Hamburg Split and Dortmund Orchestra

With the weeks blending together very rapidly, we have come to approach our weeks similar to an American Football Player. We play once a week, usually Sundays, take Monday's off, and get back on track with practice and workouts on Tuesday-Saturday. This past weekend we played in Hamburg on Saturday. We woke up at 5 a.m. to make sure we got there on time because last year traffic was so bad they had to forfeit a game because the team was late. Not this year! It was a four hour drive which to many Germans is like driving from Seattle to Fresno. Non-stop complaining as you would imagine. We arrived in Hamburg at 9:45a.m. for our 12pm double header and the team looked like we had been out all night partying. Not the case for Danny and I at least. The first game went well. I hit the ball really hard, although right at people and I walked twice. Danny got two hits and we won the first game 6-4. Our German starter, Eugene, is a Russian immigrant who is pretty legit. He has 4 good pitches and throws what ever I ask him to throw in any count. I love the expression on a hitters face who is ahead 2-0 and gets a nasty slider or change-up. Classic! Eugene aka "Aulga" and his brother Alex are both Russian Germans playing for the Untouchables. They have great accents which I constantly try to master and they love baseball. Our team is composed of many different ethnic groups who are German as well. Russia, Mexico, America, Poland, France, England, and of course Germany are some of the descents of much of our team. Danny and I are the only ones that are not German citizens though.

After our game one victory we learned that the Hamburg foreign pitcher was not playing this week because he was stuck in Sweden due to the Volcano. Nobody could fly in and out of Europe and he was stuck. The German rules are that foreign players cannot pitch until game two. This is the game Danny always pitches. We had no idea what to expect and when I took my first at-bat I quickly told myself to dumb it down a little. The pitcher they had was topping out at 72mph.... Maybe! It was so slow and the first pitch I saw looked like a giant beach ball floating in the air. I took the pitch, stepped out and said "wow, that was really slow." I think Hamburg did the right thing in throwing him because he was effectively slow! It completely deflated our line up. On top of that was the wind blowing straight in from left-center, knocking down anything hard hit in the air straight into a defensive players leather.
Danny pitched well, but he gave up a few 0-2 hits and walked a few. The biggest thing that hurt him was the lack of defense, which I was also a part of. After a botched double play that would have ended a scoreless inning, Hamburg scored three unearned runs. with two outs and the bases loaded Danny gave up an 0-2 hit to the 8 hitter and rounding third was a big guy looking to barrel me over. A perfect one hop throw from our center fielder took me a little bit to my right, but I snagged it with plenty of time and dove down to my left to apply the tag. He was running 100% and when he arrived at the plate he delivered a low shoulder which included a fist to my mask, not to mention I had exposed my body with my arms reached out to his feet. I applied the tag, got knocked in the face, and as I was whipped around from the force of the contact, the ball literally flew out of glove to the backstop which allowed another runner to come into home. After the hit I was out of it. A combination of little sleep, fatigue from catching the first game, and now a blow to the head and I was out of it. I was more pissed than anything, but I had a really bad headache after the play, and mainly was embarrassed because I dropped the ball. No matter how hard you get hit at the plate, it is always worth it when you hold onto it and get an out. I didn't do that, and I felt it too. After that I had to get myself together which took a few innings which included me giving up an at-bat due to a lack of focus. I did get a hit in my last at-bat, but by then it was too late, and we could not put anything together as a team. We lost our first game of the season in game two by a score of 4-0. The unfortunate victim of the loss was Danny.

The ride home was bitter sweet because we split, but we had fun with the time.

With our games over for the week on Saturday, we had two days off from baseball which is a rare occasion. We had talked with our coach Red earlier in the week about doing something or going somewhere on our days off and he told us he was going to do something for us. Honestly, after our loss I was in no mood to think about two days off. I wanted to play the next day, which in America would usually be the case. I always felt that after a bad day you always had the next day to look forward too. Now we have six days to look forward to. This is a major adjustment for Danny and me.

When I woke up Sunday, I felt refreshed, ready to explore, and better about not playing well the day before. We got a call from Red and told us to be ready at 2 p.m. We were going to Dortmund to see a live European Football game. The Dortmund club plays in the German 1st league and they are very popular in Northern Germany. Ballspiel-Verein Borussia in Dortmund was founded over 100 years ago, and to many Northern Germans is a religion. Westfalenstadion von oben is the stadium they play in and it holds over 81,000.

Now when I think of soccer it usually includes a big "Ehhh, whatever?!?!" But for some reason I was excited. I had heard this place was awesome, it hosted a semi-final in the 2006 World Cup, and was rated as one of the best stadiums in the Soccer world.

On our hour ride to Dortmund, Danny and I enjoyed a few German beers, which by the way is totally legal. As long as you are not driving you can drink in a vehicle. When we got to the stadium it reminded me of Saturday College Football in Berkeley, or Sunday NFL game day In San Francisco. The weather was beautiful, the crowd was excited and I could never have imagined what I was about to experience.

There is no real way to explain the shock I experienced amongst my first glance at the goal side section of 25,000 screaming and signing German Soccer Hooligans. It was literally a small army waving flags and signing like the largest Orchestra in the world. The Bleachers on one side of the North goal seemed to never end, and I quickly learned after my initial reaction to the monstrosity of the section that it was the largest single bleacher section in all of sports. Unbelievable!

Seeing Barry Bonds hitting #756 at AT&T. Seeing the San Francisco Giants win the 2002 NL Pennant. Steve Young's touchdown pass to Terrell Owens in the 98 playoffs. And now, the first time I ever walked into a European Soccer Stadium. One of the best sports moments I have experienced.

The game was not really that exciting, as most soccer games usually are not exciting to me, but I enjoyed it.

See the footage below to get a small idea of what the weekend was like, and what it was like walking into the stadium for the first time.