Hello Sports Fans and thank you for taking the time to check out my blog this week! This is the last week for the Arizona Fall League and unfortunately this will be my last blog as well. This blogging experience for me has been outstanding and I would like to thank all those who have checked in regularly. These past 7-8 weeks have been great for me and I’ve gained a lot by being able to share my experiences with you through all of my blogs. I’ve also learned a lot about myself on the field as a baseball player, I now know and have a little more insight into what it takes to make it to the “Big Leagues”.

I would like to thank my Desert Dog coaches and teammates for a great Fall League experience in which I will never forget. I look forward to crossing paths with each and every player and coach in the future somewhere down the line. I would also like to thank and congratulate our pitching coach Garvin “G” Alston, who was recently promoted within our organization and is now a coordinator, he has helped me not only through the fall league but has been a big part of my professional career thus far. As “G” always says “just leave me tickets baby”…ha-ha.  

     Hello again Sports Fans, it’s nice to be back sharing inside information with you all about the Arizona fall league. First off I would like to thank my teammates Adrian Cardenas and Sean Doolittle for stepping in and sharing their experiences in the Arizona Fall league with all of you, while I was on my two week hiatus. Secondly I would like to congratulate my hometown Philadelphia Phillies on winning the 2008 World Series. From what I have heard from friends and family and also have seen (Chase Utley) there has been plenty of celebrating in and around Philadelphia. Growing up in the Philadelphia area, being a Phillies, Eagles, Sixers and Flyers fan loads of disappointment has come my way, so it is nice to be able to witness a Philadelphia Sports Championship.

     Greetings Arizona Fall League faithful, my name is Sean Doolittle, and I’m guest blogging for Andrew Bailey this week.  Apparently he wasn’t getting enough comments as he would have liked so I told him I would step in and show him how it’s done since I have some experience in the blog department for MiLB.com.  If my name looks familiar it may be because I wrote a player journal for MiLB this season while playing for the Stockton Ports in the California League and the Midland Rockhounds in the Texas League.  

For those of you meeting me for the first time I play first base, and I’ll make an occasional appearance in the outfield, just to keep things interesting.  I’m from New Jersey – don’t apologize it’s a great state and yes, I like pizza, “cawfee”, “wauder”, I have a “dawg” and I never go to the beach, I always go down to the shore, and I tend to drive a little faster when I’m buzzin’ up and down the turnpike.  I played my college ball at the University of Virginia where I studied psychology and was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the 2007 draft. 

     Enough about me, let’s talk about some things you folks out there probably want to hear about.  You know all that behind the scenes stuff you guys are dying to get the scoop on.  About our team and the other A’s guys and our Halloween escapades and playing baseball deep into November.  Yea, we’ll get to all that stuff so read on.

We’re just past halfway in this Fall League season and so far it’s been a blast.  I’ve played pretty well up to this point, but what I’ll remember most about this experience is how much fun I’ve had playing on this team with this group of guys.  Whether it’s playing Halo on Xbox or mixing it up at the field with the guys with one of our countless inside jokes or games it’s always a good time.  But once the first pitch is throw its all business.  This team definitely has fun playing the game and certainly has played hard enough to position ourselves atop our division.

     Speaking of fun…let’s talk about Halloween for a little bit.  I hope everyone had a safe holiday – yes, it is a holiday – and I hope you had as much fun as we all did.  To get as many people incorporated as we could we decided to dress up as a group.  With Shane Lindsay dressed up in a massive bull costume and 15 guys dressed up in white pants rolled up to the knee with a red belt and a white shirt we invaded Scottsdale as if we were running from the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.  Halloween is all about having fun and being creative…and winning costume contests at Ghost Ball.  Sorry about it!

As much fun as we’ve been having, it’s going to be interesting playing baseball this late into the fall, outlasting even the Fall Classic.  It was awesome, almost motivating, to be playing games and watching the playoffs unfold everyday after we were done for the day.  It helped having my hometown club go all the way and get the ring, but it was also pretty cool to see guys that have played in this league now playing in October when it counts.  Although one of the best parts about this league is the high caliber of competition you see every day.  And if that doesn’t get you ready to play, you might want to check your pulse.    

     I enjoyed talking with you and this cameo’s been great.  Hopefully “Bails” took some notes and the comments will start rolling in.  As for me I’m looking forward to some cooler weather and hoping to wrap up this Fall League season on a good note and get on back to the Right Coast for the winter and maybe see some snow and hit up Atlantic City.  You guys have been great!