Dugout Steps

This is a weird stadium. In addition to making us walk through the stands to get to the clubhouse, we have funky steps in the dugout. The first picture is a view looking toward the home plate side of the dugout. If you count the steps on that end there are 7. Count the steps in the middle of the dugout and there are 6. Since I couldn't fit the whole thing in one pic, the second pic is the 3rd base end of the dugout. Count the steps on that end and there are 5. Who designed this place? Either the field or the dugout is crooked.

Game update. Bot 4, 4-2 Indians. This one is flying by, been playing for 1:40 so far. Nice tempo.....
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Salem Day 2

So now we begin day 2 in Salem. Got up this morning around 9:30. Made my first gym bus of the year at 10:30. I decided to ease back into it and just hit the treadmill at 6.5 mph for 20 minutes. I'm already sore. We came back to the hotel around noon and hit up the friendly neighborhood Denny's for lunch once again. I started off with a side salad and then decided that since I worked out this morning I would "play for the tie" and have the appetizer sampler platter for lunch. Not that great an idea.

Bus to the stadium in in about 20 minutes. We won again last night. That brings us to 4-0 after the meeting if I'm not mistaken. Here is a picture of Salem-Keizer's field from the left field line.

Our dugout is right there on the 3rd base side. There is no shade for fans at this place and that sucks for them right now in this record heat. Maybe that's why nobody comes to the games.... Decent field, below average crowds. The weird thing here is our clubhouse setup. Imagine going from the dugout to the clubhouse like this.

We go out of the dugout and up the little stairway on the right. We then walk behind some fans on lawn chairs at the top of the hill to the right and in front of the stands right there. We go around the back of the stands by the concession stand and underneath them. Our clubhouse is back there. Cool for the fans to have us mingling, but not so cool for us.

Tomorrow we are headed to the world of Nike in Beaverton, OR. I'll let you know how that goes.

Salem Day 1

We got into Salem, OR at about 11:30 last night and checked into the hotel. When we arrive I get off the bus and head over to the front desk. I answer any questions they have about our stay and then they give me all of the keys. By the time I get back outside, a lot of they guys are off the bus and looking for their bags from the cluster of them piled underneath. I then get to pass out all of the keys and yell out to everyone what time the bus to the field is the next day.

Today, I got up and went with Josue Perez (hitting coach) to run a few errands. His computer has not been working right, so we had to go to a UPS store to overnight it Arlington. We had a friendly taxi driver that took us there and it was right next to a Fred Meyer. Perfect. While we were there I headed in and bought bread, oranges, and bananas for the 5 game series. Ack, the clubbie, usually puts this stuff on the bus, but with the longer trip it was easier for me to just buy it here to save on the space. Bread takes up a lot of it. As we were driving, the cab driver asked us about who we were and stuff. Come to find out he used to work at the stadium and might call me for tickets while we are here. He didn't charge us while he waited for us in the store and even cut the meter a bit short to keep it on a nice even number for us. Good dude.

When we got back to the hotel, we dropped off the food and decided to walk over to Denny's for some lunch. This hotel is not in a very good location. Not a lot of food options. It seemed like Denny' or Costco for us and neither of us had a Costco card. We had a nice lunch and on the way walking, the cab driver saw us and offered to give us a ride for no charge over there. It's not too far so it was easier to just walk. When we got back we saw JT (pitching coach) and he said that if we walked a bit further we would've found a Wal-Mart, Panda Express, Taco something, and a few other things. That's good to know for the next few days so I don't eat Denny's every day. Interesting thing up here, Denny's has beer.



Got an hour and a half left until the bus to the field. Work computer is not showing me any icons when I turn it on. Great.

Adios

Off Day

So today is our second off day of the year. As in most minor league "off days", this is a travel day for us. We are currently on the bus headed to Salem, OR for 5 games and then to Tri-City, WA for 3. This wasn't too bad because we didn't leave until 4:00 in the afternoon.



That left an open morning for golf.



This is the first that I have played since extended spring ended because my family just left to head back home. When they are gone, I have more down time and am able to play more. It sucks that they left, but at least now I can get on the course. I would definitely trade in a day of golf to have them back, but that's the way it is. We drove out to Post Falls, ID about 30 minutes from Spokane and played at a nice course called Prarie Falls. I didn't par a single hole and ended up shooting a 109. I know, I suck. The pic is a nice view from above the 18th tee box where Justin Thompson (pitching coach) is teeing off and Tim Hulett (manager) and Chris Ackerman (clubhouse manager) are admiring his sweet stroke. You can see a few of the other holes down and too the right. Like they say, a bad day golfing is better than a good day working....or something like that.



Well, 6 more hours to Salem. At least I have my own seat.

Watson

This is possibly the ugliest mascot I have ever seen. These pictures don't do the costume justice. We affectionately refer to this thing as the "camel toe dog". You can kind of see here, but not really.






The Indian's won tonight's game with another huge inning. Dropped 8 in the 6th and won 10-7. That is 3 in a row after the meeting.

Off day tomorrow. Golf is in the plans. I'll take some pics.