Kevin's Ramblings…

I found myself a new doctor a few weeks back.  More accurately, some Alberta Health Services service found me a new doctor, quite close to my “new” place.  I did get a doctor, right after I moved a year and a half ago.  Unfortunately, he was way over in the east end of Calgary, very close to where I used to live.  I could have kept going there except I didn’t really care for the 30 minute drive across town.

So, I went to my new doctor and he wanted to be get blood work down, an EKG and a urine test.  It was scheduled for 7am this morning.

As I pulled into the parking lot at 6:45am, I discovered that I forgot to bring the paper with all of the required tests on it with me.  D’Oh.  All the way home (not that far, 5km maybe) and all the way back.  It was 7:02am when I returned and I feared that they would make me wait forever or reschedule my appointment.

Nope – I signed in and waited about 3 minutes before they called my name.  Took my paper, entered my ID and told me to sit.  The waiting room was quite full so I figured I would be waiting for a bit.  Again, nope.  Less than 5 minutes later I was lead into the back.  A quick prick with the needle, two vials of blood were out of me.

The EKG was quick.  I think he enjoyed ripping the leads off of me – wish I didn’t have hair on my chest.  I then peed in a cup, sealed it and off I went.  Home in time to start work only 1:45 late.

Next, in a couple of weeks comes a stress test.  With my family history and me getting old, he wants to see how I am doing.  Fine with me.  It is scheduled for 4 hours.  Wow.  I certainly hope that they don’t want me running on a treadmill for those 4 hours, otherwise I will end up in the basement of the nearest hospital.

This is going to be a busy week, both at work and in baseball.

The only night I have off for ball is Friday evening which works well since I will be in Red Deer for work on Friday.

We are implementing a new printer project and I am laying the ground work for it on Friday.  I will leave Calgary early, around 6:15 or so on Friday to head to Red Deer.  It is about an hour and a half drive, smack in the middle of Calgary and Edmonton.

For baseball, there are games tonight, tomorrow & Wednesday for AA and AAA and the AA’s have a practice on Wednesday.  Thursday will see the AA’s at a team event, we are going bowling.  We want the boys to be able to interact in a “non-baseball environment” to try to get to know each other a bit better, hopefully build up some bonds.  I got a good deal for bowling, it will cost each player around $15 for 1.5 hours of bowling and the shoes are being thrown in for free.  They have food at the alley so we will just eat there, the menu looks decent.

This coming weekend, the AAA travel teams are away at a tournament so no league games. The AA’s play both Saturday and Sunday.  It makes the weekends zip on by, good and bad.

Enjoy your week, I am sure to enjoy mine.

Today, my AAA Rockies played the AAA Giants.  It was an early start, 10am at Optimist so we were there shortly after 8am.

The game started a few minutes late, we were waiting on the umpires for some reason.

My lead-off batter bunted for a base hit. He then stole second.

My second batter stepped out of the box before time was given (time was never given), the pitcher stopped his delivery.  No balk was called.

I asked why was that not a balk.  The umpire didn’t tell me, he simply said something along the lines of “don’t start with me this morning”.  I asked again, why wasn’t that a balk?  Time wasn’t called, the pitcher stopped his delivery.  I was then told to return to the dugout.

I asked again and again, was told to return to the dugout.

I refused as I wanted to know why a balk wasn’t called.  I was ejected.

I then approached the plate and the plate umpire started walking towards first base.  I followed.  When we got about 3/4 of the way to first, I asked him “how far are you walking – are you going to the 315′ sign (in the right field corner).

He circled around my first base coach who had a smirk on his face.  We headed back towards the plate.  At this point, the field umpire appeared and told me to leave the diamond.  I had full intention of leaving, I just wanted an explanation – never got one.

I presume and people that I spoke with concur, I was ejected because the umpire realized he was wrong but didn’t want to admit it.  So, as opposed to admitting a mistake, he tossed me from the game.

Under league rules, I do not serve a suspension, other than the game I missed today.

I am still wondering why a balk wasn’t called, not that it would have mattered in the grand scheme of things, we ended up losing 13-0.  I still want that extra base, we could have scored that run.

Until next time.  BALK !!!

I have a AA game tonight.  It is against the Indians, again.  We have three games in a row against them.  At our last meeting, we were destroyed, there really isn’t another word for it.  The final, as I know I have written, was 28-8.

In speaking with the other coaches and reflecting upon the season, we’ve come to realize that part if not most of the issues are with our pitchers.  We seem to be good for about 2 innings and then the pitchers lose control.  This causes “bad” hits and then the team seems to lose confidence, almost immediately.

So, tonight, the Pitching Technical Director for Babe Ruth is coming out to take a look at the pitchers live.  I plan on pitching 7 guys so that he will be able to look at most of the staff, take notes and then will be able to advise on areas where improvement is needed and what work can be done.

Moving forward, I am going to only schedule my starter for 2 innings, regardless of pitch count.  If he is at 20-30 after 2, he may be able to continue into the 3rd inning, BUT, that has not worked up to this point.  For some reason, my pitchers arm strength doesn’t seem to be improving this year like it should.  By this point last year, I had players pitching well into the 5th inning without any issues.

If I need to adjust my pitching rotation, so be it.  Something needs to change so I will start there.

One of my coaches, SS, suggested a non baseball related event for the boys to try to build up some level of familiarity with the players, other than just playing together.  I am going to see what they want to do.  I am having a quick discussion with the parents before the game to go over the season thus far and pretty much tell them what I’ve written here.  I am sure that none of them will object to spending $50 for a team event – players only (and coaches), no parents, no siblings.  I am thinking laser tag or mini-putt or bowling and then food.  Something along those lines.  Something fun and then food – teen boys like food, don’t we all?

Hopefully we can get the team back on track.  Wish us some luck (again).

Had a very good baseball practice last night.  Most of the team was out, which was a good thing.  I had two players missing because they were at the final try-out for the travel team.  I could have been a mean guy and made them come to the practice as team events come first but I wouldn’t want to risk them not making the team and at least they were doing baseball.  One other player was away for school flag football, not overly happy that he missed because of that.  The last missing player was sick.

We worked on infielding, outfielding, catchers throwing to first base and second base, double plays…  All things that they boys know how to do, yet, in games, have not been able to do with any regularity.

Last night they were confident with their fielding skills.  We will see how it plays out tonight at our game.  We are starting over.  We have forgotten the last month and a bit of baseball – there wasn’t too much worth remembering really…

I received a call from a new doctor yesterday.  There is a service in Alberta that will find a new doctor for you.  I had a doctor but they were across town, very near where I used to live.  This doctor is close to where I am now.  It is a meet and greet.  I am sure he will want me to do blood tests or something, they always seem to want me to do that.  In general, I think I am in pretty good health.

I do plan on starting to work out in the near future.  When?  Not exactly sure.  The office has a great gym in it and it is free.  I am thinking I will start working out either after baseball at night or early in the morning – like right now.  I’d work out today, except I am writing this blog entry.  🙂