The games are finally here!

Good morning Everyone!

It is finally Monday, which marks the beginning of our tournament!  After practicing in Mexico for five days now, I can’t wait to finally play games.  Our first game this afternoon is against Puerto Rico, who we had the opportunity to play a scrimmage game against on Saturday.  But we ended up only tying 1-1.  It was our first time playing together since the World Cup in Oklahoma this past summer and our first time playing on the stadium field.  You wouldn’t think that playing on a particular field would make that much of a difference………but obviously you have yet to see this field.

We arrived at the Complex for the first time on Friday afternoon for BP (batting practice) on the soccer fields behind the Stadium.  As we passed by the field, we were able to sneak a peak at the brand new arena we are to play all of our games on. 

The first think I noticed was the outfield grass.  It is a turf field.  Awesome, right? Don’t have to worry about any bad hops or wet grass?  Wrong.  This turf is almost entirely black, meaning the field crew filled it to the brim with the little black rubber turf pieces usually found in between and underneath the plastic grass-like blades.   This means, when any ball is hit in the air and bounces, you can expect a bounce of up to 20 feet high (and in some cases, over your head).  On this field, routine singles turn to triples and doubles turn to in the park homeruns. 

A standard international ball field has its’ fence at 220 feet.  Upon arriving at the field for the first time, we saw “240 ft” written in the left and right field corners of the stadium, indicating that the field was too big.  On top of that, instead of a standard breakaway fence, we are dealing with a twenty-foot high cement wall with a ten-foot tall chain link fence on top of it.  With this outfield and wall, you never know what to expect.  Playing on this outfield will be a challenge, but after a solid day of practice in the Stadium, it is one our outfield is entirely prepared for.

After leaving the field on Friday, we arrived on Saturday morning to something pretty interesting.  The little numbers in the left and right field corners had been changed from “240 ft” to “220 ft”.  Keep in mind that the cement wall had not moved.  Really Guadalajara? My teammates and I thought it was hilarious.  Who is really going to believe that is 220 feet away from home plate?  When our team has BP on the field and not a single person can hit it over the fence, you know it isn’t 220 feet away.  Although it seems like a small issue, it really changes our team strategy.  Homeruns turn into easy outs and pitches you hit on the wrong part of the bat bloop in for doubles.  On a regulation size field, our game against Puerto Rico was a 4-1 win…on this field we ended up tied 1-1.  After Friday’s game, the Puerto Rican team thinks that they can compete with our team.  Today we have to go out there, make a statement and send a message.  Today it is our job to make adjustments and absolutely crush this young Puerto Rican team.  Today we have to show them what a Gold medal team looks like.

Before leaving for the stadium at 1:30PM for our 4PM game, we have a little pre-pre game hitting circuit to do in the Village, preparing us for tonight.  I can’t believe that the time is finally here.  It is finally time for us to represent Canada proudly on our chests and embark on our path to the Gold medal game.  I can’t wait.

Aaaaaah they just announced Canada won two more Bronze medals, I’ve got to go congratulate my fellow athletes! GOOO CANADA!

Love,

Victoria