Hello again!  Lucas May here with the Surprise Rafters.  Looking back on the first games of the Fall League here in Arizona, I am reminded of the first games of spring and the first games of the regular season.  Nothing is more exciting than getting to spring training and playing in those first games after a long off-season.  And finally when spring training gets a little repetetive, the first games of the regular season roll around.  The excitement is back in the air, and everyone on the team is eager to find their niche and get into their daily routine.  The first week in the Fall League was a lot like any first week of baseball.  For myself, it was all about getting into a routine and getting back into the swing of things.

The best part of the first week, for me, was finally seeing what all of our guys could do in a game setting.  Whether it be Wes Hodges hitting go ahead three run homers in two consecutive games to Matt Wieters going 9 straight at bats without getting out, to Brian Matusz having a stellar pro debut, that makes it easy to overlook the record we compiled this week of 2 and 3.  It was also fun to see my fellow Dodgers hold their own. Russ Mitchell in his Fall League debut had a hit and a couple of RBIs and Jamie Hoffmann got his typical two hits per game with a few RBIs as well. 

As for myself, it was fun getting back into action behind the plate.   The guys on our staff showed pretty good command for the first week, a few bumps in the road here and there.  I feel like my catching is coming along pretty good as I had a few blocks in key situations this week.  For me, improvement on my catching is my number one goal here in the Fall League, and the first week was a step in the right direction.

Our team has a passion for the game of baseball….but surpassing our passion of this game is the passion for college football.  On Saturdays our clubhouse is littered with tee shirts from all corners of the country, representing different colleges.  Every TV is on a different game before we go out for our own game.  If we can spend half the energy we spend talking trash about college football on our baseball…surely we will have success! 

I’d like to shout out to my little brother Steve May and the rest of his baseball buddies who are grinding it out at Army at West Point!  Thanks for checking up on me, and I’m always checking up on you guys.  

Thanks for reading this week and I’ll be back for another post on Monday.  Take it easy!