Woodchucks Split With Les Andely. A Taste of Humility.

Hey guys. I got back not too long ago from today’s games. Love you guys and miss you a ton. Thanks for the comments and please keep’em coming. I get taste of home with every message. Love you all.

I will start off with Friday/Saturday. On Friday, I had absolutely nothing to do. I just hopped on a bus with no intention of getting off at any particular stop. So I just made my way through Rouen, looking around at all the buildings. Before I knew it, I was riding along the Seine and out of the city. I started to have a giddy nervous feeling. But I took the bus until it completely ended in another suburb. I can’t tell you the name of the little town, just the fact that I had to follow the river back to town. So I just started walking. Following the river, taking pics, and just taking in the warm summer breeze. It was really nice. I ended up at the boardwalk and had a nice stroll along the river. I then walked into the town visiting different cathedrals. I listened to a great guitarist outside one of the cathedrals. I automatically knew this guy was going to be good because he didn’t have a money hat in front of him. You just knew he loved playing outside in front of a crowd. He had a Spanish tone and was very good. I then stumbled upon a huge open air market, and had lunch outside at a very serene, quiet park. Just a nice day.

Saturday. The softball team had a scheduled match against Honfluer, a town that sits next to the coast. So we drove to this town and I got the girls ready. I say girls, but we were mostly comprised of cadet ballplayers with a couple of girls mixed in. The field was absolute shit, but he scenery all around was beautiful. Huge poplars just shot up all around the field. Jean-Luc then told me something that I really had never thought of.
“You like trees don’t you Tony?”
“Well now that you mention it….I guess I do.”
We won the game 27-12. More like a football game if you ask me. That night I had dinner at Jean-Luc’s house where we would mentally prepare for the next day’s games. We were away at Les Andely which is the same town where the castle was where Chris and I visited before. The field sits actually right next to the castle, but trees blocked any view from the field. I was wanting to hit a bomb that landed in one of the dungeons but that wouldn’t be at this field.

Game 1: BG vs Les Andely
Time: 12:00
Weather: 70 with Sun
Attendance: around 19 peeps.

I had a bad feeling about this team all week. NOT BECAUSE YOU ASSHOLES WERE WARNING ME, but the guys look really lackadaisical this morning. Marc Bouchard, our Canadian ace, was scheduled to start. We started off the game like gangbuster again scoring three runs right off the bat. I lined a ball that almost broke the pitchers neck and other guys got base hits as well. Let me just say right now, that that was the best we looked for the first game. So there we were, in our element after the top half of the first inning. Now their turn. First batter for Les Andely, SS makes error. Next batter, 3rd makes an error. Next batter, double. Next batter, 2nd makes error. Next batter, RF makes throwing error. Next batter, 3rd makes error. You see where I am going with this? We found ourselves in an unlikely position after the first couple innings. Losing. We pinballed the lead back in forth for awhile until our poor defense got the better of us. We lost the first game 11-7. They had 3 earned runs fueled by our 9 errors. It was a piss poor performance. I stranded bases loaded twice. Damn…that is painful to write. So the 2008 Woodchucks are no longer undefeated. You would have thought that Les Andely just won the fucking World Series. They were just screamin’ and shoutin’. I was just waiting for them to start doing beer bongs.
I don’t think Emerill Legassi himself could have made our sandwiches taste good after that game. But one thing that we couldn’t do, is let this roll into the next game. So I tried really hard and shook off the pouty face and starting laughing a joking around. Anything to get our minds right. I did my impression of a woodchuck that always gets the guys laughing and it seemed that all was forgotten. Let us hope eh?

Game 2: BG vs Les Andely
Time: 2:00
Weather: Beautiful
Attendance: 21, Benedict and Laura showed up.

I stepped back before this game started and just looked around. I realized a couple of things.

1. I am playing baseball in France next to a castle.
2. The weather and smells of the field were just like I was back in the states.

They were two completely contradictory thoughts but they were singing with harmony at this moment. With one out in the first, Arthur led us off with a double to center field. I then strode to the plate completely relaxed. I then proceeded to hit my second homer of the season over the left field fence. It was a decent shot, if I do say so myself. We scored two more runs off a couple of errors committed by the other team and we were chattering like the Woodchucks of old. Vincent was our starting pitcher this game and he threw one hell of one. Three up, three down. All game. We continued to pour in runs absolutely showing the other team that we had beatin’ ourselves the first game. I strode up to the plate for the 3rd time this game after a hit by pitch my last at bat. They had brought in another pitcher who was throwing the ball with a lot more velocity. Maybe intimidating to some guys but just how me likey. First pitched wizzed by for a ball. Next pitch, estimated time of arrival…..my house in Deville in about 10 minutes. I absolutely pounded the hell out of hit. It was beautiful. One of those shots where as soon as you hit it….you can just jog and watch the ball sail threw the air. Really poetic if you ask me. We continued to hammer them into the ground for the remainder of the game. Final score 15-0.

I will mention that something really funny happened today. In the first game, I had not realized that the other team had another American. It wasn’t until their hitter jawed at Marc, our pitcher. I had told Marc only to throw this guy sliders because I could tell he was their best hitter.

This guys pops off,
“Throw me a fucking fastball you fucking pussy.”

Really loud. Marc really didn’t know how to react. I then stepped in from 1st.

“What the fuck is your problem you fucking asshole? This is baseball. Not fucking tiddlywinks, you fucking pussy.”

He responds, “You shut the fuck up, you have been jawing all game.”

I then replied a retort but you guys can guess what the majority of my words were. Marc now knew what was going on. The next pitch found the middle of the Americans back. He trotted down the line towards me. Shit…now I gotta deal with this asshole.

“C’mon man…what’s up.”

“I’m just pissed because I got nailed with a ball during practice before the game.”
I replied. “Welcome to France.”

We laughed and all was forgotten. We then introduced ourselves. Josh Galla is a guy my age who played ball at Sam Houston State University and has family in Les Andely. We have the same French speaking ability. Non-existent. We joked around to each other for the remainder of the day and exchange contact info. He is actually a really nice guy. So we might hang out over these next couple of months.

Yes, we lost the first game but the guys learned something today. Not only in baseball, but in life, when you get knocked down, you have to get back up and score 15 runs against your boss. Love you guys and I will talk to you soon. Au revoir.