Kyle in Poland: Day 1-2

On March 30, I began my journey overseas. Thankfully, my brother-in-law Caleb Wortham agreed to go with me and stay for a week.

Our first flight was from Oklahoma City to Denver, and it was the first time I’d ever flown in a plane. I quickly learned that flying is not the most fun experience, but if you don’t think about it too much, it is manageable.

The first flight lasted roughly an hour and a half. Before we landed, you could see the Rocky Mountains in the background, which was very neat. It was the first time I had seen real mountains with my own eyes.

 The first landing was easily the roughest of the three flights. Caleb said it was the worst one he’d ever had. We even sat across the aisle from a man who was a pilot, and he was shaking his head afterward.

Once we were in the Denver International Airport, a notoriously strange airport, we had a layover that lasted a few hours. We walked around, ate some Chick-fil-A, sat for a while, and grabbed some snacks before our next flight. Unfortunately, we were in the tame part of DIA, so we never saw anything strange.

Our next flight was from Denver to Munich, Germany. This one lasted roughly nine and a half hours. Our plane was massive, with three seats on the left, middle, and right side. We flew Lufthansa, a German company, so our announcements were primarily in German, the entire crew was German, and we ate that style of food as well.

The flight was painfully long, the type that makes you not want to fly nearly ten hours again. Thankfully, there was a screen monitor in front of me. On there, we could see an animated map with the flight path, how long it would take, how fast we were going, how high the elevation was, and the distance we were to major cities, including our destination.

They gave us earphones, so we also had the option of watching tv. I watched an episode of the Frozen Planet II documentary and two movies. We ate a beef stew meal with mashed potatoes, broccoli, and carrots. It was a bit different, but I ate it.

Finally, after it felt the time would never come, we landed in Germany, a beautiful and green country.

Once we landed, we knew we would have to really hustle to the next terminal and gate if we wanted to make it on time. We rushed around the airport and found our way to the shuttle that would take us to the opposite side. It was ridiculously fast, and we made it to the right area in no time.

After going through customs, we had a decent idea about where to go. The trek there was miserable, however, due to my heavy backpack and dragging/carrying along a suitcase. We made it to the gate with less than ten minutes to spare but we were ready to head to Gdansk, Poland.

Back on another small plane, we could feel every bump in the road once again, so to speak. They passed out water from Denmark and German chocolate, both were good. This was another hour and a half flight, and we soon arrived in Poland a little bit after noon, but it was 5:00 a.m. central time so we were incredibly tired.

After we landed, we went to pick up our bags we checked in at OKC. We waited for all the bags to go around, but ours never appeared. We then had to make our way to the lost baggage office and fill out paperwork where they told us the bags would arrive that night.

When we walked out of the airport, we were greeted by my coach, Greg. We got into his car and started toward Wladyslawowo.

The ride was certainly interesting. Greg is a talker, so we heard all about Polish politics, history, his baseball origin story, the team, and some views about America from the outside in. The places we drove through were fairly nice and I thought it was funny to see a couple American fast-food chains, KFC and McDonald’s.

After about an hour, we made it to Wladyslawowo.

For our first order of business, we went to a couple stores. Since we didn’t have our bags yet, Greg hooked us up with some basic travel supplies and groceries.

Next, we drove out to the baseball field to get a look and take a picture for the team’s social media pages.

Finally, for our last stop, we made it to the apartment I will be staying in. It is a small little room with a couch, bathroom, and shower all in it. There is a teeny tiny community kitchen on the next floor up that has a microwave, stove, fridge, and sink.

Now, having slept only one hour since I awoke the previous morning, I was obviously exhausted. Caleb slept a little on the plane ride overseas and most of the one to Gdansk. As a result, we slept off and on for approximately the next 24 hours. We honestly could have kept going, but I had to wake up and get ready for practice.

Now, it is important to note that during the middle of our sleeping marathon, Greg had brought our suitcases from the airport, which was very nice of him. We had all our stuff in one place, and were officially ready for business.

After getting dressed and going through my daily stretches and arm exercises, we walked about 5 minutes down to the local school. Since the temperature is in the low 30s, we practice inside a gym, thankfully.

We got there early and met some of the guys. The team is comprised mostly of Polish guys, of course, but there is a Belarussian, two Japanese, and myself, the lone American. The two guys from Japan, Masa and Taku, are both around my age, are good players, and live inside the apartment as well.

Our warmup, since we were in a gym, was basketball. We played a pickup game of full-court 5 on 5. I didn’t realize that they played until a team scored 30 points. For a squad with non-basketball players, it went incredibly long, as you would expect. Due to me being out of shape, the warmup quickly turned into a full-fledged workout. I didn’t shoot well at the beginning, but toward the end I found a little bit of a rhythm and made a few mid-range jump shots, my favorite.

Once the marathon game was finished, we stretched and played catch.

If you don’t know, I played nearly every position growing up and in high school. Once I went to college, however, I transitioned into strictly being a pitcher only, a PO.

Now, I am expected to not only pitch but be a position player as well.

After our team played catch, we went through many rounds of ground balls. At first, I wore my first baseman’s glove and caught in. It was neat to gauge the arm strength and accuracy of every throw. After a little while, I grabbed my normal glove, got in line, and fielded a few groundballs myself.

Once that portion of practice was completed, a couple bases were set out and we worked on double plays from the perspective of second base and short stop. It was fun fielding and making throws that I hadn’t done in years.

The next part of practice was hitting. Hitting is all about timing and reps, both of which I have been lacking since the final game of my high school career. I was a bit nervous, to be honest.

The first station I went to was not a tee, but a machine feeding squishy baseballs to me at a decent speed. I told myself I had nothing to lose, and it would be fun.

After watching a couple pitches to gauge location and speed, I started swinging at them. I think I caught myself off-guard when I made fantastic contact on the first pitch. After that, I was a mix of rolling over with a groundball to the left side, missing it, or getting great barrels.

The next station I went to was front toss. I was pleasantly surprised at how good my Polish teammate was at tossing. We use wood bats in this league, and it was a great reminder of how fantastic the sounds and feelings are after hitting a baseball with a wooden bat. I hit some nice barrels, a few roll overs, and concluded hitting practice.

Then, my coach called me over from across the room to be next in line to throw a bullpen. After Taku was finished, I warmed up and threw about 15 pitches. Having been exhausted from traveling, practice, and not eating, I was obviously pretty gassed.

I pitched decent, but not near my capability. My fastballs were nearly all strikes, and my changeup and curveballs were decent, but my velocity was down, as you would expect.

Once that was over, practice was essentially finished. I did some bands for recovery and loosened up my muscles with a roller.

I packed up my equipment and Caleb and I walked back to the apartment.

When we got back, we were absolutely starving. The day before, we were so exhausted that we chose sleep over food, so it had been a long time since we had a meal.

That was when Caleb stepped into the tiny kitchen and went to work. Using the ingredients we got from the grocery store the previous day, he cooked some pierogis, a famous and popular Polish dish, with kielbasa, Polish smoked sausage.

The end result was fantastic. Granted, we were starving so that certainly contributed, but it was a great first meal in the country.

Greg made another stop by the apartment and we got another rundown on all things Polish, from history, to government, foreign relations, you name it.

Once he left, we settled in for the night and snoozed for a while.

March 30 to April 1 was a complete whirlwind, but not even that could prepare us for what was to come the next day.

Check back for the next story soon!