Helluva Day.

Hello my friends and fam. As soon as I start writing a blog, I have to say this. I love and miss you all. Mom, Dad, Ian, Alex, Emily, Joey, Phyllis, and Nena...I wish that I could have been there to spend the afternoon with you guys. Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun and I'm glad that there were a bunch of Lewis's at the same place at the same time. And at the McNish's I might add....I always wanted to swim in their damn pool. Lucky SOB's. Love you guys a ton. Steph, I miss and love you with all of my heart. I can't say it enough. I hope you and your Mom have a good time in AZ. To everyone else, holler.

I am in Brockton, MA right now but let me start by telling you about Gagne's last start in Quebec. Again, it was a packed house. We were playing the New Hampshire Defenders. I started LF. Gagne got into some trouble early and we found ourselves down a couple of runs. This is game after my 0-4 performance. And dammit....I have been doing so well on the road and I just wanted to do well in front of my home crowd. So the pressure was on to not only win the game but to give Gagne a win.

The game was tight. 3-2 going into the 5th inning. With us on the trailing end. One of my good buddies Doug Toro, UT, was having an excellent night and drew a walk with the bases loaded. We tied the game. Then Ol' TLew came up.

One out. Bases loaded.

Strike one and two came quickly.
"Well, shit." I was thinking.

I battled to make it a 2-2 count.
I felt some pressure. I just wanted to deliver.
Then the pitcher from New Hampshire made a mistake.
He left and inside fastball over the middle of the plate.
I squared it up and the roar of the crowd was deafening to the ears. The ball hit off the wall and I stood on second with a bases clearing double. I was so happy at that moment. I later slid into home of a sac fly from Josh. Dan Sausville, my roommate and good buddy P, came up to me and said,
"Tony, I have never seen everyone in the crowd get up and cheer like that."
It was such a good feeling. It reminded me of something that someone said to me, I wish I could remember who but I can't.

The words that I go to the ballpark everyday are,

"Let's have fun today. What is fun to you Tony? Getting hits or striking out?"

So in other words,

You are in control of your happiness in this game. This game is fun when you come through in clutch situations. To fully enjoy this game, you have to want the bat in your hands when push comes to shove. I have wanted that bat in my hands since I picked it up for the first time. I owe that to Dad for countless hours of chasing down that baseball in the backyard. I owe that to Alex for reserving hours at the cages to break down my swing. I owe that to Ian for......I owe that to Ian for................hahahahahahaha.
For the support my bro.

Love you guys and wanted to share that with you.

We went on to win the game and Gagne got the win. It was a rockin' crowd the the Capitales came through.

Now, I am in Brockton, Massachusetts playing the Rox. These guys just can't lose right now. We played them last night and just got the holy bah-jesus kicked outa us. Probably due to an 8hr road trip in the same day, just my opinion. Opinions are like assholes though...Everyone has one.
So tonight, we wanted to break their winning streak and get on track. But before I tell you about Game 2 of our series, I have to tell you that I went through a really scary situation today. Ivan Naccarata, our SS, and I walked to this little mall close to our hotel to grab some lunch. After we ate, I needed to grab some packages of gum because I now need a new piece of gum in my mouth every inning. Superstion again*. Ivan didn't need to go to the gas station, so I just walked to the closest one on my own. So I finally arrived at this gas station about 1 mile away from the hotel. I grab some Doritos, a gatorade and some packs of gum. And just as I placed the gum on the counter...something completely shocking happened.....

I get shoved by somebody, almost knocking me over, and the next thing I know is that there are four gangbangin' lookin guys coming into the gas station carrying baseball bats. At this moment, I though of every movie I have seen where the innocent bystander gets shot, knifed, or in my case, beaten over the head with a bat. Once the guys with bats made it into the gas station, I quickly ducked out of the gas station and started running. I immediately dialed 911 and started explaining to the operator what was going on.
"There are four African American males carrying baseball bats chasing a big Caucasian male at this gas station. Licence plate number of the vehicle of the guys with bats are 165-jkx."
At this point the guys with bats came out of the store and were cussing out the guy in the store. This fight was probably over a drug deal gone wrong. So the guys with bats finally got in their mini-van but didn't leave. The guy came out of the store and tried to book it out of the place in his car. Once the gangbangers saw this, they jumped out and bashed in his back windshield with the bats. I had ran about a good 30 yards away to avoid any further involvement. The guys with bats then sped off and the guy with the bashed in windshield was all a fluster. His kid was with him and was really shookin up. I then approached them and said,

"Hey man, I do not know what the hell just happened but I phoned the cops. They have descriptions of the guys, their licence plate number, and direction they are going. I am out of here. But just letting you know, the cops are on the way."
With tears in his eyes, he said,
"God bless you."
"No problem."

Just a really weird situation. It just made me think of all the innocent people you hear get killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was just buying some gum. It could have been a costly purchase. Shook me up too for a bit. But I made it back to the hotel alright and shared what happened with some guys in the lobby. They were just all in disbelief.

So zipping into last night's game. Now I have just loved where I have been placed in the batting order. Either 8th or 9th. Just a shit ton of fastballs...lemme tell ya. So Pat Scalabrini, hitting coach, posted up the lineup for tonights' game. I was penciled in to lead-off playing LF. I felt a little shock, not much of one, but a little one. Just have to change the gameplan a lil. As a leadoff, you have to see a bunch of pitches and you have to just get on the damn base. So first at bat, I fought 6 six pitches before I was thrown a big hammer for strike three. Well shit. I knew I was a lot better that that big lefty and I was going to prove it my next at bat.
Brockton struck in the first inning with three runs and we found ourselves trailing. We fought back in the third inning though. Doug Toro laid down an excellent bunt and Geoff Tomlinson added an rbi single up the middle. So then I came up for the starting the second circuit through the lineup.
I got him this time.
He left a fastball too far over the middle of the plate and it soared into the gap. I later scored and we tied it up 3-3.
Now you guys know that I have never played outfield. But I have to tell you that I really like it. It is very peaceful out there. When the ball is struck my way, high in the air, it is just really relaxing. I dunno. Just kind of a stress free position. Stress free until a fan yells,
"Cut that hair you faggot!"
or
"Nice throw ANTHONY MATTHEW!"

Ha...did a lil studying I guess.

It was the 6th inning and I took my position in left. Dan Sausville came in. He has been money for us since I have been here. This time he wasn't as sharp and left a couple of balls over the zone. They scored a couple of runs and had runners in scoring postion with two outs. I was standing in left, didn't really have much action leading up to the next batter.
WHACK!
I got a good beat on this ball and was sprinting to my back right. I had no clue where the fence was, I only knew that I was going to have to leap to make this catch. So just as the ball was at a point where I could catch it, I leaped. The ball found the mit and I crashed into the wall at full speed.
I couldn't breath.
All I could hear was the moan of the crowd and footsteps of my teammates running toward me.
I felt so much pain and it was hard to breath.
The first person to me was Ivan Naccarata, Nac.
"DUDE, TONY YOU OK?!"
I just grunted.
"HOLY SHIT! THAT WAS MLB SHIT."
By this time Laplante had made his way out there.
"Just why the hell didn't you guys say 'WALL'?"
Accusing the bullpen.
"I was just in awe of the play." Said Mike Joyce, Left handed reliever and fellow guitar player.
"Well good catch Tony, and don't get up until you are ready."

So I got up and the crowd cheered. I ran back onto the infield and tossed the ball on the pitchers mound. The crowd was standing and cheering. It was a moment I will not forget. I got high fives from the dugout and strapped on my gloves because I was due up second. JP, our trainer, gauzed my elbow up because it was just oozing blood. I had tore up my knee and elbow pretty good. I could see the blood stain coming through my pants where my knee was. I wasn't excited to see what that looked like when I would undress.
As I strode up to the plate after the catch, the
"CUT YOUR HAIR FAGGOT" jeers turned into "Helluva catch left"
It was just a wee bit nicer. I then laced another double over the center fielder's head. Just hit that melted butter again.
We got down more runs and got dicked by the umpire at the end by him making a bullshit double play out when we were threatening late. Good game but terrible outcome. I got back into the clubhouse and just was completely exhausted. I ate the spread they had out for us. Chicken ceasar wraps with potato salad. It was really good but to be honest, I could have eatin anything. I then swallowed three Ibuprofens and just sat in the shower. I just let the water pelt my face and watched the blood run off my knee.

Made it back to the hotel and went to the bar. Thank god the waitress had never bartended because she just made the stoutest whiskey coke. Josh and I played spades and shared a spinach artichoke dip. I just crashed when I made it to my room. Love you guys and will write again soon. Miss and love you all. Comment dammit.