Week 4-Zach Prichard-Graceland Baptist Church

For me, last Thursday was just another day. Came in at 12:30, knew that I was going to be the only ones working on the field, so I decided to go ahead and get started. We hadn’t had any rain here in a while, which is good when you don’t want to worry about having to make up games, but it sucks with this “dirt”, because it becomes like powder and it is just very dusty. And since there aren’t any water lines anywhere near by I can’t really water it, because if there were water lines I definitely would water it on a regular basis. After nail dragging both fields to try and move some of the dirt to other parts of the field, I got out the regular drag, which by the way is the worst drag I have ever seen in my life. For one, its home made, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but this on is. What they really need is a mesh drag, which I’m going to start looking for on the internet and see if there is a way we can make one or a cheap one to buy. Anyway, after dragging the fields, I grabbed the coolers and took them up to the cafeteria to fill them up with ice. Then took them back down to the concession and placed them inside, then I put the cold cheese package inside the nacho cheese maker, I do this around 2 o’clock because it take a while for the cheese heater/dispenser to heat up the cheese. And if anyone else is like me when it comes to nachos, I don’t like my cheese cold. Today was going to be Karens’ last day before she was going to be out of town for a whole week on vacation, so she of course was giving me a list of things to remember and do while I was here by myself all next week. Around 3:30 I started putting the bases out and lining the fields. Luckily the umpire for the major league games showed up, a little late, but he showed up. He was unaware that the game started at 6:00, he thought it was at 6:30. This was the first mix up of a colossal of mix ups to come. So once he got there the games started to run smoothly. Everything went well and we got to call it a night. Karen was leaving for a whole week on vacation, and I was off to a wedding for the weekend. My next day would be Monday morning, bright and early.

Monday morning, fields still dry as can be and oh yes, of course the person who was in charge while we were gone decided to leave the bases out on the fields after Saturday’s games. Its not that it’s a big deal or anything, but a little courtesy clean up would be nice to see every once in a while, but oh well. And today was especially going to be an exciting day, I had 2 contacts that I was going to either call, or meet today with the Louisville Bats organization. The other day on my day off I was working with the guy that I’m living with and someone came in that David (guy I live with) knew, and we started talking about what I wanted to do, he gave me a contact he knows that works there his number, so I was going to call him Monday morning before I had to head to the Slugger field to return some tickets that we didn’t sell for Friday nights game. Talked with him for a bit, didn’t get much of what I wanted out of him, mainly because they didn’t have any openings, and if they did they try to give to in house people who are already doing an internship, but he told me to email or mail him a resume anyway just in case. So when I arrived at the field, I went upstairs to the front office, and might I remind you I did wear a suit, just in case. I talked with the receptionist and told her I was there to see Hal Norwood, the Senior Account Executive for the Bats, he was the man I was seeing to return the tickets to, apparently Karen has talked to him about me and “praised” me, and we sat down in his office for a bit and chatted and he told me that he might be able to get me an interview, which just lit up my eyes, he told me to email or mail him a resume and cover letter, and I told him I would hand deliver it to him before the end of the week. So when one door closes, another one opens. Anyway, tonight we have Rookie league baseball which is the 7-8 yr olds, and 6-8 yr old girls softball. I like when we have the 6-8 yr old girls softball because they are just so funny. I love being out there and watching them improve every game. The only thing I don’t like about girls softball is that I have to haul out the pitching machine, and that thing is just a pain. Especially trying to get it calibrated for every game, wait let me rephrase that, every pitch. That machine never wants to be consistent, so every pitch I’m trying to fix it so that the girls get a fair chance of putting the ball in play. They each get 7 pitches and I do my best to help them succeed. The rookie league is coach pitch, but its on the major league field, and it’s usually umpired by John Secor, and lucky for me, he was there today. Got the fields drug and lined and ready for the games. Every thing went smoothly today until Kathy Belew, who is a wife to one of the coaches for the minor league teams came up to me and told me that apparently Marty, the coach of a rookie league and major league team, and the director of the minor leagues had scheduled a rain out game for Friday at 6. Which I already knew wasn’t going to happen because that was the night of the Louisville Bats game that the church already set as a church outing and there wasn’t going to be anyone here to set up the fields. Her concern was that she had parents who wanted to go to the Bats game, but couldn’t if the minor league game was scheduled for that night. I was able to get a hold of Karen while she lay under the sun on the beach and told her out dilemma. She informed me that I needed to tell him that he couldn’t schedule the games for that day and he either had to change it or just cancel it all together. This did not go over smoothly with him. He informed me that he told Karen he was going to make it up on Friday, and apparently she agreed. So I had to re-tell him that it wasn’t going to happen like that, and he threw a little tantrum and said well then we will just cancel the rest of the season, and that he knew who complained and yada yada yada. So we had poor communication on Karen’s part and Marty’s part, and I was stuck in the middle. But we got it taken care of, or so I thought. The night ended, and I was hoping we were done with all the childish acts and ready to move on.

Tuesday we had games on all fields. But the tee ball fields don’t really count, all I have to do there is put out the bases, and that’s not too bad. But we also had pee wee baseball, which is played on the softball field, and minor league which is 9-10 yr olds. Remember how I said I hoped we were done with the childish acts? Well, we weren’t, John Belew walked into my office that afternoon and sat down and wanted to make sure that what Marty had told him about the season being over and they weren’t going to make up their game on Saturday was true. I mean really? You as a grown man want to come into my office and tattle on another grown man because you don’t think what he is telling you is true? Ugh, for sure this has to be the end of the confusion. Right? Anyway, back to the games. The pee wee games are umpired by the coaches, they don’t really even keep score, and its coach pitched. But I got the fields ready and lined and all set up for the start of the night. I had to umpire the minor league games that night, which is never fun. It’s kid pitch and they can barely throw a strike to save their lives, and the coaches don’t know when to shut up. The games are night time to be fixing every little thing the do, one kid who pitches on the Dodgers can’t pitch a ball until he looks at his dad/coach to tell him what to do. I hate umpiring that age group. The games got over, and the night was done, and I was ready for my day off.
Wednesday was my day off, but I was kind of worried because it was piss pouring rain outside, and I really didn’t want to have to deal with calling a rain out game for Thursdays games. I also had to make a phone call to the Pepsi Company because they were supposed to make a delivery to the church on Tuesday, which he came by, but never dropped anything off. I was clearly in his view of vision, and I figured he was doing his thing, but apparently he needed someone to unlock the concession, which I did not know about. So he just left, so I had to call them back and tell them to deliver by Thursday so we could have Pepsi for that night, they informed me that we wouldn’t have it till Friday. Not good.

Thursday came and we were going to have tee ball games, 6-8 yr old softball games, and a double header for the major league division. Karen texted me making sure that the fields were going to be ok and that they weren’t in too bad of shape, I told her we would be fine and we would play. She said great and that the major league umpire would be there on time. I went to the Slugger field to drop off my resume and cover letter, but of course to my luck, Hal Norwood was out of the office delivering tickets, so I left a resume and cover letter for him with the receptionist and a resume for James Breeding as well. Got back to the fields and started working on them right away, I knew that I wanted to get them drug as soon as possible so that some of the wetter spots had time to dry. It was good that we got that rain, because I was able to reform home plate on both fields and get them packed down pretty good. I had the fields looking in tip top shape and ready for the nights games. The tee ball teams started to arrive, one of the girls softball started to arrive, and the umpire arrived for the major league game. There were just a couple of problems. Un-known to Karen, the umpire and I, Marty didn’t tell us that the major league games were cancelled for that night. I couldn’t believe that he would rely on a message that he supposedly sent the night before to us know. You have to get a hold of someone and let them know, it would be different if it was just me who didn’t know, but when you have a 3rd party like the umpire who drove who knows how far to get there, and now he is out of a check and gas, you just cant do that. So he left, and then I had to go figure out why only one softball team had arrived. Apparently Karen sent out an email to the 4 coaches letting them know that the Angels (team that DID show up) was not playing the Cubs, but instead they were playing the Yankees. But the only person who got that email was the Cubs. So I had to call the Yankees head coach and tell her, she was not aware and thought that the email was for the make up game on Monday. The problem here is that they have too many schedule changes and not one master schedule that they all can go by. So the Yankees showed up around 6:30 and we were able to take them over to the major league field and use a hand held lever activated pitching machine, because there isn’t and outlet to use over there, and the softball field was going to use the pitching machine. This actually worked out well because we got both games over at the same time, and we got out of there a little early. Ugh, finally, the end of all the mix ups. Or so I hope. Friday will be an easy day, no games, just get the fields drug for Saturday, which is only 3 games anyway, and we will be out of there by 2 o’clock. Next Post will be Friday-Friday. Have a great rest of the week!