Hey guys. So I'm in the beautiful town of Pembroke, Ontario. For those of you who don’t know where that is -- which is probably all of you -- its an hour north of Ottawa. What, you ask may bring an international baseball superstar to Pembroke. It’s not the fine dining and the great hiking trails. My oldest brother Matt is a member of the Canadian Army and he's going to Afghanistan in 3 days and I came to spend some time with him before he goes. I'm really happy I could come see him because Matt and I are really close. We always hang out and have been playing sports together all the time since we were little kids. He even bought a catchers mitt and a jock and caught for me in the backyard when I was learning how to pitch as a 16 year old. So all of you guys out there that joke about the Canadian army consisting of a canoe and a beaver, its real. There’s not the firepower of the Israeli or American army, but it’s still real people going to fight overseas. He'll be in Afghanistan for 6 months. He'll be there through the IBL season and he'll follow all of the action on the website. I already told him that he has to draft me in the IBL fantasy baseball league. It sucks for my mom, having two of her kids in the Middle-East, and she’s already a worrier. But we all plan on keeping in touch. I was told they have wireless internet in Israel, so we'll be all good. The NBA All-Star weekend is upon us. Speaking of which, HOW BOUT THEM RAPTORS!! On top of the Atlantic Division, looking at the playoffs, Bosh playing like a superstar...its great to see after five years of a terrible team.
That’s it for me. Talk to you again from Toronto.
OOT
Oak
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Monday, February 19, 2007
Blog 1 -- The Debut
It really looks like things are off and running for the IBL. ESPN.com, CBS Sportsline, this is getting pretty crazy, it's really starting to pick up some steam.
Anyways let me give you a little background so you know who you’re reading about. I'm Ian Okorofsky, a 21 year old pitcher from Toronto, Canada. I traveled down to the IBL tryout in Miami with my buddy, Dan Drori, and I'm happy to say that both of us got signed out of that tryout. I can't tell you how awesome it feels to be a professional baseball player. I've been a part of the league for almost 2 months and it still hasn't fully sunk in. Maybe because there’s 9 feet of snow outside, who knows? I'm still in school, in my 4th year studying business. I also work part time at a restaurant where I serve tables and bar tend. This is where the craziness begins. Trying to juggle an absolutely insane workload with a job and training for baseball. I basically have to pack 3 bags in the morning, and I'm out of my house until I come home to sleep. But hey, if that’s what I need to do then so be it.
I first heard about the IBL from my buddy Dan, and I was kind of skeptical because he tends to bend the truth sometimes. "Yeah man a pro league, they’re paying us like 40 grand, we get to live in our own houses"…can you tell yet why I tend not to believe him? But anyway he told me about the league and I went off and did my own research. The only thing that was the same was that there was a baseball league starting in Israel, that’s it. But I didn't expect limo's and the silver screen, so we we're all good.
The tryout was a really fun experience. For all the Americans out there, your high schools are like palaces. Honestly. We were at Miami Country Day school where they had a football field and a baseball field side by side, both gorgeous, and made of field turf. FIELD TURF! Holy cow, the Blue Jays just got field turf 2 years ago and you have it at your high schools. Our high school baseball diamonds are 15 minutes away from our school and the outfield grass is a patch of weeds. I really wish there was less focus on hockey and more focus on the real sports. It’s brutal. You turn on the sports report in TORONTO and you get the highlights and friggin 20 minutes of interviews from the Edmonton-Nashville game when the Raptors played in the same night and they get 10 seconds. I can't stand that. Another thing Americans, be happy for ESPN and how they've already established that nobody cares about hockey. And don't get me wrong, I'm not at all hating on my country, but there are just some things that make you upset. Okay back to business. So the tryout, we did the 'standard' baseball tryout stuff. Run the 60yard dash, field our positions, pitch, hit, bla bla bla. They cut it down from a list of like 70 players to 30 something for a game. All the pitchers pitched an inning or 2 and the position players got a couple of at-bats. Honestly, coming out of the tryouts I didn't think I made it. I didn't talk to anyone after for like 2 hours, came back to my hotel room and was throwing around my luggage. "HOLY CRAP, I COULDN'T THROW A STRIKE!' But that feeling went away when I decided to take a drive to the “mecca” that is South Beach. After about 20 minutes of gorgeous women and the beach...I forgot about the bad and looked at the positives.
When I got the e-mail with the contract acknowledging that I had been selected, I was so happy. My mom came and looked at it with me. I looked back at her and she was crying. "Ian, this is what you've always wanted to do. Your dream has come true. I'm so proud of you!" How cute, I know. But it was really special to see how happy she was for me.
And so it begins. The life of an IBL'er. I'll keep you posted with how things go down here in Canada, and I look forward to future blogs and to getting started in Israel.
As we say in my country, I'm oot.
Oak
Anyways let me give you a little background so you know who you’re reading about. I'm Ian Okorofsky, a 21 year old pitcher from Toronto, Canada. I traveled down to the IBL tryout in Miami with my buddy, Dan Drori, and I'm happy to say that both of us got signed out of that tryout. I can't tell you how awesome it feels to be a professional baseball player. I've been a part of the league for almost 2 months and it still hasn't fully sunk in. Maybe because there’s 9 feet of snow outside, who knows? I'm still in school, in my 4th year studying business. I also work part time at a restaurant where I serve tables and bar tend. This is where the craziness begins. Trying to juggle an absolutely insane workload with a job and training for baseball. I basically have to pack 3 bags in the morning, and I'm out of my house until I come home to sleep. But hey, if that’s what I need to do then so be it.
I first heard about the IBL from my buddy Dan, and I was kind of skeptical because he tends to bend the truth sometimes. "Yeah man a pro league, they’re paying us like 40 grand, we get to live in our own houses"…can you tell yet why I tend not to believe him? But anyway he told me about the league and I went off and did my own research. The only thing that was the same was that there was a baseball league starting in Israel, that’s it. But I didn't expect limo's and the silver screen, so we we're all good.
The tryout was a really fun experience. For all the Americans out there, your high schools are like palaces. Honestly. We were at Miami Country Day school where they had a football field and a baseball field side by side, both gorgeous, and made of field turf. FIELD TURF! Holy cow, the Blue Jays just got field turf 2 years ago and you have it at your high schools. Our high school baseball diamonds are 15 minutes away from our school and the outfield grass is a patch of weeds. I really wish there was less focus on hockey and more focus on the real sports. It’s brutal. You turn on the sports report in TORONTO and you get the highlights and friggin 20 minutes of interviews from the Edmonton-Nashville game when the Raptors played in the same night and they get 10 seconds. I can't stand that. Another thing Americans, be happy for ESPN and how they've already established that nobody cares about hockey. And don't get me wrong, I'm not at all hating on my country, but there are just some things that make you upset. Okay back to business. So the tryout, we did the 'standard' baseball tryout stuff. Run the 60yard dash, field our positions, pitch, hit, bla bla bla. They cut it down from a list of like 70 players to 30 something for a game. All the pitchers pitched an inning or 2 and the position players got a couple of at-bats. Honestly, coming out of the tryouts I didn't think I made it. I didn't talk to anyone after for like 2 hours, came back to my hotel room and was throwing around my luggage. "HOLY CRAP, I COULDN'T THROW A STRIKE!' But that feeling went away when I decided to take a drive to the “mecca” that is South Beach. After about 20 minutes of gorgeous women and the beach...I forgot about the bad and looked at the positives.
When I got the e-mail with the contract acknowledging that I had been selected, I was so happy. My mom came and looked at it with me. I looked back at her and she was crying. "Ian, this is what you've always wanted to do. Your dream has come true. I'm so proud of you!" How cute, I know. But it was really special to see how happy she was for me.
And so it begins. The life of an IBL'er. I'll keep you posted with how things go down here in Canada, and I look forward to future blogs and to getting started in Israel.
As we say in my country, I'm oot.
Oak
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