Greetings from Melbourne, Australia

Hello from Melbourne, Australia!

I arrived down under yesterday morning at 11 am East Australian time. What a different, yet amazing place that I will be living in for the next three months!

This is my first step back into organized competition after a line drive struck my right temple on July 2nd. Its an experience that I have long been waiting for and I know that I am fully capable to be everything I was before the tragedy. It's quite hot out here (106 degrees yesterday) and the air is very dry.

I've picked up on one key thing since I've been out here. The lingo out this way is much different than that in the US. Its a mate not a friend, a bloke instead of a person, cheers means thank you, and g'day should be said instead instead of hello. Everyone is really friendly and welcoming to Americans. The team has been great to me so far - they've hooked me up with an outstanding car to drive around in, a comfortable pad to live in with two other players, some cash to get started, groceries, and an Australian cell phone.

It was pretty tough to leave all of my family and friends in the United States on December 28th. Getting on that plane from BWI to LAX and seeing the smiling faces of my loved ones was definitely tough to leave behind. Thanks to prepaid phone cards and Skype I can still talk to them everyday. Miss you guys!

I threw my first bullpen yesterday at Essendon's field. The field features a turf infield and is deep to the alleys. The infield looks like it might be a little slow - which is good for ground ball pitchers like myself. The U-16 national team was practicing out on the field and I had a chance to introduce myself to them and their coaches.

Thanks to everyone who has followed along with my blog in the past. My experiences in Australia will be documented through this blog for the remainder of my three months out here. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it. I love you all.

God Bless.

Gaining Strength Through Tragedy

Here I am again, back home in Ocean City, Md., fully involved with a normal life again. It's been quite awhile since I last posted. I am half of a semester deep into my third semester of graduate school at Salisbury University and plan on going to Australia for winter ball days after Christmas. I have started putting notes together for a book that I one day hope to complete. My time since the injury has included a good deal of family get togethers, numerous vacations, and a newfound relationship with the Lord. Baseball is still on my mind all the time and although the magnitude of the injury, will return to the mound again next season.

As of today, it has now been over 16 weeks (a span of almost 120 days) since the accident I was faced with on July 2nd. In case you are not familiar with what happened, I was piching in the fourth inning of a July 2nd bout against Grand Prairie in El Paso, Texas and had a line drive hit back up the middle which hit me directly in my right temple. The hit created a skull fracture and triggered an epideral hematoma. I had to undergo a craniectomy the following day and waited over two weeks before a second surgery. which doctors tabbed as a cranioplasty. The entire ordeal has changed my life forever and although it is ashame it happened, I have learned so much about life. If you want to know more about what happened, try one of these following links provided by KTSM in El Paso. - Interview 1, Interview 2, First Pitch 1, First Pitch 2

In the wake of the injury, I had the opportunity to visit such venues as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead. These experiences were most definately ones I will never forget and thankfully, I had a beautiful girl with me the whole time. I have developed a much stronger relationship with the Lord and delived serveral testimonies to different churches. It's certainly hard not to dwell on the negatives but I've had the fortune of being around many good people that have kept me in good spirits. Thank you to all that have been behind me through this.

I previously mentioned that I've started writing a book about not only the entire experience but also about the challenges I faced growing up. The book includes a journey from my early days in Ocean City to the good times at Stephen Decatur to even my first steps into professional baseball. It's definately a work in progress but the notes I have been writing down give me a good venting tool and a documentary for the future. I have slowly tried organizing my thoughts. The chapters are laid out but I can only go to a certain point because who really knows what the future holds. From the direction I'm headed in now, I feel that it will be good regardless.

I've been swimming a bunch and have started working out again. I have been lucky enough to know Martin Furst, who has provided me with a free membership to the Ocean City Health & Raquetbal Club and Bob Hammond, who has given me free physical therapy at Atlantic Physical Therapy. Each facility is state of the art and they are taking really good care of me. Graduate school is going well and I'm taking two classes this semester. One class even involves the building of a website, which you can see here. I'm in the process of becoming a member at Community Church of Ocean Pines and have been surfing as much as I can.

To conclude this post, I want to thank all of you wonderful people for being with me through this entire experience. First, my entire family, especially my wonderful parents who flew out the next day after my injury to be by the side of their firstborn child. Words cannot express enough how thankful I am to have such wonderful people like you in my life. We've been through alot but have became stronger together through this. My girlfriend, Katie, was by my side through it all as well. Your time spent with me was amazing...you are such an incredible person. I also want to thank the entire Diablos organization, Texas Tech Medical Center, Dr. Lacerte and his outstanding team, Dr. Arthur Isliss and Dr. Walls, Tobin Park Methodist Church, Christ Community Church, Danny & Carolyn McKinney, Aaron and Linda McKinney, BJ McKinney, Sally and Robby, Bruce Abbott, Lois and Ryan Powell, David Hann and White Sands Missile Range, Gene & Brandon, Kelly Tovar, Gary Proctor, and Monique & Nikki Tovar. To everyone who sent me the beautiful cards, gifts, care packages, and personal notes - thank you so much too. They all meant alot to me and definately made me smile.

In the mean time, I am continuing to work out and getting ready for the '10 season. This is not the end for me, but rather the beginning to long successful journey ahead. I've been kept around for a reason. One love.

David C. Whigham - James 1

Missed opportunites in Lincoln and Sioux Falls

After seven days and over 1,400 miles of traveling, I am back in El Paso. This past roadtrip was not a succesful one as we went 1-5 in six games played. In the first series against Lincoln, we were swept in three games. Kudos to the Lincoln starter Jarrett Gardner, who threw the third no-no in league history in the second game of the series against us. The three games really put an exclamation point on the teams inability to come together in all facets of the game. The playing surface in Lincoln is outstanding and is among the best in all of independent baseball. I always love playing in Lincoln. Haymarket Park, which is also home to the University of Nebraska baseball team, is pretty much a perfectly manicured field. It was good to fun into former teammate, CT (Chris Thompson), in Lincoln as he is now the Saltdogs' closer.

The trek from Lincoln to Sioux Falls, SD was three hours and I fell asleep immediately. We got into the hotel a couple hours after midnight. I threw the first game of the series against the Canaries on Friday Night Firework night and felt really good. I breezed through the first four innings without allowing a run before giving up one in the fifth. The offense scored early as after five innings, we were winning 3-1. In the sixth, I retired the first two battters of the inning before leaving an 0-0 changeup to Reggie Taylor (5+ years in MLB) over the outer-third and he put it over the right field wall. I would come out after the sixth inning with the lead but did not end up getting the victory as Sioux Falls scored a pair of runs late in the game to steal the win. This was the third consecutive start in which I felt great as I was moving my sinker around to both sides of the plate. I have really settled in lately in using my offspeed off of my fastball and have seen great success with it. In college and for the majority of last year, I did the opposite as I would throw my fastball off of my offspeed.

On my 30 minute run the next day, I had a chance to run next to a river in Sioux Falls. It was a very scenic run as the river had many small bridges, pretty landscaping, and was filled with fish. I could see it was a pretty popular spot for the locals. I also ran through a Veterans Memorial and made sure to touch the stone wall that represented those (both grandfathers) that fought in our wars. The temperature was in the low-80s so it made for a relaxing experience. I ran into a good friend of mine, J.D. Reininger, after the first game and we talked for a good bit. J.D. played with the Diablos last year and was one of my closest friends.

The team ended up splitting the final two game of the series as Justin Mallett threw game two and came away with a 6-2 victory. We were winning the Sunday's afternoon game as well but a couple late inning runs by the Canaries propelled them to victory. The interesting thing about this roadtrip is that we were in position to win in almost every game. Aside from the no-no thrown on us by Lincoln, we were leading into the latter innings in every me. It's tough to look back and see we went 1-5 on the trip because some quality baseball was played by our team. Ultimately, the decision is what is important and there is no doubt we should have been 5-1 on this trip.

The drive back home took about 20 hours and I filled that time with reading, listening to music, watching ESPN, etc. We actually tuned into an intesting VH1 segment on Punky Brewster, which was a popular girl that had her own TV show in the 1980s. When I got off the bus, I had to immediately go upstairs to do an interview for ESPN. The network is considering doing a reality TV show on the Diablos and they asked us a few questions about ourselves. It was nice to get back to El Paso for many reasons but the most being that Katie was back in town. She had flown in earlier in the day. She and my roomate picked me up from the field and Katie was waiting for me with open arms!

The weather outside today is quite gloomy and thunder is in the vicinity. I just checked the weather and a flash flood warning is in effect for El Paso as we speak. I am not sure if we are definately going to be able to get the game in tonight because El Paso does not hold rain that well. The streets flood easily as the city's drainage system is pretty brutal. Cardoza Tucker is scheduled to throw tonight in the first game of a three-game series against Grand Prairie and Josh Neitz is up for tommorow. I have the last game of the series on Thursday night. Today is my bullpen day and I am ready to throw after taking off yesterday.

A night of celebration

Last Friday, I threw the first complete game shutout of my professional career. The game came on the 20 year anniversary of the Diablos and close to 9 thousand fans came into the gates. It was one of those days where everything came together and will be a night I remember for the rest of my life. I was on short rest because I threw in Monday night's game against Grand Prairie but it did not affect me. I rolled zeros all across the board but had eclipsed 100 pitches at the end of the seventh inning. 100 pitches usually means giving way to the bullpen but since I had the shutout intact, Butch left me in. I did not dissapoint as I capped the CG shutout with a strikeout on the leagues best hitter, Pat O'Sullivan, as he looked at a fastball on the outerhalf for strike three. All in all, I ended up striking out eight Ft. Worth batters which warranted a hat pass. This was done immediately following the game and I collected $157 in cash.

Coming off the field after finishing off the shutout was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced. It was a moment that I wanted to live in forever and in the hours following the shutout, I just played out that final pitch time and time again in my head. The team saluted me for my performance that night and we celebrated with a couple beers.

I picked up my second win of the season three nights before in Grand Prairie with as I threw into the six inning and allowed four runs. I had good stuff but a two-run homer in the second inning and a couple timely hits in the sixth inning would run me off. The bullpen did an outstanding job in preserving my win. Our closer at the time, Chris Thompson, nailed the door shut. He has thus been traded to Lincoln as the team acquired the rights of Mike Cervera. Cervera played in EP last year and is not only a great guy/team player but was lights last season.

Currently, we are in Lincoln, NE after a 19 hour bus ride. The team left El Paso at 11 pm MDT and got into Nebraska last night at about 8 pm CDT. The first nine hours were great because we were on a sleeper bus with flat screen tv's and full air conditioning. I had the top bunk so the cold AC coming from the floor wasn't that bad for me. At about 10 am, the AC stopped working. The bus soon turned into a sauna and probably was about 120 degrees inside. The bus driver pulled over time after time to fix it but to no avail. It was about 100 degrees outside so imagine being in a closed area during that time. Also, I had a top bunk so all the heat rose upwards. A couple of the guys did not look so well but made it off the bus ok. The team spent a total of nine hours on that bus without air conditioning...a unforgettable and scorching hot experience.

The team has really come on lately and we are playing much better. Aside from missing a couple bunts in crucial situations, we are doing everything that we need to in picking up victories. We took the first two games against Ft. Worth by combining good pitching with solid defense and timely hitting. We have also picked up a couple solid players in Mike Provencher, Justin Mallet, and Cardoza Tucker. They have all done well so far and will help us in the long run.

Tonight is the first game of three-game series against Lincoln. The Saltdogs are struggling but that is no reason to look past them. Nick Martin will be taking the hill for us tonight and looks to continue his streak of good starting outings. Nick is a good guy with good stuff and has settled in real nice for the team. He has had alot of success with his change up so I had him show me his grip the other night. I plan on using this in my next bullpen session.

I am not scheduled to start again until Friday night. It will be first game of the Sioux Falls series. Sioux Falls is in South Dakota so following the series, we will look forward to a 20 + hour ride to the Sun City.

Clean it up Chief

It's a month into the season and we stand with a record of 13-14. If the offense is doing well, the pitching is not. If the pitching is doing well, the defense is struggling. There are new faces being seen in the locker room everyday as transactions have become very frequent as of late. Whether its team chemistry of just plain bad luck, it's the tale of a team struggling to click on all cylinders. This is a story seen very often and when (yes, when) things begin to click on all cylinders, it is teams like these that are often the most dangerous.

For the second consecutive weekend, we are in Ft. Worth to play the Cats. We dropped the first game of the three-game series to the division leaders last night. The loss was the second consecutive and the third in the past four games for us.

My last start was the second game of our last home series against the Grand Prarie Airhogs. I escaped any damage in the first but was touched up for five runs in the second inning. It was the most runs I have given up in a single inning in my professional career. The inability to make adjustments and leaving balls up in the zone played a pivital role in the doomed inning. The fire and anger within me after the inning carried over for me nicely over the next five innings as I would allow just two hits and one run the rest of the way. I left in the seventh inning with the score being 6-4 but a late inning rally let me off the hook from taking the loss. Thankfully, my next start is against these guys so I have extra motivation to put these guys away on Monday.

The past couple of days I have been working really hard on getting extension on my sinker. It is such a feel pitch and can be your best friend when you stay on top of the ball but also your worse enemy when you aren't getting out in front of it. The luxury of sinker is that it can be thrown in all counts and down the middle of the plate without much problem. My feel for my sinker has improved as I have moved my hand down on the ball and my index and middle finger off center from the laces. I am very confident in my repertoire now.

Today, I bought "Swimming to Antartica", which is a book written by long-distance swimmer, Lynne Cox. This is the woman that had the courage and determination to swim across the English Channel, Cape of Good Hope, and around Antarctica. I've already started reading it and am thoroughly inspired at how one can believe in themselves so much that they could actually swim in the freezing waters of Antarctica.

Today's temperature is 93 degrees with almost 100% humidity. An easy 1/2 mile walk to the outlets down the street brought about quite a soaked T-shirt. The humidity feels much like the East Coast in mid-August. For tonight, my roomate this roadtrip, De La Rosa has the ball. I have a bullpen scheduled in which I will work on throwing predominantly all strikes with my sinker and back door sliders.

There is a time to let things happen, and a time to make things happen.

This is the time to make it happen.

Early June experiences

I just arrived back in El Paso after last night's 10 hour bus trip back from Fort Worth. As usual, the ride consisted of listening to my iPod and watching a movie here and there. I woke up just in time to see the sun rise over the mountains in West Texas, which may I add was a very beautiful sight.

As for the series against the Cats, things did not go exactly as planned. We dropped the first game but came back on Friday night and evened it up 1-1. The series ended with two consecutive losses on Saturday and Sunday night as we finished the series 1-3 and fell to five games back of Fort Worth in the South Division.

I threw Thursday night and through the first four innings, I was on top of my game. A two-run homerun and a single with a man in scoring position would run me off innings later as I finished the game in the sixth inning. I struck out four hitters and walked just two in six innings.

I have gotten to the point in my baseball career that I can now see how the smallest of mistakes can hurt you. On the two-run homerun that I gave up in the fifth inning, I had two outs and had the hitter 1-1. I threw a slider, which bit over the outer-third of the plate, but was left it up and the Cats cleanup hitter took it opposite field over the right-field fence. John Allen is a tough hitter, does not get fooled much, and will make you pay for mistakes. The good thing is that I am learning to how to pitch hitters at a much better rate than ever before in my life. I am understanding how to learn from mistakes such as these.

Neitz threw a gem on Friday night and a big homerun by my roomate TJ Johnson capped off a big win for the Diablos. Unfortunately, we could not keep the momentum going as we dropped the final two games of the series.

We open up a three-game series against Grand Prarie tonight at Cohen. The AirHogs are managed by one of my favorite players of all-time in long Philadelphia Phillie, Pete Incaviglia. There has been some sickness on the team as a couple of guys have passed around a flu like virus and it looks like tonight's original starter (Mark Michael) is not going to be able to throw. Joe Klein appears to be the guy picking up the start, which is the first of his career.

I am scheduled to throw tommorow night's game against the AirHogs. I will be throwing a short box (15 pitches at 55 ft.) before the game to get ready for tommorow.

How quickly time goes when you are having fun

Well here I am in Ft. Worth, Texas after an 11 hour bus ride. We left last night after our game against Wichita at about 11 pm (MDT) and arrived in Ft. Worth about an hour ago. We are staying at a beautiful Spring Hill Suites Marriot just off the highway.

I recieved some excellent news yesterday morning as it looks like I am going to be playing in Australia this winter as a member of the Geelong Baseball Club. Geelong (pronounced guh-long), is in the province of Victoria and although it is about an hour from Melbourne, its just 10 minutes away from beautiful Bells Beach. The season starts at the beginning of October and concludes at the end of February. The league takes about a month break during the holidays so hopefully I can get back to America during that time.

We went 4-2 on our past homestand including a three-game sweep over Shreveport. The week began with a hellacious 23 hour bus ride back from Pensacola (no joke). This put us back into El Paso at around 10 pm (MDT). My girlfriend, Katie, was supposed to fly into El Paso at 11 pm but due to a delayed flight in Baltimore, she missed her connector flight in Dallas. She would arrive the next morning. In the first game of the series, Juan Camacho knocked in the game winning run to cap a four-run ninth inning rally as we defeated the Captains 7-6.

I had the ball in the second game of the series on Saturday, May 30. I gave up a run in the first inning and escaped a jam in the second before cruising into the seventh inning. We were winning 2-1 going into the seventh but I would allow a single tally in the frame to even the game up. Garvis Romero relieved me with two outs in the inning and proceeded to strike out the only hitter he faced. We went on to score another run in the bottom half of the inning and our bullpen threw two scoreles innings to preserve the 3-2 Diablo win. The game marked my second consecutive game with seven strikeouts and I had the luxury of recieving the "hat pass", which is when a pitcher strikes out atleast seven hitters in a game people come down and put money into a helmet and it is given to the player. The money wasn't much but hey, I'll take it.

We registered the three-game sweep on Sunday as we picked up an 8-7 win. This time Jorge Alvarez was the game hero with a double to knock in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. The win streak continued into the first game against Wichita when Nick Martin and two relievers blanked the Wingnuts. We scored one run in the first inning and it proved to be enough as we were victorious, 1-0. The fortune did not stay the same for the final two games of the series as we fell in both games.

I was talking to a few of the guys the other day in the locker room about how quick the season is going. Did you know after this roadtrip that 1/4 of the season is over? I have been out here for almost five weeks now and it is just flying by. Maybe its because we are winning or maybe its because we are having fun but regardless, I do not remember it going this fast last season. On a side note, it really was special having Katie in El Paso for the past six days and seeing her in the stands during the homestand. I look forward to seeing her in a month.

I am slated to throw the first game of the four-game series tonight against the Cats at 7:05. It is a big series for us because Ft. Worth holds a three game lead and is in first place in the South Division. I did not sleep that well on the bus last night so I am going to get some sleep before the bus leaves for the field at 5. These sleep number beds are so comfortable that I going to make sure I set my alarm!

Great first road trip for Diablos

As we head into the last day of our 7-day roadtrip, we have accumulated a 4-1 record and catapulated ourselves into second place in the division. We left Thursday night from El Paso and arrived in Shreveport, Louisiana a sluggish 13 hours later. The hotel was a good distance from anything worthwhile, which kept many of us away from the casinos. We picked up the victory in the series opener as Dane De La Rosa threw six strong and was virtually unhittable while topping out at 93 mph.

Shreveport's field is much improved since last year. The playing surface was outstanding as was the atmosphere. Fair Grounds Field provided a radar gun in left field, interesting fan promotions, and a huge beer garden in left field. It was a world better from last year.

We went to the outlets in Shreveport on Saturday afternoon and ate lunch at this bomb sushi parlor. The sushi was great as was the japansese food that I ordered. My roomate (Thompson) ordered this sushi roll that was on fire (literally). The weather was pretty bad for the majority of the day but cleared up before the start of the game. Mark Michael got the start for us and followed the suit of the outstanding string of outings by the starting pitching as he went 6 innings and gave up one run. From what I have seen, the Shreveport bats are the weakest of any team we have faced so far. The Shreveport bullpen had a guy closing that sat at 95 mph.

A bunch of the guys went to the casino on Saturday night but I shyed away from this idea as I was the scheduled starter for Sunday's 6:05 game. I felt good going into the game and with the humidity in Shreveport, my offspeed was on. I started the game by putting up blanks in the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third. I gave up two runs in the third but proved to be the only runs that I would give up in the six innings that I threw. It was my first win of the season and I tied my career-high of seven strikeouts. After the game, the team was presented with a full course dinner made by the Captains Booster Club. It had all the southern food you could imagine and capped off our series sweep quite nicely.

The bus trip from Shreveport to Pensacola was close to eight hours and we arrived in Pensacola at around 8 a.m. I do not sleep very well on the bus (never have really!) so I immediately layed down and slept until we had to get on the bus at 3:30. The win streak would continue on this night as Eddy Rodriguez paced a strong offensive attack with five RBIs and two homeruns. The victory was our fifth consecutive win.

In Pensacola, we were fortunate to have some things to do nearby the hotel such as a Cracker Barrell and a Ruby Tuesday. There is also a gas station nearby so if we need anything, we dont have to go far. In last nigh'ts game, we fell 5-4 on a homerun by the Pelicans in the bottom of the eighth. We scored early and jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead but a mixture of strong bullpen pitching and an agressive lineup lead to the score being tied 4-4 by the seventh inning.

We look to close out the road trip with a 5-1 record and two series victories today. It has been pouring rain here the entire day but it looks like we are going to be able to get this game in. Dane De La Rosa is scheduled to start for us tonight and will be making his second start of the road trip. Upon the completetion of the game, we will have probably an hour to get a shower, get our stuff together, eat dinner, and get on the bus before bussing back to El Paso for an approximate 21 hour drive.

And the season is underway...

The first series of the season is now in the past and although we lost three of four games to Sioux City, the team is excited about how everything has been going. The pitching has held its own and the defense has looked spectacular at times. The bats have been slow but its nothing out of the norm because we didn't face situational pitching until the opening day.

In the opener, we fell 4-1 in 10 innings. Josh Neitz cruised through six innings and limited the Explorers to just five hits and one earned run to pick up his first quality start of the year. Joe Klein relieved Neitz in the seventh and made the most of this professional debut as he held the Sioux City bats at bay for three innings. He was touched up in the ninth and gave way to Baron Short, who closed out the game. The highlight of the extra-inning game saw T.J. Johnson catch a deep fly ball in left field and missile home a throw Eddy Rodriguez just in time to tag out the Sioux City runner. The fans came flocking to Cohen just as expected as almost 8,000 came through the gates on Thursday night.

We then dropped the second game, 12-7. The game saw both teams combine to rack up 34 hits with 11 players notching two hit games. This was the hottest day I've seen since I have been out here and it was evident through the health issues in the stadium that night. One person had a stroke, another fainted, while one member of the team had to go to the hospital. I didn't realize how important it is to make sure you are hydrated and have plenty of food in you until this day. The air is so dry and the sun is so strong that when you actually realize you are dehydrated, it is often to late. It's funny because I don't really sweat all that much out here and its been atleast 90 degrees everyday so far. It's because the sweat beads actually evaporate before they come off your skin.

It was nice to pick up our first victory on Saturday night in front of a good sized crowd at Cohen. Kennard Bibbs and Jorge Alvarez each clubbed out three hits to lead us to a 6-5 victory. We jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, which would hold up for the first six innings. Sioux City plated two runs in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead but we would respond with two runs in the eighth to put the game away. Chris Thompson struck out the side in the ninth to pick us his first save of the year.

Going into tonight's game, our goal was to walk away with a split series. The pitching was good again but the bats were silent. I have to give credit where credit is due and Sioux City's pitching was impressive the entire series. The Explorer starters all made it deep into the game and put Sioux City in good position every game. The Explorer bats were surely lucky this series as hit after hit squeaked through the infield. As a pitcher, there is nothing more upsetting than making a quality pitch and having someone roll over on it and squib a ball through a gap. This happened quite often this series and although our pitching staff is not happy with it, the law of averages tell us that the luck will soon swing our way.

Butch gave us the day off tommorow. This is the first day off I've had since I flew in, a span of 16 days. We are going to have a bunch of people over to the pool tommorow for a cookout. After tommorow, we host Pensacola for a three-game series and then hit the road for seven days with three-game sets at both Shreeveport and Pensacola.

I've got the ball for Tuesday's series opener against Pensacola. It is going to be Military Night at Cohen and the crowd should good. These are nights where all military members at Ft. Bliss get in for free. We will be suiting up in our traditional Military Night camoflauge uniforms. Last season, Dad was here for the last Military Night game and ended up buying the jersey off my back. They plan on doing the same thing this season with Tuesday being the first of four Military Nights. The rotation will then start up again with Josh Neitz throwing on Wednesday morning for Kid's Day.

10 days :)

1400 miles from Mom

Well its Mother's Day and I made sure to give a call to my mother today to let her know how much she means to me. It's tough being 1400 miles away from her but as they often say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It is nine days into spring training and I still have yet to see a drop of rain here. The weather is almost the exact same everyday with mid-90 temperatures, low humidity, and sunny skies. This was kind of the same way it was last May but I think I jinxed that last year because we had a slew of rain come down last June. Let's hope it doesnt happen like that this time!

The team is shaping out pretty well. The starting pitchers have all been extended so far with pitch counts being held somewhere around 75-80 pitches. The majority of the new guys had a chance to get an appearance in our lone scrimmage against EPCC with a few really throwing well. It looks like I am going to be taking an extended live BP outing against the hitters on Wednesday to gear up for my Sunday night start against Sioux City.

The community appearances have been very exciting so far. The other night the team had an appearance at The Ultimate Pizza Factory (much like a Chuckie Cheese). It was a fun night and we had a chance to be around many of the kids that will be out watching us this summer.

My roomate and I had also had an appearance the other day at Ft. Bliss to talk and play with a bunch of kids whos fathers had just been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. We played baseball with them and signed autograph after autograph. The kids could not have been more appreciative and it is times like these that let me realize how lucky I am to be playing ball and holding a positive influence in the lives of others.

Opening night is just three days away. The town is gearing up for another exciting season of Diablos baseball. Baseball fever is in the air!

Spring Training: Day 3

Well, it is three days into spring training and already many things have fallen into place. The infield looks pretty set with a quadruplet of players rich in talent. Roberto Mejia, who played five seasons in the show, will be at third base while Arnoldo Ponce, an LS-5 with experience, will lock down the left side of the infield at shortstop. El Paso's own, Hector Bernal, will anchor second base and Juan Camacho is the apparent heir to first base left by Wally Olmstead. The outfield looks to see my roomate, TJ Johnson, in left, Kennard Bibbs in center, and Adam Hale in right.

I would have to say the strongest part of this team is the infield. The group is made up of all Latins and really work well together. It's quite an amazing experience to watch these guys take infield. It takes some guys years to master working together with the same type of fluidity that these guys have. It is really satisfying as a pitcher to look behind you and see four guys you know you can trust.

The front four of the rotation appears to be set with Josh Neitz at No. 1, Nick Martin at No. 2, Mark Michael at No. 3, and me at No. 4. The fifth starter has not been named yet as there has been a bunch of guys throwing well so far. The staff has mixture of guys who throw hard (Robert Wooley, Chris Thompson, Joe Klein) and some finesse guys (Zach Piccola, Derrick Bennett, Alex Gett). This could be very beneficial to the team this year.

Tommorow, May 5, is our first exhibition game against El Paso Community College. May 5th is a big deal down here as it represents Cinco De Mayo. The turnout should be good for the game but may be hampered by this whole swine flu ordeal. Nick Martin will start on the bump but is only scheduled to throw a limited amount of innings.

Maryland to Texas

After a long day of traveling, I'm finnally back in El Paso.

All in all, I spent over 14 hours in the air and in four different airports yesterday. The turbulent day began with a 9:30 am flight from Salisbury to Philadelphia, which was delayed twice before the plane got off the ground at noon. Upon my arrival in Philly, I was welcomed with a cancellation of the next connector flight to Dayton, Ohio. The Philadelphia International Airport is a mess and I always have had one problem or another when I've been there. I was directed to the US Airways customer service desk and had my flight intinerary changed to Phoenix and then onto El Paso. The good news was that I only had to wait another hour before the plane took off. The bad news though was I had to wait standby because the flight was overbooked and that arrival was set for close to 6 p.m. PST, which meant that I was not going to be able to attend the Diablos annual meeting before spring training.

The five hour flight to Phoenix was extremely bumpy as many severe storm systems were in the midwest. Thankfully, it went by quickly because I sparked up conversation with a pair of Philadelphia sports fans in my section. When we landed in Phoenix, I was happy to see that the terminal to my final destination was only a short distance away. The flight to El Paso was pretty smooth and on arrival, it was definately a breath fresh air.

Spring training starts today. I'm really looking forward to getting back on the bump and playing at Cohen again. It looks like we are going to be moving around for the next two weeks as the playing surface at the stadium is undergoing some repairs. It was good to get some sleep last night but it may take a little time to adjust to the two hour change in MST.

Four weeks :)

My First Blog

This is my first blog and really I could not have picked a better day to start. I really witnessed an amazing thing today while visiting my grandparents grave for the last time before I left for Texas. It was one of those times when you knew your voice was heard and that the ones you love will always be by your side.

It's t-minus 10 days away before I head to El Paso again. My how the offseason flies by! The team has taken quite a different form this season as only four of 22 returners head back to the Sun City this year. A couple of my good buddies, including both of my roomates, have moved on. There appears to be much more Latins on the team this year. I have found Latin players to be great people and have enjoyed playing with them. Especially in a city like El Paso, it is great to have those guys on your team. I am excited to see the many fans that treated me so well last summer but at the same time will miss my family and friends here.