Italia... by bus!

Alright, finally! I have a little bit of time to update the blog. Currently, I am back in Bologna, Italy, for a make-up game between USA and Australia and we do not start for another two hours.

Well... to answer everyone's questions... Italia is not as cracked up as I was informed. However, I have not been to a single big city yet. We have been traveling to a new city almost every day, but the cities are no bigger than a Galesburg or Raleigh/Durham. I've been to Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Verona, Torino (2006 Winter Olympics), Macerata, Piacenza, and a few others. You've only heard of two of them, I'm guessing.

The country itself is pretty run down and barren. There is nothing. Until you get up into the Mountains, things are pretty empty and not very impressive. Haha, I sound a little more down on the country than I really am, I promise! But I do believe people always talk about Italy being amazing for the big cities. But I haven't gotten to experience it yet!

We had the opportunity the other day to take a day trip to Milan, but I had to stay at the hotel to pick up laundry. Yeah, I had to miss out on a day trip to Milan so someone could knock on my door and drop off the team laundry. Just so everyone knows, even though I go on all of these trips, they aren't always glamour filled, haha.

So my daily schedule is generally filled with: wake up, answer all of the work emails, pick up laundry, set out laundry, take care of scouting reports, call players who haven't picked up laundry, 2.5 hour bus ride (sometimes more) to the stadium, work, game, post-game work, bus ride back to hotel, do my media work, collect and send out laundry, do daily schedules, and help the 18U people with their releases and web work... I sleep a little... but I get the majority of my sleep on the bus.

I'm a busy guy!!! A very busy guy!

Even though I haven't gotten the opportunity to do much of anything in Italy and I have my complaints (me? nah...) about the cities we've been to, I do have to say that it's been an awesome experience just being with the team. The guys are hilarious. They have great chemistry and we're playing some really good baseball. We have gone unbeaten in Round 2, thus far. Today is our final game of Round 2. I've gotten to know some of the guys more than others, but all-in-all they've been great to be around. That and the food have been the best parts! Italian's can make a damn pizza! And some serious lasagna! Oh, and chocolate! I've never been a fan of dark chocolate, but I'll tell you what, the dark chocolate here is incredible!

So, we are playing Australia this afternoon. If we win, we're the #1 seed in our pool in the next round. If we lose, we're the #2. If we win we head to Firenze (Florence) and will be playing there for two days against Venezuela and Cuba, and if we lose we head to Grosetto (Tuscany) and will be there for two days. Hopefully we win today because if we do, all we really have to do is win one game of the final round (4 games) to make it to the championship game! So, if we're #1, after Firenze we finally get to Rome. However, we're in Nettuno... which is just South. So, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to go to Rome or not (grrr...) but I'm hoping that I have the opportunity to do so.

I hope you've all been following the team - although I know you haven't been. Some of you should be getting the releases, I put you on the list so you could see what exactly I do. I write all of those, read them!

I need to start buying presents... what do all of you want?

I hope everyone is doing well! I miss you guys. I will be home in about a week... oh, and unemployed... that's going to be fun!

Picture 1: Me and John Blundell before the game. Picture 2: In the mountains, on the way to Macerata, we drove alone the Adriatic Sea. It's hard to get a good picture from the bus when it's going, but I tried! Picture 3: Grapes! EVERYWHERE in the mountains! Picture 4: The outfield at one of our ballparks... kind of cool! Picture 5: B.J. had a birthday and so we gave him an Italian cookie and put a cigarette in it because we didn't have candles. :-p