Australia Day

The semi-finals started as expected with Victoria beating New South Wales 7-1 (and with no one in attendance in dismal Altona). I was doing the upstairs PA for the weekend and the matchup wasn’t too bad I would say at least 75% of the guys playing either are or were signed to US professional contracts including Justin Huber (played most of last year with the Padres) and Brad Harman (got a world series ring after filling in for Jimmy Rollins for a couple weeks last year). The Vics had the home field advantage and were heavily favored but ended up not scoring over the last 22 innings getting shutout 9-0 on Saturday and 7-0 on Sunday so in two weeks in Perth the matchup will be NSW v. Western Australia for the Claxton Shield.

Saturday night I again headed to the CBD to catch a comedy show at Last Laugh Comedy Club. The lineup was a young Australian guy as the emcee, some brit named Terry North and an alleged Australian comedic legend George Smilovici who is also allegedly the only comedian to have a number one selling album in Australia, New Zealand and America (not really sure what their definition of number one selling is…but sure). The emcee was funny, had some jibes at America but also some good bits about backpacking around the US. The POM was a dud. Smilovici was a Romanian-Jew born in Cuba whose family immigrated to Sydney when he was 8 so he had an interesting background. His bit was “I’m Tough” so he wanted the crowd to say “how tough”… “I’m so tough, I don’t use MySpace I’ll use your space” and other random musings. Probably the funniest thing he said was in rambling about a bunch of popular culture people (most of which I had never heard of) he said W was just a retarded Forrest Gump. I still thought the other show was funnier…it was cheaper and more acts, but this was good enough.
I caught another early flight Monday morning (picked up at 5:30am) after doing a tour of a number of pubs on Brunswick St. Sunday night. January 26 is Australia Day which is supposed to be a day celebrating the nation’s birthday and also the day they name the “Australian of the Year”. This year the winner was Mick Dodson an Aboriginal Activist who gave voice to a movement to change the date of the Australian Day celebration because January 26 was the date that Europeans first landed in Sydney Harbor, which aboriginals view rationally as “Invasion Day”.

When I arrived on the Gold Coast and took a cab to Andy’s place his phone was turned off and there was no answer at his door. So I dumped my stuff in his garage and hung out at the beach for a while. I checked out the Surfer’s Paradise mall, bought some shoes and started talking to this Canadian guy who worked at one of the surf shops (I still can’t believe how many people ask me if I’m Canadian particularly since I don’t say “eh”, carry a hockey stick or eat round bacon). He told me about a surfing competition going on in Burleigh. When I finally got ahold of Andy we headed over that way and checked it out, it wasn’t all that great mainly just a bunch of punk teenagers wearing Australian flags as capes so we decided to head to Ben Foster’s place for a BBQ (the headline the next day was about a riot that broke out at Burleigh, apparently the second year in a row where unruly teens got out of hand…I think we left literally minutes before it all started).

At Ben’s house we drank Coronas, ate kebabs and played backyard cricket. This was my first chance to actually play cricket and backyard cricket is basically a game of pepper where you try to hit the ball on the ground (mainly so you don’t lose the tennis ball over the fence) and defend your stumps (usually a garbage can). You had to bowl before you could bat and I ended up accidentally taking the wicket on my second ball with a full toss (meaning I didn’t bounce it, the release point on the straight armed throw is a little awkward). Then it was my turn to bat and I actually stayed up for a little while as Andy tossed me spinners that I defended including a couple of 4’s although no one actually keeps score. We also listened to triple-J radio whose Australian Day tradition is to count down Australia’s most popular 100 songs of the year…Kings of Leon had like 5 songs on the list including the number one song “Sex on Fire”. I don’t know how popular that song is in America, but I haven’t gone to a pub yet without hearing it here. So that was my first Australian Day celebration.

Stralian Comedy

I found the Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne and decided to check out their Thursday night show. I took the train into town a couple hours early and wandered to a few hapless bars before heading in to buy my ticket at around 7:30pm. The show didn’t start til 8:30 so I wasted some time at the bar and asked about international acts and if any Americans ever come through, a bystander remarked “no, cause Americans aren’t funny.” I wanted to ask why then the only thing on tv here is American sitcoms but there was no need for acrimony. The place seated about 450 and there were about 250 on a Thursday which I thought was pretty good.
The emcee was alright, a lot of trite jokes but sometimes clever…when he was about to introduce the first act he wanted the crowd to give a big American/Las Vegas over-the-top ovation so he asked if there were any Americans in the crowd, naturally I didn’t raise my hand but some poor sap in the front did (and he pretty much wore it the rest of the night), the emcee encouraged “so go ahead and be American…but not too American, don’t go bombing a small country or anything.” I thought that was kind of funny, but later all the American jokes started getting old (annoying and hackneyed).

The first act was this redneck (Australian Larry the Cable Guy) who made a joke about how crumpets take forever to cook and how fire suits should be made of crumpets and then he joked about how somebody would have to explain that to the American…and I agreed.

The next two acts were younger guys who were more my style, witty/sarcastic. I ended up talking to them during the intermission and Peter Sharkey started asking me which comedians I liked, I told him obviously Seinfeld but lately I’ve been watching a lot of Doug Stanhope and David Cross. He said he really likes Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg which was funny cause I have both of those guys on my Ipod. He invited me to a free show that he does Monday nights in the CBD…Monday is Australia Day (celebrating the European settlement) so depending on my plans (there’s a beer festival near Fed Square) I hope to make it there for the 8:30pm show.

The closer was John Kats, he was pretty funny but nothing terribly noteworthy…I had to catch three different trains so I didn’t get home again until almost 12:30am. So my first comedy show in Australia was pretty good, and 5 acts for $15 bucks was quite a deal…I just wish I could be in Melbourne in April for the international comedy festival where there are supposed to be heaps of comedians at all sorts of venues all over the city for the whole month.

Grand Slam

After checking out one of the venues for the weekend (Waiverly Baseball Club has a lot of work to do to get the grounds in order…), I was still on two hours sleep but I had to check out the Australian Open. I wanted to get there at 5pm because after 5 ground passes were only $20 so I could check some secondary matches out and say that I was at a tennis grand slam event. As I made my way to the ticket booth, a Belgian guy stopped me and asked if I wanted to by a single ticket to the secondary stadium, Hisense Arena, which would allow me access to everything but the main venue Rod Laver Stadium (the night match there was a 16 year-old Aussie who had become the youngest ever to win an Aussie Open match, so not really what I wanted to see anyway) and in the secondary arena…wait for it…Roddick v. some Belgian slouch. Face value was $60 but he only wanted $30 since his friend had flaked on him so I was in.

When we got to our seats (right on the side in the 8th row) it was the second set between an Argentinian and a Taiwanese player. The Argentinian, who was much bigger and clearly favorite, had taken the first set. The second set went to a tiebreaker with the Argentinian taking that as well, so it looked like the route was on. It was really cool sitting so close and watching guys that good play tennis at the highest level, not boring at all (the thing I didn’t like was that if you got up to get a beer you had to wait two games until the swap ends to get back to your seat…all the more reason to double up). Lu started making a comeback winning the third and fourth set and the group of about 15 young Taiwanese fans sitting three rows behind me were loving it. There was a drunk Aussie fan wearing a green and gold sombrero on the other side that started joining in on their chants and had everyone laughing between points. Heading into the fifth set I went to get another beer and saw the Aussie changing sides to sit with his new asian friends. I talked to him as we waited to be let in and asked if he had any idea what he was chanting and he said “no, Im just jumping on the bandwagon.” I was obviously pulling for Lu and he ended up winning (I didn’t even realize until I asked the Belgian dude at the end that the Argentinian, David Nambolinian was a top 10 player and it ended up being the biggest upset and best match of the tournament so far). It was easily the best tennis match I’ve ever seen (and probably the coolest atmosphere of any sporting event I’ve been to except UCLA/usc Dec. 2, 2006). And Roddick was still to come.

Before that match started the Belgian guy left to join some of his countrymen who had painted themselves black, red and gold (and I don’t think he wanted to watch the match next to an American). I was surprised to see that Roddick was a crowd favorite (mainly amongst women 18-44) but he dropped the first set and frankly watching him live my opinion of him went down. He yelled at the towel boy after losing a point and had pretty big rabbit ears looking up at the chanting Belgians each time he won a point. His serve was impressive from up close topping out at 225km/hr (no clue how that translates to mph). I ended up chatting with most of the people sitting around me including an asian-aussie uni student who told me she was studying abroad at Cal Poly SLO for the spring quarter and a group of middle-aged aussie women who were in love with Roddick (it was hard to get used to sitting in the stands and only being able to speak between points).As the fourth set dragged on past 10pm, I started to get nervous about catching a train home because I wasn’t really looking to stay in Melbourne until 5:25am again. Luckily Andy knew I was pressed for time so he finished him off and moved to the third round. At the train station I sat at the wrong platform for 40 minutes, and ended up barely catching the last train out at 12:05am after asking at the info desk. I got home at about 1am and was up at 8:30 to check out the other venue for the weekend. Altona has probably the best stadium setup I’ve seen in Australia except it is poorly maintained it is so far out in an industrial suburb you must be a really hardcore baseball fan to want to show up on Friday (I don’t even really want to go)…so we’ll see how the semi-finals go out there. In conclusion, I am pretty sure I can never go to another tennis match because it's doubtful I could have as much fun.

Obama in Melbourne

Our flight was delayed to Melbourne and after the time difference we landed at about 5pm. The ABF rep meeting us on the ground Grant Weir got lost on the way to the rental car place and we ended up getting there after it closed so my hopes of catching the second day of the Australian Open were pretty much done. We got a quick tour of the suburb we’d be staying at called Williamstown which is a really nice spot right by the beach with a lot of shops and restaurants. Grant took us to a Greek restaurant where we feasted on a bunch of meat, half which I couldn’t really describe if I wanted to. After that it was about 10pm, and I headed back to the 2 bedroom apartment I am sharing for the week with Bob Voight, long time MLB exec.

I really wanted to find a place to watch the Obama inauguration which started at 3am local time. Google was no help, so I called up some hostels thinking they might have heard something…nothing. The last trains to the city ran at midnight and they didn’t start again until 5am, so I was going to be stranded in the CBD. I got downtown at about midnight and exited the train station to a festive atmosphere of the exiting Australian Open crowd. I went to a bar right next to Federation Square and asked the bartender if the inauguration would be on the big screen that was showing the tennis, he said “probably but not sure.” After taking a lap around the city asking bartenders and bar goers no one seemed to know anything and not much seemed to be going on.

As I contemplated biting the bullet and taking a cab back to the apartment I stopped by Fed Square one last time. All that was there was a cleaning crew and one girl sitting on the steps reading a book. I asked if she was there to watch Obama and she said yes and that she had just spoke with the security guard and that the channel would be set at 3am. I was glad to finally have concrete information but was a little disappointed that there was only two of us (Laney is from Baltimore and was over here teaching Roller Derby of all things until that gig ended recently and she’s now looking for work to stay a little longer). A little bit later, about eight 17 year-old aussies rocked up taking swigs of cheap vodka, and it was cool that they were genuinely excited about the event. As we got closer to 4am when he was actually sworn in the crowd had grown to about 75 people and everyone was cheering and jeering (the usual suspects). It turned out to be exactly what I was seeking: to be able to watch the historic moment with like-minded interested people and feel proud to be an American for 10 minutes. It would have been cool if it were a big crowd but with the numbers we had everyone was talking to each other and joking around. It was probably 80% Australians which was very cool to see how excited they were about the transition of power(the front page headline of the Melbourne paper that morning was “Bye Bye Bush” and the following morning the sports radio station was talking all about Obama to the chagrin of some of the callers). The first train headed my way wasn’t until 5:25 so I talked with Laney about job prospects for a while and finally made it home a little after 6am getting a couple hours of sleep before being picked up at 8:45 to go to the Baseball Victoria offices to get to work on the weekend’s games.

Byron Bay

I waited at Andy’s place in Surfer’s to get picked up by Christie and Alex, they got lost on the way and we ended up leaving at about 10pm and getting to Byron Bay after 11. It was Alex’s uncle’s house located on a couple of acres about 6km from the town center. We got up bright and early and headed for town…as soon as we passed the main roundabout, Alex’s car stalled and we pushed into the nearby service station. After some pretty poor customer service we left the car there for the mechanics to check out and we grabbed some breakfast at a Café and ate on the grassy area just behind the beach. Then we went around the open air shopping mall checking out the local surfer shops. I got some new board shorts because I had left the only pair I brought at Andy’s place (I left one of my suitcases there so I could travel a little lighter these last few weeks). I was also looking for an acceptable bucket hat to protect me from the powerful Aussie Sun but nothing could fit my apparently bulbous 7 ½ sized head. At about noon we headed to beach where Alex and I went body surfing for about 30 mins. It was the first time in all the beaches that I have visited that I actually went swimming and the water was a perfect temperature, easy to handle and any warmer it wouldn’t have been refreshing. As we were drying off we were watching some kids playing beach cricket and enjoying the local fair (Byron is a backpackers haven and often clothing optional).

After we were done with the beach we headed up to the lighthouse which Alex reckoned is the furthest eastern point on the Australian land mass, which was cool because there were awesome beaches on both sides. We were getting hungry so we bought some steaks (I almost bought some roo steaks but didn’t have the heart even though I tried it in Sydney and it’s pretty good) and a 12 pack of XXXX Gold (the Queensland Beer of choice) and headed back to the house for a BBQ and to watch the opening day of the Australian Open. After lounging all afternoon we headed back to town to the Byron Hotel which was pretty busy for 9pm on a Monday night but then backpackers aren’t too discerning on when to go out and party. At the door when I presented my CA license the bouncer went through this five minute routine of asking me if I was in a gang, which one and yada yada…sad that Australians would identify that first with CA/US. We called it an early night (I think I went to Byron with the only two Aussies that don’t drink), and oh yeah I still had no idea when I was going to Melbourne because the ABF hadn’t called all day.

I woke up the next morning to a call that my flight was for 1:15 which I accidentally got to the airport about 2 hours early because I messed up the math on the time change from New South Whales to Queensland because QLD doesn’t do daylight savings which is absolutely ridiculous, it gets light at about 4:30am and dark at 7pm. Anyway Byron was a nice Monday side trip but I’ll have to get back for a weekend adventure.

Gold Coast

I spent my first few days in Surfer’s Paradise wasting time in the ABF office trying to find things to do (the only thing of importance was a press release about the first ever IBAF (international baseball federation) rankings which put Australia at #10 and also helped me realize how little I know about international baseball). I watched a 20/20 cricket match on Tuesday night which is basically where they get 120 pitches to score as many runs as possible so the batters swing for the fences and it is over in 3 hours (basically cricket’s way of trying become less boring and closer to baseball)…I didn’t realize that the match was actually being played in Brisbane about an hour north of where I was staying and the half time ceremony was for cricket legend Matthew Hayden who had retired that morning after being left off the Australian team because he’s been sucking all season…but it was his home ground and it was a pretty big deal so I wish I could have been there (in other sporting news the Australian Open starts Monday and I’ll be in Melbourne and have already been offered to get hooked up with tickets so I’m pretty excited about that).

Thursday night I went out with the bloke I’m staying with, Andy Utting (Utz), who works for the ABF, played five years professionally in the US, and was on the 2004 silver medal team in Athens. Surfer’s is pretty happening with a countless clubs, pubs and bars and we did a good tour of most of them.

By Friday it was time to head to the grounds, the first two games were played in Redlands about 30 minutes from Brisbane and Sunday’s game was at Windsor just a short drive from the CBD (central business district…I just figured out this is what you’re supposed to call the downtown area). The only time I could get a ride was at 10am so I was at the field by 11am for a 7pm game in which I’d be doing the upstairs PA announcing. I really liked their setup with a balcony and tiered grass seating, and the guys that run the club were all cool. Chris Jarvis (Jarvo) was a 20 year old uni student majoring in event management who was working with his classmate Christie to run the whole event. The 2IC (2nd in command) was a 20 year old South African named Brad Erasmus who was cool so I hung out with him most of the afternoon “warming up” (aka drinking bundy (Bundaberg rum and coke)) and hanging out on the balcony watching the grass grow. The music dude was Dan “Nutzie” (never got his real last name) who was the first aussie to comprehend intro music forbatters, he was a 22 year old who had done a baseball tour in CA and gone to PacBell and Petco so he was a good running mate up in the press box. The game went well enough, as South Australia fell to 1-13 with another 10 run-rule loss…so I made the one hour drive back to Surfer’s Paradise to see what trouble I could get into.
Andy had to be up early Saturday, so I trekked it myself. Stopped by a couple of Irish pubs and started talking to these two girls with ozzie accents…turned out one of the girls was from Novato, CA and had been here less than a year and already married an Australian guy and apparently developed the accent. I talked to the them for a while and then started talking with their friend Jess who had studied at UMass and spent five years in the states. She was telling me how much she loved America and how I should do whatever I can to stay in Australia for the cultural experience. They were all in town from Brisbane for a music festival on Sunday called “Big Day Out” where like 50 bands play from 11am to 11pm (I’d be working Sunday afternoon but it sounded cool enough).

Saturday I had a rental car which afforded me some freedom (not too much though because the map directory was confusing and had a number of pages missing) so I followed the signs to Brisbane CBD. It’s a really modern/clean city center with a river that wraps all around it. I wanted to check out St. Lucia, the main campus of the University of Queensland, which is supposed to be one of the nicest in Australia. It reminded me a lot of UCLA with modern buildings that have the classic brick look and they had a number of nice sports facilities. I stopped for a few minutes to watch a game of cricket that was going on (my first experience with live cricket) but it was pretty much as boring as it is on TV so I moved on. It was about time to head to the field and I figured I’d get lost four times on the way so I left early. I was making good time and saw a sign for a national park 5km away so I turned off the main road and made my way to Venmoth National Park where I did a quick 2.5km walk along a creek (mainly trying to spot my first Koala). The only wildlife I saw were some huge spiders that I didn’t want any part of so it was a little disappointing but a good look at the lush forests of Queensland where they do get a good amount of rain. Saturday’s game was uneventful (same old thing as SA made an error in the 8th to blow a one run lead) but I made plans with Christie to go out to Brisbane after the game and crash at her place so I didn’t have to drive home and back for Sunday’s day game.We wandered around South Bank which was a modern looking “cultural” area that looked across the river at the CBD and then made our way to Kangaroo point (unfortunately no roo sightings on this night). We crossed over the bridge and went by some of the pubs and the casino…what I’ve failed to mention is that it was actually her boyfriend’s place I was crashing at and that he was out at the bars in CBD and she was avoiding meeting up with him because we were having a good time wandering around the city, on what could really only be described as a date. Anyway, we headed back home around 3am, where her bf stumbled in shortly after…luckily with nothing incriminating going on. The next morning I was on my way to Windsor when she called to invite me to go with her and the bf to Byron Bay for Sunday and Monday night…sounded pretty awkward but I couldn’t really pass up a chance at free accommodation in Byron Bay which from what I’ve heard is the hippie capital of Australia. Oh yeah SA lost 2-1 on Sunday to finish the season at 1-15…tough.

Stralian to English Dictionary

Hotel, Pub, Club: Bar
Up in stitches, Pissed, on the Piss: Drunk
Piss, Grog: Beer
Premix/spirits/RTD (ready to drink): you can get anything you can think of in a can as a premix like Jack and Coke
Sheila: chick
Bloke: dude
Good on ya: nice job
How you goin: whatsup
Have a go: try something out, fight someone, make fun of someone…

Fair Dinkum: Right on, true, cool…most of their slang boils down to positive or negative connotation and you can use it any form or context so initially it’s hard to get used to how many different ways the terms are used

You would think baseball would have the same terminology but when it’s a cricket based tradition cricket terms have snuck into the baseball vernacular. Like I said before with pluralizing 3rd inning. Diggs are At Bats, the grounds is the field, and the country venues don’t see the point in batters boxes.

Tea: Dinner
Feral: bad, nasty, rude, unfair
Advance Australia Fair: National Anthem
Tomato Sauce( or sometimes just “sauce”): ketchup - I’ve found out who it is they’re talking about when I say tomato you say tom”o”to
Dodgi: shady
Heap or Heaps of: a lot – again used in so many ways heaps of homers, heaps of rain, heaps of traffic…
Toilet: bathroom
Melbun: Melbourne
Reckon: think

There are a lot of British terms but I think those are mainly obvious like holiday:vacation boot:trunk lif:elevator so I won’t bore you with them.

It really is a different language, their grammar is reprehensible but I guess if everyone in a country has agreed to talk like that than it's ok...

Back in Blacktown

Got in early Tuesday morning to the Sydney Airport picked up my rental car and started to make my trek out to the eastern suburbs where my “executive suite” awaited at the Holiday Inn in the suburb curiously named Rooty Hill. I took a long nap and then headed for the city to meet up with the Poles once again to go out to a club called the Gaff. We pre-partied for a couple of hours and then caught a cab, only to find a line of about 50 people. The girls didn’t skip a beat in walking straight up to the huge kiwi doorman and 10 seconds later we were ushered into the club which was packed on a Tuesday night. We ended up hanging out there for most of the night (I wouldn’t mind to never hear house music again) and the next morning I woke up with my throat swollen the same as had happened twice last summer (which was why I had scheduled to get my tonsils out in December before Australia beckoned). So after asking around at the hotel, I went Michael Moore style to check out the health care system in a “developed” country. It cost me $50 to see the Dr. and the anti-biotics were a whopping $13, (after the exchange rate that’s not even much more than I’d pay with health insurance in the states and it would have been free for an Aussie). So I spent most of the week sleeping and just overall recovering from 5 weeks of debauchery.

The games started Friday in Blacktown (where the MLB showcase was held in early Dec.), and I had invited Jacob and Georgina to come out to their first baseball game. They showed up in the third inning (I guess they’re natural Dodger fans) but they had a good time with what little they understood of what was going on. New South Whales took a no hitter into the 7th, as South Australia continued a dismal season (they finished the first two games of the series with a total of 3 hits). After the game we headed to the RSL Club (Return Service League) connected to my hotel which is mockingly referred to as the Vegas of the West (as in western suburbs of Sydney). These clubs started as veterans clubs, and I haven’t gotten a clear explanation of the evolution to where they are now just big clubs with sports books, pokie machines (slot machines) and bars/cafes with cheap food/drink. We hung out down there for a while people watching as the elderly/motley crowd squandered their pensions (the GM of the ABF joked with me the next day that they call that place the “Star Wars Bar”…LE resort?).
Saturday’s game was highlighted by the appearance of “the Mad Aussie”, Grant Balfour. The Tampa Bay Rays reliever signed autographs, threw out the first pitch and gave media interviews for much of the game. The game was short lived however as SA got merci-ruled in seven innings.

Sunday’s game was a 12pm start in Manly about an hour drive from Rooty Hill. On this day I’d be introducing baseball to my Polish friends Anna and Zuzanna. We got to the grounds early to have a look around and make sure everything was in order. I tried to explain the game to them, but it is pretty difficult to give a quick synopsis of our confusing game especially when as an American you take for granted that the basics are quite obvious. They didn’t know what was going on but we had a good time getting baked by the Manly beach sun. SA made a valiant comeback in the late innings to take an 8-6 lead only to give up a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth to again find a way to lose. After the game, I tried to get some answers from the ABF GM and CEO as to where I’d be going next only to once again be told that I’d probably be heading out to Melbourne but I would get further instruction in the morning. So with that we rushed back to the city to get Zuzanna to work on time and then Anna and I headed to Bondi where Jacob was having another rooftop BBQ.

Navigating the streets in Sydney was difficult because street signs are few and far between, but I ended up getting the hang of it by figuring out that you can’t map out a route but rather follow the signs that point you from suburb to suburb. The main intersections all have signs pointing you towards landmarks but actually finding out what street you’re on or what street you’re passing is next to impossible. We made it to Bondi fairly quickly, and the BBQ was already in full force. There were many of the same Swedes as the Christmas celebration but quite a few different ones as well. I met a surfer-looking swede who had studied somewhere outside of Baltimore and then lived in SD for a couple of years only to move down to Australia and settle down in Bondi for the last three years. There was also a girl named Anna who had arrived two days earlier and was staying for free at the 2 br apartment with the seven Swedish dudes in exchange for cleaning and laundry services. When the new Swedes learned what I was in Australia for they all wanted a tutorial on baseball…I again wasn’t optimistic that they’d get it but when four drunk Swedish girls want you to explain your national pastime…I guess I could oblige. We played a makeshift inning with beer bottles for bases, a clothespin as a ball and a sandal as a bat…I don’t think anyone learned anything but they had fun pretending. When nightfall hit, so did rainclouds and we were treated to a view of lightning striking over the city center.

Everyone left and I crashed on the couch until it was about 4:30am when I got up to get back to my hotel where I knew the Eagles/Giants game was starting at 5am. I watched the first half and fell asleep. I checked out of my hotel and headed over to the RSL where I could watch the Chargers/Steelers on ESPN. I saw most of the third quarter but received a phone call at the start of the fourth informing me that rather than Melbourne I would be headed for the Gold Coast where the ABF headquarters are located and where SA will be looking for win number two against Queensland (QLD's state motto: beautiful one day, perfect the next)

NYE in Glenelg

I made the rounds Tuesday morning and met the key figures of the Glenelg baseball club including Gavin Killpatrick who would be doing the PA announcing with his brother Borris. I was warned that they like to have some fun on the job by having a few beers and getting after the opposition and the umpires, I told them that in Lake Elsinore that kind of thing isn’t frowned upon but encouraged so go have fun with it. I was disappointed that it seemed like the ball had been dropped on promoting the event and media coverage was hard to come by. I got some contact information and was at least able to get the local sports section to run a story and get a writer out for the weekend series. That night there was a meeting of the planning committee so I went to meet the rest of the group and after a brief rundown of the plans all looked good and we got to drinking. I met the women who would be running concessions for the weekend and they ran down the list of local sheilas that they would have to introduce me to.

Wednesday me and my host Chris woke up slow and started preparations for New Years of which our plans consisted of playing beer pong all day and then heading down to the beach for the fireworks. We ended up starting at around 4pm with a BBQ with four of Chris’s mates including Dan Wilson (wilo) the South Australian catcher who had just finished his schooling to become a Dr. and starts practicing this week (although he says he might do it for a year or so and then try something else). They made a ton of sausages, steaks and pork chops, enough to feed a small army so I assumed more people were on the way…20 minutes later the meat was almost all devoured by just 5 guys with the only side dish being a loaf of white bread (they’re not too keen on vegetables down here). More and more friends started to show up and we ended up playing beer pong against a couple of female lacrosse players who had studied at Maryland University. As it got closer to the countdown, we headed for the beach which was packed along with Jetty Road (the main drag that leads right down to Glenelg Beach). We ducked into the Jetty Bar and had a fairly unceremonious countdown at the bar while trying to order another round. We wandered around a little more and then headed back for a nightcap of beer pong.
The new year greeted me with a predictable headache but I wanted to check out some of the other beaches along the Adelaide shoreline, so I walked to the Glenelg Beach and turned left walking about a mile or two before stopping at a pub for lunch. That night we headed for the Broadway Hotel (the broady is a main sponsor of Glenelg baseball) but it turned up pretty uneventful.

Friday was the opening day of the series and I was intrigued to see how a 3pm Friday afternoon start would fair for attendance. I had made plans to meet up with the director of operations of the Adelaide 36ers (of the Australian professional basketball league) Friday morning but had to cancel because I hadn’t realized all the games would be day games because in all of Adelaide there isn’t a field with lights (in fact Mount Gambier is the only grounds with lights in the whole state of SA). In a last ditch effort to drum up some interest I talked one of the under 18 players to get in the mascot costume (Ronnie the Rhino) and dance around on the corner with a sign promoting the game. There was decent attendance and I was reunited with Ian Ewart who had stitched me up in Mount Gambier a few weeks earlier. I had a few with him but stuck to beer and laid off the red (over the course of the weekend I got about 50 comments about my exploits at the Mount). SA pulled off the win Friday to get off the schneid and avoid going 0-8 and we got a good write-up in the Adelaide Advertiser the next morning.

Saturday was another 3pm start that saw SA jump to an 8-1 lead and looked like the homecooking might turn around the dismal start to their Claxton Shield…a couple of late rallies (including Chris dropping the ball when he was on the rubber for a bases loaded balk, which we laughed about the next day) brought the game to 8-7 in the top of the ninth with 2 outs and the tying run on third. I high pop up to center field had everyone thinking the game was over as the centerfielder camped under it…the only problem was the ball landed about 20 meters to his right, tying the game that WA would eventually win in 10 innings (the CF never saw it off the bat). The tough loss brought Sunday’s attendance way down and pretty much eliminated SA from playoff contention (not that they were ever really in it).

Saturday night I was invited to go out with Lauren, a staff member of the South Australian Baseball League, to check out one of her friend’s bands and check out some pubs in the city. We started with a pre-party in the suburbs (well I had started at the game but who is counting on this trip), and headed to see the band which ended up being a three-piece band playing pretty atrocious renditions of classics like Petty’s “free-falling”. We ended up partying through the night and getting to sleep about 7:30am only to have to get up and be back at the grounds by 11am…Sunday’s 1pm getaway start time was tough, but I made myself scarce and sat in the corner with the hair of a duck and started to feel better. By the end of the game (a 16-0 drubbing, showing SA has all but given up), I was having rounds with Pattie who played the part of Ronnie Rhino all weekend (easily the best mascot so far in Oz, as he came up with a pretty funny shoe shining skit he did with the umpire). I had planned to take a nap after the game before meeting Paul Begg (CEO of the SABL) and 15 others for dinner at the Glenelg BBQ Inn, but instead I hung around the grounds saying my goodbyes as they presented me with Glenelg baseball club hat and shirt which are actually pretty swank in Black and Gold. So I powered through and made it to dinner where I was encouraged to get the Texas T-bone which was 700 grams of still beating cow. I made it through most of it with a few glasses of SA’s finest red wine and when it seemed like my heart might just clog up right there at the table I begged the waitress to take it away. After a couple of beers at the Jetty Bar with the Kilpatricks, Pattie and his fiancé (Paul Begg’s daughter) Kayleen, I headed back for an early night to pack because I still didn’t have flight plans (or a destination) but figured I’d be travelling on Monday.

It took until Monday morning at about 11am before I got word that I’d be heading back to Sydney this week to help the New South Whales club run two games in Blacktown (where we started this whole mess) and a Sunday game at Manly Beach (which I’m really looking forward to)…oh and my flight would leave at 6am Tuesday morning. Monday was more or less wasted as I wandered around the beach for a while trying to recuperate from another big weekend.