June 12, 2009
Hello again from Omaha!
The team started the day off with a nice little brunch the hotel set up for us. After a couple hours of down time we headed to Rosenblatt for our practice session. It was raining at the time we arrived to the field, so we had to spend some time on the bus. We did go out to take our team picture in front of the famous statue outside the stadium. I was also able to get a couple of pictures in front of it on my own. We were getting mobbed by fans wanting signatures. Finally, when our practice time came up, it was raining even harder. The position players headed toward the indoor batting cages while the pitchers tried to wait out the rain as long as possible. It started to get close to the end of our practice time so all of us needed to get our throwing in so we went out in the pouring rain. Needless to say there were a number of bad throws due to the slippery baseballs. Once we got done with our throwing and running, everyone was soaked. Following our practice time, they had an autograph session for us. There were a ton of people lined up wanting our signatures. There was only a half hour allotted time for the autographs so they had to stop the line even though there was still a line of people wrapped around the stadium. I felt bad, and some of the fans that had been waiting weren't too happy either. We were able to get back to the hotel to change and shower before we went to the opening ceremonies. We started it off with a dinner for all of the teams, and it was delicious. We were able to walk around the Fan Fest area and everyone was getting stopped for autographs and pictures. It really made me feel like a celebrity! It was great. When the ceremony began and we got introduced on the field, I got goosebumps. All the fans were up cheering for us. They had a small award ceremony where our "franchise player" Mike Leake was honored as our best academic athlete. Our night ended with an incredible fireworks show. This was a day I will never forget. We are getting ready for our opening game, and we're ready to try and do something special!
Good night, Devils! - Frenchy, #56