Monday, May 28, 2007

First Practice

Timor and I left the the church and the subway took us to about a mile away from the field. We walked with our bags the rest of the distance, while I contemplated how bad this team might be, and how good the Gain-o-Max Recovery drink I was chugging tasted. We were late, so when we arrived to the field the team was already warming up. And by team, I mean 5 people.

As Timor and I walked into the park, I was trying to figure out if there was more grass or dandelions in the outfield. The infield looked alright and the field itself was huge, probably 380 to the polls, and 430 to dead center. There was more likely to be an inside the park homer than anything else. As I changed from from my Sunday best to my practice clothes, I was introduced to a member of the team named Jozef. Apparently everyone calls him ''Useless,'' because he never shows up. Next I met Alex, our 39 year-old Cuban shortstop. Alex has lived in Sweden for 13 years and is in extraordinary shape for his age. He's quicker than me, which isn't saying much, but he can definitely compete. Joaquin is also Cuban, the center fielder, and the player coach of the team. Sergio is Venezuelan, Nikki is from Norway, and Mattias is Swedish. Timor is originally from Kazakhstan, and still liked most of Borat. So far on my trip to Sweden, I've officially met one Swedish person.

First, we stretched. For 40 minutes. Then we took infield and I took balls at third. I took one off the thumb that bent my nail back a bit, but other than that horrific injury, after Day 1 I'm still healthy. Speaking of staying healthy, apparently American players are only allowed to pitch 9 innings a week and 6 innings a game, so those of you that were worried about me being overthrown can sleep well at night. Next we took outfield, which was so much fun. I'm not allowed to do anything on the Pomona team anymore, except pitch. Some might say it's because I'm injury prone, others would say it's because I'm so valuable to the team that it's just not worth the risk. By others, I mean me. After the defensive work, I don't know how to put this, but I was wondering how many high school teams could beat the Alby Stars.

Next we did some hitting. Batting practice consisted of throwing about 65 mph from the rubber, which is my type of velocity. Joaquin definitely had the most power, but the two players who hit the best were Alex, and then me. That's right, me, the guy who has barely touched a bat in 2 and a half years. Next fall boys, I'm claiming that outfield/DH spot! Seriously though, these aren't exactly what I was expecting. And I'd feel better if they weren't already 5 games into a 35 game season. We should win a few games though. It does seem promising for the other teams. The others should be good enough where I'll get to work on my change-up, which is the main thing I want to do.

Church

On Sunday, Timor and his family took me to their church. Now personally, I'm not a church-going person anymore, but this place was particularly entertaining. For starters, the building is located in downtown Stockholm, between a ice cream stand and a MacDonald's. As you enter the building, there's a small cafe where Christian's mix, mingle, and buy coffee and pastries. Now the entire service is in Swedish, and all I know how to say is ''meatball,'' but they were prepared. Timor acquired a small electronic box for me, which looked like a remote control with headphones attached to it. It had 4 different channels, each receiving a spoken translation of the service. ''Put it on channel 1, that's English,'' Timor told me. So I quickly put it on channel 3, which was Spanish.

We entered the top balcony of what I guess were the pews, but it seemed more like seating for a theatre. This may have been because we entered during opening hymn, sung by 5 singers and an entire band. There was an electric guitar, bass, drum set, keyboard, violin, trombone, and even bongos. I was kinda envious of the bongo guy, because he could go to a club, walk up to some girls, and be like, ''Hey. I'm in the church band. I play bongos.'' Guaranteed ass. Along with the band, the singers were incredibly stereotypical. One girl was obviously the leader, since sometimes instead of singing she would yell out something in Swedish, which I could only assume was, ''Clap your hands for Jesus,'' because everyone did just that.

The audience was really into it, too. One woman even brought a tambourine. I assumed she was cut from the band. My favorite guy though, was this Arab man that as at the church wearing a long-sleeve button-down with a giant star of David on the back. Obviously, this man does not want to go to hell, and is covering all his bases. Over the course of the service, there were five reverends, including one woman who gave a sermon so long, I'm pretty sure the band started playing her off.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Gone Fishin'

Timor's family took me fishing on my first night in Sweden. The first time I went fishing, I was five, and I caught the the largest trout ever. That's mostly because it's the only trout I've ever caught, and I fished for another eight years. The family of 6 and I drove down to the lake (in a 1988 compact Volvo) and that's when I saw their fishing rods. There were no reeling or casting mechanisms, so I asked if we were fly fishing. The father, Gammut, then tells me that we're going to go out on the dock and just stick lines in the water 10 feet from the shore. Guess I'm not ending my streak today. But then something amazing happened.

Timor gives me some bread dough, and instructs me to throw tiny pieces of it into the water, as the rest of the family was already doing. After 10 minutes of dough tossing, we broke out the rods, attached a little dough to the hooks, and stuck them in the water. I felt like this crazy idea would break my fishless streak, and I became extremely excited. Almost as soon as the bait hit the water, a fish was caught--by one of the 7-year-old twin girls, Lolita. My excitement grew: if an elementary school girl could catch a fish that easily, a 21 year-old Pomona College educated man could certainly break a 16 year streak of fishing suckitude. Then, Victoria, the other twin caught a fish, then the mother Marina, and then the other pre-teen daughter Deti. Suddenly, the twins were reeling them in left and right. I was half expecting Lolita to just reach into the water and grab one out. Meanwhile, I was confirming that God hated me, as fish kept nibbling the bait off my hook.

Suddenly, my line went slack, and I pulled, and out came the most glorious fish ever! I grabbed it and removed the hook proudly. ''That's cute. Throw it back, it's too small.'' Timor had crushed my achievement, so I frustratedly chucked the fish at a duck in the pond. I felt a little relieved, but these two twin girls had caught about 8 fish at this point, and I had only managed one worthy of being thrown at water fowl. I persevered though, and finally, I caught one worthy of the plastic grocery bag we were keeping the fish in. I got on a roll, and caught three more fish before we ended, and two were even big enough to keep! I'm proud to say I quadrupled my career total of fish in a single day. After that, we ate sausages with cucumber slices, and drank generic orange fanta! It was a superb way to wrap up a magnificent night.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

The Catcher

Timor is a cool guy. He's Alby's 17 year-old catcher, about 5'9,'' 180, and he picked me up with his dad at the Stockholm airport. He talks a lot, which is awesome because it eliminates those awkward pauses when you first meet somone. He kept saying how good I was going to be, so I liked him and trusted him as an honest person right off the bat. Of course, then he asked me how hard I throw, and I'm thinking, ''Great, this is where I crush all his dreams about me being this superstar American pitcher.'' I told him, ''80-82, not that fast.'' ''80! There's only 2 or 3 guys on our team that can hit that!'' I'm a little worried about the league now, mostly because it definately looks like I'm going to hit. Hopefully, this whole 80 MPH-is-amazing-thing is restricted to my team, and the rest of the league has some solid hitters. All you guys from the team better pray for me, cause I'm gonna be batting and playing the field.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Welcome.

Since I was going to document my travels abroad anyway, I decided to create a blog for my time in Sweden. Yes, I'm going to be in Sweden all summer starting May 26th, and I'm going to be playing baseball for the Alby Stars. They were 0-5 when I last checked, which means I'm willing to take full responsibility for any and all changes in play after my arrival.

I'm excited. The closest I've come to visiting another country is Canada, and when you live in NH, that doesn't really count. I'll be in living with various players' families for the rest of the summer in the suburbs of Stockholm. Anyway, I've got to finish packing since I leave for my Boston-to-Iceland-to-Sweden flight in about 8 hours.

-Tom