Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Day Two At the Atlantic 10 Softball Tournament


What a treat today was! After an early morning wakeup call at 7:00 a.m. and a quick breakfast in our rooms, we headed back to Fordham for practice. Due to there being really no rain last night in the area, the team was able to practice outside today and get used to the speed of the turf outfield which could be very important down the road.

Coach DeVos has been sick since last night so she hopefully will be able to kick that by tomorrow for the game. Oh, about that, we will be playing Saint Louis tomorrow.

After our two hour practice window, we took the short trip through the Bronx and down to Times Square for lunch. The team split off into small groups to go their own separate ways for about two hours during the day to explore and eat. Mark Verburg and I split off and headed down Broadway for a few blocks until Mark spotted a McDonalds on the right. I thought, “Mark, we can eat at McDonalds in Charlotte, you’re supposed to be the smart one here.” Well, there was a method to his madness as he explained to me that this particular McDonalds with the marquee lights out front, was voted the Fourth-Best McDonalds in the world by the Travel Channel (I guess Mark’s an avid watcher).

So, that’s where Mark and I dined at before heading back to 45th street to catch the bus. In between we saw a few of the great sights of Times Square. You know the 2009 New Year’s Day Ball, the ESPN Zone and of course…the NAKED COWBOY!

As we trudged back to the bus, we asked every player if they saw him and everyone replied “No, can we go see him, is he close by, we want a picture.” That is until Cee, Gina and company came back. He wasn’t getting by them and their cameras.

After visiting with the Naked Cowboy in Times Square, we headed back to Fordham to catch the second game of the day before heading to what was supposed to be this rockin’ pizza place in Little Italy.

Well, let’s just say “It was awesome, baby.”

New York Style Pizza in a place about the size of a thimble, now that’s what I call good eats. The pizza was phenomenal. I think Jenny ate a whole “pie” herself, while most of the rest of us locked in on two pieces.

Day two in the Big Apple is in the books but the business gets started tomorrow. Everyone has pretty much wrapped up a lot of their finals and now the sole focus is on Saint Louis. Our Fordham host greeted us today and pointed out that U2 played in a small field right across from the softball diamond. Being a classic rock nut, immediately U2’s The Saints Are Coming came to mind. I shared the thought with Mark and he immediately decided that, even if just between him and me, the theme song for tomorrow should be When the Saints Go Marching Home and that we need to send one marching home tomorrow.

Listen in to Mark and I tomorrow on the live broadcast starting at 3:00 p.m. Gametracker is also available on the A-10 website if you want to follow. Until next time, wear white (since we are the home team, we are in white uniforms) and GO NINERS!

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