Jet Lag, Bagels and Starbucks

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Daniel Diemer

Jet Lag, Bagels and Starbucks

#1 Post by Daniel Diemer »

Jet Lag, Bagels and Starbucks
Written by Casey Neal
Diary of a Fresh-faced College Graduate
June 23, 2013

It’s nearly eight in the evening when I pile on the plane with a bunch of New Orleans ballplayers and their entourages, which contain wives, girlfriends, agents and other hanger-ons who I really just don’t want to know that much else about. The Trendsetters are just two hours past beating Gloucester 9-6 in a 10-inning match that had everyone biting their nails – not really because they were worried whether they might win or lose, but because it was cutting departure time pretty danged close. Another two innings and something would have had to be done. As it is, some of the guys seem to be a bit frazzled from over-quick showers, and the team managers are scurrying around, trying to make sure they’ve got all the bats and helmets and wondering how they’re going to get the uniforms clean in time for the 2:30 game in London the next day.

I settle into a place in the back of the plane, and along comes Jeremy Spade himself. He’s got that angular bearing and the flashy eyes that make all the chicks go, “Ah,” and the dude’s rocking the open neck button-down and sports jacket look that says he’s too cool for his own freakin’ skin. We talk for a few minutes. It’s obvious Spade has not a clue who I am, why I’m here or that he even invited me. In fact, it’s pretty clear to me that the main thing on Jeremy Spade’s mind is how he’s going to get a collection of stewardesses and player’s wives to join him in an illicit game of poker.

The plane takes off. Most of the players try to sleep a bit. We get to the UK at 5:00 in the morning. The problem with this is that 5:00 in the morning Trendsetter time is 10:00 a.m. in London, which means the team’s got four hours to get through freakin’ customs, get to the park and play nine innings. Or more. The wonders of international flight are a nuance pansy-boy MLB never had to deal with.
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June 24, 2013

The Underground plays in Wembley Stadium, which is a big, open space that looks out over a skyline of stodgy old buildings that are probably eight-hundred years old. I’m not freaking joking. I mean, I’m reading in the hotel lobby that archaeologists know for a fact that there are relics from something like 600 AD buried down in the ground, but they can’t get to them because, to do that, they would have to disturb relics from 1300 AD. The place just reeks of antiquity – but antiquity in a long-lasting, superior way, not in the decrepit, winnowing away kind of way. At 408’ to center and three-teens down the lines, it’s a nice place to hit, meaning that opposing hitters seem to do quite well.

Londonites, unfortunately, have rarely been overly successful, and this year, yet again, does not seem to be the year for a UK pennant. The team is dead-last in the Pan-Atlantic division, down from last year's 71-win, fourth-place finish that got the previous GM canned. The GM today is a guy named Pete Grassi, and as far as I can tell, he's got a heckuva job ahead of him. He's got about $18-mil in expiring contracts coming his way, though, and maybe the owner will give him a few extra pounds to spend. Good luck with that, eh?

The squad has only two real hitters – Orlando Germán and Dennis Carter. Unfortunately for Underground fans, Germán is having a sub-par season. Rémi “Blackjack” Young will probably hit his 30 dongs, but the dude hasn’t had a good year since he was 29, and… well, he’s past his 32nd birthday now. The best thing you can really say about the Underground offense is that it’s justifiably better than their pitching – which just seems to be worse than the sum of its parts. I mean, geez, the team’s bullpen is the 5th best in the league, and as a team, they’re third in the IL in strikeouts, yet their overall ERA is tenth best in the league. Go freakin’ figure. So you take a look at the rotation and, whoa… I think you’ve found the problem right there. They have the worst starting rotation in the league (measured by ERA).

Cipriano Peña is a guy who breaks the rule of thumb, though. He’s been reliable for London, and he starts the first game of the series. He’s facing New Orleans’ José Rivera, a guy who the Trendies picked off the San Antonio waiver wire, and a guy who seems to be dealing with it as if it’s been a reprieve from a death sentence.

New Orleans gets one in the third, but both pitchers are serving up tough stuff. It’s 1-0 after five when Peña runs out of gas and is replaced by Jorge Rivera. Since this has been a wonky day all around, it’s only natural that the London bullpen is there when all hell erupts, and erupt it does in the form of two singles followed by a three-run homer from Otis Watts. It’s 4-0 Trendsetters, and that’s how it ends, the rest of the game seeming to be as jet-lagged as the Trendies. I was falling asleep after seven, so to be honest, it’s the next day before I check the papers and remember that José Rivera goes 8-and-a-third shutout innings for the win.
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June 25, 2013

The next game is once again a day game, and this time it rains a bit. Somehow, 14,000 plus Londoners still find their way to the ballpark. I think half of them thought the squads were supposed to be playing cricket, but it seemed that they had a good time anyway – which they should have, because the London nine were back on top of their game. Starter Jon Mitchell went six-plus strong innings and Rivera atoned for yesterday’s ways with two scoreless innings in relief. Germán hit a screamer to center and stole his 15th base, and Young tattooed a pair of 450-footers that could only be described as “majestic”. London is a 6-1 winner. The crowd is pleased, and they’re off to tea.
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June 26, 2013

António Correa is the benefactor of the Trendsetters’ continuing case of jet lag in game three. Correa is a bullpen ace but got a spot start and went four innings, then was relieved by Carl Fowler, who puts in a pair of scoreless innings to eventually vulture the win. Germán, who came into the series hitting a paltry .264, picks up another multi-hit game and finishes the series at .271. He’s not the only one getting untracked in this series, as Carter hits his 16th homer and the Underground rip Trendie starter Frank Helms for six runs in six innings. The final is 7-2. The Trendie players are just happy to have it all over. It's clear they see the best news of the day is that the return trip – which will find them landing in San Antonio – covers a blessed off-day.
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June 27, 2013

I'm sitting in the airport. It's very early in the morning, so I'm drinking a Starbucks coffee thing and munching on a bagel with something the Brits think of as cream cheese. It's not terrible. I try to work on my notes, but I can't concentrate. I'm realizing this is the end of two road trips – the Trendsetters and mine.

I think about the saga. We left on a boat and I'm returning on a plane. See the PEBA for, well, considerably more than $25 a day. Strange. I feel… what do I feel? Complete? No. Tired? Yes, but that's not relevant. Instead, I feel like I'm just in process, just here. I feel like I'm where I am supposed to be, I guess. This sensation is a strangeness I never expected. It's like a stasis, but it's "in the moment" good. Yes, that's it: I feel "in the moment” good. I feel grounded, like I'm just starting afresh rather than coming to an end, and yet this morning I also feel a lost hole where Don-o used to be. He was a presence for me, a guy who influenced everything I did even when I didn't see him – like the moon and the tides, or, I guess, like baseball. I admit fully that I do not worship at the Church of Baseball as Don-o does, but I love it in my own way. I love it sitting at any park in the league. I love the players and the fans. I love the memories and the ghosts of every baseball team that's ever existed. I love the smells, and the sounds. But it is a game for me. It is a reason to live rather than life itself. Life, I realize this morning, has more to do with airports and coffee and stale bagels and deadlines and home and people like Mezzy than it does with these fields Don-o and I have been visiting or with the microcosm of any one game.

Right then, sitting there in Heathrow, working with notes and feeling the general sense of despair and road weariness that hangs over a team after a 1-2 international series trip – right there I feel a sudden closeness to Don-o, an overwhelming rush of Don-o-ness that fills my head and makes it spin. I see an image so strong and so clear I can smell the beer. He's driving Annie along an open road that twists toward a city in the distance and the ocean out past the city. There’s a beer in his lap and the wind is blowing in his hair that's tucked into a reversed black baseball cap. Music is blasting in the wind. His face is still angular and still covered in that three-day stubble the girls all think is so God-awful cool, and a pair of sunglasses covers those puppy-dog, soulful eyes. I don't know if this image is true. Is it a link to him today? Is it a vision of the future? Is it just my imagination?

I don't know. All I can say is this: Don-o looks good. He looks relaxed. He's traveling East, I think, and the image feels fresh like the morning. As he's driving, I see in the sunglasses a clear and brilliant reflection of the city skyline and the open expanse of blue above it.

On the horizon is the blazing fireball of a rising sun.
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Re: Jet Lag, Bagels and Starbucks

#2 Post by John »

A great ending to a great series, and I appreciated the subtle nod to at least the possibility of a "Dan-o in Japan" spin-off. :D Thanks for doing this, Ron.
John Rodriguez
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Daniel Diemer

Re: Jet Lag, Bagels and Starbucks

#3 Post by Daniel Diemer »

Thanks, John. It was much fun to write. Now to add just a little more work and then package it up. Maybe over the holidays. :)

I should note that I really appreciate all the support of guys in the league--with a special nod to Yuma for the job offer to Neal and to New Orleans for giving me a lot of leeway with Jeremy Slade (and his evil twin Jared).
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