What the hell happened?

Alright, I committed the cardinal sin of blogging -- I stopped updating. Bad blogger! Bad, bad, blogger! Okay. My new year's resolution is to update my blog regularly.

So, to quickly update. Jaime's crazy core training routine has really paid off. I am in very good baseball shape. Over the year, I started to pitch better each game, adding more innings. We started to win games. I reached a goal that I never reached even when I was young which is to pitch a complete 9 inning game. The Pirates gained steam and we started to pick up good "free agent" players as we enter into the tournament.

I get invited to play on the "Seleccion de Morelos" or the state baseball team as the #1 starter in a 10-day national tournament in Ixtapa. Then I get disqualified. Why you may ask? Use of a funny steroid laced hand cream? Season ending injury? Caught with "unidentified substance" on the brim of my hat? NO. I WAS DISQUALIFIED FOR BEING TOO OLD!! Yes, that is right. Yes, "ageism" raises its ugly head in Mexico. Last year the Mexican Baseball Federation created a new "Masters" league for 40 and over. Our coach tried in vain to convince the federation that this rule was not meant to disqualify older players but to protect the younger ones. To no avail. I was told two days before the tournament that I couldn't play . . . but that I could be a rookie on the old farts team, uhhh I mean Masters team which had its tournament in Monterrey. I worked really hard to play with the players that are half my age so I was not excited to play with the oldies-but-goodies.

In any event, I needed to travel for business so I could not play with the Masters. As well I had to travel for most of the league tournament and the Piratas got to the semifinals and lost. Our Seleccion de Morelos state team finished 8th in the national tournament -- the best ever for our tiny little state.

I kept on working out with Jaime -- now adding the old-but-now-new medicine ball training as well as a set of exercises meant to reduce probabilities for injuries. He also adds balance and explosivity exercises to help with control and velocity. The season is just about to start. I am feeling good. This is going to be fun.