Still fight'n for it!

A litte American emotion after a clutch triple

Its long overdue for a baseball update!

So here we go... The regular season ended with the Compiègne Marlins in first place in their division. We were the surprise of the entire league pushing past the storied PUC (Paris University Club) team that was relegated from the Elite league (the highest level) down to National 1 this season.

My good buddy Rob was out during the month of July to see the last two regular season games before playoffs. He saw quite possibly some of the most interesting "baseball" I've been a part of. We hosted the Huskies of Rouen and the fans were given a display of offensive prowess, strange and moody umpiring, and even a bench clearing brawl. Yeah, it's true. The first time I had ever seen a baseball brawl in person was as I was sprinting across the diamond in route to separate our left fielder from their first baseman. Somewhere during that run, I remember thinking to myself "what am I doing here?!?" But I managed to help keep the fighting to a minimum and put distance between those who needed to just chill for a bit. And when the fighting died down, in true French fashion, they had to discuss the issue for about 5-10 minutes, stopping the game.

Rob could probably tell you more crazy things that happened that day. I'm starting to get to the point where I expect that stuff. Oh and I went 7 for 8 at the plate that day and was featured again in the local paper not long after. I think the photographer just had a man-crush on me - 2 of the 3 pics are of me. See the scanned version below.


Now its playoff time! Playoffs are run like this. The top 4 teams from each division (South, Central, and North divisions) qualify for playoff pool play. These teams are placed in two pools of 6 teams. And each team plays every other team in the pool twice. Thus after 10 games, the top two teams in each pool move on to the semi-finals for a best of three game series. Those winners play the final three game series in La Rochelle on the west coast of France. Well, currently we are cruising to the tune of 8-0 in pool play! We have already clinched home field advantage in the semi-finals. We are just waiting to see how things shake out in the other playoff pool and we need to finish strong against Pessac next weekend.

So there it is! My bat has been a bit slow to come around after the month off in August - yes the whole country shuts down in August, even baseball. But I hit the ball well last weekend against the Ermont Expos, our fierce rivals. While we barely avoided another brawl against the Expos, the field was the worst I had seen since the sandlots in the Dominican Republic. Even so, I manged to flash a little glove to the tune of 2 double plays and a nice stab and off-balanced throw up the middle. This weekend I'm taking it easy with my roommate out of town and finally getting a chance to fellowship at church! Then its back to working hard on the fundamentals for Pessac (second place in our pool) this weekend and the big semi-finals next weekend. Then hoping all goes well my parents and lil sis will be flying out just in time to catch the three-game series in La Rochelle. It would be nice to add the title "French National Champion" to my baseball resumé!

And on another side note...I just started playing for the Compiègne Lions Hockey team...life doesn't slow down with me!

I apologize for the lack of updates since June. There's probably been a reason or two for that ;). You can personally email me at j.skyrm@gmail.com if you want to hear more news about life here.