Michael Sullivan Online

CANBERRA AUSTRALIA - 6 December 2000 - Overall, the passed week was pretty good for Mike. On Wednesday, he had Steve, Stacey, Dave, and Grant, Mike's baseball coach, over for pizza. They enjoyed the meal with a couple drinks. Steve was just getting over a cold and one of the side effects was that he couldn't hear in one ear. That was okay since everyone was relatively quiet. Mostly, everyone needed a break from work.

In this spirit, Mike and Dave went to the Student Union on Friday to shoot pool. Unbelievably, Mike won all but one game over the course of the hour and a half they were there. Mike found that the gentle strategy worked the best instead of his usual power game. Mike and Dave were both stunned by Mike's performance.

On Saturday, Mike and Chris' junior baseball team won without too much trouble 15-5. So far, they are undefeated. On Sunday, Mike played an early game. Things were going okay for the first couple of innings except that Ainslie was behind. Things soon changed for Mike with one play. Mike was catching and the curve ball came in just behind the plate and hopped up to Mike's throat. He looked around for the ball but couldn't find it. The pitcher yelled, "It's behind your chest plate." Mike looked around for anything that seemed to fit the description but just saw the plate and the ground around it. In the meantime, the base runners had advanced. Finally Mike realized that the ball was stuck between his chest protector and his body. The new chest protector had coralled the ball, hiding it from Mike. He was stunned by the shot to his throat. He called time to regain his composure and soon realized he'd lost a contact; when he got hit, he must have winced hard and popped out a contact. He looked around and quickly found it. He put it back in without too much trouble. Things were still blurry though especially out of the other eye. After Ainslie got the last out, Mike went into the dugout and realized both contacts had fallen out. He removed the contact he'd found and wore glasses the rest of the game. In addition, he played in right field. Ainslie mounted a late comeback but came up short. Mike went 1 for 3 with an RBI single. Mike stayed around the field the rest of the day as a backup catcher for the A-Grade doubleheader. He didn't play but helped keep players warmed up and chased foul balls. Even though Ainslie had only won one game out of three, it was a great day to be involved in baseball.

Here ends Mike's thirty first week in Australia.