Jan 23rd Baseball

Saturday

Woke up at 11:15, knowing that we had to be outside our school at 12:30 for baseball practice. Got ready, ate some food, put on my sweat pants, underarmor, braves shirt, and Michigan sweater. I was getting really excited to be able to throw the baseball and maybe teach some kids how to play. He told us at the meeting that the age was between 11-14. Max and I headed to school and got their right at 12:30 and Sung (the team director) was right there waiting for us with his son who played for the team. We got in the car and we started driving and driving and driving. After a good 30 minute drive we arrive at this guys workplace to pick up the bats and balls. Then we drive a little bit further and finally arrive at a school that has a dirt field that their team makes into a baseball field. He tried to communicate with us explaining that their field is undergoing some kind of construction. Anyways, we get to practice and I see tons of children. I ask him how many are on the team and he told me 33. I was shocked, that is almost 4 teams in one. What are you supposed to do with all them? Sung took us around and introduced us to the Korean coach and manager. Then of course, the kids give us the foreigner look and ask for our names, ages, and where we are from. That is the extent of their English.
Practice then begins with stretching and running. Max and I join in having fun with the children. Then we start throwing and man does it feel good to throw again no matter how bad my shoulder is hurting. Loved every bit of it. Once we threw for a while the coach split the kids into infield and outfield. I started observing and then Sung told me to watch the coach hit outfield and tried to explain that the coach was leaving for Germany for some reason. Sung asked me if I knew how to hit fungos and handed me the bat and I started hitting balls to two parents. It was pretty fun and funny watching them run after my balls. Then Sung told me to do drills with the younger ones helping them catch fly balls. Baseball is a hard sport to lean and it is even harder when I don't speak their language and all I can do is try to explain by hand motions and by example. Some of them got it and some didnt. Once those drills were finished, the coach split everyone up into two teams and we scrimmaged, Max and I being on separate teams. Each team had about 15 people on it, and of course everyone playing, so there were about 8 outfielders. Max's team batted first and my pitcher struck out the side. Then it was our turn to bat and my team put me at fourth, the only time in my life batting clean up. Luckily the 3rd batter walked and it was my turn to hit. Got up to the plate and bombed that sucked and nearly hit the school, but the coach only allowed me two bases. That felt great hitting a bomb off a 13 year old.
Then Max came to the plate and since he was a lefty I played him perfectly. He made contact and the fly ball came directly into my glove in right field. Then the game got boring because I never got to hit again, but tried to help others during the game. After 4 hours of practicing they called it and then it was snack time! Dumplings, sundae (the liver, intestine, etc), and other food served, as well as the traditional Korean rice wine for us adults. After a fun 4 hours Sung drove us home and really wanted me to become coach and told him we will see.
Got home and Max and I both crashed and took a 2 hour nap. Woke up around 8:30 and met up with Jay at 9:30 for some galbi (BBQ). Some delicious food, well needed. After dinner we headed downtown and once again to Go-go. They had really good drink specials, but I took it easy because we had to be up at 5 to go this snow festival. We could have pulled an all nighter like some of the others but we were both really tired. So after our free jaager bombs bought by the bar for everyone, we left and got a solid 2 to 3 hours of sleep.