We had such a tiring time at the grounds today; we almost dropped down after the vigorous conditioning. Rinku’s antics kept my spirits up though. At the University Village today, Rinku tried pilfering some Sprite instead of water from the vending machine, thinking he wouldn’t be spotted. To his utter embarrassment the waitress there caught him red handed. She just laughed it off and said he could mix water and sprite if he liked. Good for him she was sweet natured.

Rinku seems to have some charm; he was the object of some nonstop ogling by an African American girl. It made him extremely uncomfortable, and gave us an opportunity to rib him about it. Rinku’s setting up quite a fan club here

 

Coach Jackson was in charge at the grounds today. It was conditioning time again. More new exercises came our way, and none really easy on us. They exhausted us so much; it took a great deal of effort to pull through and continue with the long toss (catching practice) till evening. I wasn’t in any shape to accompany JB sir and couple of coaches to a park, after practice. Deepesh sir and Dinesh stayed back to give me company. We need to really buck up with our stamina.

Poor Dinesh’s nose was hit during practice today. We were going through the rigors of the hat drill, that involves throwing the ball at each other’s direction. Unfortunately, he missed catching it by a whisker, and bang! His nose took a hit. It started bleeding and did look bad. I must say though, I was concerned for a while till they said nothing was broken. He was asked to take off from practice for the day. He however came back later in the day, to pitch to batters for some batting practice. It was a relief to see him up and going.

We had conditioning today and Coach Jackson was in charge. He taught us some new exercises and made us train till we dropped. Training with the dumbbells and medicine ball is really grueling.

In the afternoon, we had a huge surprise. We met Rick Sir and Jeff Sir, who’ll be setting up our tryouts, and will also help us with our contracts through our entire career. They are very important men in baseball, so we hope we’ve made a good impression.

Rick sir and Jeff sir, got us tickets to our first Major League match at 4 pm. We went with JB Sir, Deepesh sir, and the Zee News team. It was held at the Dodger stadium; a massive enclosure built to host 70,000 people and had an enormous car park. It was really imposing and awe-inspiring. The match was between the LA Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants. To the joy of the local crowd, the Dodgers took the show.

Before the game started, we were allowed on the field to watch the teams practice. We met two very famous pitchers from both the teams, who imparted valuable tips about speed, concentration and handling pressure.

One was Chan Ho Park from the Dodgers. He’s the first player from Korea to make it to the pros in America. He spoke to us about his experience as the first to represent his country in his sport. Rinku and I dream to be the first for India as well.

We also met Brian Wilson from the Giants. Brian throws his strike balls really fast. He was elected as an ‘All Star’ this year. He said that confidence is a must to succeed.

In all, it turned out to be quite a fruitful day for us.

It was velocity training at practice today. We had to only concentrate on speed and not bother about hitting the target too much. We could strike quite regularly though. Had some usual drills and code exercises for the shoulder and elbows. Coach Tom and Coach Randy were in charge today.

Lunch was at the University village. We spotted a couple kissing and muttering sweet nothings to each other. It’s a new culture to us. Since we don’t see open display of affection, we found the whole thing peculiar and funny. We couldn’t stop ourselves from laughing at what we saw. We’ll probably have to get used to it soon. It’s not uncommon here at all.

 

It’s been over three months since we had our hair cut. So we headed out to get it done today. To our surprise it was a unisex salon and a woman was ready to chop our hair. It was quite an awkward moment for us. Back in India, we’ve only had male barbers giving us a haircut. It cost us 15 bucks with an extra 5 dollars as tip. Thank God for JB sir who’s footing the bill. We had to carry a picture of our previous hairstyle to specify how we wanted it done. She took quite some time before she got it right. It really ticked me off initially. I wasn’t too successful at communicating to her about the style I wanted, until Deepesh sir intervened to clear the picture. Anyways, now that it’s finally done right, I can say ‘all’s well that ends well’.

Yoga is so relaxing; it really is a big stress reliever. We’ve been doing it since our javelin days. JB sir taught us some more asanas this morning. It was another day of practice for us, despite being a Sunday. There’s no escaping some things I guess.

We visited the Venice Beach after practice with JB sir, Deepesh sir and the Zee sports media team. There seemed to be so many people, it looked like a fair to me. JB sir gave us some money to purchase stuff for ourselves. We both opted to buy a pair of sunglasses. The beach was teaming with artists and craftsmen of all kinds. There was a cartoonist who made a caricature of us as a joker. It was hilarious to see ourselves projected that way. Loads of people were riding the waves on a surfboard. Got to see some enchanting and graceful dancers jigging on the beach. Deepesh sir and I couldn’t escape the waves and got wet. JB sir seemed to enjoy spending time with us. We only converse in Hindi with him. He’s picked up quite a bit of the language. His accent however amuses me a lot, and I am in splits with some of his attempts at speaking Hindi. I must say though, that we are highly impressed.

I’ve been having shoulder pains since couple of days now. That makes the two of us suffering with the same problem. I’ve been avoiding heavy-duty exercises and didn’t do much even today, but it is not bad enough for me to stop pitching.  Soreness is normal and we are pushing are bodies to the max.

Thankfully, we had just half day at the grounds, so I don’t think I missed out on much. Am hoping we both are good to go after the weekend.

Some days are replete with workouts and practice, and some days are lighter. We didn’t have much to do at the grounds today. We were back home by 2 in the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent watching TV, listening to Bollywood numbers and checking out baseball videos. Dinner was at an Indian restaurant along with Deepesh sir and JB sir. JB sir took us there in his car. We had a wonderful time together. I feel like we are a small family here.

 

We’ve become quite Internet savvy now. We’ve learnt to SMS through Rediffbol and check our emails. What’s more, we know how to download movies from the Internet. I of course wouldn’t be doing that much, since JB sir has got loads of Bollywood DVD’s from India now. Some of the applications developed are a boon really. One of them is Skype. We’ve learnt to call our family through Skype. It gives us at least couple of minutes each at a time. It’s quite useful when we need to pass on some urgent information. Try it out and you’ll be hooked as well.