Week 13: More Olympics and Playoffs

  Munich, Germany
Monday, September 1, 2008

  Hello again! I was delayed yet again in my blog, but this time it's for good reason. I've been in Berlin! I have a lot of good stories from this past week, but first I've got to get you caught up on the events of the week before.

On Monday, Ryan and I went over to Cary's once again and watched some of the Olympics. We never did catch Michael Phelps, but it's ok because the Germans loved him. Every time there was a break, there was something on about Michael Phelps. Honestly though, he's super human... so I'm sure every station that covered the Olympics talked about him. Maybe not China though... since they were too busy fighting off "rumors" of cheating in women's gymnastics.... Oops. In my opinion though, USA just blew it. They were barely in second after all and they screwed up big at least three times. Oh well!

We did catch some awesome track and field events: the men's steeple chase, the women's 10,000 meter race, men's shotput, women's discus, some short sprints, and women's pole vault. Each event was exciting. First, the steeple chase by nature is awesome. If anybody hasn't seen it before, they basically have to run a two mile obstacle course. They run two miles around the track, and from the second round on, they have to jump four hurdles also. Oh, and one hurdle also has a big pool of water after it. So basically they have to run two miles, wet, and with hurdles every turn. Then they sprint at the end.

The women's 10,000 meter race (of which I just watched the very beginning and the very end-- just like you, Dad!) had a great finish. Around the last turn, the girl that was holding a steady second just blew the leader away. After all that running, she didn't even look tired, it was amazing. Shotput was another story. These guys were huge, and they all had to get pumped up before each throw. The most dramatic guy was an American who couldn't even throw it in bounds... in three tries. Oops. Pole vault was awesome as well, because this woman from Russia was just so good at it. She was ecstatic when she broke the world record (which was hers also) and did a nice little front flip. Overall it was a very amusing day watching the Olympics.

Unfortunately, watching the Olympics was probably the most practice I got during the week (I guess that would be mental practice?) After two weeks off, we only had one week to practice before our second day of our playoff series. If you recall, we played in Wesseling-against the Vermins-- and split against them. You know, the one we were winning by 7 in the last inning and then lost... So, obviously we needed a little practice. Of course that wasn't going to happen. The people that are in charge of our field and the baseball field decided to use that week to reseed and fertilize the grass. So we weren't allowed to practice on the field. Basically all we could do was hit in the batting cage with a little fielding practice on Thursday. I wasn't sure we were going to be ready.

The rest of the week was pretty calm, with the exception of hanging out with Cary and his girlfriend Kat who just arrived to live here with him. We hung out at the same karaoke bar we've been to before, with Cary's friends Jean (if you say it in a strong French accent, it's exactly how he says it... hehe) and a guy from England named James. We headed home early though because I had big games the next day that I wasn't sure we were going to win. I was right in thinking so.

Saturday came along and everything felt the same as far as preparing for the game. Same warm up, same odd music (just not the warm up mix I'm used to), and Ingo's speeches. His key phrases for Saturday were "Bring It On" and "Rock and Roll"... said in a goofy German accent of course. I think I've alluded to it enough now... we lost the first game. Our pitcher struggled a little with confidence and finding her zone, there were a couple of big errors, and we just could not score the runs we should have. It didn't help that there was a rain delay and it sprinkled on and off the rest of the time. Since our field is all grass (except the cutouts for the bases) it made the ball really wet. It doesn't seem hard, but it's pretty difficult to throw a wet ball when you're in a rush. Anyway, we were pretty bummed after the first game, but we knew we still had a chance. While we had Missy to pitch our second game, they had the same pitchers as the last three games. Missy did her job and we scored the runs we needed to, so we won the game to still have a chance for playoffs.

The worst part about Saturday was that it was one of our best and most fun players' last games. Caren, our catcher/shortstop/utility player, left of Sunday to go to college at an NAIA school in Kentucky. So, that night we all went to dinner at the Italian restaurant by our field to say goodbye to her. We were very sad so say goodbye to her, but she's going to have an awesome time in college.

Sunday morning came quickly and now it was really time to pick it up and play like we know how. All the girls knew it was crunch time and we were ready to play. Then Ingo came in with his "inspiration." First, he made us stand in a circle and close our eyes. He told us to think about past games where we had won (then he mentioned the games when we lost, which I still don't get) and he went on about proving ourselves. Then he finished with "remember..." and we looked up to see him yanking off his sweatshirt to reveal a tiny shirt that said "attitude is a choice." I give him full credit for trying, but honestly, it looked like he was wearing a baby tee. I had to laugh out loud, and the rest of the team followed: including Ingo. It was hilarious.

In this game, Missy couldn't pitch, so it was the German girls' turn. Both of our losses so far were with German pitching, and Sarah (who lost the day before) was pitching again. I said earlier that she struggled finding her location and you could tell she was a bit rattled. On Sunday, she was a different girl (and I'd like to think I helped with that a little bit by giving her a little talk the night before... :-) ) She pitched an amazing game, we played good defense, we hit and scored runs.... and Sarah won the game with a strike out in the last inning. IT WAS AWESOME. For one, everyone knew Sarah did amazing and the whole team really played well. Also, Ingo just went crazy! He actually confused me in the 6th inning. He got up and yelled so loud at the last out of the 6th inning that I thought the game was over. That was nothing compared to his reaction after the game, and it was awesome.
I'll leave you now with pictures of some of us celebrating on Sunday night. We all hung out at Missy's apartment with some of the Haar and Gauting baseball guys. It was a fun night. But more fun was to come in Berlin, so check out that blog next!