A Great Week. BG Sweeps Savigny.

Hello. I know...I know......I just haven't had the urge to write the past few days. You can't force words. When I say "words" I really mean greatness. Ok, ok I appreciate all the comments. Alex, I love you and I am sorry for keeping you on hold, Ian and Emily, I took a pic of a choo choo for Joey but it came out shitty...sorry Jo, Tiff, that's my girl, Karly, get your ass to a pond and give me a fishin' story, Phyl, good to hear from ya...you would have loved the Normandy Beaches...we are going to have to go when you get here. Mom and Dad, Get your damn plane tickets, I am sending money soon and I'll let you know where to recieve it.

I am going to start with last friday. Friday's have become Olivear's and my band practice. I absolutely love playing. It is such a breath of fresh air. Earlier in the day, the softball girls were being little shits and that night Olivear told me to learn this one song by The Calling so we could work on it together that night. It sounds phenomenal and you can see it on my Youtube page. We had a great dinner, chocolate laced vanilla icecream, and I made Dirty Martini's for Olivear and I to have while we played. It just brought me home. I will cherish these times that Olivear and I have together. His girlfriend, Marie, even wants to play bongos while we play. So who knows...French Ball might become a band. We played until 1200pm because we had to pick up Will from the train station that night and he was going to stay with me the whole weekend.

Will and I hung out all night, drinkin', and sharing stories. Will showed me a documentary that his college buddies did while they visited him in Lithuania and it was so cool. It was professionally done and it captivated me. It is hard to realize the fact that Bois Guillaume has it heads and tails over the baseball players in Lithuania. We laughed and joked about baseball and retired for the night.

The next day, Will and I got up early and headed for the field. The Cadets had a game in BG and the Softball team had their game cancelled due to lack of players from Les Andely. Will and I got to the field early rolled up our sleeves to reveal serious farmer's tans and let the sun bake our skins as we got the field prepared. Will grabbed us a sandwich from the supermarket in Bois Guillaume and we had a nice meal. The kids started to show up and Eric, their main coach, said something to me.

"You don't have to do the lines....the kids don't need it."
"Bullshit. When I was a kid, one of the best parts about coming to a park is seeing perfectly marked lines on a diamond."

Will and I lined the field perfectly because I wanted these kids to have a field to be proud of. I want them to know I care about them and I care about how the game is played. They were excited and got their uniforms on. I then told them to get their asses in gear and start stretching.

We won the game on a hit by pitch, not the best way to win by any means, but a win is a win I guess.

That night, Eric invited Chris and his family, Olivear and Marie, and Will and I to his house to have a big barbeque. This night was another night I will never forget. Will and I brought some steaks and everyone pitched in something. So Eric lives way out in the country. He had been telling me that he had been working on his house for about a year. Let me tell you something....Eric is an artist. He has completely tranformed a dump of a house into a masterpiece. His house was a dream house. Winding stairs, huge rooms, and a cozy feeling. He has a view of french farmland. Cows, fields of gold, and a perfect sunset. It brought me back 2000 miles. It was the Ozarks. It was home.

The guys stood around the grill with canadian beers and the women were inside doing women things. Just perfect. We even played horseshoes in a pit that Eric created. Our dinner was fantastic. Atleast 5 courses. Sausage, steak, bread with melted Camenbear cheese, spiced potatoes, and rivers of wine. You are going to love what we had for dessert...

Flan with melted vanilla cream.

It really can't get any better. We drank all night and shared laughter. I will never forget that night. We might have drank a lil too much considering the fact that we had the number 3 team in the division, Savigny, coming into BG tomorrow. But I will tell you this....I have had a great feeling about these games all week. Will and Olivear said they had the same feeling. It was weird. Without any exchanging of words, we knew we were going to win.

Our feelings couldn't have been more right.

Sunday. Olivear picked up Will and I. Will and I had coffee that morning and we turned on the radio. The song we heard started to take shape.....

What...?

It was the song that Olivear and I had been working on together all night on Friday. I immediatly get a call from Olivear.

"TURN ON THE RADIO TONY!"
"Bwahahaha I know..! It's a sign my man!"
"K...be there in 5 seconds."

We stopped at that little bakery and got those phenomenal sandwiches. Things were falling into place. So we got to the field and started preparing.

Get your mind right. Crush them. Kill their mothers. Break their spirit.

And then something really troubling happened.

Marc and Bernie had told me of the tornadoes in Southwest Missouri. They had told me atleast 14 people had died. I started to freak out. Chris immediatly called Anne and had her check out where the damage was done. I later found out that everyone was ok and my mind was put to ease.

Game 1: BG vs Savigny
Time: 11:30
Weather: 79, sunny
Attendence: About 20

I can't express how happy I am with the fact that the BG Cadet/Softball players are going to our games. It is really nice to have their support and their screams of encouragement. Will got the starting nod this game. He absolutely shut them down. We came out ready to play. We hit incredibly well. We gained an early lead and never looked back. Bernie knocked his first homer of the year about 20 feet beyond the right field fence. I never like to tout some of my hits but I absolutely have to tell you about one of my hits this game.

We were leading 5-2 when I came up. They brought in a reliever who was throwing a lot harder than the first pussballer. It was a really good speed. Not good for the pitcher...for me. I led off the inning. I took the first two pitches for balls. Now for the next fateful pitch.
Imagine hearing a gunshot. Lightning cracking. I absolutely swung as hard as I could. I think I probably had my eyes closed when my bat made contact with the ball. It was the smoothest feeling I have had yet. I knew the ball was out of Bois Guillaume city limits. The ball left a comet trail into center field. It was still rising when it pelted a tree in dead center field. I hadn't made it 3/4's the way to first when the ball left. I honestly don't think I have ever hit a ball that hard. Kids rushed to get the ball and retrieved it for me. Now if you have been reading my posts, you will know that I owe Sam and Max a gift for their work on the field at the beginning of the season. Sam was sitting on the bench when I got the ball back. I walked up to him

"Il est pour vous."

A grin spread from ear to ear. His eyes lit up and he said back to me.

"Sign for me!?"

"Ba oui."

It was a great moment. We went on to trounce Savigny 13-2.

A funny thing happened in the last inning. Chris was with us this game and he was going into right field in the last inning. The funny thing is that the scoreboard was wrong saying we were only up by 9 runs instead of 10. Jean-Luc quickly alerted the umpire and the other coach about the run rule. The umpire then said "Game Over." Chris was like...

"AWW NOOO!!" In a comical manner.

Everyone was laughing at calling him the MVP of the first game.

Game 2: BG vs Savigny
Time: 2:00
Weather: Perfect
Attendence: About 25 now.

Marc got the start this game. They started off on top going up 2 runs in the top of the first and did not score again. With a barrage of hits and made plays we put the nail in the coffin. Sorry for the lack of analysis but nothing really spectacular happened. The funniest thing that happened was Will making fun of the umpire's strike calls and ring up actions. He was imitating all the goofy motions the umpire was doing and I couldn't stop laughing. I had to bury my laughter in my glove to avoid letting the umpire know I was laughing at him. So we won 8-2. Beers came out. We got the sweep.

The Cadet/Softball kids came out on the field to partake in the post game drinking. We got the hose out to water the field and it soon turned into a water fight. Everyone filled up their water bottles and everyone was chasing everyone. I didn't mind it at all at first because it was immensely hot out. After I finally wrestled the hose out of Stephany's hands, Will and I got our work done on the field.

So I have had a great past few days. Yesterday, Monday, I rollerbladed along the Seine with Chris. What did you guys do on Monday? Hahahaha...I rule. I love you guys and will talk to you soon. Au revoir.