When I last logged into my blog, we were just finishing my first season here in Germany. We ended up coming in second and I would consider it a successful season. Well last season, we started off like crap again, but got super hot and ended up wining the Regionaliga Championship. It was a season of ups and downs. We hosted the European Championship which meant I got to meet and end up talking to one of my lifelong favorites, Mike Piazza and it also meant we had to take a month off in the middle of the season. Not exactly ideal for a team trying to compete. On top of that, we couldn't practice on our field for about 2 months because of renovations for the championship. Overall a cool experience. Italy won the thing and for a short time, we got to see what 6,000 people looked like at our home stadium. Add in a hurricane for 5 days straight and you've got yourself a crazy tiring event. Also got to make friends with Dennis Cook (2 Time World Series Champion Pitcher). In all, the season was one I'll never forget and I'm regretful I didn't track it with the blog.
For me personally, I went through some very tough struggles with my arm. My shoulder by the time I got half way through was hanging by a tread and my elbow was still hurt from a ball that hit me right on the end. Have a feeling that isn't going to go away. Had some great battles and ended up giving up 3 earned runs in my last four games and with a crew of youngin's, we ended up bringing home the gold! I'll refer to things from the 2010 season as we go along in the 2011 season.
So where are we now? So many things, players and situations have changed. Moving to the 2.Bundesliga has changed everything for the Reds. We have a successful program and a nice facility and so that means players now want to play for us. We have had some real quality guys come over to us and in the winter, I already had the feeling we would be pretty good. I figured I needed to push hard to get us ready and that mean tough workouts, lots of spring training games and a little psychology. A 7-1 start seems to be pretty good. So where did that one loss come from?
It goes something like this... We're up 6-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning and I wanted to get our starter, Marcel Hering, some rest. So my new role on the Reds is late inning reliever and let's say I'm not super comforatable with it yet. Coaching, standing around for hours and concentrating on the game doesn't exactly put you in the zone when it comes to pitching. Enter foreshadow here. It went from sunny beautiful day to cloudy and cold in an instant (not really).
As I jogged to the mound, I remember thinking "when was the last time I pitched in a game?" Oh well, will just work off the rust. A walk on a tight strike zone (or as we will find out later, non existant) to start wasn't good, but made quality pitches. Got a quick strike out. Next batter hits a routine double play ball, except we didn't turn it or get one. Hmmm, that might come back to haunt us, but I still have to do my job. If I remember correctly, the next ball gets hit off the thrid base bag (even though our third baseman was all over it and would have gotten an out or two) ricochet's into left field and they score two. Hmmm... Things don't seem to be going my way. A few more missed strikes by the ump who later said "Sorry, I had a really bad game" and I managed to blow a five run lead!! Haven't done that in a while, but I really wasn't pitching well and it's was all on me. We we battled the next couple innings and ended up going ten innings. I was still in pitching and just ran out of gas. A three run homer later and we were down. Micha (my assistant coach) makes a gesture to take me out, but I told him to stay. "Don't waste the pitching. I'll just take my lumps!" A couple runs later and that was all she wrote. Kind of embarrassing to be the manager that puts himself in and blows the game!!! Either I need to figure some things out, or I'll be out of a job!
Next episode: Spring Training in Italy! Great pasta! Bad drivers!
