The Offseason

I know I haven’t written too much lately but, without baseball, our lives are just so boring. I have been a bit crafty as of late—making ornaments and a wreath out of branches we had to cut off Walter so he would fit in the tree stand.

Walter Scrap Wreath

Sidenote: Our Christmas tree has a name because he’s dead. I felt sad urging him to come back to life without him having a proper name. We’ve been turning his lights on more so he’ll feel extra happy and pretty and want to drink his water again. No dice so far. The sorrows of the season I suppose.

Anyway, I have also been conquering domesticity or it has been conquering me as evidenced by the multiple cuts and burns I have all over my arms and hands. I actually sliced my pinkie (this is the first time I’ve ever thought about whether that ends in ie or y…hmmmm) on one of those pop-top cans of green beans. I thought those were designed for safer, easier opening. Clearly, they have not mastered that technology.

But here I am getting off topic. What I really wanted to tell you was what Nik does during the offseason—it’s not the same for every player but most have a similar experience so here goes.

Nik didn’t participate in any winter leagues or formal trainings of which there are many such as the Arizona Fall League, Instructs, the Dominican Winter League, and the Venezuelan League. His non-participation results in a full five months of off-season.

He spent the first few weeks marrying me—yay! And going on our honeymoon—also yay! When we got back he took the rest of October off- translation he watched reruns of 90s shows and played the new Call of Duty. Am I the only one experiencing this?

Getting married...I'm self-conscious about not posting enough pictures

He got back to work in November, going to the complex three times a week. He’s been lifting weights, sometimes running and gossiping like a school girl with the trainer. He started throwing about a month ago.

Another sidenote: For those of you who aren’t familiar with how pitchers work, their preparations for Spring Training/the season are much more gradual than position players. They start doing long toss around November or December usually –moving from 60 ft. to however far back their throwing program takes them. Some end at 120 ft., some go all the way to 200 ft. Then they start pitching on the ground. This has a name that is escaping me right now but what I mean is they are not on a mound so there’s no angle. Then they move to the mound with someone catching, then with a batter just standing there doing nothing (to help them make sure they’re placing the ball correctly) and then they face batters who actually try to hit the ball. At least that’s what Nik’s been doing the past couple of years.

So he’s upped his time to four or five days a week (depending on if he ignores his alarm one day or not) now. He’s still lifting weights, long tossing three times a week and sometimes running. He goes to the field around 9 and then has lunch with me everyday of course. After that, he’s pretty much free the rest of the day to do what else? watch 90s show reruns and play Call of Duty. Oh, the life of a baseball player.