Sunday, September 11, 2005

The Season Approaches

Our second organized practice for Australia's oldest baseball club, the Waverly Waves, was conducted this afternoon. Five guys showed up, one was the coach. We seem to have a serious problem with truancy on our team. I asked the coach, whom I think is a pretty solid guy, 'So, are we going to have any problems fielding a team next week?', with little worries in his response. Being a bit older than I, he claims his grandfather played for the original club back in 1898 (says he's got a picture to prove it), and both he and his brother have continued on the legacy for a third generation.

During our basic drills, the curveball was breaking pretty effectively today, but it will be interesting to see how my control holds up in an organized game. I've been assigned to play 3rd 2nd grade baseball, to match my education level. I guess this is a compliment, given that it is the highest division we field a team in. There's also the 4th 3rd grade, which is comprised mostly of the South Korean and Japanese players (although some are pretty damn good), and they're lucky enough to be sponsored by Marlboro. If I screw up pitching, I could get sent down to this 'tobacco league' to work on both my mechanics and lung capacity. Should this happen, I stand to be under the scornful gaze of Coach Kim (of 'Ball Come Here' fame), whom I feel some sense of unplaced animosity towards.

The field today was, as usual, manicured by nomadic animals. There were actually deer tracks (along with droppings) on the pitcher's mound. At one point in the practice, we went scouring Centennial Park in search of wooden benches, which were taken from our little section of the field at some point last year. Upon locating these benches, in pairs we dragged them back to the diamond. These love-seat sized pieces of furniture were to serve as the dugout benches, although we hardly had any players, let alone reserves to sit on them. At the end of practice, we threw the benches in brushes of the swampy riverbed, located down the right field line, as to camouflage them for next week. Baseball in it's most basic form. Roll Waves!

posted by ncawthon at 8:15 PM