First Day on the Job

I guess you could say today was my first day on the job haha.  I still can't believe that baseball is considered my job...but it started early just like any other job would.  The vans that were transporting the players to the facility were leaving at 6:45 am!  I got up at 6 just to be safe and so I could jump in the shower to wake myself up.  I also had to take this little urine test...I can't say it wasn't weird because it was.  I was not quite sure what I was supposed to do...there was a little plastic cup along with a plastic vial.  There was a paper that came with it as well so I thought I had better read over the paper just to be safe.  I was supposed to pee in the cup then somehow pour it in this tiny vial up to the line that was on the vial.  I did not know how else to do it so I did it the way the paper told me to...I will not go into specific detail, but I did not get all of the liquid into the vial...(I will let you guys imagine what you think happened, because more than likely, it did happen)  

After the test, I got my belongings together such as my spikes, turfs, gloves, bands, sliders, and dri fits and headed down to the lobby to wait on the vans.  I made sure I was early so I got down to the lobby at about 6:30.  Once there were more players downstairs we piled in the vans and headed to the facility.  

Once arriving at the facility, all the players were unsure of what to do.  When some of us finally asked some questions, we figured out where we had to be and where we could put our stuff.  We then went to the front desk and received a large red folder with a bunch of papers in it.  We were about to go through some extensive physicals.  Doctors checked every part of our body...there was a dr. that looked at our elbows, shoulders, knees, hamstrings, back and core. We also had an EKG done, and eye test, an ultrasound on our heart, and we also had to give blood!  There was also a part where the strength and conditioning coaches took our weight and body fat.  After we got all that done, we went back up front and had to talk with a woman about how they would pay us.  We then had to talk to a guy about our passports and code of conduct and the last guy we had to talk to was about canadian immigration, just in case we got that big call up!

So after the red folder was signed off on, we returned it from where we got it and head to the equipment room...the best part!  The equipment guys gave us a pair of workout shorts, 2 shirts (1 to lift in and 1 to wear on the field), 2 pairs of socks and a hat.  

We then were shown to our lockers where we could change for practice.  After we changed we had to be in the meeting room at 10:15.  We were introduced to all the coaches that would be there, but it was more about what we would be doing.  Doug Davis, the minor league coordinator, led the meeting and seems like a very nice guy.  He told us what was going to happen the next couple days and then handed the meeting over to a guy named Charlie.  He was the one that dealt with everybody's contracts.  He explained how we would sign them and when.  After he was done talking, he took group of us into a special meeting room at a time and went over the contracts with us.  We signed on the dotted line and we were off...