I don't like taking this much time off between updates but my days really haven't been anything to write about down here rehabbing.  To start things are going great.  I just passed the 7 month mark and my arm is really strong.  Right now I'm throwing from about 70 feet and even doing push ups.  I will be game ready in November...still a long ways to go but it's great to be getting stronger each week. 

About 3 weeks ago the team came into Tampa and I met up with them.  I got to sit in the dugout for a couple games and it was fun to see everyone.  Taking BP with the team made me feel like I was making my Major League debut again...the balls were jumping off the bat and coming at me fast, it's amazing how fast stuff moves up there when you haven't been around for a little bit.  The highlight for me was the Rays annoucer Rusty gave me a shout out in the first inning.  Rusty also works for the Minnesota Wild in the winter and IS a Ryan Seacrest body double.  Anybody who has been to a Rays game in the past 4 years can verify this.

I've been busy buying autographs, trading autographs and cleaning up my collection.  I'm working on acquiring a new personal favorite autograph at the moment so check back later to see what I got...might take awhile to get here.  I've also been doing a lot of in-person graphing here...we get done at our workouts around noon each day and gives me the perfect schedule to get some autographs.  I'm a big fan of music graphs so that is who I have been going after.  Last week I got Steely Dan (Donald Fagan & Walter Becker) on an album and was pumped because they are tough signers.  The week before I got a couple guys in Blue Oyster Cult as well as a guy named Rudy Sarzo who played in Quiet Riot & White Snake as well as with Ozzy.  The week before that I got Vanilla Ice & Lita Ford.  I also had some misses but it's because I didn't know the venue I was working with...The county race track and casino here are tough to get autographs and I missed getting Charlie Daniels and John Kay from Steppenwolf.  So this is some of the stuff that has been keeping me going down here...It's starting to get very hot as well.

It's been very fun watching the Twins play lately.  I think we are going to be in the thick of it this year for sure.  I still worry about the White Sox...we'll see how July plays out, that's always a big month right before the trading deadline.

Down here a lot of the new draft picks have been showing up.  It's fun to watch a guy show up for the first time with the deer in the headlights look.  After a couple days they seem to get use to the way things are done and settle in.  I think it's been really cool to meet a lot of the younger guys & hopefully play with them some day in the big leagues.  

Be sure to check out the new t-shirts at www.sidearmstore.com

My entire share of the sales goes to charity

I've been away for a couple weeks...actually I've had a couple friends come down to visit and there wasn't much internet time.  In the last couple weeks I've been to Busch Gardens, watched nearly every baseball game with the MLB Package and I'm in 2nd place in my fantasy baseball league. I haven't had any ebay purchases but that might change soon.

Rehab is going great, I'm throwing without worry right now and slowly but surely moving up day by day.  The rehab is a little bit easier this year because Boof is down here and it's been a ton easier having another guy that is going through the same thing.  Right now I am still at 20 and 30 ft. for my throwing program but right now I am throwing 60 pitches every other day. 

I've been reading a lot of stories about how much people hate the Metrodome lately that I thought I would chime in and let everyone know that I am a big time fan of the dome and don't want to see it go.  Contrary to newspaper articles that have quotes from players bashing the place I just thought it would be fair to let people know the general consensus amongst the players and what they think about the dome.  Let’s start with the cons from the player's point of view.  The clubhouse is awful and outdated.  It's very small in terms of space and the amenities.  It really needs to have more rooms such as a bigger video room, a weight room & training room.  Basically those complaints are the biggest concerns.  Yes some guys hate playing indoors or don't like the turf.  Others don't like the white roof and how hard it is to catch the ball in the outfield.  I'm sure there are other complaints but these are the most common ones I have heard.  Now for the pros, there are many.  Baseball players HATE playing outdoors from April til Mid May unless they are in warm weather.  Being in Minnesota everyone knows you can still have snow on the ground in May...let's just say nobody is looking forward to playing outdoors next April.  The Metrodome also provides the comfort of knowing that every game is going to be played whether it is snow or rain, cold or hot.  From a player's point of view knowing the game is on time is huge.  The biggest thing for me and why I like the dome is the home field advantage.  Opposing teams are scared to play at the Metrodome if we have a team in contention.  They know the place will be the loudest place in MLB and are not use to the turf and how the field plays.  I haven't looked up the exact stats but I'm pretty sure in my time at the dome we have kicked butt basically because of how comfortable we are there and how scared opposing teams are.  Granted the place doesn't look the best from a fan's perspective but I think the loudness, the way we play there and the uniqueness of the dome makes up for that.  Add in the 70 degree temp everyday of the year and I am sold.  I really don't understand the bashing of the dome.  I truly think after the nostalgia of the new stadium rubs off in a couple years that we are all going to wish the place was enclosed like the dome or we had the dome back.  Add in how cold it is going to be, not knowing if the game is going to be played due to rain or cold, the loss of the huge home field advantage and loudness of the dome, the smaller max crowd capacity and I think things will be just a little different in Minnesota.  It will be nice to play outdoors but sometimes it's a lot better playing in neutral conditions where the wind isn't blowing 20 mph some nights, the sun isn't torturing the players in the bullpen or it rains or snows so much that we have 10 doubleheaders throughout the year.  In my mind I'd rather have a place where the temperature is always 70 degrees with no wind any day of the year.  

Well, the team is gone and I am going at it with my rehab.  Yesterday was a hectic day for just about everyone.  I think the clubbies had to be the busiest people on earth.  They had to make sure all the uniforms, baseballs & equipment made it on the plane as well as clean out the clubhouse and make sure everything is in order before they left.  I packed up my locker at the end of the day and had one of the ushers drive me over to the minor league side in a golf cart.  On my way back I chatted with a couple graphers and made my way back to the clubhouse.  As I walked into the clubhouse I noticed that everyone on the team was gone.  All that was left were the batboys digging through lockers and grabbing freebies that the guys left behind.  Just like that the entire team packed up and was on the plane.  I did get to say goodbye to most of the guys and wished them luck.  During the season I will probably make it up to the dome sometime to visit the doctor and make sure everything is going as planned.  I'm also going to visit the team when they come into Tampa in late May.   As I grabbed my last bag of stuff one of the batboys hit the jackpot...a brand new pair of custom Nike cleats...not sure if he was pumped so he could wear them or if he was going to put them up on eBay later in the day! 

Today I walked into the minor league clubhouse at 7:30am and was amazed at how many people could fit into one little building.  If we were talking about bugs this would be an infestation with how many people were getting treatment from the trainers or just hanging out wherever they could find space.  To understand how many people were in one space I had to TRIPLE up lockers with Scott Baker & RA Dickey for a couple days.  I just left my bag packed and will unpack it in a couple days when the minor leaguers are shipped out to their final destinations and all the locker spaces will open up.  The 3rd throwing sessions went great again but I'm still having trouple mentally with trusting my arm...I think things will get better the more I throw.

I had my second throwing session today and everything went fine.  I guess during my last session our trainer noticed I wasn't bending my arm when I threw the ball...this time (2nd time) I was bending the elbow.  Every pitcher bends the elbow when they throw so I felt like this was a big improvement.  Our trainer didn't want to say anything the first time about how straight my arm was and was happy I was able to throw freely again.  I think a lot of it has to do with the trust factor.  I'm having a heck of a time trusting myself to throw the ball freely and not worry about my arm falling off.  I think it's going to take a lot more throwing and days to go by before I lose that awkward feeling.

Tomorrow the guys leave Ft. Myers and head back to Minnesota.  It's going to be tough seeing the team leave Boof & I behind.  In December the trainers gave me the option of sticking back in MN and doing my rehab up there or coming down for the entire spring.  At first I didn't think it really mattered where I did my rehab but over the past couple months I'm very happy I came down for the entire spring.  I think not seeing the guys would drive me nuts and really remove me from the game.  Seeing everyone again and hanging out on the field and in the clubhouse really helped make me feel like I was still a Twin and gave me a lot of motivation to get back on the field.  There will be a little bit of emotion tomorrow saying goodbye to everyone for the year, I've said it a million times already...I can't wait to get on the mound!

I was thinking about writing something on here April fool's style but the more I thought about it the more I thought to just skip it this year.  Today was the day I had circled on the calendar for a couple weeks now; it was my first day of playing catch since I tore my elbow back in November.  I wasn't nervous at all...I was basically at the point that if my arm gave out I was going to beat somebody up...I've never been hurt in my entire life and now I get to sit through the longest recovery injury in baseball...nervous was the last thing on my mind.  Being reminded of a couple things I talked about with other guys in the clubhouse that had Tommy John I was kind of anxious to see how my arm would hold up.  A couple guys told me that when they first threw the ball it immediately went to the ground...that kind of had me spooked.  The rest of the guys said they had no problems until the workload increased a little.  I'm basically expecting to be sore time and time again and to have a couple setbacks in the process.  My main goal is to still take things really slow and follow the plan.  So with that I walked out to the field today, stretched and starting my throwing program with bullpen catcher Nate Dammann.  Today the program called for 20 throws at 20 ft (stop laughing!), 10 at 30ft and 10 again at 20ft.  The distance felt extremely close and everything went as planned.  I had zero pain and if I wasn't telling myself to go easy I wouldn't have known anything was wrong.  Like I said before I'm taking this throwing VERY slow but I cannot tell you how bad I want to get on that mound already. 

As many of you know I am a collector of autographs & baseball cards.  With the injury I have had too much time to put towards the hobby & it has been a lot of fun.  The main tool I use is eBay.  During the past year I’m sure many of you know that card prices & autographs have took a huge hit in terms of price.  I thought this would be a cool time to reflect on what I am currently collecting this week and some other stuff.  During the past 6 months I have been the victim in buying a couple higher priced fakes off eBay.  Estimates that I have heard from different people such as friends in the industry and various people place the fakes on eBay between 70%-85%...don’t quote me though this is all from people that I do not know where they got these figures.  Of course you can always buy certified autos and cut autos that were opened from packs of Topps & Upper Deck but if it’s not certified from a place like PSA/DNA I would watch out.  From my experiences though just about everything I was buying in December was a fake.  I was lucky enough to become friends with a person at PSA/DNA and he has helped me out big time with the things I buy.  My biggest advice is to pay for quick authentications from PSA/DNA.  You can go to their website and for $10 they will tell you if they think this would pass authentication if it was sent to them.  Basically you just forward them the eBay item number and they will tell you what they think.

Speaking of eBay I was really frisky this week in trying to buy a high priced card.  I’ve never had a HIGH HIGH end card in my collection and this was my mission this week.  To start off the week I had my eyes set on a James Madison (4^th President) cut autograph.  For those of you that don’t collect card companies like Topps take old papers or letters or anything with an autograph…cut out the autograph and put it into a brand new card and place them in packs for people to find.  These cards are pretty rare especially the 1/1’s from various people in history.  To make a long story short I was outbid with 2 seconds left for $1010.  I really wanted the card but I also had my head set on a Chief Bender cut auto.  This didn’t look like a regular cut auto though, the piece was cut from a baseball it looked like.  Being that Chief Bender was from Minnesota and the 1^st Native American Hall of Famer I thought this would be an excellent piece to add.  Figuring the last cut auto of Bender sold for around $675 I thought I would bid $805 in the last 5 seconds to secure this card.  Well I did everything I thought I would do and bid but someone outbid me with a second left for $815.  Oh well, the thing I always realized with eBay is that if you don’t win something and have the cash you will find something again in a matter of time…in other words it’s hard to keep cash in your Paypal account!  The next item I was eyeing was a Carlo Gambino (Mobster) cut auto from Legendary cuts.  It was a 1/1 and I would bet they probably wouldn’t make another one.  The seller had a best offer with buy it now for $999.  I figured offer $650 and see where that would take me.  I thought $750 would be my highest offer.  The seller countered with $900 and the more I thought about it the less I wanted the card.  I backed off and declined the offer.  Off to the next item…This one was from National Treasures and was an autograph of Adolph Coors Jr.  I really wanted this card since I thought it would go pretty low.  There was 5 mins left when I used wikipedia to do some more research.  To my surprise this was Adolph Coors Sr. kid…thus not the original founder that died in 1929.  I really wanted the father’s autograph and not the sons and was confused…I decided not to bid, the card ended up getting $255…I wondered if the buyer knew what I found out…I’m sure he did.  What am I going to bid on next…who the heck knows.  I thought this auction http://cgi.ebay.com/2008-08-SP-Legendary-Cuts-Heinie-Manush-Cut-Auto-6_W0QQitemZ220382751846QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Sports_Cards?hash=item220382751846&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

 for the Heinie Manush card was a steal but I thought it might go for lower.  Someone else also listed the 1/6 card of him at the same time auction style…Let’s just say for $100 or less this card is a steal…I’ll be watching, until next week!

I'm pretty anxious for tomorrow and the start of the tourney.  This is the first time in my 7 spring trainings that I will have an off day during the start of the tourney.  I wonder what i'll do tomorrow haha. 

Contrary to what I said a couple weeks ago about throwing on the 18th of March things have changed.  I was informed yesterday by the staff that I would start throwing now on April 1st.  The reason given was that I had a lot of time and the doctors wanted me to start a week and a half later.  I think the main reason is that the Twins trainers didn't want to play catch with me...by starting on the 1st they would only have to play catch with me 2 times and then they would hand me over to minor league coordinator Lanning Tucker kidding kidding.  Seriously though the docs checked out my arm and it is going as planned and they just wanted to start me a week later.  Fine with me, I have what...12 months to go:)

I can't believe it but there are 500 brackets already filled out as I write this.  You still have a day and a half to join but winning the arod ball is going to be tough...The last day to sign up is early Thursday morning.

 Here's the info again

Alright I just formed the league for the NCAA Basketball tourney.  Everyone is invited to join & it's free.  All you have to do is sign up at this page

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/register/joinprivategroup

Once at the above page - Enter the Group # 73482

Leave the password field blank

On Sunday or anytime before the first game of the tourney fill out your picks & see how you do against everyone who signs up.  Everyone can fill out a bracket and like I said before the winner will get an Official MLB Baseball signed on the sweetspot by Alex Rodriguez. 

We were back in action today. The team went on the road so once again it was stretch, pfp & batting practice. Fake throwing and fielding baseballs got old really quick & I am backing off a little on the practice. I figure every time the team plays at home I will head out to the field if the team is away I will do some more exercises inside the clubhouse. I got to thinking yesterday that I was the only guy in camp that has done fielding practice everyday since we got here...I kind of feel like everyone is sick of watching me fake throw and hold up the line. Things are looking up though, in 7 days I will begin my throwing program. Most guys start throwing at 4 months after surgery and the 18th marks month number four for me. It's going to be slow though, I cheated and looked ahead at my throwing program and my first bullpen sessions starts in SEPTEMBER...you read it correctly, September.

At the field today I spent the majority of the time shagging down the left field line. A bunch of baseballs went over the fence and a few more went foul causing fans to go nuts and run after the baseballs. A couple fans got a little greedy and decided to test their luck and jumped the fence on the field behind us to try and get some more baseballs...that prompted security to run out and chase them away & get the balls back...It's bad when that was the highlight of my day! Other funny things that happened today was seeing Crain & Morneau back in camp already. I think they were a little upset with how many people kept coming up to them and asking them how the WBC went & how they lost to Italy...it got to be the joke of the day and they weren't having it. I'll end the day with this. I was shagging during bp when a ball went down the line...A fan yelled out "let me throw the ball in since it looks like it hurts when you throw with your left hand". I thought why not, a pretty good idea actually. So I threw the guy the ball and he asked where should I throw it. I said throw it near the guys doing the bucket...The guy reared back and threw it as hard as he could on the fly...My heart almost jumped out of my chest when I realized he didn't throw the ball on the ground and that it was headed right on the faces of the guys doing the bucket...Luckily the ball tailed left and missed the bucket...I don't know what I would've done if he would have been dead on...there would be a lot of questions to answer about that one! I think I'll stick to throwing left handed next time.

It was a pretty easy day for those that stayed back in camp.  The rest of the team headed over to Ft. Lauderdale to take on the O's.  The atmosphere in the clubhouse is pretty good right now.  A lot of the younger guys are getting comfortable right now and pretty much everyone knows each person's name & face now...it's amazing how long it takes to learn 60+ new names.  In the next week though the clubhouse will most likely get a lot more on edge.  First cuts are coming up in the next week & once that hits a lot of guys get nervous about where they will end up.  I've been on both sides of the cuts.  In 2006 I was cut the first day...I wasn't happy but understood the process enough to know I would probably be cut no matter how good I did.  In 2007 though I made the team & it was cool being there the entire time.

My day was the typical game day routine, show up, rehab, pfp & shagging and then watching the game. I kind of hit the wall today with my enthusiasm. I think you can only do something so many days in a row before it gets old & today I was pretty bored. I think I was just in a hurry to watch some college basketball finals today. I really get into college basketball especially at this time of the year. I love to play www.protrade.com and pick teams that I think are going to win and short the ones I think that are going to lose. The site is really cool though, it's a stock market for sports...play money of course! I've been playing this for a couple years and just crossed the 700k line in play money. I think they need to hire me as a rep since I've been on there forever and made a lot of people fake money when I got hurt last year and people shorted me down to nothing :) If anyone wants to challenge me be sure to let me know on my facebook page or message board.

World Baseball Classic fever hit Ft. Myers again today as Team Netherlands came into town. The lineup was made up with a handful of Holland players and a handful of players from Curacao. I spent the day trying to track down a couple WBC Logo baseballs during their bp session and I was successful. They are pretty neat looking baseballs that contain all gold writing and the WBC logo with the 2009 date. Let me know on the boards if anyone wants to make a trade.

I'm very happy to announce I was able to work out a trade for one of my printing plates that showed up on eBay the other day.  Whenever I see one of my tougher cards show up on eBay I get excited just to know someone opened it and actually put it up for sale then I think about how much it's going to cost me.  You wouldn't think a middle relief pitcher that just had Tommy John surgery would have any value but a couple of you guy's love to get in a bidding war with me and I usually don't win!  So with that said my best bet is to write to the seller & try to work out a trade...I'm still quietly giving it a go to try and get all my cards.  This one though was extra special.  I didn't know how many people opened 2008 Topps Series 2...I bet not many because I haven't seen anything pop up as far as 1/1's go ever.  As of right now This is my 7th 1/1 of me that I know of.  I have 2 of the plates from 2007 Topps, 2 of the 08 Ginter Plates, my 2007 Topps Platinum & my 08 ginter wood card.  It was a tough trade with me giving up my 4 tickets to the Cubs/Twins game at Wrigley but well worth it to me...I'm happy to add another impossible card to my collection.   If you guys know of somebody that has a plate of me or my 2006 Topps Updates & Highlights Refractor #'d to 25 be sure & let me know, I overpay for these things!

Today we had an off-day.  In the past I think there was only 1 off day the entire spring, this year we get 4...I think the WBC (World Baseball Classic) has a lot to do with this but hopefully it will be a reoccuring thing for years to come.  My legs & arm needed the rest and it felt great sitting back.  Today I did nothing...well I got my taxes done, it was not fun but needed to be finished.  The rest of the night I spent watching YouTube music videos of bands from my Junior High years...Lots of Goldfinger, Bloodhound Gang & tons of rap...oh yes I was a big rap fan back in the day and there was some good stuff I was listening to today, Warren G, Scarface, Gravediggaz, Geto boyz, Crucial Conflict, Brotha Lynch Hung & Celly Cel...I wish they did rap the same way as they did back then, it just isn't the same.

I wanted to write about the surgery and everything about it when I had back in November. The minute I got out of the surgery room I thought twice about the website and wanted to just rest and enjoy the time off with my family. I'd like to make up for a little lost time and update everybody on what I have went through so far on my recovery. My surgery was on November 18th. Like I said yesterday normal recovery time is 9 to 15 months so August 18th would be 9 months and February 18th, 2010 would be 15 months. Right now the entire rehab process is based on taking things slowly. As of right now we are on the 15 month plan more than the 9 month plan. Back to the surgery, the entire surgery took a little over 2 hours. I was put to sleep and woke up feeling refreshed but not knowing what the heck was going on, all I remember is being very tired and when I got into the car I fell asleep without even knowing. I woke up right as we arrived at our house and took a couple pills, one a painkiller and the other was some kind of bacteria killer, I slept the rest of the day. All I can remember that first week was sleeping and how I couldn't use my arm. After the first day I stopped taking the pills except for the bacteria killer one figuring I didn't want my arm to go rotten and green! I felt like I really didn't need a painkiller any longer & wanted my arm to heal naturally, plus every time I took one of the painkillers my stomach turned and turned...luckily the pain wasn't bad & I didn't need the pills. That first week was a ton of sleep, watching movies and wishing I could use my arm again someday. My arm hurt it seemed like more the third and fourth days than the first couple, it hurt exactly like I thought it would...just a constant pain where I was opened up.  About two weeks in I got to go to the doctor's office to have my cast removed. I was basically getting rid of the cast which couldn't be removed and having that replaced with a brace that could move around and I could get it off easier. I was happy because the cast really made me itch & since I couldn't move it annoyed me like crazy...that day it was going away. Nobody told me how much it would hurt getting the thing off, ouch. To make a long story short I got the cast off and got a chance to see my scar for the first time...it still wasn't healed up fully and I really didn't like looking at it...plus it hurt still. At about a month and a half in I started light rehab. It basically consisted of exercises that would make my shoulder stronger. One of the exercises was raising my arms with my thump up to my chin and back down...I did this at various angles and it was tough to get through. Over time though I built my arm up a little and could then do more exercises. At that same time about a month and a half I got the brace off...I could finally sleep with nothing on my arm, it felt great. Right now I am still doing the exercises with various weights and following the program. My next big step comes March 18th when I will throw for the first time. This is where a lot of guys say it hurts...I talked to Liriano and he said he hated that part of his rehab, the throwing early on was the toughest part he said...Sean Henn said that it wasn't fun because he couldn't believe how hard it was to throw 30 ft...and how there was nothing behind any of his throws. We will see how it goes, I like hearing how other guy's rehab went and learning about what to expect...I will keep everyone updated.

When the team goes out of town there isn't much news.  I figured today would be a great time to show off a couple pics of my scars from my surgery, aka Tommy John surgery aka elbow replacement.  It's a pretty big surgery but it has come a long way since Tommy John first had it done.  I really hate doctor offices, hospitals and that type of stuff so I will spare the gory details.  In simple terms they take a tendon from either your wrist or leg, drill a couple holes in the elbow and tie the tendon through the holes.  In a couple months the tendon turns into a ligament.   Recovery time varies from about 9 months to 15 months.  I had my tendon removed from my left wrist, notice the 3 notches...one on my wrist, another one about 2.5 inches away and the final one 2.5 inches away from the last one. 

I've been doing a lot of through the mail letters & signing autographs.  Every now & then I find letters that are just awful.  I found one today.  The person who sent this wrote out the entire letter leaving spaces to fill in the player's name & the team name as well as position.  If you look closely he uses a darker blue pen to fill in the "Neshek", "Minnesota Twins", "Pitcher" & once again "Neshek".  I don't understand why someone would go through this torture of writing out tons of letters like this...a please sign my card note would do just fine.  He also said I would lead the team very far...ahhh I guess that beats the letter I also got today from a guy telling me that he has a sure fire feeling that I would make the all-star team this year.  I was going to write back & tell him to never gamble again but I didn't.