Gardner WebLog

Sitting on the bus with my ipod on to drain out the sound of other players talking on their cell phones, flipping through a magazine and half paying attention to the DVD playing in the background, I have to wonder what it must have been like to play on a team 30 years ago when none of this stuff existed.  Well, except magazines…

Were the teams closer-knit as a result of their having to interact socially with each other on long road trips?  At no other time is our team physically closer to one another than when we’re on the bus, but I think it’s when we speak to each other the least.  Those who aren’t attached to their ipods are talking on the phone, and anyone else is watching the DVD playing on the bus’s entertainment system.

On the way back from our last trip to Southern California, the bus was having issues, so our driver turned the movie off, came on the loudspeaker and said, “Well boys, headquarters told me that we need to turn off all the extra electronic equipment in the bus if we’re gonna make it home, so night-night!”  All the running lights turned off, and we were in the middle of I-5, doing 75 mph with nothing to do.  Someone started a game of categories, which got old, because that’s what we do during games, not after them.

Then, someone suggested that since the lights were off, we make a covert excursion to the back of the bus.  Why not?  Well, we couldn’t just go back there, we had to make it like we were Navy SEALS and have call signs and everything.  One guy started army-crawling rearwards, trying to scare a fellow player sitting in the back, and was taken prisoner by the back of the bus ‘rebels.’  Five minutes later, all hell broke loose.  We were in full ‘manhunt’ mode.  They launched a counter attack, and we snagged one of their guys.  Thankfully, our man who’d been taken prisoner was an athletic center-fielder, and he hopped over about ten bus seats back to safety.  Meanwhile, we’d bribed our own captive with magazines and candy, and he didn’t want to go back.

The funniest part of this whole situation was that it all seemed so fun, but looking back on it, we were a bunch of 23 and 24 year olds playing around like 10 year old kids.  Our third baseman speared someone running full speed down the center aisle!  It was awesome.  None of the coaches even woke up, and the bus driver was too worried about whether the thing would make it back to
San Jose.

These weird episodes where we all lapse back into childhood make it fun, and keep the mood light.  Nobody’s making money, few are moving up, but we’re winning games and every once in awhile get to act like we’re 10 years old again.