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Columnist goes to
great lengths to stay
in the game

After eight months of baseball hibernation and some 2,100 driving miles and 32 road hours, I am finally back in the game.

When the last out was recorded in our 3-0 loss to the River City Rascals last Aug. 30, I knew, as always, that a long fall and winter would follow. For the past seven years or so, the offseason meant finding a way to make a living until the next season rolled around.

Fortunately, I usually had something waiting for me when I came back, a job in the University of Hawaii sports media relations department for a while, and then a gig as the assistant baseball coach at UH-Hilo last winter.

This past year, things were a little different.

With no job to return to and no clue about how I would make ends meet, I hit the pavement and went looking for a job. A "real" job. So every morning I would wake up and tear through the employment sections of the Star-Bulletin, and just about every job Web site you could imagine.

After a few weeks of applications and interviews and work sample sending and phone calls, I was exhausted. Luckily, the good folks at the Star-Bulletin were in need of someone to help prep guru Paul Honda in his coverage of the Oahu high school scene.

There was football and volleyball in the fall, and soccer and softball in the winter. Come spring, it was my personal sport of choice, baseball.

Some weeks Paul would send me out to a football game in Kahuku, or an OIA girls volleyball playoff at Pearl City, softball at Punahou or baseball at Mid-Pacific or right down the road from my parents' home at Fred Wright field in Wahiawa.

Once he asked me to cover some air riflery. I know as much about air riflery as I do about astrophysics; which I can barely even spell. Needless to say, I turned that assignment down.

Whatever the sport, wherever I was, I was there, keeping my own stats, doing interviews, following people around with my notepad and trying to find a way to tell a good story.

In some ways, it was a very rewarding experience. It allowed me to get back to the roots of competitive sport. After five years as a college baseball player and coach, and seven or so years of pitching and now coaching at the pro level, I rarely had an opportunity to watch prep sports. I was able to see how much hometown pride all of the public school teams played with, and the amount of school spirit from the ILH squads.

But when baseball season rolled around, the more I was out at the games, the more games I watched, the more I realized how badly I wanted to be back on the field, in the dugout at the pro level.

With my boss of the past four seasons, Greg Tagert, moving to another league, I really did not know where my professional coaching career stood. There were calls of interest from Greg on behalf of other teams, other leagues, and even another country, but no solid offers.

With my job search already well under way, maybe it was just time to hang 'em up, as they say around the clubhouse.

But Greg was able to hire me as his pitching coach, and in a matter of weeks I was packed and gone. Again.

So about two weeks ago, I jumped on a plane and spent a few days hanging out with my buddy and sports information idol Darryl Arata in Sacramento, Calif., watching his Kings win their only playoff game of this postseason. That allowed me to remind Darryl that his team was 4-0 in games I watched at the ARCO Arena.

Come Saturday, it was time to push off on another cross-country drive, along with Greg, to Gary, Ind., where we would make up two-thirds of the coaching staff for the Gary Southshore Railcats of the independent Northern League. Andy Haines, who served as our hitting coach in 2002 with the Dubois County Dragons, would complete the field staff.

We met at the parking lot of one of the many Carl's Jr.'s in Sacramento, and were quickly off. That first night we made our way out of California and through Nevada and then into Utah.

With our 7 p.m. departure, there really wasn't much to look at on the first leg, but there sure was a lot to talk about, as Greg and I discussed the coming season.

After a three- or four-sleep stop in Greg's automobile at a truck stop along I-80, we got back to it at about 7:30 in the morning and covered the rest of Utah, Wyoming and most of Nebraska.

Being that I spent the first 18 years of my life in Hawaii, my concept of geography was limited to the pictures on a map, until I went to college and began my travels with baseball. I'm not sure how big Wyoming actually is, but I swear it is twice the size of Texas.

The drive through Wyoming took forever when I last made the drive in 2002, and this year it took forever and a day. The neat thing about it was that the entire state seemed covered in a layer of snow. The sight of the cold white stuff is strange enough after an offseason spent in the 60- to 80-degree climate of Hawaii, but snow in May was just plain weird. But it was really nice to look at.

Over the course of the next day and a half, we made our way to Gary and then Merrillville, Ind., where I will be residing this season.

After eight months of life in limbo, spring is back and so is baseball season and so am I. Another journey has ended, and another begins.

All is right in Indiana.