Lets Play Blackjack..... Part One

The week before heading to Bonn was dreadfully wet and cold for mid-May. It rained most days and we found ourselves occupying the time by reading, writing, and working out indoors.

Sunday we had a double header against the Bonn Capitals in Bonn, just south of Dusseldorf. Going into Sunday, Bonn was in first with a 9-1 record and two good starters. Bonn's game one starter, Tim Henkenjohan, is the number 1 pitcher for the German national team. We had been hearing rumors all week about how he throws in the mid-90's at times and usually sits around 91-92 mph. He started against the U.S. team last year in the World Cup (which was here in Germany). He had also pitched for the Minnesota Twins organization as well. My roomates had a recording of the U.S. game from last years World Cup, so I had seen him throw. That game featured a few of our players from Paderborn (playing for Germany), as well as a few future big leaguers for the U.S. I must say, the tv added some weight to his fastball. He threw three effective pitches with a decent fastball that didn't seem as hard to me as everyone had promoted, however it always looks a lot harder from the on-deck circle than the batters box. I would estimate his fastball was in the upper 80's at the beginning of the game and it got harder as the game went on. With a week of hitting everyday, and a rainy week with no outdoor practice we were very happy and ready to play some competiton on the field. Plus, being only 1 game out of first we knew that if we won two games we would be back on top in the league. Needless to say we came out swinging well! We scored 6 earned runs early in the game and seemed to be headed to an easy victory.

Up 6-0 in the 4th Auge shook me off for the second time all year in a 3-1 count. It was weird. I called a fastball, shake-off. I called a change-up, again, shake-off. Not knowing what he wanted at this point I put down a slider. He came set and went to the plate with his delivery. I was not mad that we weren't on the same page until I saw the pitch. With perfect timing and a BIG swing, their American left fielder hit the ball a mile to left. Neither one of us watched the ball because we knew as the pitch was coming to the plate what was going to happen. Home run. I smirked at first, then I yelled half joking, "Hey Auge! That's what you get for shaking me off," all while the ball was still soaring through the air past the left field fence.

What I didn't realize until 4 more runs were given up was that Bonn was stealing our signs from their dugout, or stealing them from the pitcher and relaying them to the hitter. As it turns out Auge was tipping his pitches from the grip in his glove, which their players on the bench could easily see and verbally relay to hitters as he went into his windup.

There are only a few sins to me in baseball. Striking out looking with runners in scoring position and less than two out, not hustling, and stealing signs. Danny came over from third during a mound meeting with Auge and me and told us he could hear their dugout giving verbal signs to the hitters for all of his pitches. Fastball was "drive it," and Off-speed was "sit on it." They had every pitch.

As he came up to us during the mound meeting, which happens so often in baseball, the field umpire came up to us immediately and said "Let's move it along boys, you cannot do this."

"Hey! We are fine, nobody is in a hurry here, we are talking about our situation, so leave us alone and go away." I repplied.

Danny helped me out by telling us when he walked away, "No worries, if that is the way it is I will take care of it."

So will I, I though to myself. I was pissed. Not only could I not figure out how, but secondly it took me back to countless games in college were we lost because of the same thing. Since I was catching I could not help but think that the third base coach could see my signs. "No way, Auge can barley see my signs most of the time, how could that be!?!"

With a new game plan in mind, Danny and I got to the bottom of it a few different ways. Danny told Auge that he needed to vary his hand motion in the glove before his delivery to mix it up. A lot of times pitchers get into rhythms that can be clues to opposing teams. Those clues lead to theivery much of the time. Whether it is a a baserunner getting the right timing of a pitcher and getting a really good steal jump, or a pitcher shifting his hand a certain way as he grips a certain pitch, tendencies will hurt any team.

We took care of the first part in finding out what the problem was. The second part was pretty simple. Danny went back to third base and told the third base coach that someone was going to get hurt if he heard another person say anything remotly close to tipping a pitch from their dugout. The coach looked at Danny surprised, and all of a sudden he couldn't speak English and acted as if he had no clue what Danny said.

This made Danny pretty mad, so he repeated, LOUDLY, to the Bonn dugout on the third base side.

"Hey! Quit tipping your hitters! Otherwise someone is going to get hurt." They got the message and it didn't happen anymore. The best part was that their 3 hitter was up and did not hear what Danny said. After the first pitch his eyes rotated to the dugout without his head moving as if he was surprised and didn't want to react with bad body language that someone had screwed him up. I saw his eyes percing whoever it was that was supposed to be telling him what pitch was coming so I stood up and said, "Hey, unless you want someone to get killed in the second game when our hard throwing American is pitching then I suggest that you tell the rat in the dugout to stop telling you what is coming, plus he isn't going to be right anymore. We figured it out." He looked at me, smiled a little and said ok. That was the end if that, and it was a good thing.

In the Bundesliga, word spreads faster than High School gossip. Even though Bonn has never seen how hard Danny can throw, I gurantee they have heard about! And they sure as hell didn't want to feel it. When the big Auslander tells you to stop stealing signs or pitches, just like the game blackjack, you have a choice.

You can either say "hit me!," or stay put.

We gave up two more runs and the lead when the rarest of things happened. Our shortstop and team leader Jendrick Speer threw a ball away at first. He later admitted that his arm was hanging and that he took Advil for the pain. Apparently, some people have hard time finding a release point after they take anti-inflamatories. Jeni is not one to make an excuse, and Danny Told me he has the same problem with Advil. I think it is really weird because I am the opposite, I need Advil to feel good while I am throwing! Down by one in the 9th inning we manufactured a run with two outs after our roomate Michele hit an RBI single to left.

The game went extra innings and it wasn't until the top of the 12th before anyone scored.

I led off the inning with a strikeout looking, which to me was way out, as it had not been called a strike all day. "Vu es das?!!" I asked politly. "You haven't called that a strike all day, why change it now." Danny quickly yelled at me from the on deck circle and said "Hey, we need you, we can't afford to get you tossed." I listened and walked away irate. Half the team came up to me and said "Nik, you cannot talk to umpires, they will throw you out, even if you say one word. They are really sensative." I quickly reminded them that A: I was right and he knew it, and B: The umpire and I have been working together at the plate for 12 innings and he screwed me. I let him know it too.

As all of thus is happening I hear a loud Crack and see a soaring ball to left off of Dannys bat. Gone! Homerun and a 1 run lead! "Yay Vohy Danny!!!" I was pumped and quickly gave him a prompt congrats for picking me up after I struck out.

With a one run lead in the 12th inning amazingly our starter Auge came back out to throw yet another inning. He went 1,2,3, in the 12th and the game was over! He threw a total of 180 pitches. Yes, 180 pitches!

For those that do not understand how hard that is, go throw a tennis ball against the garage door 10 times as hard as you can. Unless you have great mechanics and you are in great shape I bet your arm will hurt really bad the next few days. Now imagine doing that 170 more times in one day. Like I said, amazing!

I finished game one 2-4 with a walk, HBP and 3 runs. I also took a really bad shot off the side of my wrist blocking a curveball. It was funny because it swelled pretty good and looked like a plumb under my skin. Soft, blue, and rip. Gotta love catching! Danny had 2 hits as well, one of them a REALLY important homer in the 12th inning.

Thank god game one was over. The Bonn catcher was and American and we laughed at each other and said "Wow, we are in for a long day back here!"