Thursday, April 5, 2007

Happy Passover

Chag Sameach, Happy Passover, and for those of you really technical folks, Moadim Le'simcha. I'm signing in to just say hello and wish everyone some happy holiday greetings, hoping the brisket and matza ball combo in most of your stomachs is sitting well. As for me, well, I am lucky enough to be celebrating the holiday in the place where it all began; no I don’t mean Egypt, but rather Israel. For the past 4 years, I have been dragging my family along with me to Jerusalem for the opportunity to have our seder in the same spot our ancestors ate, debated, and most certainly argued with the rest of their relatives. Truth is, I promised in my last blog to talk all about the training regimen I do with the Yeshiva University baseball team, but there hasn’t been much exercising lately. The past few weeks I had been in bed with a pretty horrible virus, the one that doesn’t let you exercise, go out, pretty much do anything for months at a time. It was even a question on whether or not the doctors would allow me to go to Israel for Passover, but I wouldn’t take no for an answer; at least for the vacation.

That being said, before I found out I shouldn’t be practicing or exercising, I had a couple of amazing experiences with the YU team. The coaches, Norman Ringel, Howie Blitz and Ramon Batista all tell us that 'once a part of the YU team, always a part of the YU team' and they truly mean it. So when I go down to their practices, I am running with them, warming up with them, and getting yelled at when I miss a ball just like a regular player. On one very unique night, we went out to the field to practice under the lights to get a familiarity with the home turf. Now the reports said that the night would stay clear until close to midnight, but the snow started just after we had fully warmed up and taken the field. None of the players were willing to give up the chance to take some live ground balls so the coaches obliged and started practice. (A side note: there is nothing, and I mean nothing, better than taking ground balls. Maybe its the die hard infielder in me, but I truly believe any infielder could take ground balls and fielding drills for hours at a time.) About halfway through, the flakes were about the size of quarters, and when they come down like that, the ball looks about the same size. It was one of the hardest and most fun practices we ever had... people diving on purpose just to get a chance to make 'snow angels' in the infield, in between catching flakes on our tongues. Soon after though, we really couldn’t distinguish between the ball and the snow, and had to call the practice off about a half hour early. Still, we had a great time, and a good workout against the elements. It was a good experience for the team, but I don’t know how many 20 degree games I will be playing in the summer in Israel!

Ok, so now that I am doing a little bit better, I really hope to write about what I do during my routine to prepare with the team and on my own. I will be writing about regular routines this week, and when I get back from Israel a lot of the guys (one of them being Dan Rootenberg, who also has a blog) hope to get some practices in together, just to start to get an opportunity to get to know each other before this whole thing kicks off! So to everyone out there, have a wonderful Passover, Easter, Spring, Whatever, and get excited for the REAL opening day baseball June 24!

1 comment:

Sarah Smile said...

We can't wait for you to come back!! Missing you already! Love