The Change Up

"You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you, too."

Haha, I read that quote by Roy Campanella the other day in a nerdy baseball book and I found it quite fitting for this blog entry.

I felt like it was time to share some of the lighter moments from the last week with you guys. This way, when my mom steals internet from the hotel on her route to check her facebook and read my blog, she won't start crying and decide to read it to every person that passes by :) Love you mama.....

Anyways, on to the good stuff.

First of all, I didn't get voted class klutz Harbor High 2002 for nothing! The other day, I was in the exercise room with about three of my favorite players. The room is adjacent to the training room where probably another 10 players were hanging out as well as the other PTs and ATCs. The rooms are only separated by windows by the way. So the three players are all doing their own thing, and I'm specifically working with one guy but we are all kind of chatting. I go to sit down in a high back desk chair (that I learned seconds later was BROKEN), and as I lean back I find myself instantly on the floor, flat on my back with my legs over my head! I'm not talking about a small little fall....I sat in this chair, leaned back, and CRASHED. And let me tell you, it did not go unnoticed. A roar errupted from the three players in the room, which I really was ok with. Its when I looked up and realized the crowded training room through the windows was also watching, that my face suddenly flushed red and I quickly tried to pick my self up off the floor. But there was no recovery. The damage was done, and I had to stand and accept the joyous laughter it brought the boys for the rest of the day.

I found out that before I got there, the boys all looked me up on facebook to see if I was hot...I hope I didn't let them down. Haha. One of them also was going to walk in butt naked on my first day. I'm glad that one didn't happen....

I get teased a lot obviously because I'm the only girl and its fun to mess with me. I get it. There is a player that gets teased a lot because he has a seriously ugly mullet and its fun to mess with him too. This means the two of us try and stick together because we both get picked on. The other day in the training room someone said something to me and he came to give me a high five to let me know we were in it together, but when I go for the high five he drops his hand below mine and shouts "change up." Everyone got a kick out of it, and its become quite the game in the training room to see if you can get people to fall for it. Its fun. Try it....go now!

I also got to take some swings off the tee today in the batting cages. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous that I wasn't even going to hit the darn thing with it sitting right there in front of me. I played one year of softball when I was like 10 years old. I didn't really like it because I couldn't put my elbow into anybody's chest like I could in soccer, and after taking one fly ball in the face I was over it. And I don't think I've ever hit a ball with a wood bat....ever. So I step up and I'm thinking "just don't miss the freaking ball..." but I didn't want to take a baby swing either. So I put everything I had into that swing, happy gilmore style, and I smacked the heck out of that ball. Now we were in the indoor batting cage, so you can't really tell what the ball does, but in my mind it was a double into the gap.

I learned the hard way that baseball managers don't like to be called coach. I'll just leave it at that.

Lastly, the player I've talked about in previous blog entries that I was struggling so much with trying to figure out how to help, was sent home. He got an injection that has him immobilized for 6 weeks, so they just sent him home because he was unable to do anything for the next six weeks. Before he left though, him and another player took Dom and I to dinner as a thank you. And I'm not talking In-n-out. It might have been one of the most expensive dinners I've had in a very long time. But he wanted to thank us, and it meant a lot to me. He also left me with this ball on his way out. It says, "to Dr. House, thanks for everything!" Its going up in my clinic some day :)

Never has this job been harder than it was this weekend because I had to watch the padre/giant games while wearing a padre shirt and couldn't cheer for the giants at all (seriously they threatened to fine me if I did.) However, the funny thing is most the guys cheer against the padres. In their mind, if the padres keep winning, it decreases their chances of getting called up. Haha, it made me laugh. One said, "I always root against them. Until I'm up. Then I'll want to win"

Its been a fun week.

You stay classy San Diego,

Katy