Baseball Begins

After a long fall and winter waiting for my broken arm to heel and watching my fellow teammates going through fall practices without me, I constantly dreamed about Monday, January 21^st, the first day of practice.  Not only because it was the first day of practice, but it would be the first time I was able to step back on the field and play alongside my teammates.

When professional players get injured badly, they are placed on the disabled list where they have time to heel injuries, rehab, and eventually work their way back to the big leagues.  Although I wasn’t on the so-called “disabled list” I might as well have been as m injury kept me from any participation in team activities in the fall. 

I once heard Derek Jeter refer to the disabled list as “athlete purgatory,” where one finds themselves stuck between never playing again and getting back on the field.  It is a tense time where you want recovery to happen fast, but must wait for everything to be properly rehabilitated.  I certainly understood what Jeter meant when he describe this “athlete purgatory,” and now that I am heeled and in my final collegiate season, I never want to know what it feels like again.

To say I was enthusiastic about our team’s first practice would be a gross understatement, and it seemed that all my teammates and coaches shared my enthusiasm from the very beginning.  Energy levels were high, and work ethics were even higher as the Albertus Magnus College Falcons Baseball Team took their very first step towards a GNAC title, but more importantly their very first step towards a win in game one of the season a little over a month from now. 

With nine mid-year transfers making their way onto the team, a handful of new Freshman, and a solid base of a strong Falcon team last year, things are looking up for our squad.  The Pitching staff is stocked with strong arms like Brian Levchuck, Matt Finkenzeller, Mike Barillaro, Ryan Fowler and many more including yours truly; Mr. Sunshine himself!  Our batting order and defense will be just as strong led by Senior outfielder, Rob Gambardella and Junior shortstop Pat Dornfried. 

Falcons fans are in for a very exciting season from their baseball team, and will hopefully be showing up to all the team’s home games at Quigley Stadium, in droves.  An already stellar year for Albertus athletics, will soon get even better!