It is December 1st and I have finally moved into my own place. I am living in Milwaukee, I found a small apartment that is central to the area’s I love in this great city.  I have been running around the State of Wisconsin, staying at family members homes until my place was ready, I also spent a week in Germany working a trade show for my old company.  I am very lucky to have such great family and friends.

As I have been organizing and unpacking my belongings I am starting to realize the scope of the baseball journey I completed.  All the mementos that I have collected, the contacts I have made, the pictures I have taken, the mileage I documented it is making my brain explode with thoughts of games I watched, rest areas I have slept in, and fears I have overcome. I have not written in awhile, I needed to take a break and get all these thoughts and experiences compartmentalized (if that makes sense).  I also needed to figure out what I wanted to do with the information and contacts I have acquired.  I obtained a wealth of baseball knowledge, I don’t want to waste it but I don’t know what to do with it at the moment.  I want to continue writing, I enjoy it, I have contacted some alternative newspapers in Wisconsin about an idea I have for next baseball season and some are very interested.  I have spoke to a large sports news entity about syndicating a column, I like independence.  We will see…

I watched the Arizona Fall League and the All Star games between Japan and the MLB, but now the season is over and the countdown for Spring Training is here.  I am currently reading a few baseball books.  Men at Work by George Will, where I came across this nugget, “Baseball-its beauty, its craftsmanship, its exactingness- is an activity to be loved, as much as ballet or fishing or politics, and loving it is a form of participation.”  I agree with this romantic assessment, it is an intelligent game that I am finding out I know very little about!   I was fortunate enough to attend a baseball game at Mississippi State University and I met some of the most knowledgeable fans about the strategy and intricacies of the game.  I have kept in contact with one MSU fan, Shane, who sent me Ron Polk’s Baseball Playbook.  Ron Polk was the long-time head baseball coach at Mississippi State and is considered the “Father of SEC Baseball”.  Polk’s book I continue to pick up and learn the nuances of the game.

I have committed to writing a book about the experience, I am excited about this and also very fearful for some reason.  I spent some time with my daughter this past week and we had great talks about life and how to embrace it, to go out and do, to work through fears, to not worry about how you will be perceived or what the critics will say.  It is an attitude and a confidence that I have acquired, I learn more from being uncomfortable, I find more happiness, I need to continue and the fear I have about writing the book will disappear.  (We also drove down to Chicago on Thanksgiving night and walked around Wrigley Field to see the progress, I was shocked at what has been done so far!) Well that is all for now, some have wanted me to do a summary of the season, I figure the summary will be the book.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!