Training Begins

Did I mention everything hurts after the first game? I am in decent shape in general. I can jog 4 miles without stopping. I can hike up the Tepozteco in 20 minutes. Baseball is different. You isolate many core muscles when throwing a baseball and as any injured pitcher can tell you, ligaments and other connective tissue need to be slowly conditioned.

I was invited to train with one of the other pitchers on the team. His name is Ube (pronounced oo-bay). He is all of 17 years old but has an incredible passion to play. He has gone to Monterrey a couple of times to tryout camps for the Mexican professional team "Los Sultanes." He lives in the small village of Yautepec just 15 minutes from my home in Tepoztlan. We practice 2 times a week with a group of young kids from the Yautepec team in the 2nd division.

There are 3 divisions and we are in the 1st. Ube tells me these guys are afraid to be in the 1st division. He also tells me that we have a good team but most of our guys don't practice enough. He says we could be great if they would just apply themselves a bit more. Ube tells me that almost everyone is "old." I ask him what "old" is to a 17 year old and he tells me "they are all around 28." I laugh and ask him how old he thinks I am. He doesn't answer. I laugh again.