Small World Indeed

The day after our trip to Cologne we played a double header at home in Paderborn on a beautiful sunny day. It was the warmest weather since our arrival in Germany, and poor Erin had to wear long sleeves and jeans because she did not want to burn. I was excited because Erin got to see us play for the first time in Germany. It was the first time she had seen me play since we were In little league and she played against me.

I love the fact that I played little league games against Erin. Both my older sister Keri, and Erin pretty much dominated farm league at Reno National when they were ten, a testimate to both their athletic prowness and maturaty at that age! Come to think of it, both dads were so competitive (lawyer thing I guess) that they would never let their daughters become anything but the best baseball players in little league.

Back to the double header against the Dorehn Wild Farmers.

We won both games, (11-1, 2-1)

Danny went a ridiculous 7 for 8 at the plate and drove me in from first base 3 times. He pitched strong in game 2 as he threw a complete game alowing only 1 run. I was 2 for 6 on the day with three walks and an RBI. I hit my first triple in about a decade during the first inning of game two and I felt it the rest of the day with my tired legs. Our outfield is the fastest thing I have seen since the invention of concrete and pretty much everything hit in the gaps goes for at least a double due to the hard ground and German outfielders terrible routes to cuting off the ball. It is great to see them try and catch anything Danny hits to left.

The funniest thing of the day were 2 of Danny's routine fly balls (soaring might I add) that stayed in the air so long that both center and left got to it, and must have had to much time to talk about who did NOT want to catch it. One fly ball fell right in between both of them untouched for a stand up double. The other fly he hit made the left fielder look like a wanna be MC Hammer with bad dance moves followed with a reverse cartwheel. Left, right, back, forward, fall down. It is the latest dance move among German outfielders when the big Auslander from Paderborn hits the ball. I was on first both times and couldn't help but laugh out loud. I also told Danny how jealous I was because I could use a couple of those hits to even out all the balls I have hit hard right at people.

We played against two Americans from California, one of which was the best position players we have faced in Europe, amongst one of the nicest as well. In his second at-bat he said hello in an American accent, and I started chatting with him. I asked him where he was from and he said Lake Tahoe. I thought he was joking and maybe he had found out where I was from, but soon told me that he played ball at Nevada. "No kidin, I grew up in Reno, my dad played at Nevada." He smiled, laughed, and we talked during his entire at-bat. He caught the second game and it was more of the same. The American pitcher was from UC Davis, and Danny and I had faced him all of four years ago when he was a starter at UC Davis and we faced the Aggies in a three game series at Portland. He threw very well, and I cannot emphasis how GREAT it felt to have a guy challenge us with a good fastball. Most of the guys we face top out around 80mph at most with shitty breaking stuff. I have gotten myself out on most occasions due to impatients and cockiness. But nonetheless, the Davis pitcher threw harder than anyone we had seen and it felt great to be challenged by a guy who was not afraid to attck the strike zone with hard stuff. Good old fashioned baseball! After the game I reminded him that the Pilots had swept UC Davis the year we faced him and he reminded me that he had a torn muscle in his throwing arm the entire year. Understandable I guess. Both of the California boys from the Dorehm Wild Farmers were cool guys and we talked for a while after the game.

Baseball is such a great game, with such a small community. To think that we played against a guy who grew up only a few miles from me and played at Nevada, as well as a pitcher we faced over 4 years ago and 5,000 miles away only to see them in Europe. It is truly a small world.

Check out some of the great footage Erin got during the game.