Where is the Baseball?

St. George Field, Normandy France.
My Dream.


Hey guys…where do I start…..Thank you for all the comments once again. I got to give props to Ian for his comment…very clever and funny. If you didn’t know France pretty much is not a functioning country in the months of July and August. It is their “holiday” season and it is damn near impossible to get anything done. But I’m still tryin’ for the net….

Ok…since last time I was able to talk to you, we were talkin’ about this St. George business. Well, for some reason in Jean Luc’s eyes, he doesn’t really want to pursue that option. I was really optimistic about the idea, so it kind of took the wind out of my sails. He wants to look for another lot of open land closer to BG, so that is that….but…….

That is not to say that the St. George idea is dead. That is all I am going to say about that.

These past couple weeks have kind of just drug on….just really slow past couple of weeks.

The fling that I had going on for a bit has completely died out, but I am not sad about it. I am glad for the time that I had with her. Other than my hopeless love life, things are going pretty good.

I have met some Spanish people through the brother of one of the softball players. They were a blast to hang out with. Their names are Zag, Pablo, Paco, Anna, and Vincent. We got to go to the beach in Le Havre last week and it was a blast. I was not quite ready for the complete Spanish experience though…I’m talkin’ eating dinner at 11:30pm and drinking and dancing until 4:00am. I was like… “Fuck…” but it was a great couple of days. We all hung out in Rouen one night. We went out to the bars for appetizers and drinks…afterwards I told them I wasn’t up for too much but they could come over to my apartment to hang out for a bit…..

Two bottles of the apple cider and three bottles of wine later…I was playing a set on the guitar with my Spanish singers helping me out on a couple of licks. Great night.


From Left: Pablo, Vincent, Anna, and Paco

So my clock has kinda been off these past couple of days you could say.
So I have been working on the field some with the kids and Chris the past couple of days and it is looking pretty good. There was an annoying amount of weeds that were sprouting of the dirt that I layed down 4 months previous. There will be no dandelions on my damn field…Maybe on Ian’s…but not mine (joke drum line).

I have to tell you that Chris has pretty much created an All-Star game for the DHR division. It is really cool because he is giving the Bois Guillaume club a much needed image boost due to reasons you can probably guess. But we worked on the field a lot for this upcoming Sunday All Star practice for the surrounding 4 towns involved. He asked me to help out and I of course agreed. We will practice, scrimmage, and BBQ afterwards. Lookin’ forward to it.

So…… baseball is pretty much dead during this time.

Makes sense not to play the world’s greatest game at the best time of year……..hmm…….

So I have had to drag guys onto the field for half-ass practices. I am throwing a pen every week to keep the ol’wing in shape. Still runnin…yada yada yada. But something really saweet happened today. Im talkin’ SAWEET.

One of the Rouen Elite team players, Boris, asked me if I wanted to practice with them since I am not doing anything. I met him when I umpired their games a couple weeks back. I quickly agreed and packed my ball bag and walked to the rendezvous point. Boris picked me up in one of those SMART cars. If you don’t know what a SMART car is….take one of Joey’s car toys and multiply by 3. So we headed for the Huskies Field.
Now, I have to tell you that I knew what to expect. I have had to deal with the same stares from other players on numerous occasions. For example; the first Missouri State baseball meeting my freshman year, every collegiate summer playing for different teams, etc. The look that a newcomer gets is pretty much….

“Who the fuck is this guy?”

So I warmed up with Boris. He is a great guy. Kinda was lookin’ out for me all day. So we all warmed up and people started taking their positions on the field for ground balls. I, of course, went to SS and started fielding balls. It felt good to be at a practice where you can actually field a team and get things done. So I fielded and rifled balls over to first and also turned double plays until my arm almost fell off. This went on for awhile and it was great. I was even starting to warm up to the other guys a bit. Giving and taking shit.

Then batting practice commenced. I knew I was going to be the last dog to hit so I headed to the outfield to shag. So there I was watching these guys hit. I will say that they are pretty damn good. The balls have some spunk on them once they leave the bat. But I will say one thing…not one of the balls left the park.
So after I was asked to throw BP to some guys, they told me I could hit and to grab my bat. I loved the feeling of these guys thinking… “Alright, can this fuck hit?”

Now let me ask you something. In the movie “The Natural”, do you remember when Roy finally gets to take bp for the first time? If you don’t know, you should be shot, but he hits his first 6 balls out of the park. Pretty much the same damn thing happened.
It was so cool. The other players were chattering to each other not really paying attention when I first walked up but when I hit the three balls thrown at me out of the park, there was a silence. Won’t forget that moment either.

So after I got done hittin, I got some smiles and looks of acceptance from the guys. That was the end of practice and so Boris and I started walking to his BigWheel.
I made a great dinner tonight, lemme tell ya. Spiced chicket breasts, butter filled mashed potatoes, peppered green beans, and some great vanilla sorbet yogurt for dessert. I’m kinda getting hungry again just thinking about it. Love you guys and will talk to you soon. Good night.

What's goin' on.

I also have to thank you guys for the package. Love it all. From the The Bass Pro shirt to the Apple Butter. But wait one damn second.....

"RED DAWN" COULD HAVE BEEN THE WORST WAY I WASTED 2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES OF MY LIFE.

A Long July.

Hey guys. Yes…Yes….Yes….I know. It has been a long time. But trust me, I have had to deal with a lot the past month. This past month I have been all over France, moved apartments, fallin’ in and out of love, and had scuffles with administration. I will address those characteristics shortly. I appreciate you guys still commenting and entertaining yourselves. Trust me again… I am trying to get internet soon and will let you all know when I do. Right now, I am pondering what to write as I am sitting in my apartment with a glass of Bordeaux and smoking a cigar. I love and miss you guys so much. Your stories were heartfelt and I have read them over and over.

Let’s see here. Where to begin? Let’s just start from my birthday, July 3rd.

On my birthday, Chris and his family had Olivear and his girlfriend over to celebrate my birthday. At this point I was sleeping on an inflatable mattress in Chris’s house. The night was great. I was with the people who truly make me happy over here. Olivear and Marie bought me “Thirty All Time Great Acoustic Guitar Hits,” from an English bookstore, and Chris and his family bought me an authentic Marseille soccer jersey. I love these guys. We had guacamole, french fries, and grilled cheeseburgers. It was a great taste of home.

In the first week of July, if you didn’t know, I was homeless. Andree’, my former landlady, and I got into a scuffle about making noise past 10:00pm and me not being able to leave the apt. past that time. I decided to move out and find other means. I was saving the club hundreds of euro’s a month by staying in the past two apartments. I needed my own place. My words were along the lines of “All Woodchuck Club involvement that I have will be suspended until I get proper living means.” This broke the younger kids team’s hearts. They were incredibly supportive in sending me text messages and emails pleading with me not to quit. Jean Luc got the message and found me an apartment. It is my own studio next to the train station in the heart of Dtown Rouen. It is pretty small but the independence is worth more than the square footage.


I went out on Saturday, July 5th night with Camille, one of my softball players, and we went to go see the Armada. The Rouen Armada is this national event that happens every 4 years where ships from all over the world come down the Seine River from the English Channel into Rouen and dock for a week full of music, fireworks, and other festivities. So we went out on the opening night and saw some huge wooden ships. Pretty impressive. We then went to a night club where other friends of Camille were going to be. Some of her friends had positions on the French National Softball Board and greeted me really nicely.

So after doing some negotiation, I was going to southern France to coach the girls in Bordeaux for a national tournament. I was pumped.



Bordeaux, Southern France. July 7-12. This is a national tournament held every year for the Minime, Cadet, and Softball levels in France. Since my Bois Guillaume Cadet and Softball clubs were champions of Normandy, we had a good number of kids representing the Normandy region. There are 5 regions of France that are a part of this tournament. Normandy, Ile de France, Aquitaine, Rhone Alps, and another one that I cannot remember. Lets just call that team Southern France. When I showed up on the bus to go to southern France the girls were happy and surprised that I was going. It was a good feeling. I was going to help coach the Normandy Softball team with two other coaches. Florian and Melvin. Sorry, I do not know their last names. Flo, is from Louvier and Melvin is from Caen. Both really nice guys and they were happy to have me a part of the squad.

When we got to the tournament, their was a half-ass banquet for the teams. The coolest part of the trip was that the Normandy teams were to stay in these old dorms of this school in a little town outside of Bordeaux. Right in the middle of the country. Vineyards and farmland. I have some pictures of the place. It was a great time.
We played two games the next day. We went 1-1 in the first day. I wish I could remember the other name of the other team because they were the eventual champs of the tournament and that is who we lost to in the first game. We beat Rhone Alps in the second game. Now these girls can play. The majority of our girls were not ready to see competitive softball and it seems that they were just thrown into it. We collected ourselves the second game and took care of business.

During the nights, the coaches would all get together for beers and wine. I even had a mock football game with the little kids. They were all wanting to play football every night with me and always asking what I was going to do. They were incredibly sweet. So I made a lot of friends and had a blast. Another plus it that, the Southern France team did not have a coach for the next day. Melvin said that he would take over for them , leaving the reins of the Normandy team to me. It was great. So in the end, I was the head coach of the Normandy team with Flo as an assistant. Flo and I got along great. He is just the nicest guy who took care of all equipment, documentation, and other legalities. The next day, our girls kicked ass. We slaughtered Aquitaine and found ourselves in the semi final match against Ile de France. We lost in the last inning by one run. It was a heart breaker but I was just so proud of our girls. We won the consolation 3rd place game the next day and took home some medals. It was just a great week .

When I got back, I had a game the next day against Cergy, last place team. We had already locked up number 1 seed for the entire country of France with the best record of 26-4. We trounced Cergy that Sunday. One thing of note this game was that Olivear had two homeruns that game. His first’s of the season and career.
So the regular season is over and not a game until September 7th. Can you believe that shit?

So I have had to keep myself busy the past couple of weeks.

It just so happens that the last night of the Armada was that night on Sunday. I had a lot of people from the club over to my new apartment to have a pre party before trekking down to the Armada for firewords and Iggy Pop. That’s right folks…Iggy Pop was the final act of the festival. He was just as vulgar and crazy as ever. So we all drank, saw Iggy Pop move his old ass across the stage…(hahaha, this guy rocks.), and walked around.

Stephanie Joly, one of the players from the club, had an American girl with her and I met up with them after Iggy Pop. It was a great night. The fireworks were amazing across the river. I will never forget that moment.

After going to a couple bars with them, I retired home for the evening. The next day, Stephanie called me and asked if I wanted to go to Paris for three days with her, Natalie (her American friend), and Paul, her brother. I quickly agreed cause shit…I got nothing else planned for awhile.

Paris 16th-18th. This was just a great couple of days. I have always said that I really don’t like Paris much but this trip turned it around. A big reason that I have not liked Paris so much is because of the fact that the girl who we don’t mention broke my heart last time I was there. So when I was under the Eiffel Tower this time, there was no care about a girl cheating on me. I was with friends. We rode a Ferris wheel right next to the Louvre that was just amazing. You could see the whole city. The Eiffel Tower, Mont Marte, Champ Elysee, Notre Dame, The Seine.


Stephanie and I from the Ferris Wheel

It was just a great couple of days. We stayed at Paul and Stephanie’s sister’s apartment in town for the days we were there. It was Natalie’s birthday on Wednesday of that week and Paul and Steph said they had a surprise for her. We went to Mont Marte which is a little sect of Paris that has a cathedral and the whole area just over looks the entire city. Stephanie also told me that my birthday present was there too.

The birthday present was that Stephanie and Paul paid for Natalie and me to have our portraits painted. Hahaha…..not some bum from Silver Dollar City….real artists. It was great. I will show you a picture of what mine looked like. That night we had a great dinner and walked around the city. We then shared drinks in a park for the remainder of the evening. The whole trip was unforgettable.



So when we got back, I had to get prepped to umpire a game in Rouen. I had asked Jean Luc months ago about getting me a job so earn money since the club is not paying for me to be here during the remainder of July and all of August. So on Sunday, 20th July, I earned 100 Eu for umpin’ a game. It was good. I got into the role, pulling out some outrageous strike and out calls. It was fun for both teams to have an American umpire. I umpired the Rouen vs PUC Elite game. This is the division above us, and yes, it is better than N1 but not overwhelming by any means whatsoever.

Yes, I did fall in love for a spirt. Not going to get into it much at all…sorry. Had some phenomenal nights with this girl. We saw fireworks, talked all night one night, and we have shared memorable time together. Not going to release the name, because I really don’t know if it is going anywhere at all. There is the obstacle that I am leaving in about 3 months and that I am still a teenager at heart with not knowing where my path truly leads just yet. I will probably not see her again due to our schedules, but spending time with this person has made my past weeks the most memorable ones in France.

So here I am, my glass empty and cigar almost completely out. I love you guys and will talk to you when I get this internet connected in my place; should happen within the next couple of weeks. I am thankful for every one of your words of support. You guys are in my prayers every night. I love you with all of my heart and I will see you soon. Promise. Au Revoir.

Je suis desole :(

I have had a great two weeks. I will post a video soon of my stories. Sorry for the absence: typing fro, a french keyborqd: I will post as soon as I get internet in my new kickqss apart,ent: Love you guys and talk to you soon.

"Happy Birthday to me...(blowing sounds)"

Fishing the English Channel.

Howdy y'all. Lovin' the comments. Ian, I laughed out loud at the black shorts and yellow T-Shirt comment....I am laughing as I type that, Alex, get off my ass...seriously I work my ass off, travelin and relaxing can really make you tired...my eyes have just worked too hard :D, Karly, I'm not just the dumb jock you might have thought me to be so nyah nya na nya na, Tiff, miss ya and cole, Phyll, seriously the moon must have been aligned perfectly last night for the first post, Mom and Dad, love you guys.

Today was another great day in the Tony Lewis book. Jean Luc picked me up this morning around 10:00am and we headed for Dieppe. Dieppe is the closest town, about 50 minutes away, to the sea. We were going to try to catch some rays and some fish at the same time. I will tell you neither of those things happened but I couldn't have been happier with my day.

The sun decided to hide today. It has been out all week, but for some reason it did not follow routine and we were left with overcast skies and wind. It was only Arthur, Jean Luc, and I at Dieppe because Benedict and Laura decided to pass on a cloud filled day. There was a slight breeze and the Paturel's were pissed. I was unusually really happy with the weather. Just a tranquil feeling. The was a crisp breeze that made your hair stand on end. I loved it.



We set up shop (fishing) on the boardwalk and cast out. We used artificial bait at first but later had to resort to other methods. So we had our poles propped up as we made ourselves some french baguette sandwiches with ham and hard boiled eggs. I was just completely content with just watching the waves roll and standing next to my pole. Just a completely relaxing day.



Arthur and I started to walk into town to the bait shop to get some worms but we made a detour to walk along the beach. If you have ever seen the Coldplay "Yellow" music video, this is it Lewis stylee.



The water was pretty cold so swimming in the channel will have to wait another day. So we headed back into Rouen taking a different route.

We stopped at a WWII Canadian Cemetary and I got some good pictures. We also took a more scenic route home because Jean Luc has picked up that I really enjoy the French countryside. I can see myself retiring amoung the rolling hills.





Got back home. Showered and went over to Olivear and Marie's for dinner. I supplied the main course with an assortment of sausages and they made a pot full of rice. We then drank rum and played guitar until the fingers felt pain. Great day and great night.

Love you guys and talk to you soon. Au Revoir.

Reflecting and Killing Time.

*Rallying the troops


*Crushin' a ball


*Another Cinque Terre Pic.

Hey guys. I'm glad you had fun with the last pic...Did you assholes even read the post? Bah...anywho, I'm glad I still have y'alls attention. Thanks for commenting. I love you guys and miss you. You might be tired of hearing that...but it is so very true.

Since my last post I have had a lot of time just to sit and take some things in. Where I am at, what means most to me, and how fortunate I am.

I am so grateful to be playing the game I love.

You guys mean the world to me.

I thank God every night for the the strength he has shown me through your support.

Without your words of encouragement, I wouldn't make it very far. Sorry if this is coming out sappy but it is what I feel. If you gotta problem with it, go read someone else's blog. :P <-- (Mom, that's a little smiley sticking his tongue out)

This week's weather has been absolutely beautiful. About 75-80 F and clear skies. The past couple days I have taken my book and walked into the forest. I pick out a secluded spot amidst the trees and plop myself down. Before I crack open my book, I take a second and just let the breeze and warmth welcome me. It is a warm embrace that seems to tell me,

"Tony, you are with friends...now get lost in your novel."



Again...this is just what I feel.

I cannot express the feeling when you are in the middle of a good book. When the world is throwing you obstacles and strife, a book is a retreat. I am glad that you, Ian, stole this book from Critter to allow me this recess. It's not the best book I have read but it definitely lets me retreat. To all of those who are wanting to know the name of the book...it is called, "Acacia." A fantasy novel...not going to get into it because it's nerdy fantasy stuff.

So after I take a couple hours of reading, I head back home...and either get ready to conduct baseball practice or my night's meal. Chris and I have hung out some of the nights. Chris usually preparing dinner with Anne, while I entertain the kids. I am their "Uncle Tony." I KNOW, I KNOW. I am only Uncle Tony to Joey, Olivia, Claire, and Zach but I see their smiles through Chris's children. I miss you kids so very much. Alex, tell your kids Hi for me. Ian, you do the same.



Well I am going fishing tomorrow on the English Channel with Jean Luc. I hope I bag a lunker. I have never fished deep water before...it should be interesting. I will take pictures and let you know how it goes. I miss and love you all. Au Revoir.