An Afternoon with USA Baseball

by snakecharmer on Aug 1, 2008 5:12 PM EDT

I love the San Francisco Bay Area for a lot of reasons, but on Tuesday, I was really glad I live here. In case you haven't heard, every single Olympic athlete passes through the walkways of San Jose State University (my alma mater!) to pick up uniforms and passes and I don't know what else. (Sadly, I'm not involved with that.) Most of the time, they only stay one night, and you don't know even when which teams are coming by.

But on Saturday, I learned that the Olympic Team USA Baseball team was having an open practice and autograph session!! Not only that, but it turns out that our very own Mike Koplove is on the team!! :) So a friend and I went down to watch the batting practice and get autographs, but mainly, I wanted to say hi to Mike, because he was one of my original Favorite Diamondbacks when I became a fan and started getting autographs. He always stopped and said hi to me, and I was really bummed when he went back down to AAA. (He's now at AAA Las Vegas with the Dodgers.) Anyway, as people lined up for autographs and waited for the guys to end their practice, I was already down in the dugout, and I waited as Mike changed his shoes and then I called his name. He remembered me, and he came over! :) So we chatted for a little while! I'm such a doofus unless I have questions written down (then I'd be fine, I swear)... but basically, he just really wants to come back up to the bigs, with anybody. I told him we could use the help, hehe. He's looking forward to China, and his wife's coming out for a week with him.

They are all walking in the Opening Ceremony but they are coming home before the Closing Ceremony, coming back to their MLB teams as soon as they can. There are a lot of good players on the team, including Matt LaPorta (Indians) and Nate Schierholtz (Giants). During BP, some of these guys were hitting MONSTER shots over the outfield walls. They will definitely be fun to watch! :)

Below are some of the photos we took, and there's a link to the picasa album at the bottom. Enjoy!!!

Yeah, I made the sign, but I was given the ball and hat! ;)

Team USA Open Baseball Practice

2 recs | Comment 11 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Awesome story

I always find it a shame that the US has never entered a full all star quality team into the Olympics. This has been cited as one major reason that Baseball has been taken out of the Olympics for 2012, a fact that is particularly dissapointing to me as I live an hour from London :(

So...time for another drink then?

by Wimb on Aug 1, 2008 6:56 PM EDT 0 recs

Thanks! :)

Yeah, it is too bad that other countries are able to send their major leaguers, and we don’t. Why use them for the “World Cup” and not the Olympics?? I don’t get it…

I noticed the other that that Jon Rauch’s tattoo on his neck is the Olympic rings – I didn’t know this before, but he was on the 2000 Gold Medal team in Sydney.

I too am so sad that baseball was taken out for 2012!! :( (And so jealous that London got the games but that’s another story.) I asked one of the guys that, and he said they definitely need to make a good showing, and they are pressing for it to be added back for 2016, particularly if Chicago or Tokyo get the games.

by snakecharmer on Aug 2, 2008 2:08 PM EDT up 0 recs

Olympic baseball in Chicago would be pretty cool. I wonder if they’d be able to convince MLB to send the Cubs and White Sox on a long road trip and have the Olympic teams playing in Wrigley and Comiskey.

Thanks for the pictures and the report! I’m looking forward to seeing how our team does in Beijing.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

by kishi on Aug 2, 2008 2:17 PM EDT up 0 recs

I'm sure that's what they'd do

I haven’t read the plans, but I’m sure a lot of the big games would be played in the MLB parks, because what other stadiums are there up there? Maybe a college park, an A team or AAA? That probably wouldn’t work very well…

by snakecharmer on Aug 2, 2008 2:32 PM EDT up 0 recs

The main problem

Is that the Olympics are dead in the middle of the major-league season, so MLB would need to come to another halt [as well as for the All-Star break] in order to accommodate the tournament. I think the WBC may have been the final straw, as it was just a month after the announcement of the event, that the IOC yanked baseball from the Olympics.

Did you know Augie Ojeda was on the 1996 bronze-medal team? [Along with other former D-backs, in Travis Lee and Troy Glaus] So that’s two Olympic medalists on the roster…

by Jim McLennan on Aug 2, 2008 2:55 PM EDT up 0 recs

USA BASEBALL

Thank you for your support of the baseball team. I am the dad of Nate Schierholtz and want to thank you for the pictures you took of him. The family thought it was a closed practice and didn’t attend.
Do you know Nate or get to meet him? there was an AP story on how he hit one over the fence onto a condo roof. That was nice press for the first BP. also KCBS has a short interview of him and other bay area Olympians on their web site.
thanks again
Vai Schierholtz

by olympian! on Aug 2, 2008 2:36 AM EDT 0 recs

I met you Mr. Nate Shierholtz's Dad...

...at the Giants Fan Fest down on the Pier in 2006. I was working the Grizzlies booth. I have followed Nate’s career since I left the org and am ecstatic that he is doing so well. Best wishes to you and your family.

by Red Reign on Aug 2, 2008 2:46 AM EDT up 0 recs

Hello, sir!

Thank you for coming by! I’m sorry you missed out on the practice, Nate hit a few good homers. Yes, my friend Angela and I are fans of Nate. Angela has known of him since his days as a San Jose Giant, it was a lot of fun for her to meet him.

I do actually have another photo of Nate that I didn’t include in the album. Is it alright that I email it to you? Is the email address you registered with okay to use? :)

by snakecharmer on Aug 2, 2008 2:03 PM EDT up 0 recs

Congratulations

on your son being selected for Team USA!!

Mark Reynolds: back to turning me gay.

by DbacksSkins on Aug 4, 2008 11:09 AM EDT up 0 recs

Thank you for

your writeup and great photos! I’ve been watching the Olympics since the 1960’s when I was a kid and plan to watch as much as possible this time around and will be rooting on Team USA baseball and all the athletes come Aug. 8. Go USA!

by TwinnerA on Aug 2, 2008 10:58 AM EDT 0 recs

You're welcome! :)

I’m glad it was interesting. I didn’t have time to do as much research before going so I didn’t know as many of the players there as I should’ve. It was great fun, though, just to meet some of the guys who would be representing the US of A!

by snakecharmer on Aug 2, 2008 2:11 PM EDT up 0 recs