EWC: How was your week?

Gary: I just got activated to the major league roster. I got the hint from coaches and other teams that I’ve been getting the short end of the stick with my opportunity to play. I’ve only been in 50% of the games this year — the coach of one team even told me I should be playing everyday. I said “well trade for me then.” He laughed and said “its not that easy.”

Another time a couple coaches were drunk (that’s what I like most about hanging out at the bar) and one spilled his guts to me and said, “you have been waiting long time to play. If you were on my team you would play everyday.” I thought that was great. Nice to hear that. It’s a compliment. But all in all I am pretty happy and having a good time here in Taiwan. At least I know the coaches think highly of me, and realize the only reason I haven’t been playing is because the Bears wanted to strengthen their pitching staff.

EWC:What did your girlfriend think when you told her you were moving to Taiwan?

Gary:Rachel was very supportive of me coming to Taiwan. In fact she studied abroad in Italy and has been all over Europe. She claims to be an expert world traveler and I tease her about that. She’s actually coming here really soon and is psyched. We actually talked about getting engaged here in Taiwan but unfortunately she will have to wait because the ring has been an issue for me the past four months. I’ve been going back and forth with the jewelry store and it just didn’t work out. I am sure we will still be able to have fun here though. She loves baseball.

EWC:How about your relationship with the other foreigners in the league? You’d mentioned before that the other guys on the Bears have families — do you ever all hang out together? How about the guys on other teams?

Gary: Well, before their families came over me, Mike and Andrew would hang out all the time. We’d play Guitar Hero and jam. But we got told we were too loud by the guys upstairs. We were all pumped that we got in trouble. We thought we were cool.

I chat with the other foreigners but its usually brief. It’s actually a team violation to talk to the other team for an extended amount of time. Whenever I see one of the other foreigners it’s just usually; “Hey, how you holding up?” We talk, but it’s brief. I don’t want the team to get the wrong impression

EWC: Strange. Is that a common rule or just a La New Bears rule?

Gary:It’s a team fine if you fraternize with the other team for an extended period of time I think. Something like $5000 nt. I’m not totally sure. I don’t think it’s a league rule.

EWC:So you’re set to join the big club again. Anything you’ve been working on in preparation?

Gary: If this makes any sense, I work on not working on anything. I’ll tell you why. The reason I was in the minors isn’t because I really need to improve on any part of my game. As I said before it has more to with the fact that they’d rather use all their foreign spots on pitchers rather than one hitter and two pitchers.

As I have grown through my career I feel I’ve heard all the bullshit excuses a player could possibly receive from a front office for a demotion, and realize that 9 out of 10 times the decision had nothing to do with my performance but rather something else. If as a player I focus on working on things and assume that the reason for a demotion is because I deserved it, then I will start pressing and stepping out of my comfortable natural rhythm I play in. The truth is they over-hired foreigners so they can use one as in insurance policy in the minor league level at all times.