Monday, July 9, 2007

Disabled List

I don’t think I have ever felt a situation where at one side I have a ton of 'down time', but at the same time feel like I don’t have any moment for anything other than baseball. It’s kind of funny really; we play almost every day, and while the games are only a few hours, everything around the game seems to take up so much of our time and thoughts. Here on the Kfar where we all live, hours before the game starts we are all discussing either last nights events, ideas for the upcoming game, or just our thoughts on the league, play, baseball in general.

So on the one hand, I have a ton of time where I sort of just relax, yet on the other my entire life is consumed by baseball! kind of a different situation than what I'm used to, but believe me, I'm not complaining.

So many of you heard, (many being the five people that check into the blog) that I was one of the first players in the IBL to go on the DL (disabled list). It was kind of frustrating. After that amazing first game, (the score of which we don’t like to think about) with all of the crowds, fanfare, and buildup, I am taking infield and just doing regular warm-ups for the second game. The coach hits me a ground ball to flip to the shortstop, and then "pop-pop."

When I told the trainer and physical therapist that "I had never any back problems before in my life," I was given a response anyone with chronic back issues will say the doctor told them:

"well, you do now."

In truth, it wasn’t the worst. I had to sit about a week, and the trainers really helped. In particular, a friend of the family is an Osteopath, and realigned my back at his house after shabbat. He gave me exercises to strengthen the lower back, and my old coach (Coach Ringel from YU) basically told me, I will have to play and work through the pain, but the more I stretch and the more I move around, the better my back will feel. Throw in a lot of Advil before and after games and he’s absolutely right.

So this past week I got to get in some games, and even start one, so that was a really wonderful experience, even if it was belated, playing in front of fans, and just being back in the game was such a special experience. Even when I was injured there are a ton of ways to help the team, from coaching bases, throwing BP (batting practice) to even just being another set of eyes watching the game, seeing different angles.

Anyway, I am going to sign off for now, but I hope to write about some of the interesting religious experiences I have had while playing ball here in Israel. In the meantime, let’s hope for a strong upcoming week, and not lose faith with "the men who swing shovels." Things are just starting to heat up here in Israel.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Suck it up Green! I believe it was the late great Dom Zimmer who said 'There is no crying in Baseball.' OK, I wikipediaed it and Zimmer is alive and kickin and never said that. I missed the PBS thing- I think I was at a gig, but I'm sure someone has taped it- feel better and make us proud.
Jake P.

Drew Kaplan said...

Wow - I didn't know you were on the DL - best of luck in your recovery.
And, yes, I'm proud to be one of the five readers of your blog!

Anonymous said...

right on pioneers. i see you won another game. no reason that you cannot all come back and wont that be exciting as that happens. Time for positive mental attitude!