope next time I talk to you, you’re playing some serious ball. Take care, and stay in touch, looking forward to hearing the good news.

- That's awesome that you’re doing that. Been there in the past and know that desire to at least say you tried. If I can help with anything through the winter let me know. If I don't see you good luck.

- Glad to hear that you are giving it a shot, that way you will have no regrets. If you are looking for a place to throw in February you are more then welcome to come out to our indoors in order to get some work in. Good luck.

- Buddy, I know you got the stuff and being a lefty you'll get ‘er done!!

- I will gladly do whatever I can to help. You want someone to stand and tape your pitches, run around and gather up the balls when you’re done, get you an ice pack for your arm or stand and cheer you on as you practise/workout just say the word and I am there. 

- Looks great and I really look forward to following it!  As I'm sure you know, you're actually doing something that many of us considered at some point in our lives.  Living so that you have no regrets later on is a very good way to go about life I think.  I don't have a doubt in the world that you will get some very serious looks from teams. 

 - Literally the most inspiring thing I have ever read buddy

- Bottom line: keep the dream alive. I believe in you.

I cannot thank everyone enough for taking the time to send me their kind words. It means a lot knowing that I have so much support and the messages has served to further catalyze my drive to make this dream come to fruition.

Also, I have a friend of a friend (a person I’ve only met twice) who played Division I baseball down south and has a couple of friends who have played independent league ball in years past. He’s read the articles and basically become my conduit between these guys peppering them with questions I have about the tryout process, living situation etc. His assistance has been immeasurable thus far.

Lastly, there is one person who deserves special recognition for doing the lion’s share of the research needed to make this journey possible. She did the majority of it without my knowledge and fully immersed herself into the wonderful world of independent league baseball (from now on, she’ll just be referred to by the initials SB, as she abhors the limelight). SB has basically become my de facto business manager and has saved me hours of research by cataloguing the contact, roster and league information for every team on my tryout radar this spring. 

All of this material is stored in a document unofficially dubbed my ‘Independent League Bible’. Literally everything I need to map out this quest can be found in this file. It’s a fantastic piece of work.

My indoor throwing sessions and workouts have being going extremely well (more to come on those in the coming weeks), my support system is in place, the information I need is at my fingertips, all that’s left is to contact the teams and leagues to let them know that I am out there and that all I need is a chance to prove myself.

The Why

I think The Why is the most interesting of all the questions I’m answering on this site because it delves into the psychology of this journey. I’m a firm believer that mental strength and confidence plays a larger factor in pitching than in most positions in other sports. Pitching is rarely against a batter. At its root, it’s a competition with yourself; a struggle to get body and mind working as a singular, cohesive unit.

Can I make this pitch? Can I throw it where I want to? Do I trust my stuff? Do I have any idea where the ball is going once I release it? Can I replicate my mechanics over and over again?

The answer to The Why is actually two-fold: one, why am I, long past the time where I would be considered a legitimate prospect, trying to make my first foray into the world of professional baseball? And two, why am I willing to document my journey to the independent leagues on the web where my successes and failures will be displayed, theoretically, for the world to see?

I’ll answer the former first. At its root, I am attempting to realize this dream solely to see if I’m actually good enough to play professional baseball. I’ve had enough success in the last few years to legitimately have a shot at doing this and not be a complete fool for trying.

That being said, I can one hundred percent guarantee this would not be happening if I was right-handed. As I’ve stated before, left-handed pitchers are a special breed. I wouldn’t even bother with this quest if I was a righty; I don’t throw nearly hard enough to differentiate myself from anyone else.

However, being left-handed, I have a built-in advantage and enough stuff that I believe some team, somewhere will be willing to take a chance on me (kind of like the ABBA song).

So, why pursue this dream now? Besides the curiosity of wanting to know if I have the talent or ability to hack it, I need to go after my shot now because this is my last opportunity to pursue something like this. In a fortuitous confluence of events, this is the only summer where I have the means, the preparation and travel time, and the support system in place to go after my dream with everything I have.

Why do it in the first place? Why not just be happy with playing high calibre baseball here in Ontario and take solace in the knowledge that I was one of the top pitchers in the province last summer?

Because I don’t want to be forty years old with a beer gut waxing poetic about how great I was back in my prime. How I could have been someone in the game if only I would have had a shot. I don’t want to have any regrets.  

I’m not scared of failing or not reaching my dream. I’m only scared of not trying. I want this experience to remove any doubts from my mind that I could have made it somewhere if only I would have worked a little harder or been noticed by the right people. I am busting my ass to make this dream a reality and, at the end of the day, if it’s not good enough, then so be it.

I don’t want to place blame or point fingers at people saying they’re the reason why I never made it or they’re the reason I never had a chance. This is all on my shoulders. I am in control of my own destiny and that’s the way I want to do it. No excuses. I’ve been knocked down before and I’ll be knocked down again. But I will continue getting up until I hear that bell, signalling the end of the fight.

I’ve been asked by a number of people why I would subject myself to public scrutiny by detailing my efforts on this website. Why am I making this journey public? One word: accountability.

I could have easily hatched this plan in my mind months ago and never told a soul. I could have started training for it under the guise of preparations for another season of Senior Rep Baseball in Ontario. Then I could have aborted the idea if I was struck with a sudden case of nerves, or a lack of confidence, or just plain old lacked the grapefruits to make the trek down south and see if I have what it takes to pitch at the next level.

I would have made some excuse as to why this journey wasn’t feasible, admonished myself for chasing the faintest wisp of a dream, and snapped back to reality always wondering ‘What if?’ Then, in fifteen years, I’d be forty with that beer gut and that ‘What if?” gnawing at the back of my brain like a pack of termites tearing through a picnic table.

With the website, I have to go through with this quest; otherwise I end up looking like a coward. This blog is the fire I need to keep going, to keep pushing forward when I don’t want to train or I don’t want to throw.

So there you have it. I have answered all of the pertinent questions associated with my dream of playing professional baseball. Now it’s time to make that dream a reality.