With the Zack Greinke 'excitement' thermometer for MLB Sydney 2014 temporarily stuck on zero and the twitterverse ablaze with public opinion, I thought it was a good time to launch...
21. Ultimately, this is a chance for the Diamondbacks and the Dodgers, my beloved National League team to link arms with Australian baseball fans and networks to grow baseball in Australia and their fan base! As one of their No.1 fans, I am passionate about doing what I can, to do my part in this country and once we jumpstart Greinke's thermostat, I am sure his excitement will make a full recovery. Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat moves from 0 to 4%. 20. Billboards are up and the fans are excited. The fans down under are pumped! I can see Zack starting to get excited. 19. The Dodgers will not be playing Carlos Quentin! Even I would have been a little apprehensive if Quentin was making the trip after he stormed the mound, injuring Greinke's collarbone last season. This is sure to put a smile on Greinke's face! The determination to battle it out against his opponent is what we love about Zack! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 13% 18. Rightly so, Zack may still be a little concerned that there will be no pool celebrations after we beat the Dbacks. We have got you covered Zack, with the 'Bondi Pool' at a good temperature ready for you to jump in! 17. We have locked up all our highly venomous and deadly animals that are known to kill people and assure you there will be none hiding in the clubhouse. Haven't caught the sharks or jellyfish yet so you are on your own at Bondi!!! As for the kangaroos in the streets, that's why we have 40km speed limits in place! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 26% 16. A great article that outlines the welcome mat that Sydney will lay out for the MLB Teams. Us Aussies couldn't be more proud or excited to host your teams, staff, executives and my honorary grandfather, Vin Scully! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 34% 15. Little did we know, Zack was using the descriptive word Zero in a positive way! Like when we use the word mad to describe 'awesome' or 'sick' to call something excellent, Zack was merely enhancing our vocab for the word 'ZERO' to mean the opposite. Zero officially means 'full of'. Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 47% 14. Even though we are on the other side of the world, we also Live.Breathe.Blue. Wholeheartedly, Undeniably, We Bleed Blue! And we can't wait to see our team of boys that do the same for us! We are so thankful that you would prepare yourselves earlier than the other teams...for us. That you have a different approach to the start of this season...for us. That you sacrificed time with your family so you could head to Camelback Ranch early...for us. That you play for the name on the front of your jersey rather than the name on the back. It not only gets me excited for what will take place in Sydney but it brings me to tears as I write this! Thank you Dodgers! Thank you Diamondbacks! Thank you MLB! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 51% 13. Koalas across Sydney are lining up in droves outside the SCG in the hope they get to meet the Dodgers and Diamondbacks to get a photo with you. 12. Dodgers Bullpen just received Brian Wilson's Summer Twitter postcard. @BrianWilson38: Goodbye Bondi I love you. See you in March when we kick off the 2014 season. That will put a smile on Greinke's face! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 59% 11. History will be made! What an honour to be there, what a privilege to be on the field representing your team, your country and your family! To go down in the history books of Australian sport can only warm your heart. Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 67% 10. Every game counts! Let's start the season 2 up on the Dbacks! 2 up on the Giants, Padres and Rockies! Team excitement will help us get our game on! #weownthewest Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 72% 9. We want to make fan t-shirts to follow on from the NLDS. #weowndownunder 8. Our last game against the Dbacks was full of suspense and tension, great ingredients for division rivals! Excitement abounds to see this next face off live! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 79.4% 7. Think back to the excitement of living your dream as a baseball player, as an athlete, as a broadcaster, as a team member, as people who keep this game alive all winter so it can fuel us throughout summer! That is where we dwell right now. Living a dream, with the opportunity of seeing you for 4 days, (5 days if we see you outside your hotel haha) going early for BP and seeing you live in the flesh outside of the MLB.TV screen. Thank you to every single one of you involved, for not just coming to Sydney but for being part of the dreams of many to come. Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 84% 6. As you walk on that field as a Dodger, you will no doubt catch the eye of a little boy who has come to see you play! You were made for that moment! Don't underestimate your influence! 5. Aussie baseball fans want the SCG full! Sold Out! With a crowd like you would get at the 'G' in Melbourne on Grand Final Day! With fan support like you would see at the Australian Open Tennis or during a Big Bash Cricket match. I can't wait to hear that people regret not buying tickets earlier, how they almost caught a foul ball and got to see how quick a fast ball crosses the plate. And I want to watch as families fall in love with the game, the sights, the sounds, the way the field is primed ready for play, batting practice moments and the beauty of a double play. I want every fan to feel like they had the best experience ever and capture the essence of the sport that has captured my heart. Who knows if I will be able to hear the sound of Vin commentating from my seat like you can at Dodger Stadium, who knows if I will have the honour of hearing the organist play the 7th inning stretch song, but I know one thing is for sure, that I am going to walk into the SCG as if I was a kid again, experiencing my first MLB game, excited, even after driving 12 hours to see you! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 98.2% 4. It shows me the passion you have for the game. Enough said! 3. Most of the people there will never have been to a baseball game EVER! Not even an Australian Baseball League game or a local league, minor league or little league game. It's a massive deal that they are coming to see you! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 98.9% 2. You have the opportunity to sign my Dodgers From Coast to Coast Book. There is a page with your name on it! I know you can't contain your excitement! Calm down!!!! Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 99.81% 1. My ultimate dream comes true in the game you will play against Team Australia. Justin Huber, my favourite player will hopefully be on 1st base and through tears of joy, I will see the kid in him rise up to play hard against the kid in you! Together, these 3 teams will influence a multitude of young kids to play the sport you love so that our country knows that baseball not only exists, but it's alive and kicking! Justin is working hard, together with players, teams and clubs all across Australia to build the profile of a sport your country was built on. Paired with hard work, respect, endurance and inclusion. But we need your help, we need your excitement, we need you to show up and be the 'Sandy Koufax', the 'Jackie Robinson', the 'Babe Ruth' of this generation. They are looking to you boys! You see the truth is, long after you leave, your name will still be on everyone's lips, said over and over again as they share their memories of Major League Baseball in Australia for years to come. Greinke 'Excitement' Thermostat: 100% Worth getting excited for? Let's Play Ball! #ITFDB We arrived in Canberra for our 1st Melbourne Aces away series against Canberra Cavalry. We had no idea we were in for such a great weekend!
I decided to ring Canberra Cavalry's office before the game to check a few details... so glad I did! They allowed us to come in early each game to watch batting practice and warm ups which is a big aspect of the experience for me. I love the games where I can go in about 2 hours early, watch the team during Batting Practice (BP), then warm ups and see the grounds crew prime the field ready for play. This is when you hear the true sounds of summer...the boys walking around in their cleats, the crack of the cage bats, balls connecting with the glove and watching the players get their game face on! It's all there for you...the fans! We sat down the 1st baseline behind the Aces' dugout and had a great front row railing to hang our signs. I had made a great sign to cheer on Kevin Reese who was starting pitcher but accidently left one of the panels at home. Noooo! So I whipped up a temporary sign for him and a few of the players and started hanging them on our fence line. Before long, we met the man who heads up the catering for the ballpark who started some friendly banter with us cause we were from Melbourne. He is an absolute hoot! He has become a major highlight of this trip for us as well as the rest of the catering team who walked by us hundreds of times...and each time the friendly banter got better! I was so laughed out during the first game we had to keep telling him to leave as he was giving us a stitch from laughing so much! A few of my highlights from Game 1 were... - Aces winning the game! Final score 5-3 - Kevin Reese pitching! Love that boy...so glad he could come back for the summer season. Love watching His command on the mound! - Meeting Nicole's friend, Penny from ACT who has now become a Cavalry fan after attending the weekend games. She gave me a run for my money cheering on the boys and brought the best out in me! - With Hubes on 3rd, Bids on 2nd, Josh Hendricks sends a bomb over the wall, (homers) & we scream louder than the whole Canberra Cavalry crowd taking the lead 3-0 - There was a man in our section who was a Cav's fan and a bit of a heckler. He started getting stuck into the Aces team (that is an understatement) but he started losing his voice and couldn't complete a sentence so we began to retaliate with teenage boy 'my voice is breaking' jokes. If you give it, you better be able to take it! I would have made this trip for this game alone! Canberra are brilliant hosts, they do a great job, Sarge is awesome and it's a great ballpark! Well done to all the staff and volunteers who work hard in the bunkers to prime the field for battle! We will be back!!! Day 2 of our Canberra trip began with a visit into the city where we went on a search for Starbucks that doesn't exist, grabbed some great novelties for Game 2 & 3, and sat in the middle of the city centre and couldn't get over how quiet it was. So relaxing!
We headed to Questacon and got in touch with the 'Sheldon' in us all. Came to find science and maths still give me a nervous twitch but was amazed at the 'geek' insight I have come away with. Questacon highlights: - loved the layout of the place! Great use of their space and the way you move around! Makes me want to take a similar building layout and create an interactive baseball centre. May start planning it on paper! - deep sea creatures room was cool but favourite room was the electronic movement room...not sure what it was called though! - made a kaleidoscope video - air hockey challenge against a robot. I felt like we were in the Olympics. - I now want to own a 4-player air hockey table!! So cool!! After a fun arvo, we went and mentally prepared for the game. A great day with stunning weather, great scenery and a lot of laughs! Today, we headed off to attend our first Melbourne Aces 'away game series' for the 2012/13 ABL baseball season. Chris, Tracey, Nic and I embarked on an adventure full of amazing scenery, road trip games, #26 moments, road kill, food, u-turns and hilarious comments!
A few highlights... The challenge was set for me to pick up everyone at 5:30am sharp or I had to shout everyone breakfast! So I made sure I kicked off festivities by arriving in time to send them my 'I'm here' text message at 5:26am. I arrive to find this car parked outside the house with a huge hot dog van attached. I cracked up laughing thinking, "Wow, Chris has really committed to our hot dog dinners this time!" Our first stop was in a town called Yarck where we grabbed a coffee at The Giddy Goat Cafe. What an amazing little cafe! We will be going back there for sure! Everything you want in a country cafe with awesome quirks and great food! Going back for a Kanive Day for sure!!! Travelled through Yea where we started the regular 'Yay!' shout outs and where we did most of the u-turns. Our epic I-Spy game brought the best out in all of us which was only a warm up for our loud, fight-to-the-death topics game. Let's just say Nic and Chris who teamed up have a way of making it impossible to call them 'out'. I am on to you and putting in a complaint! Before we knew it, we were approaching Yass which brings such good memories from previous road trips with Mez! I attended a Yassville chicken reunion and battled it out at the Ingham vs Steggles baseball championships! We arrived in Canberra and scoped out the important things...baseball field and how close it is to where we are staying! Spent the evening making fan signs for tonight's game! In all, a great day!! Road kill count - 39 #26 scoreboard -17 U-turn count - 9 3 sleeps til Canberra!!! Just a little excited to be going to a Melbourne Aces away game series! Another goal of many ticked off the list!
Road trip games packed! (do I have the time to create Road trip bingo boards???...hmmm) Quotes scoreboard freshly polished! Now to decide on what cheering props to take! Thank goodness we are taking a van!! Prepare yourself Canberra! This #26 moment photo encapsulates all that is today, taken at Ikea! (this was not even photoshopped!!) Slightly crazy fan??? You better believe it! |