This week has been my introduction to international baseball competition, and as I sit here just seven hours before we begin play against Spain in the European Championships qualifier in Barcelona, our guys seem pretty relaxed after going through last-minute preparations and reviewing the scouting reports and game plan.
Spain is regarded as the top team in our qualifier and one of the top teams in Europe. I spoke with their head coach, Mauro Mazzotti, on Sunday after our workout, and he said they have a few guys on the roster that play Minor League ball back in the states, and several others who could have. The good thing about playing a team who is the clear favorite is that you can play loose, knowing nothing is expected of you and all the pressure will be on them should the score be close late in the game.
Spain beat Finland bad yesterday in their first game, 15-0, but the Finnish team committed 10 errors and made things much easier on the Spaniards. I mentioned to our guys that Spain isn’t a team that’s going to beat itself, that our margin for error is close to none. I said that our focus should be on not giving up the extra bases the Finnish gave them, and to try and take the extra base and apply pressure on them whenever we have to opportunity to do so.
The city of Barcelona is gorgeous (see some pictures in the link below). It’s very historic, full of diversity, and there are some great views from our hotel and various other tourist spots around the city. We are playing our games in the tournament at the Olympic baseball stadium, and toured the Olympic grounds between watching the two games that were played yesterday. I’ve got to admit, it was pretty cool throwing batting practice to our guys on Sunday at our workout on the Olympic field with the huge torch casting a shadow over the field less than 100 yards away.
I’ll post again later this week with an update on how well we’re doing, and on any other adventures we might have. Bon Jovi is performing at the Olympic Stadium on Wednesday night, so we may check that out, and perhaps may hit a bull-fighting match on Sunday night.
Until then, Beszélni, hogy hamar! (Talk to you soon).
Barcelona Pictures