TRIVIA CONTEST

Hey what's going on everyone? As most of you know I have a baseball YouTube page where I post advice about all different aspects of baseball. I decided to give away a pair of Under Armor batting gloves  to the first person who answers a trivia question correctly. You can watch the video below for details. Good luck!

ROAD TRIP

How is everyone doing tonight? We just finished up a quick two game series in Durham, North Carolina against the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and are on our way to Louisville, Kentucky. The travel time is scheduled for nine hours, but we usually make a pit stop at Burger King or McDonald's around midnight, so I'm guessing we pull into our hotel around 8 in the morning. I've been MIA the last few weeks so I figured this would be a good time to get back to writing a little bit since I've got spare time.

I've had a few interesting things happen to me in the past few days. Last week we played a series in Batavia, New York, which is always fun this time of year. Out of the four scheduled games one was cancelled because of rain and one because of a snow storm. Here's a look at the field about two hours into the storm.

When we got back home to Norfolk, Laura flew down for the weekend and decided to take me out for a belated birthday dinner at Ruth's Chris. In the middle of eating my filet I realized a giant portion of my 11oz steak was lodged in my throat/chest. For some reason in a moment of panic I thought the best idea was to throw up my entire dinner in the corner of the booth we were seated in. I know it sounds gross, but it saved my life. And I'm sorry Ruth's Chris.

A few days after embarrassing myself in front of a full restaurant I decided to foul a ball off of my left foot during my first at-bat of our game. I've missed the last two games in an attempt to regain the feeling I lost. I'm hoping I will be able to play in the game tomorrow. I actually thought I broke my foot the day after, but it was feeling much better today so that's a good sign I think.

At yesterday's game in Durham our game was delayed three hours because of heavy thunderstorms. Our 5 PM game finally began at 8PM even though there was still a light rain falling on the field. Around 8:30 the rain finally quit for five minutes, during which time every sprinkler on the field turned on and began soaking the field. I'm still convinced it was someone on our teams last ditch effort to get the game cancelled and allow us to watch the Mayweather vs. Cotto fight. Anyways, once the grounds crew figured out how to shut off the water it began to pour again and the game was officially postponed until the following day.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I've successfully cut down my travel time from nine hours to eight hours and forty minutes. Last night I feel asleep while watching Contraband with my main man Marky Mark. I think its time to finish that up. I hope you all enjoy your night!

TRAVEL DAY FROM HELL

The worst thing about a Minor League season is without a doubt the travel schedule. After finishing a game, packing, and eating, you get into bed around 1 AM and have to be up in three hours to catch a bus to the airport. Two connecting flights and a few delays for mechanical issues later and it's time to head to the field. The good news is, in four days you will be doing it all over again. That is the Pacific Coast League in a nutshell. Lucky for me, I now play in the International League where we prefer 8 hour bus rides over plane flights. Some guys don't like the idea of long bus trips, but I will take those over 6 AM plane flights any day of the week.

Yesterday we were heading to Gwinett, Georgia for a four game series with the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. It was one of those rare times in the IL when we were actually flying instead of busing. I walked into the parking garage of my apartment complex at around 5:45 AM to take the quick ride over to our stadium where the team bus was waiting to take us to the Norfolk airport. The only problem was, my car was no longer in my parking garage. Apparently, it had been towed that morning because I was "illegally" parked in a YMCA parking spot. I still can't get over the fact that I was parked in my apartments parking garage, that I pay for, but because I was in one of the 100 empty spots designated for the YMCA across the street my car gets towed.

Anyways, I was going on the road for an eight game road trip, and the storage fees over at the tow yard meant if I left the car there until I got back I would essentially be playing for free this week. I've been working non-stop (Laura's been working non-stop) the past 24 hours trying to get someone to head over and pick up my car in an attempt to save me the $750 dollars it would cost to pick it up when I return from New York. Luckily, I have someone going over today to pick it up for me.

The funny thing is, that wasn't my only problem. I had left my dress shoes in the car and was planning on changing into them when I arrived at the bus. Now I was stuck having to wear a pinstriped suit with my super stylish gray Puma sneakers, one of the worst looking things I've ever seen. I know you're probably thinking it's not that big of a deal, but having to answer the question of "Why the @#$% are you wearing sneakers with a suit?!?!" from 30 teammates over and over and over again for the next three hours was the shitty part. I still think some guys don't believe the "car towing" story and just think after I realized I possessed the worst dressing habits in the league I decided to come up with an excuse to make myself look like less of an idiot. Check out this sweet style.

A few guys actually took some candid full body shots of me, so hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of them and make it my Facebook profile picture. Anyways, here's to hoping my car is returned safely in the next few hours and I find a nice shoe store somewhere here in Georgia. Until then, I shall talk with you all later.

NORFOLK

I have finally arrived in Norfolk, Virginia for the start of the 2012 season. This Spring Training was by far the fastest spring I have ever experienced in my six year career. I still feel like I just arrived in Sarasota a few days ago and it has already been seven weeks. Anyways, we open the regular season up tomorrow night in Charlotte, North Carolina against the Chicago White Sox Triple-A team. As I type this, we are on a bus making the five and a half hour trip down south. This is my first time ever traveling on a sleeper bus, which may just be the coolest thing I have ever experienced. We have a beautiful big screen television, outlets for our electronics, wifi that is actually going fast enough for me to browse the Internet, and beds that are more comfortable than the one I slept in last night at my apartment.

Speaking of apartments, I moved into my new place a few days ago. The first few years of my professional career I would chose low price over comfort when it came to my living arrangements for the summer. After realizing that when it comes to apartment living you definitely get what you pay for, I've changed my strategy over the last few years and now go with something that I will enjoy living in for the five month season, even if it costs me a little more money. Anyways, after walking into my new apartment I knew right away it was going to be a good summer. Comfortable sofa, nice size television, working appliances, and good water pressure. I was pretty damn excited, that is until I decided to go to sleep. I found out rather quickly that we have a light rail transit system that I swear passes directly through my bedroom. Starting at around six AM and repeating every five minutes until I wave the white flag and get out of bed, I listen to a mini train pass directly outside my bedroom window. I can't describe how torturous the sound is, but this should give you a good idea.

When we return to Norfolk on Sunday night I'm going to first try a sound machine app on my IPhone. If that doesn't work, I may go with a heavy duty fan or maybe some earplugs, although I don't know how comfortable that will be. If you have any good ideas please let me know!

For some positive news, there is a Chipotle about one minute from my apartment. I know it is quite sad, but the first thing I did when looking at apartments was to check how far the nearest Chipotle was located. If only they had some type of reward system similar to frequent flyer miles. I swear, if I ever become a Major League player good enough to be on a commercial, I will sign the first exclusive deal with Chipotle in return for a lifetime supply of burritos.

Well, I think I may take a little nap before we arrive in North Carolina so I will talk to you all later on. Take care!

SPRING TRAINING UPDATE 3-19

Hey what's going on everyone? I've been M.I.A. over the last month or so for good reason. Out of the sixteen hours I have available during my day, I've spent about 90% of it either at the field or eating food. I actually haven't gone on my computer in almost a week, which is very strange considering I spend so much of my day during my off-season on this thing. Today is my first and only day off during the Spring, giving me some free time finally to get on here and say hello.

I've now been down in Sarasota, Florida for over four weeks now. So far this spring we've played seventeen official games and three scrimmages. I've had the chance to start in five of the games at second base and come off the bench in the other twelve at second, short stop, and third. It feels great to be back out on the field again after such a long off-season. I've had a great time so far adjusting to a new team and meeting everyone associated with the club. I actually feel like I've been a part of this team for years, and not only a month. We have a great bunch of guys here, from the players, to the staff, and everyone else associated with the team. I can already tell I am really going to enjoy myself this summer. I will try my best to keep everyone up to date with how things continue to progress over these last few weeks of the Spring, and if you want the CliffsNotes version you can follow me on Twitter right here ---> Mattantonelli9

It has been a lot easier to find the time to interact on Twitter lately, so that is probably the best place to catch me.

I wish I had more to talk about, but I've honestly spent about 12 hours a day at the field ever since I've arrived in Sarasota a month ago. I hope everyone has a great day and I will be talking to everyone later!

DAY ONE OF SPRING TRAINING

I witnessed something yesterday for the first time in my baseball career, so I figured it's only right that I share. I was standing in the outfield grass shagging baseballs during our batting practice session when a home run ball was hit over our left field fence. If you've ever been to our Spring Training complex here in Sarasota you know that beyond the left field fence of one of our practice fields is a main stretch of road where traffic flows about forty MPH in four lanes, two heading north and two heading south. As the ball landed squarely on the road and came to a stop, an oncoming driver thought it was a good idea to slam on their breaks, jump out of their car, and rush through oncoming traffic to retrieve the ball. The guy came about two feet from getting killed by a van that was barely able to swerve out of his way. Standing about one hundred feet away in centerfield I could actually hear the driver of the van scream, "Look out!!!!" out of his open window. I know retrieving home run balls can be exciting and I've seen chaos ensue after home run balls like Barry Bonds' 756th and Derek Jeter's 3000th hit, but risking your life for a $10 ball you can pick up on EBay probably isn't the best idea.

Anyways, after being down here in Sarasota for about a week, we officially had our first team practice of the spring. After going through our yearly physicals we took the field around noon for some bunt defense, fielding, and hitting. Although it felt like it was 100 degrees with 100% humidity after becoming accustomed to the 30 and 40 degree days in the northeast, I survived the day and enjoyed myself. We have about a week or so of practices before our first game on March 5th, so I will start to go a little more in depth over the next few days about some of the things happening on the field. Since it's still only day one of waking up at 6 AM and my body has not yet adapted, it's time for me to hit the hay. I will talk to you later.

SARASOTA

We have finally arrived in Sarasota, Florida after driving 26 hours from our home in Massachusetts. Our trip originally consisted of splitting the drive into three days, but after encountering a few unexpected twists, it was completed in only two. The first day we drove about nine hours and stopped just outside of Washington D.C. We planned on driving eight hours the next day and stopping in Savannah, Georgia for the night, but after arriving there around 9 PM we decided we might as well continue driving in hopes of arriving ahead of schedule.

We pulled into Jacksonville, Florida around midnight to find a hotel and get a good nights sleep. After walking into a Holiday Inn Express we were told that every hotel in the Jacksonville area was sold out because of a go-cart event and something to do with an aquarium. We were forced to jump back on the road and drive out of town in search of another hotel. The drive from Jacksonville to Sarasota was still four hours away and I really didn't feel I had the energy to go all the way through after already driving over twelve hours that day.

For the next three hours we called every single hotel in Florida in search of a vacant room and successfully found zero. You probably think I'm joking around when I say this, but we seriously did not find one single hotel that had an open room. Here is the call log I started after leaving Jacksonville around midnight. This is only eight of the sixteen calls I placed, and Laura was simultaneously doing the same thing on her phone. I have never seen an entire state be out of hotels before, but somehow it happened the one night we needed one. Needless to say we drove the four hours and arrived in Sarasota a little after 4 AM.

As fun as it was searching for a hotel for three straight hours, that was not the only excitement I was privileged to along our trip. If any of you have been following my blog for a few years you will remember our first road trip to Spring Training in Peoria, Arizona in 2010. If you don't remember, here is a quick video of what that trip looked like. This is part II of the trip, so if you want to see part I you can find it on YouTube.

Anyways, as you can see, Laura somehow found a way to get us off the main highway and onto a one lane service road in the middle of the state of Texas after I allowed her to drive for three and a half minutes. This time around, while driving through Virginia, I thought it would be a good idea to let her drive once again. As you will see, some things never change.

She somehow managed to get us off the highway and onto a one lane road with a 25 MPH speed limit. I'm all for sight seeing, but when you've already been on the road for ten hours and have more than fifteen remaining the last thing I want to do is check out some good farm land. This is exactly why when divvying up the drive time between the two of us, it goes like this. Four hours for me, ten minutes for Laura, four more hours for me, five minutes for Laura. Have a great day!

SPRING TRAINING DRIVE

I officially set out for the 24 hour drive from my hometown to Sarasota, Florida for the start of the 2012 baseball season. Last night after Laura got out of work, we left Boston around 5:30 PM and drove about eight hours until we reach Washington D.C. The trip actually went fairly smoothy until we reached Baltimore and got stuck behind what seemed to be a car accident that left drivers walking around the highway for around forth-five minutes waiting for traffic to begin moving again. We stopped for dinner in New Haven, Connecticut to grab pizza at Frank Pepe's. Have any of you ever grabbed a pizza from there before? From what everyone says it serves legendary pizza. I thought it was a good pizza for sure, but I didn't think it was the greatest pizza I've ever had. Just wondering what you guys thought.

Anyways, I did happen to see something last night that I've never witnessed before in my lifetime. As I approached a toll both entering Baltimore, I rolled down my window to give the woman my $4.00 and realized she really didn't have any intentions of grabbing it. She had fallen asleep while sitting in her chair, snoring and totally out cold. I tried to get her attention but she wasn't budging. It was about 1:00 AM, but I've traveled around the country a lot through the night and have never witnessed a toll both attendant sleeping on the job. I hope she isn't an Orioles fan and ends up reading this calling her out, but it was pretty funny. I really wasn't sure what the hell I was suppose to do. I couldn't drive through without paying because I would have gotten a ticket, and she had no intentions of waking up. Laura told me to take a picture of her but I couldn't find my phone, and would have felt awkward waking her mid-flash. Instead, Laura stuck her head out the window and screamed, "Hello!!!!!" The best part was the women jumps out of her seat, tells me $17.00 is my change, and goes right back into work mode like she had been awake the entire time. Some people just weren't cut out for life on the road.

Well, we are about to head out for the second day of our trip in a few minutes. I'm thinking we will drive and stop in either Savannah, Georgia or Jacksonville, Florida, depending on how tired I am later tonight and how far I feel like driving. I'm sure by the time I get into my hotel tonight I'll have something else that I will have witnessed for the first time. It's time to jump on the road so I'll talk to you all later!