Zach

Tuesday, June 17, 2014 & Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Hey everyone, it's Zach. I had to practice at the minor league field for two days since my working visa wasn't ready. On my locker is the number 9 and Lutz in Japanese. When you walk inside you have to take off your shoes and put on sandals to walk into the locker room. When I got to my locker there was a huge bag filled with equipment for me. I changed into my full uniform and walked to the door in my sandals. I changed into my running shoes for warmup. Warmup is 10 minutes on your own and then we break up into 3 lines. The first line is the young guys who are 18-20 years old. The second line is the older guys who are 21-24 years old. The third line is the veteran guys, myself included. The young guys have it tough. The trainer blows the whistle and the first group does high knees for about 30-45 seconds, the second group for about 10-15 seconds, and the third group for about 1 second. Then, we do a light jog. Next, the young guys do tuck jumps, squat thrusts, high knees, and line jumps. The second and third groups do about 5 seconds of tuck jumps. Man do I feel bad for the young guys! After warmup, I played catch with Kaki. He is my new buddy. He is only 19 years old and he is a stud. Then, we did PFP (Pitchers Fielding Practice) and everything must be done to perfection. After PFP, Kaki and I did ground balls for about 15-20 minutes. When we were finished with ground balls, we did BP (Batting Practice). My favorite! BP is thrown directly in front of the mound. Back home when you take BP, the coach is right in front of you. The coach says Lutz "OP," meaning own program. I just hit and hit and hit. The fields are all turf so it takes a little to get used to. I do sprints and ride the stationary bike for my conditioning. My first experience here was great. I can't wait to get my visa so I can play and help the Major League Team. For lunch, I had a bowl of rice. On top of the one side of the rice was scrambled eggs and on top of the other side of the rice was ground meat. I also had a salad and chicken.
I like how everybody is so polite and how the younger players bow to the older players to show respect. My favorite thing about Japan is the atmosphere and my least favorite thing is taking the subway.
When it comes down to being so far away from the US, baseball is still the same game. You have to have fun playing. I wouldn't be here if I didn't love the game.
The pictures below are of my new luggage, backpack, and my translator, Yo. He is my buddy here in Japan.