Coaching in Ireland

Final vs. Croatia

2006-08-07T12:28:00.000-04:00

Well if you were anxiously awaiting a final report about our game on Saturday, I figured I would throw you a bone. Unfortunately as you may have expected by my silence the ending of the tourney on Saturday did not go so well for Ireland. Croatia ended up taking the game from Ireland 12-2 in a game where the scored does not reflect the pace at which the game is played.

Ireland held Croatia in a 1-0 game until the fifth inning when a few errors led to five unearned runs and gave Croatia a 6-0 lead. Ireland batteled back to close the gap to 6-2 in the seventh, but then Croatia added on another six spot in the eighth to end the game on the ten run rule.

After a few moments of disappointment, Joanne and Sinead began to bring trays of beer onto the field and the team soon began to revel in the improvement that continues on in each subsequent European Championship. Granted we fell one game short of our ultimate goal this year of winning the tourney, but the guys were happy to win silv er medals in the end, as it is an improvement of our 2004 results in Regensburg.

Saturday night, well it was an interesting night that saw quite a bit of action, but all I will say about that is what happens on tour stays on tour. The end of the tourney celebration was much like ones in the past, so if you have been lucky to particpate in one of these sessions you know what goes on: ie a lot of drinking, laughter, singing, dancing, etc...

Now comes the realization of what I have done for the past three weeks, and I guess I ought to begin to do something else. Today being the August Bank holiday everything was pretty much closed. Tomorrow I will begin to go around and search for a rental car, hoping I can get one. Mainly if this goal is successful I will travel around a little bit and eventually make my way back to the States, however, if I cannot seem to get one I may end up back in Boston sooner as opposed to later. Again who knows...

Alright I hope all is well and I am sure I'll hear from you all soon.

p.s. stay tuned as I will continue to blog until I arrive back in the states...

--EC

Semi-Final Game vs. Belguim

2006-08-05T04:58:00.000-04:00

Okay here is the big one. We lose our first game on Friday to take on the Host team in a semifinal game. Mind you in 2004 it was in this game that Ireland lost and in the 3-4 game ireland came back to capture the bronze medal. One of the reasons John and I were to come over here this year was to help them get over the hump and win the sem i-final game. Our moto from day one has been not to be satisfied with getting to the finals but winning the whole tourney. Personally, I usually throw in a f-bomb somewhere in there, but Dad I'm trying to mind my language as requested.

Belguim is coached by former Ireland coach Rick Steen. I am not goign to get into the political landscape that caused his departure from Ireland, but he is part of the MLB coaching envoy program and apparently MLB does not feel there is opportunity for growth of the game in Ireland. Aka. merchandising opportunities are not as great as oh say a place like Germany where there is Army bases located all over, again I am not going to get involved in the political landscape so I will stop here. So to these guys to take this game is a big deal. Kind of like giving MLB the giant finger being like oh there is no room for growth here huh, well take that!

So Ireland again was the team in green as we were designated the away team. Top hal;f of the first we got off to a roaring start. Brian Joyce led of with a base hit, stole second, and then was advanced to third ona John Dillon groundball to the second baseman. So we have Joyce on third with two outs and Joe Kealty steps up at the plate. Bang! Kealty drops an absolute bomb for a two run shot, getting us up in the first inning.

In the top half of seventh inning up 2-1, Ireland knew they neede to push a couple more across to support Bergie. Jason Hoye led off with a grounder deep in the hole at short. The shortstop fielded the ball on a great back hand, trys to pull a Derek Jeter signature pivot, jump and throw, well let's just say this guy is certainly not Jeter, as he misses a good thirty feet high and about ten feet down the line. Hoye moves to second. Daniel Woodburne aka "Woody", then comes up and hits a ground ball again to the shortstop, with visions of his previous performance still circling in his mind, the shortstop fields the ball cleanly again, decides to choke it and tosses it a good five to ten feet above the first baseman's head, scoring Hoye form second and moving Woody to second. Garreth moved Woody over to third on a base hit to right. Woody then scored on a Brian Joyce single to left. Giving Ireland a 4-1 lead it would not relinquish.

Ireland was able to capture this stunning victory on the back of Brendan Bergeson who minded the hill for Ireland and the 6'6" left hander threw a complete game. "Bergie" was on top of his game striking out 7 and bearing down quite a few times when runners were in scoring position with less than two outs . A couple big plays during the game:

Situation 1: 1 out runners on first and third, we move the corners in preserving the dp opportunity up the middle. Ground ball to Gareth Donolley at third fields it cleanly and hoses the guy at the plate.

Situation 2: Nobody out, runners on first and second, bottom of the ninth inning up three runs. Ground ball smash to Darran O'Connor at second base, fields it cleanly flips to Kevin Corrigan for the dp. Of all plays I took great pride in this play as a good portion of my time has been spent working with the middle infielders on how to turn a proper dp, and this was executed perfectly.

Situation 3: Nobody out, noone on, bottom of the eight. Bergie strikes out the batter, and the ball sneaks away from Hoye. We get a great bounce the ball flies back to Hoye off the backstop, he fields it cleanly and fires to first to get the out.

Pretty much unlike in the game against Croatia, everything seemed to go our way against Belguim. Also there is very little better than to defeat the host country in the semi-finals in front of their fans, it was a magnificent feeling. Well the game we have been waiting for two years is hear in 6.5 hours. At 6:00 pm local time (noon EST) we take on Croatia in the finals with the chance of moving up to the European A Pool for 2007, the last chance ever to qualify for the Olympics as baseball will be dropped after the 2008 Olympics. So keep us in tyour thoughts today. Unfortunately I will not be blogging tonight about the game, because whether in vicotry or defeat there will be a damn good reason to hit the bootle as they say. I will check in tomorrow morning to let you kn ow how we make out.

We will not be satisfied, until we get that gold medal around our necks this evening.

Hope all is well.

--EC

Game 3 vs. Croatia (Make up)

2006-08-05T04:42:00.000-04:00

So this game can be described by one word and one word only...frustrating. We dropped this game in the end 2-1 which set up a semi-final game against Belguim, which I will get to later, but in this game we just didn't get a bounce.

David Callaghan threw eight brilliant innings, as we were the away team, however just did not recieve any offensive support. It was in this game that we left 10 runners on base, had one runner thrown out at the plate, and had two runners doubled off at second base on flyballs to the outfield.

Our lone run is not something to speak all the highly about as the run was foorced accorss the plate in the top half of the eight inninging on a balk.

This game got a very interesting start as the Croatians are a rather chippy group. As a team that never steps away from a challenge, the boys in Green were not afraid to send it back in their direction. Unfortunately we ended up on the short end of the stick in the morning group but things were to change shortly....

Game 3 vs. Croatia

2006-08-03T16:16:00.000-04:00

Well it looks like I will be visiting bac k top this site tomorrow to do some in depth blogging. Unfortunately our game today was canceled due to this incredible weather we are experiencing right now. So our plan for Friday (as of now barring no rain) is to play Croatia at 10:00 am, with the winner of that game taking on Switzerland and the loser facing off against Belguim at 6:00pm.

So if you check back tomorrow night you may have two updates...I don't even want to begin to think about what will happen if the next two days are washouts like the weather reports are calling for...

Game 2 vs. Norway

2006-08-03T06:35:00.000-04:00

As has been said, "at the end of every drought there has to be some serious rain." Well I don't know if in truth that has actually been said, but well I guess now it has. Man the weather here in Belguim is not exactly what one would expect in August. As temps continue to rise on the east coast, here we are struggling with temps around 17 degrees celsuis. Again if you can figure out the conversion be my guest, but I'll teell you what, its chilly.

Well in yet another rain soaked game, Ireland took on the gentlemen from Norway. A game Ireland expected to win rather easily, became more of a test of endurance and patience than anything else. The agme was scheduled to begin at oh, 6:00. So we arrived at the field at 3:00, wen through bp in the cage, ran stretched and threw and then waited for about an hour to do infield outfield. The word trying is a good word for the fellas as they went through this, however the lads would get used to waiting on this damp Wednesday evening.

So the game got off to a good start, with Nat Anglin of Milton, MA, on the hill things were going well. Nat came out and struck out the side in the top half off the first. In the bottom half, Ireland jumped out to a 2-0 lead as Tom Kelly led off with a double, was moved over to third on a ground out by Brian Joyce and then scored on a past ball.

Nat Anglin went on cruise control and in the first three and a third innings struck out seven and Ireland jumped out to a 3-0 lead. In the top half of the fourth inning things got a little interesting. A player for Norway hit a line drive down the right field line that Kevin Foy laid out four. Unfortunately as he landed he landed akwardly on his left shoulder and the Norwegian got an inside the aprk homer as noone was backing up Foy. This could prove to play an important part of our tournament as Foy is not in our lineup today against Croatia due to this shoulder "issue" and would most likely be listed as day to day for the remainder of the tourney.

With one out in the top half of the third, the rains began. The game was put into a rain delay, and when I say rain delay I mean it was pissing outside. Absolutely pissing outside. ^TThis rain delay lasted a goof hour and a half. Actually one lighting bolt crashed no word of a lie probably about 500 yards from where we were sitting. A little scary actually, the amount of force that lightning bolt caused.

When play resumed, Sean Finn (a 17 year old from NY) came out and through brilliantly to get the last out two outs in the fourth. Offensively Irland came out on the attack and pushed across one run to extend the lead to 4-1.

Knowing that all we had to do was get in one more inning before th rains began again for a complete game, we elected to make the call to bullpen for Brendan Bergeson top come in and shut down Norway. Brendan came in strong registering two strike outs and getting us to the bottom of the fifth. As we would have it, in the bottom of the fifth the rains would begin again. Ireland came out and further opened the lead by getting 3 more runs. It was after the third run, i began to get at the third base umpire, letting him now how dangerous the playing conditions were beginning to get. I mean litterally there were about five puddles, each about an inch deep, right around third base. I was telling him from then on I refused to send any more runners home due to the fact that they could easily get injured with these playing conditions.

As we took the field for the top mof the sixth it seems my constant snippets to the third base umpire worked. As were chnaging sides I got one little last bit into his ear and then he ran to home plate to converse with the umpire. After a two minute delay the home plate umpire came on the filed and called the rest of the game. So in a rain shortened game Ireland took home another win 7-1, and have secured a spot in the semifinals.

Today is our last agme in group play against Croatia, a team that the fellas would like to get back after suffering a 25-2 defeat in the 2000 Euros. Today's game will affect our standing in terms of positioning for the remainder of the tourney as both us and Croatia will be moving on to the semis. The winner of our game will emerge with the "easier" path to the finals as they will e facing the number two seed on the other side of the bracket.

Looking forward to tonights game, hoping to take another win as our motto has been 5 wins in 5 days.

Enjoy the nice weather on the east coast, and obviously expect another entry either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

--EC

Game 1 vs Slovakia

2006-08-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

Rain...Rain...why is that when I get to Belguim that I finnally see rain. Unbelievable. Well in a rain soaked game Ireland prevailed against Slovakia 6-2. Chris Gannon pitched a crafty complete game (9 innings) to help the boys in Green take their first game. Things of note:

Brian Joyce had four stolen bases which helped Ireland get on the board. In addition to his four stolen bases Joyce collected three base hits, scoring two of Ireland's runs.

Rain: The game was delayed a half hour due to rain. We got four strong innings in with Ireland up 4-0 before we had another rain delay of about 45 minutes. Then the skies parted andeach team tagged on two runs as Ireland was able to get the victory. Ireland's bats were hot out of the gate, but I think the second 45 minute delay cooled the bats a bit, but luckily we were able to get out with a victory.

Jason Hoye hit a solo shot in the third inning. I will admit though as he rounded third he said "A pop fly huh?" The dimensions of home field of the Antwerp Eagles is 82 meters in left, 113 in center and 93 in right. I think there will be a few long balls during this week.

Gannon: Gutsy effort. To sit on the bench during both rain delays come out and pitch as well as he did was a true testament to the sort of ace we have on this staff. I wish I had the book with me right now so I could give the details of his line but I think it would go something like this:
9 IP, 9 K, 1 BB, 2 R, 2ER, W. Both runs Gannon gave up were on the long ball, two solo shots. When I do see his line I'll pass it along.

All in all a great way to start off the tourney. Tonight we have the opening ceremony, followed by the Belguim v Switzerland game. Our game tomorrow against Norway begins at 5:00 pm. So expect another update sometime early evening or late afternoon.

One last thing I haven't touched on. I was a little hungover on Sunday as we traveled via the chunnel to Belguim. Unfortunately i missed much of the ride on the train as I was asleep. Apparently it was pretty cool, but you couldn't see to much as often times you were below the ground level.

The hotel we have here in Antwerp is much nicer accomodations than what we had in London.

The weather does not look that great for this week so expect a few more rain delays. Apparently the contigency plans for rain outs is to have the games in the morning. Hopefully we won't be faced with this because we do not want to have double headers.

For future note, whenever organizing a tourney it is often handy to schedule in rain days just in case.

I hope all is well in the states and I am sure I'll hear from some of you soon.

--EC

Down Goes Britain...

2006-07-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

So quick rehash of the last two days. Well first things first Traveling...

So we arrive at the airport, Mick and I in remarkable time. However the night previous we found out that appaently Travelodge had overbooked our hotel in London and the team gotr bumped (more on that later), but you know we went had a coffee waiting for Sean, Glen Poor, Jason, and John. When they arrived we must have gotten the worst customer service rep ever fro Ryanair. He ended up cross checking all of our bags so I ended up with one of Jason's and one of miune, whereas John had mine and Jason's and Jason had both of John's. May sound a little confusing but it was. So all in all we arrive at Gatwick and take a train to King's Cross to find our meeting point. Well about twenty minutes into the train ride Mick recognizes that he no longer has his carry on bag. A very important bag as it holds all of the financial records confirmation numbers etc. for our hotel here in London so he and Jimmy Regan went back to Gatwick to try and recover these leaving the rest of us with Jimmy's bags. Well let me tell you, I havre still yet to see any rain and it boiling in London. So I was carrying my bags as well as Jimmy's about .5 mile to our hotel. When we got there I was cooked, but we got dressed and headed over to the field for Game 1.

Game 1
The bats came out early and Ireland smoked GB 14-6. The guys in Green jumped out to an early 12-0 lead after 3. With Brendan Bergeson on the hill (Senior at WVU) the lead proved plenty. The team played a little on their hills in the late innings, but in all it was nice to come over here and steal the first one from GB. Putting the political and historical relevance aside, this was the first time that Ireland had ever been on the same field as the GB National team. The GB national team is in the Euro A pool, the fgroup we hope to be part of after next week in Belguim. Obviously this victory proves the boys can play and then we need to gear up for two opn Saturday. The team today was joined by the following players: Joe Kealty (1B/DH, Boston College), David Callaghan (RHP, Narragansett RI), Brendan Bergeson (LHP, WVU), and Kevin Corrigan (SS, Cleveland).

Game 2
David Callaghan got the nod in this game that saw the boys in Green fall 6-5. In a hard fought battle the GB squad jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth but saw Ireland come rearing back to 6-5 in the top haldf of the sixth. After a quiet bottom of the sixth, Ireland got a runner on in the seventh, which GB enede the threat by turning a dp to end the game./ In all a good game as the pitching quality from GB was better and it was great to see DC back on the mound. Another addition the team got today was Kevin Foy who arrived this morning fro Thailand. His bat definitely proved handy in this game as well as his glove out in right field.

Game 3
This game was huge for our momentum as we head to Antwerp on Sunday. Pretty much we won 6-5. and in the end taking two of three from the GB. Positives of this game, Nat Anglin of Milton Mass, coming out and throwing a good 5 and 1/3 of ball after having a shaky outting last weekend in the Dublin Invite. Joe Kealty and Bryan Hoye each had two RBI's and it was nice seeing Jon Dillon scoring from first on a Kealty single (Kealty is limited due to aforementioned hammy issues) as Dillon has been experiencing soreness in his knee this week. Niall Rowen came out and throw 2 strong innings and Daniel 'Woody' Woodburne came in and got the last out on 1 pitch with the tying and go ahead runners in scoring position.

So tonight IO am going back to the hotel in a minute grabbing soem food and I believe hitting the town with the guyds for one last night of well...how do I say this...I'll say we are getting it out of our systems prior to gpoing to Antwerp tomorrw. We will have to be relatively responsible as our chunnel train to Antwerp leaves at 10:30 am. Well see what shape the guys are in tomorrow morning.

Great weekend, and believe me the guys are p[umped about knocking off Her Majesty's Nine and taking two of three in the series.

Keep checking back for updates on next week. Tourney begins at 10:00 am on Tuesday against Slovakia, in what should be a great game....

--EC

Bags are Packed...Again

2006-07-27T11:57:00.000-04:00

So my bags are packed again as the preparations for the Euros begin to wind down. Tonight is the teams final training session prior to heading to London tomorrow morning (Friday) and then to Belguim on Sunday. For the most part that last couple of days have been rather uninspiring to be honest. I will admit though I feel that John and I have accomplished our goal of betting the team better to compete at the higher level. So we will see in the next week or so how our preparations pay off. I will admit though there is quite a bit of pressure attached to this yers Euros. AS one would expect, the team expects to win the tourney, but by no means will it be a cake walk. Anytime a team has to play five games in five days, they better have their pitching in line and I think we do. This weekend against the GB national team I believe will provide a good test for the squad.

Some interesting things to note from the last couple of days
-The team has recived loads of press recently including an article in the China Morning Post. Yeah you read that right The China Morning POst. A link to the article on an English paper is here. They were also featured on a aradion station called Newstalk 106 FM this morning and there was also an op-ed piece in the Irish Times this morning about the Emerald Diamond.
-Driving over here was a greast time. I thoroughly enjoyed following Mick Manning (President of Baseball Ireland) back to his house the last couple of night as we began to approach speeds of upwards near 80 mph onm roads where well I don't think you are supposed to be going that fast.
-Deputy Ambassador of US was at the Tuesday night screening of the Emerald Diamond, trying to create new ways to establish a partnership between the Embassy and BI.
-Yesterday I did some driving around Mick's hometown of Blessington, really beautiful scenery over there, particularly around the lakes.
-I have been here just shy of two weeks (Tomorrow I will have been here for two weeks) and I have yet to see a drop of rain. I will admnit as a result of this drought the Emerald Isle has become very brown as the familiar sight of dry dead grass begins to overtake the landscape.
-I still have no clue as to what I am going to come home. I will update you when I figure that one out.
-Post will e come more frequent particularly as the baseball instensifies.

I hope all is well.
EC

Guess who's back

2006-07-25T09:11:00.000-04:00

I apologize to my readers as it has been a ferw days since I wrote last. Well in typical fashin I will do a paragraph on the day explaining the ongoings here in Dublin.

Thursday
Our last day with the camp. Great day had 10 young kids and then 8 older kids. The reception, of the kids was great they were very nice in thanking us for helping them out and all. Even ne kid gave each of the coaches a card thanking us individually. Practice was much of the same, with the exception that Jason Hoye, came over from the states. Hoye played outfield for Wheaton college, and rumor had it that he could catch. A catcher is certainly somethiong the team was lacking as Ruidrhai MUrphy had the left the team to pursuit a career in professional rugby. Things have worked out pretty well thus far as I will explain later.

Friday
First day off, quite needed as well. John and I ot up in the morning and then decided to go on a tour just driving aropund and figuring stuff out as we went. Started offf going to Dun Loughrie (sp?) which was a nice little sea town as I needed to look for a charger for my camera. We stopped as some food walked arounfd the town, which is full of life as a result of a ferry which leaves from there. We then wandered around to Dalky, just driving and looking at things on the way. People we had been n contact with told us we should go to Glendalouch as it is pretty niuce. Well so as we are on our way we get lost. And by lost I mean lost, some of it was intentional and believe me we saw some unbelieveable things on aour way, but we got well taken out of our way. As for Glendaloch, uhh not all that inspiring in fact one of the two lakes was dried up, no word of a lie. John and I then made our way toa little village called Hollywood, whch we stopped in and had a pint at the Hollywood Inn, why you ask would you stop at a little two bit village where there is nothing but two pubs. Well the film Michael Collins was filmed in the Hollywoood Inn and immediately upon entering the place it jumps right at you. After this we evnetually made it back to Kindle's place where the fun begins...Kinle's next neighbors were having a bbq Friday night, so John and I joined in on the festivites and pretty the Heineken's were going down easy. Well needless to say soon it became 1:30 am and we needed to be at the field at 9:00 for our games onb Saturday...

Saturday
Wow, pretty foggy this morning but nothiong like I will exerience on Sunday, but to that in a moment. The Ireland Nqational team was taking part in the Dubln International tourney thios past weekend and let me tell you it was a great showing. The first game we squared off against the President's Nine which ended up being a great game, unfortunately we fell 5-4 as time expired. See over here in tourney's such as this (but not in the European Championships) games are timed as to be certain all the games ar gotten in. Each game has a time allowance of 1:45, with no new inning beginning at this point. I feel were we to play nine innings against the P-9's we would have taken this game. Our next game began at 4:00 pm so much of the time between games was jusat spent lounging around the field relaxing hanging out with the guys and well that was pretty much it. So Game Two saw us taking on the Menwith Hill Pattriots, now Menwith Hill is an Air Force base in England and this is a collection of guys who are the base. Well a few of these guys were great guys, but as in all things, there was a couple of real jerks. They kept whining and going on about how they used wood bats, and the field, and the mound and everything, really making a poor representation of America the whole time. Oner guy actually said if we played in the finals and he was ptching he would intentionally drill some people for laughs. Now this guy was no more than 5'5 and probably a good 2 bills of fat. Well pretty much we took it to them dropped the 16-4. A very good game execution wise and really a great way to end the day on a high note.

Saturday Night
This deserves its own section, as what unflded Saturday night was unbelievable. So when John and I got back to Kindle's place after the day, we decided we would head down to Temple Bar to meet up with the guys as they werre meeting at a Pub called Porterhouse. Actually a pretty cool place as it brews its own beers, had a pretty decent cover band playing and a lot of the guys from the teams in the tourtney made it down. But to get there John and I thought well we'll spring for the cab on the way home, so lewts take4 the bus in there. We got on the bus at 9:45, and after an hour and 15 minutes we finally reached Center City Dublin. Honestly this trip shoudl take no more than 20 minutes, but whatever we had a good time. You know afte haviung about five beers, I was like alrigh you know bifg day again tomorrow it is time to go home. So John and I left the Porterhouse at 1:00 and arrived back at Kindle's at 1:30. Oh hell this is where the night took a drastic turn which made Sunday unbearable. As soon as the cab pulled up to Kindle's John goes to open the door and it flies open. Kindle is standing right there and goes 'Niall's and Mary's you two are joining us for karaoke.' WSell yeah, pretty much they had no beer at Niall and Mary's so what is a good man to do, drink wine. Big mistake. Pretty much the next thing I know it is 3:45 and again we have to be at the field at 9:00 in the morning, a night that had gone so smotthlyall of a sudden left me in shambles. Honestly I dominated Beatle's karaoke, expect a world tour soon. On by the way Kindle called my pops while all this was going on and left a message to the like 'Eddie and I are over here signing karaoke at 2:30 in the morning having a great time, give us a shout.' Honestly when my Mom sent me an email the next day asking about it, I had no clue...

Sunday
There are hangovers and then there ar HANGOVERS, well you could say I had one of thoseon Sunday. First off I slept in my clothes, which is always a good time, but you know rolling on 5 hours of sleep never helps anyone. Pretty much got the ield without a shower and bopom right into it. Our first game of the day was against the Hurricanes (a club team from Ireland that has won the Leaguer Championship the last three yrears). As expected we took it to them 10 to 3. Excellent pitching perforance from junk baller Daniel 'Woody' Woodburne. He was really on and pitched an excellent game. Now this is where the day turns for a long day. As punishment for drinking the night before, Sean asked me if I would ump the next two games, because the regular ump was playing for Menwith Hill as they only had eight guys. I said sure, thinking I would do it behind the mound. Well guess what I was behind the dish. Remember I haven't umped a game since I was thirteen, and all of a sudden all hungover they throw me out there and say go out it. You knwo playing enough ball in the past you know how keep things on, so I mean I did a fine job, but you knwo it completely wiped me out. I mean umping back to back games after coaching third base in the first, was prett devastating. But you know I got through it and almost actually bounced the previously mentioned jerk from Menwith Hill as he was tryting to give me a bunch of crap. Pretty much i told him I heard enough crap out of him for the weekend and I want to hear no more, for I have nothing left for him. He procceded to shut up.

Well the National team advanced to finals of the tourney and again met up with the P 9. Man we ended up losing 8-7, but we saw some great things out of this game. First of all we battled back after being down 7-2. We realize that the team needs to get undertsand that getting to finals isn't good enough anymore, we want to win and we need to establish that mentality as we go on to London and Belguim. Also we were able to pick up on soem things we need to work on in practice this week notably run downs, and some base running situations. All in all a great tourney and as mentioned before an excellent learning experience for many of these players.

Pretty much I was shattered when we made it back to the Kindle's after the games. Well as soon a we got there there wa a note on the door at Niall's and Mary's drinking come down. Well, I went in took a shower and then John and I made our way down there. Fiona, Mike, Niall and Mary had been drinking since 12:30 and when we got over there it was about 8:00. So I had a couple glasses of wine, but it wasn't happening, there was no way I was going to do it. So we had dinner over there hung around for a little bit and eventually made it home.

Monday
Well as wiuth all good things, some must come to an end. After a week of running youth baseball clinics and really enjoying myself and the kids, John and I had a miserable experience Mondaqy. So we go to this American Sports Camp that is being organized by the Sport Council of Dun Loughrie, pretty much a version of our Parks and Rec department in every town. Well we go there expecting to have the same sort of kids as before, but no no we did not have the same sorts of kids. First off, the American Football coaches never showed, they were afflicted by 'food poisoining' aka didn't want to come. So John and I had had 40 kids ages 7 to 17 that we had to work with. So each of us took a group of 20 kids and began to go through our routine. It was at this point things began to snowball as these kids were just not good kids. Some of the kids started flicking us off, others were cursing at us and pretty much just being little punbk kids. However one little sh!t thought it would be funny were he to throw a ball at John's head when he wasn't looking, well luckily John turned around in time not get hit by the ball, however he was hit by a bat later thrown by another little turd. All while this was going on we had these adults we were supposed to be helping us and were chaoperoning this kids, just sitting on the sides enjoying abeautiful day as though nothing was happening. Pretty much it was a display of total lack of respect, and we have backed out of the camp completely. This was not a decision made by John adn I but by the President of Baseball Ireland.

The Movie Premeir
Well I have seen the Emerald Diamond three times previous to this, once in NY at the world premier, once in Boston and then again in Providence. Great film, not so much about baseball, but trully is about passion, and the passion that these guys have about baseball and to achieve their dream of getting to the A pool. So I ewent to this movie with l great anticipation as to how it would be recieved by an Irish audience, well let me tell you, it was very well recieved and actually I may have enjoeyed this viewing the best of all the times I have seen it. The crowd was great as it weas filled with great pride any time a minute goal was achieved and believe me if you haven't seen it I highly recommend you get your hands on it.

Well the DJ never showed so I wasn't busting any slick moves Jake. But Jason Hoye and I though t it would be an awesome idea to drink pitcher's of Long Island Iced Teas. Well let me tell you, if by chance you go to a bar and they serve pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas, do it, go straight for it. Such a good time. After about four or five of these things Hoye and I were enjoying selves quite a bit. Yeah pretty much I was slow to rise out of bed this morning, but John adn I went down to grab soem eatsin Dun Loughrie and then came back to hang out at Kindle's. I packed my bags thisd morning as I am moving ove to the Manning's house tonight for the remainder of the week.

Well i have to run to go get ready for tonight's practice. We will be having an abbreviated apractice as many of the guys want to go and watch the film again. I will attending but taking the night easy as I will have to drive back to Mick's house. Alright I hope all is well, and man was this long....

John's Birthday

2006-07-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

Logging in again from the blackberry looking forward to getting back to the laptop.

So today was John's birthday. Good times, good times. Pretty much after a full day on the fields I will get to in a minute, John, Mike, Fiona, Niles, Mary (mikes neighbors) and I went out for a few drinks and dinner. Excelent company to celebrate John's birthday, very nice way to end a full day. John, a man who played ball with my father in high school, does not mecessarily celebrate a b'day you or I would, but nonetheless great times, great friends excellent conversation.

On a day where record highs were met of 1861, we had another triple session. Little kids in the morning, 10 were there today, big kids in the afternoon, with the national team in the evening. I want to take this opportunity to speak about a kid we haqve been working with this week named Anthony, or what who refer to as "Nails" in honor of Lenny Dykstra. Nails is a little kid of nine who has definitely seen some things in his day. Tough little kid who certainly isn't affraid to tell you his opinion, some people may say he has an attitude problem. Well this kid damn well has every right to have an attitude, for it was a mere three months ago he was stabbed in the chest as a mistaken identity. First question John and I asked when we found this out, "Who the fuck did they mistake him for, a ten year old?". I will admit working with him the past ten days has been interesting, but at the same time very rewarding, for you can actually see how baseball is something that could potentially be a positive influence on him. Hands down my favorite youth player this week would have to be a kid named Andrew. A kid who had never picked up a mit before in his life, in three days time has actually shown some psignificant progress. Hopefully his enthusiasm for the game willl continue as he grows. I will freely admit that on Monday we had him batting righty,0when in truth he is a lefty. It took me asking him how he holds a hurling stick to find out that he certainly is no righty. Today against live pitching from a 14 year old he was 3 for 4 not shabb for a beginner.

National team, today was a good practice. In it we focused on double cuts, bunting, and bp. We actually ran an abbreviated practice due to the heat, but in the end it was very crisp so thomgs were looking up, although we heard some crushing news today. Joe Kealty, former BC first baseman recently tweaked his hamstring some two weeks prior to the tourney. The good thing is it's not nearly as bad as the docs initially suspected and he hopes to be 75% by the time we arrive to Antwerp. Believe me when I say this, I certainly hope so.

Allin all things are well here in Cherrywood. But I will say I am looking forward to this weekend (dublin international tourney) followed by monday night and the premier of The Emerald Diamond, the feature lentgh documentary about baseball Ireland, in Dublin. Of course they are doing it big here, with a huge after party in the theatre with a dj and the whole nine. If you have been waiting for an entry where things go a little nuts expect a good one Tuesday.

I hope all is well back in the states and I hope to hear from some of you soon.
--EC

Global Warming: Finnally its beginning to pay off, it's about time

2006-07-18T11:25:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well. As a precursor please excuse any spelling errors as this is being typed on my blackberry. As one can tell from the title of the blog we arew experiencing a serious heat wave here in Dublin. Apparently the temp is 30 degrees celsius today (not that I know what the hell that means other than it is hot). Mom and Dad you will be proud of your son I have been wearing sunblock as I am on a ballfield from 9 am til 9pm. So much for a break huh? However quite a bit has happened since I wrote last, in the eye of time I will write breifly about each day to keep you up todate on the on goings of your dutifu;l coach.

Saturday
Alright so one thing I failed to mention about friday was John got in contact with a long lost friend Brendan O'Neil, who apparently was some sort of stud rugby player back in the day. Well he invited us to ntravel to his summer home in Gory to have lunch and catch up. Well we were to meet at theis pub called French's and after John and I figured our way down to Gory we found the pub and went in to have a drink. Well Brendan showed up and asked us to follow him to his house. When we got there we had a nice picnic with him, his wife, his two daughters and his daughter in laws. One of his two daughters just finished writing her first book "Baby Proofing Your Marriage", supposedly it is going to be good. Ladies ifn you are interested in something like this go get it. Apparently, Harper Collins agreed to run 150,000 copies of it on its first run, it should be due out for the holidays. After a nice picninc John and I jumped back in the car and began heading back to go meet up with Mick Manning and his family for another bbq. THis was a great time seeing Mick, his wife and their two sons Peter (9) and Neal (6). Particularly seeingt hat I will be living with them come this weekend.

Sunday
Sunday was spent mostly recuperating from Saturday ( along day in the sun with a couple beers at each stop) and getting ready for baseball. The National team took on the President's 9 a collection of ex pats fromn all over who play in the Ireland baseball League. A great game won by Ireland 15-9, with a daring 9 run comeback in the top half of the 9th by Ireland to take the lead an eventually the victory. On my side, iit was good getting some expereince back in the box, the team executed a suicide squeeze, numerous steals, as well as many other plays. Agressive baseball baby, thats the style. Forcing the other team to make the plays, which in the end the p-9 couldn't do. Follwoing the game, we went to Noel Mitchell's fourtieth birthday play at a nearby Jury's. Great time, it was really nice seeing the players away from the field for the first time since getting here.
An eventful evening when we got back to Kindle's. So as we were approaching we see the lights are on and I catch a man in the hallway. As John and I are approaching the door, I look at John and say "Shit, we left the bats in the house". Not that I know what I would do with a bat, but they were in the house. So after struggling a bit we finnally we get the door open and we hear a familiar voice say "Hey what did you forget about curfew?". Kindle, Mike Kindle, had arrived home with his wife Fiona froma three week holiday in the west oif the US. So ti was nice seeing him and makes an easy transistion to...

Monday
This was spent running baseball clinics at the park in Clondalkin. We have the 4 to 6 year old group from 10 until 12, which is fun as they are trully atthe beginning stage of baseball. I think in total we had a group of 12. From 12:45 until 4:00 wethats pretty cool. Then we had the 8 to 14 year olds, which proposes its own unique challenges as some players are much more further along than others. In this group we had another 11 youth. All in all a successful first day running clincis. However it was fricking hot out there, something like 28 celsius. Yeah there is no shade at the field either.
Monday night John adn I sat around enjotying the company of Mike and Fiona, and then decided we would head up to a pub called Johnny Foxes high in the mountains. This pub claims to be the highest pub in Ireland, hey I just report what I hear I can't say for cewrtain either way. I trully believe after experiencing this past anyone who ventures over here should really try to make it there. The place is run clearly by a bunch of packrats who have the walls lined with a strange variety of memorabilia, definitely a cooll place.

Today (Tuesday)
Presently I am typing away in Bewley's hotel lobby awaiting tha national team practice after another double session with the Youth this morning. For the four to six year olds we had 4 attendees which made it a lot easier, since, John, the Rocket (Will Beglame) and I were able to focus our attention almost individually on a participant's skills as opposed to having to manage a variety of different personalitites. You know what I am talking about if you have ever worked with kids. Forthe group of 8 to 14 yearolds we had 11 again which is a nice number as we were able to split up teams and play a game where the batters have to pull the ball otherwise they are out. That way the kids were able to have a little bit more competition and hone their skills as well. I am definitely enjoying the ac of the hoterl before head back out for out 6:30 appointment with the National team.

Well thats it. I hope all back in the states is well, and oh the title weas actually a comment one the players made on Sunday as we are enjoying this beautiful weeather. Its nice to see Smitty and Goo-Goo (another fearless reporter btw) left comments and as always hit me up with some comments if you want and hopefully I will have more access to the internet soon.

--EC

A Beginning of Sorts

2006-07-15T03:18:00.000-04:00

Well I made it. So a few things have happened since the last time I wrote here. First, the little get together a few of my buddies and I had on Wednesday night. Good stuff. I am not going to go into to much detail as there has been other things to report on, but Jake, Krastins, and Riccardo hell of a hang over I had on Thursday.

So what else is new, oh yeah I am no longer in the States. So my flight was delayed coming out of Logan on Thursday, which was probably a good thing, I mean because it took me an hour to get from JP to the airport (usually takes 20 mins.), with this cbbie who litterally almost got in five fights with police officers. Pretty much the guy was a complete yahoo, but oh well I should known something was up as soon as I got in the cab he starts going on about his "regular" customers. All the while I am sitting here hungover as balls, just wanting to get to the airport so I can fall asleep on the plane. But all in all he did what he needed to do, get me to the airport, so in the end a rather entertaining guy who despite his flaws of trying to fight law enforcement officials, was good peeps.

So the flight. So my buddy Jake has created this platform on which someday he will run for President on, three things simply: 1) Baseball hats must be worn to the front or to the back, not to the side, slightly tilted or anything, straight forward or straight back, that's it. 2) Hand blowers in restrooms, gone, for he feels they don't work. And finally 3) While at a sporting event one must wait for a lull in the action prior to going back to your seat. Personally, I would vote for a candidate who would be honest and in line with my personal views, I can really identify with the last one. Well Jake, I got a fourth item for you know. 4) When on an airplane, do not, I repeat do not, decide to go all lounging and just drop your seat back. In my opinion seats should not go all lazy boy on an airplane, because how much more comfortable does a three or four inch decline really make you. Honestly niot that much.

Well on my flight I had these two ladies who sat in front of me and decided to drop their seats back like there was no tomorrow. Now Aer Lingus, is not exactly Jet Blue, leg room on these planes is at a premium and when the person in front of you decides to drop their head into your lap for a six hour period, man do things get uncomfortable. Luckily the kid who sat next to me and I looked at each other laughed it off and went on with the flight.

So I arrived in Dublin , got picked up by John and mase our way over to Kindle's place. The day itsel was rather uninspiring, watched a little Canadian Football on NASN (North American Sports Network) and grabbed lunch at a pub and the took a five hour nap. It was after this five hour nap that things began. So John and I decided we would grab dinner at a pub called John O'Rourkes in this town called Blakrock. You know great place, friendly atmosphere all the good stuff. But on our way, we drove by this place called Tonic, and the cabbie (much frineldy than previously mentioned yahoo) suggested we try and swing in there at some point during the night. So after we had dinner at O'Rourke's, John and I decided let's venture down there see if the cabbie knew what he was talking about. Well let me tell you, if by chance you ever find yourself in a town called Blakrock on a Friday night and Tonic is open, I highly recommend you go there. All I'll just say is the patrons there are very talented.

All in all and excelent first day here in Ireland. Today it seems as though we will be heading to Wexford to relax and see a few things before baseball begins on Sunday. Mick Manning, President of Baseball Ireland, is having a cookout tonight, so I am looking forward to getting the chance to see him and a few of the other guys.

On a sad note, I got a phone call yestserday from a friend alerting me that a good close friend's younger brother was murdered the other night in Roxbury. The only thing I know is that he shot twice in the chest and that he was only 18 years old. But if you have the chance please keep Marissa Coleman's family in your prayers the next few days, I would greatly appreciate it.

Oh yeah getting access to Al Gore's invention may prove to be more difficult than I thought, so I will do my best to continue to blog as often as I can, but bear with me if I am inactive a couple days here or there.

--EC

Bags are Packed

2006-07-12T12:26:00.000-04:00

Well sort of. I have a list, which is a good start. Well so I am curently rummaging through a few things before tonight's send off and I figured well why not add another posting. My plane leaves Logan tomorrow at 7:30 p.m, so I figure I should get there around 5:00, which means I will need to leave here at like noon, with whole Big Dig fiasco. But truthfully, I will probably leave around 4:30 to give me enough time to get over there settled and get ready for the adventure that awaits me. I am definitely looking forward this particularly some time off with no worries, where I will be able to relax, coach some ball and enjoy this summer. Hey I hope all is well and expect a few more postings once this whole thing begins.
--EC

Toughest Decision

2006-07-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

So recently as I was interviewing for a variety of different jobs, in one of these interviews I was asked the question: What is the hardest decision you have had to make in the past six months? To be honest, this question threw me off at first, but I quickly came to and answered: Well I haven't made the decision quite yet, but there is one looming on the horizon.

Well, I finnally have an answer to that question now. The decision was between taking a job in Boston or personal enjoyment, in the end I chose personal enjoyment. So while I was in Miami last weekend watching the Sox take on the Marlins while visiting some friends, I finally made my decision. I am taking off for Dublin on July 13th, to go and serve as the third base coach the Ireland National Baseball Team. This year being a European Championship Year, I will spend two or three weeks in Dublin working with the team as well as helping run youth baseball clinics in the hopes that the sport will continue to grow. The time spent with the team will be in hopes of getting prepared for the Euros by participating in the Dublin Invitational, a series of tune up games against the Great Britain National Baseball Team in London, and then traveling over to Antwerp, Belguim for the Euros themselves.

I am looking forward to the time I will be spending on a baseball diamond hitting fungoes, playing catch, and working with the players in hopes of helping them improve and get ready to make a run at their first European Championship.

I will be setting up a blog in the next couple of days which will serve as a form of reporting/journal/whatever the f you call it now a days prior to taking off. I have decided I will not be doing it on myspace because I know quite a few people who would be interested in reading this who do not have myspace accounts. I'll post a link once it gets set up. For those of you who followed along the fearless reporting strategy of Old Man Doons, Goo-Goo, and V-Nuts during the World Baseball Classic on the short lived www.redbullvodka.org I may employ some of the same tactics during this venture, but will most likely be doing it in a more serious fashion.

For those of you who will be in or around Boston for the next week, give me a shout. I imagine there will be a lot of booze (see tequila and vodka) involved with this weekend and the early reports indicate that there may be some sort of outing on July 12th for some sort of send off.

Oh, one more thing, when will I return? Great question, I haven't booked my flight back yet, so who knows. Grad school gets going again around labor day, so imagine I will be back by then.
For those who I won't see, have a great rest of the summer and read the blog.

I also wanted to let you know, that I will not be missing the Red Sox, I have an XM satelite radio, with the MLB package, and believe me, that is certainly coming with me. I am already giving up tickets to many games over the next two months (benefits of having seasons) but I couldn't bear not to follow the team in some sort of fashion.