Intersquads, Karaoke Bars, and Mountain Bikes (Feb. 21st 2009)

Everything has been goin great in Ishigaki. We started playing intersquad games against each other a couple of days ago. Its good to get the competitive juices goin and have real at-bats in game situations. The first game I am batting seventh and playing Center Field!!(just stinkin go catch it). I actually made a really good play running straight back and catching a ball over my shoulder on a dead run right before the warning track. I really feel comfortable in center for some strange reason, considering Ive played there once in my life! The first two at-bats I strike out. One on a nasty slider and the other on a bad call by the umpire. The third at bat I finally get a good pitch over the plate and drive a line drive straight at the right fielder...for an out...dangit! The next day I am penciled in to play CF again. My first at-bat I popped to right, and then popped up again my second at bat. But my third at bat I hit a 2 strike inside fastball straight
down the first base line for a double. My first Japanese hit!! I get back to the dugout and Bobby is asking if I want the ball(jokingly of course. Practice game hits dont count) I respond with a "hell ya I want it, and I want you to write on it!" I return from the next half inning and there is a ball in my helmet with, "First NPB hit", the date, and the pitcher. We get a good laugh out of it.

The next day was just a normal practice session and then the next day was an off day. My previous off-day I spent reading because I was feeling under the weather. (It seems I ate somethin my tummy didnt like and had a tough time making solid waste for about a week!) The night before the off day, one of our American coaches asks me and Gary to go out for some beers. OK! Well the bars in Japan are NOTHING like the U.S. They are mostly Karaoke bars! Thats it. Its a bunch of individual rooms you rent by the hour and sing karaoke. So we rent a little room and there is a little touch screen remote control that you can request songs on. We sang and drank beer and laughed our asses off the whole night. Well since I was feeling better for the off-day, me and Gary jump on the team mountain bikes and take off on an adventure. We ride through town lookin for a place called "Mos Burgers". Gary swears its the best hamburger in Asia. We finally find it and it was AWESOME. Explaining "ketchup and mayonnaise only" is a bit difficult, but they were great!! After chowin down we take off towards the mountains that make up the interior of the island. Chase, "They don't look that steep". About half way up the smallest mountain I am walkin my bike, kicking myself for suggesting we make this detor. "Why do I insist on wooping my own ass on off-days!!???" We finally get to the top and its gorgeous from up there. You can see all the sugar cane fields, rice fields, ginger root and diakon radish fields, and the crystal clear ocean off in the distance. We take off back down the mountain side towards our hotel zooming past confused farmers and field workers. I don't think I peddled the entire time back down. We didnt have a map, but I have a decent sense of direction and we luckily got spit out right in front of our hotel!! We keep riding past our hotel and stumble upon a sweet lighthouse. We take a break and discover this cool little trail goin down through this cave that took you to the waters edge. We snap some pics and hop back on our bikes and take it on home.

The next day we had another practice game and guess where I was playing.You guessed it. But this time I actually got to bounce around and play SS, 2b, and RF. My first at-bat I was quikly down 0-2, but fought back to draw a walk. My second at bat I was facing our 44 year old veteran pitcher who throws everything but the kitchen sink up there and I roll over a 60 mph curveball to the second baseman....arghh. But my third at-bat I am facing our American relief pitcher, Brian Sikorski. He throws hard and I am lookin dead read from the get go. I get a first pitch Fastball up and in and I hit it almost back to Texas! (We have a 60 foot net around the entire field to protect the fans from balls and I cleared the net with room to spare). I trot the bases and get high fives from all my teammates. They say "nice batting!!" We finish shortly there after and I have to stay after for some extra htting on the field. Bobby had been watching my swing earlier in the day and noticed a slight mechanical error. I think he has a slow motion camera in his head. He sees every little thing. So he's standing behind the cage and Im doin what he's instructing me to do and I am crushing balls over the net left and right! I must have hit 25 homers in about 50 swings! He's getting all fired up because what he taught me is working. He is an amzing person and teacher!!

I do my conditioning and then I am asked to go do a photo shoot with some of the fans in the basketball arena. I sit with 4 other teammates (including Tadihito Iguchi, the White-Sox 2b when they won the World Series) and smile for pictures with damn near every person on the island!! It was fun because the kids are so damn cute and they are so appreciative. After the photo shoot I am asked to do an interview. So here come a pack of beat writer and news anchors firing questions at me. Their questions crack me up. The first one was "What did the homerun feel like?" Ummmm....good. The next question was "Do you have a picture of your wife?". Yeah, I keep one in the back pocket of my uniform...no I dont have a picture silly. The next question really got me. "What do you plan on doing for your homerun celebration once the season starts?" What? "What dance will you do?" Dance? Where I'm from, if you do stuff like that you get drilled your next time up. They explain to me that in Japan it is much more theatrical, and the pitchers understand if you want to do a little dance after a homerun. I laugh and tell them I would think on it and get back to em. So I'm open for any reccomendation! They ask a couple more silly questions and the interview is over. I get a kick out of these people. Thats all for now. To be continued from Ishigaki Island....


Chase