Sliders & Slivovitz

Easter Sunday turned out to be a great experience for Danny and I as we visited with a fellow teammates in-laws, who happen to be an Orthodox family from Serbia, which is the same religion and background I grew up with on my fathers side. Mischa and Branca are the father and mother in law to our teammate Hieko Schumacher (Sheumy). Mischa also happens to be the groundskeeper for the Untcouchable's field in Paderborn so we see him everyday. The first day I met Mischa he greeted me with a "Kako ste Nikola?" (How are you Nikola, in Serbian) Knowing a small amount of the Serbian language, I responded back "Dobro, falla." (Good, thank you) My Baba Sophia would be so proud!
The night of Easter we were treated to a great dinner with their family. We were treated so kindly and we ate and cooked off the table grill which neither Danny nor myself had ever done. We also sampled some of Mischa's homemade šljivovica (pronounced Slivovitz).Now for those that have never heard of this alcohol, it is a plumb brandy famous in Serbia and Eastern Europe. It is about 50% alcohol, so it usually puts a little hair on your chest every time you take a shot. Danny and I both had a shot with Sheumy and Mischa, and to my surprise it was a lot better than any Slivovitz I had ever had.
Well done Mischa. Hopefully he can teach me the secret to making good Slivovitz this season, although that might not be a good mix during the baseball season. All in all, we had a great meal, enjoyed awesome company, and at the end of the night we ever had a competition with hard boiled eggs as we tried to crack each others eggs with the tip of our own egg. (An old Serbian Easter tradition). Branca won!

On Monday, Danny and I had our first league double header vs. the Cologne Cardinals. After coaching on Saturday and Spending Easter Sunday with a our new Serbian friends we traveled to Cologne early in the morning this past Monday. The drive was pretty easy and we had some time to get lose and check out our surroundings before our games. One of the coolest parts of this experience is seeing new baseball fields in places we have never been, or we believed the area had never heard of the game.



Cologne is a really cool city, and although it was only a day trip, it was cool to see a little bit of the area as we breezed in and out of town. Danny and I both had a good day! In game one we gave up a 1 run lead late in the game and went into extra innings..... Not for long though! Danny lead off the top of the tenth and hit a MONSTER homerun to left field on the first pitch. WACK!.... "Yay-vohy!" (That is what the German's yell when something good happens! See the video below.)
I nearly knocked one of my teammates in the jaw with an elbow as I jumped off the bench to watch the flight of the ball. Needless to say, Danny was the hero in game one for sure! I went 2-4 at the plate with an RBI. I got a hit in my first at-bat which was a really nice feeling, then I got hit in the back of the hammy the next inning, and had to catch 18 more innings with a lump in my leg. Just one of the many parts of the game I had forgotten about until it happened. (Below is a picture of one of my hits, above is Danny's Homer.)

Danny started on the bump in game two and did not have the best control, which I later found out had to do more with the terrible mound condition and the "Auslaender (foreigner) strike zone." Wow! We had some really interesting calls, and although Danny threw only four innings, nobody came close to a hit. He did however walk a few guys, and after four innings had a pitch count around 90 which is where he should be around the 8th inning. At one point Danny made a perfect pitch right at the knees, and as I held the ball in my glove waiting to hear "strike," I heard nothing. I asked very sarcastically..... "Was that pitch my fault? I must not have given you a very good look at it huh?!?" To my surprise, the umpire did not pick up on my sarcasm as he said "Yes, thank you, you tried to frame it too much and I could not give you a strike." (Keep in mind, I didn't even move my glove) My reply was "Oh, ok, thank you, I guess I will have to explain to my coach and pitcher that although he threw a pitch you thought was a strike, you cannot call it a strike if I try and frame it too much. Thank you for making that clear to me." The best part was, he really thought I was serious and continued to talk about it. I am not sure who was messing with who, but it became a common theme for the rest of the game as more and more good pitches were not called strikes.
On a funny note, Cologne had an American from California who was hitting late in game two when a god awful smell swarmed the home plate area.... "Was that you bud?" I asked as I laughed. He looked at me, and as honest as a guy can be said while laughing, "No way man, but I would DEFINITELY claim that one if it was...... That was a good one!" Curious as to who cut the cheese, and also agreeing with my fellow American about claiming your own brand, I asked the umpire if there is anything he would like to tell us? No joke, just like the balls and strikes, he says, "Oh gosh, I don't know what that is, maybe it is the bbq because they just put out the fire." WOW, not only can this guy not claim he missed a pitch or two, he once again blames something else. Pretty funny stuff.

We ended up winning game two as well, Danny got 2 hits and finished the day at 3-8 with a few walks and a very memorable homerun. I finished game two with a 3-6 with a double, and 5-10 on the day. I felt I gave away about 4 at-bats because I was so tired. I had never caught 19 innings in one day, and I was exhausted by the time game 2 was half way done. I guess I will get in better shape as the season goes on, but until then, I will continue to suck it up and play hard.

Check out the video below if you want to see a little of the baseball action, as well as our Easter dinner.