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.