The Deeble Diaries

[BQ Moderator]

With thanks to Coach Jon Deeble and KC from Baseball Victoria and Baseball Radio Forum, We will now present regular "Deeble Diaries" about the Aussie team abroad.

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Ever-generous with his time when it comes to matters baseball, Australian Manager Jon Deeble has undertaken to provide a series of diary entries for the forum - up to and during the World Baseball Classic.

The first entry (26 February) appears below.

While we encourage comment and expressions of support for the Australian squad, people keen to ask questions will understand that travelling, preparation and media commitments are the obvious priority for deebs and his staff.

This is another great coup for the Baseball Radio Forum. We trust that members will enjoy the postings.

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February 26 2009 (after two exhibition games in Japan)

"We played our first game against Japan Tuesday night in front of 35,000 screaming fans. I think a few of the boys were a bit overawed by the experience. There was silence from the players in our pre game stretch.

I hooked up with Daisuke Matsuzaka before the game. We talked about baseball and the Red Sox and I had him sign a bat for me for a special young kid who is not doing so well at the moment.

With an all-star line up from Japan we faced one of the top five pitchers in the world - Yu Darvish - and quickly got on the board with an rbi single from Grant Karlsen that was beautifully placed between the second baseman and shortstop. The guys really swung the bats well against outstanding pitching which you wouldn't see on a Major league team.

Unfortunately we self destructed defensively and made three telling errors, along with two mental errors - which cost us five runs. The game plan for these two games was to be perfect defensively. Unfortunately that didn't happen and we paid the price going down 8-2. Wearne had some good at bats, as did Karslen, Huber and Linger.

Tim Cox was outstanding on the mound and should have left the game as the winning pitcher.

The speed of the Japanese team was amazing, with Ichiro getting four infield hits in the two games as well as a few others. I don't believe there is another team in the world that has the speed of this team. They make you speed the game up, they put amazing pressure on you to field the ball quickly and get rid of it. They force you to make errors with their speed. They had five guys in their line up that got to first base in under four seconds - major league average is 4.3 seconds.

The press conference after the game was packed. A lot of questions as to why we didn't have any ML players there and also no current pros.

We were decked out in our new sponsors T shirts - SKINS - which was plastered all over the TV that night and the next day in the print media.

Day 2 Game 2

The hotel we are in is great with good food and accommodation. Not much sleep was had, as we were required for a morning ABF meeting to put the MLBAAP academy squad together. Two other meetings and it was time to get on the bus, this time to face Daisuke.

We shot out of the box getting up 2-0 on five hits against Matsuzaka. The star again was Grant Karlsen hitting a two-run double over Ichiro's head - and as we all know that is hard to do.

The lead was short-lived as we self destructed again. This time six errors. The pressure they applied again by their speed was amazing but in saying that we should never have made those errors as they were pretty much all routine plays.

Snelling was good with the bat, as well as Dutton, Huber and Kimpton. Moss was great on the mound and completely tied up the Japanese hitters. Once he was out of the game their bats came to life.

A shining point in the game was the pitching performance of Darren Cassidy. He worked quick on the mound and was not afraid to attack those hitters. He threw two really good innings and shut the Japanese offence down.

Crazy press conference again - more press than we had players on the team. They were very critical of our defence.

In both games I thought we swung the bats really well and pitched well spasmodically. The defense really let us down, making nine errors in two games. Our team pride themselves on getting 27 outs and not giving teams extra outs. Unfortunately we had to get over 65 outs in the two nights -you can’t win ball games if that happens.

Day 3

Woke up with a sore head today after a few quiet beers with the front office of the ABF, doing a debrief of the past ten days including the Perth and Melbourne games against Taiwan and our trip to Japan.

Had to pack early this morning for our first of two flights - Osaka to Tokyo and then Tokyo AZ. Starbucks took a beating from the boys this morning - it was the only time I left the hotel except for the games.

Pretty bumpy ride to LA but with all the boys in business class it was a pretty comfortable trip. Phil Dale was complaining that there was no ice cream on the flight and was seen clearing them out of chocolates early in the morning.

Ben Risinger I think brought the wrong bag on board. It looked like it belonged to his wife - a very nice over the shoulder bag. He looked like he could have been on the catwalk.

Justin Huber is a new man since Graeme Lloyd gave him a blade 1 and got rid of his mop top. He has started hitting the ball hard.

Baconhead (Damien Shanahan) was set up in the second game. He was sent out to coach first base. We told him at these tournaments you have to wear helmets so we got the biggest one we could find. Tony Harris told him that he was wearing the other one we had. As they were running out to their positions, Tony threw his back into the dugout and Baconhead was standing up at first base with a massive helmet on his bald head that could have fitted three of his heads in!

That's all for the moment. I need some sleep. This plane ride is getting long."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

February 28 , 2009

today started off with alot of the boys waking up every 2 hours from 3am onwards the jet lag really kicked, the day started off with a early stroll down at the mall, we rented some cars today for the poor old coaches to get to the ground, shana phil dale and i had lunch down at the mall then headed off to the stadium to find all our WBC gear had arrived.


the amount of stuff you get is amazing, 4 uniforms, a stack of t shirts sliding pants jackets bags flip flops spikes batting gloves caps and so on and so on, the boys look real good decked out for our 1st training session with our bp tops on and grey pants. training went smoothley with a good run strecth and throw after the long flight, we went straight into bp, james berseford reall swung the bat well as did snelling and huber, we had lots of ground balls for the infielders whilst the pitchers bullpend, we finished off the session with pitchers
PFP, finished off with a good workout in the gym. i got my 5 k out on the treat mill and finished with a few weights. i was mentioning to the coaching staff that 5 year back our guys where weak and not very big, in the gym today they where throwing around some serious weights, most of our guys are huge now with great bodies.

went out to dinner with my old farm director with the marlins john boles also in attendance was dave wallace former LA dosdger big league coach and former pitching coach of the red sox, rick renteria was there he is the 1st base coach with SD, who is a close friend from the marlin days and jose castro former marlin now hitting co ordinater of the seattle team, on our side we had pat kelly graeme llyod and tont harris, as the beers poured the stories got better and funnier.everyone is safe back home in bed ready for tomorrows workout.

[BQ Moderator]

Posted AEDST Monday 2 March

Arizona
28th February

"Early start today. I went and visited the Kansas City Royals spring training with the gorilla to say hello to some friends.

What a great complex. George Brett was there instructing. He came over to say hello. What great shape he is in - I think he could probably still play.

Had another good training session - lots of bp. We also had the pitchers pitch live to the hitters. Everything is on track. The rest of the players arrived last night except for Brad Thomas, who is still with his Korean team in Hawaii.

Seattle have done a great job in setting up our clubhouse. We have a monster change room all to ourselves, full of food, drink and of course some cold beer for the coaching staff.

The coaches met for dinner last night across the road at the Thai
restaurant. We had a great night with great food.

Pretty early night as tomorrow is a bit of a tough day. We have to pack our bags and move into the Ritz-Carlton. That will be hard to take. This is where the WBC gets interesting - everything is first class from here."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted AEDST Monday 2 March

Arizona
1 March

"Today started early. After packing up our bags we went to practice and then moved into our new hotel. This is top of the range, I am on the top floor in a beautiful suite - way too good for me.

Practice went well today. It was short and sharp and most of the guys finished up in the gym.

Dinner was a little different tonight. After we settled into the Ritz-
Carlton it was time to eat. Lloydy's suggestion was right next door to Mortons steakhouse. If I had known the prices my rear wouldn't have hit the chair. Lloydy and Pat Kelly roll a little differently to us plebs!

After checking the menus, Phil Dale, Tony Harris, Shana and I thought we would share a plate of mashed potatoes. That was all we could afford.

But Lloydy again came to the rescue, refusing to let anyone pay and we all enjoyed the nicest rib eye steak I have ever had. A few glasses of red. Thank god we didn't see the bill.

One of the guests there was Shaq. He could hardly fit through the door. He came up to say hello and we blew him off saying who does he think he is walking up and annoying us? No, that didn't really happen, but he was there. He had his red Ferrari parked out the front with Superman embroided into his seats. It was a nice machine.

Night finished off with a WBC meeting - short and sweet, to the point and we all got out pretty quick.

Another practice tomorrow, our first with the whole squad. We are starting to get down to nut-cracking time. The guys have been working hard and looking forward to playing Seattle on Wednesday night."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted ADEST 4 March

Arizona
3 March

"First full training with the whole squad today went great. It is amazing the change in the players from the last 7-8 years. We have great bodies on this team - they are really strong, well defined and muscled up.

I was commenting that the Australian state academies are really starting to pay off with their emphasis on lifting and getting strong. Five years ago we had a catch-cry “BIGGER,FASTER,STRONGER” that was the theme of how we want our players to be. It is amazing to watch our guys in the gym. Guys like Michael Collins Huber, Risinger are amazing with the amount of weight they throw around.

Day started off with a run, stretch and throw. We then went into our team fundamentals, cut offs and relays, our bunt defences, 1st and 3rd plays and pop fly priorities. We then went into what we call a simulated game where all of our pitchers pitched one inning and a game situation at full pace. I umpired the game to get a good look at our pitchers’ stuff from behind the pitchers’ mound.

David Welch - our newest member of the team - was a shining light, making short work of his inning. He has real good stuff and I can see why he pitched a no hitter in AA last year.

We finished the session off with our normal bp rounds with guys getting lots of swings in. We had early work and late work, which is optional in the cages, but everyone took advantage of getting extra swings in. The pitchers finished off with their conditioning and a short workout in the gym finished the day. We are 45 min from the hotel.

The coaching staff finished the evening with a meeting and a meal at the mall and into bed early for a 6.00 am wake up for photo shots tomorrow."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Direct From Deebs:

From QLD, Joel Naughton Catcher and Brett Roneberg 1B. V Seattle.


starting lineup
oltjen cf,hughes 3b,snelling rf,huber lf,risinger dh,roneberg 1b,harmon ss,beresford 2b,graham catching, naughton and graham will split time as will roneberg and collins.

i have really been impressed with james beresford he has played his way into a starting position

travis blackley will start with anderson after thst never know from there but we have all our guys ready.

moss tomorrow and we have staff going oing 12 inning each trhe next day so everyone is ready for the opening game v mexico

[BQ Moderator]

Posted 5 March 2009 AEDST

Arizona
4 March

"Great game tonight.

The day started with the coaching staff heading over to the Angels spring training facility to scout the South Africa/Angels game. The South African boys did a good job only to fall away after a solid pitching performance by their starters.

We left the game in the fifth inning and drove an hour to our game. Things were pretty rushed but we got there in time for a nice meal in the club house and then out for bp. We took the best bp I have seen in a long time.

The highlight of the day was our win - but a close second was George Brett and Chili Davis suiting up in the green and gold as coaches for the day on our team. Both these guys go back a way with us on the Aussie team - Chili at the MLBAAP Academy and George Brett a close friend of Huber and a few others on the club.

George Brett came up to me and said he couldn’t believe how good our hitters were whilst taking bp. He didn’t realize how good we were - he was amazed.

Having both guys in the club house and dugout was a great thrill. The thing that struck me like a bolt of lightning was that George Brett - when he talks to you - made you feel like you were the most important person in the world. He was like one of the guys and had some great stories. It’s not often that you have a Hall of Famer suited up and sitting in your dugout working, talking and helping our guys.

He was awesome. Chili Davis was great also. He had worked with a lot of our guys as juniors at the Academy. It was great to see him, he couldn’t believe how much better we had got.

We all got a big kick out of the guys being with us. Rod Carew also called to wish us the best. He talked to me about Luke Hughes and said he has a real shot this year of getting to the big leagues. He really likes him. Rod works with the Twins, and also called again to congratulate the team on a great win.

Talking to two Hall of Famers in one day is pretty good going!

I left George Brett in my office at the field having a quiet few Australian beers which were sent to me. They really liked the taste and decided to stay and have a few more.

Anyway, back to the game, I thought we pitched behind in the count early but after the fifth I thought Welch and Crawford did a great job.

The hitting was sensational. Not only the hits, but the ABs that drew walks and the situational hitting from Snelling was awesome. He had the best 0 for 5 I have ever seen. He moved two runners from second to third, he drove one in from third on a twelve-pitch at bat ground ball. He also hit two line drive outs.

Roneberg was outstanding - 5/5 with 6 RBIs. I heard someone bagged me for selecting him. He is in the top five hitters in the country and tonight proved it against big league pitchers.

For all the s**t-canners who were very vocal and disapproved of Ben Risinger’s selection, you should spend ten minutes and watch the ESPN highlights reel. Four from five with five hard hit balls, including four doubles. This guy is the best hitter in the country and the best team guy in our club house. The “experts” who canned the decision to select him prove every time they open their mouth how little they know about the game. This guy is a star. If he doesn’t get a hit the rest of the way he is a leader and a great guy to have on our club.

George Brett was amazed at his at bats and thought he should be on a big league team. We have guys in Australia saying he shouldn't be on our team! Just because he doesn’t play for WA doesn’t mean he can't play for Australia. He has proved time and time again he is a great player.

I don’t see Ricky Ponting playing for Tasmania or now NSW.

It was good to get the young guys in for an AB - they all did well.

Overall it was a great day for Australian baseball. We still have a long way to go. I have said a few times - there is a big win in store in the next few years be it Olympics, World Championship or another. But if we can keep this team together I think we will go close to winning another big one."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted 6 March 2009 AEDST

Arizona
5 March

"Early start today after a late night at the park. We had bp early today but the guys were in full spirit. There was a big line at Starbucks next door to the hotel this morning around 7 am getting a fix before jumping on the bus to the Brewers complex.

Gastro continues to slow some of our guys down. We had a good bp today, infield/out field was a little shaky but we got through it.

Started the game on fire today, getting up 4-0. We hit the ball well against Seth McLung - the starting pitcher for the Brewers. Huber sent a ball into the stands after a lead off triple for Oeltjen. Mossy pitched well until into the fourth, but gave up a grand slam home run to put us behind 6-4.

Liam Hendricks pitched well. He attacked the strike zone and did a good job, but they got hold of him later in the game as we were trying to stretch his pitch count out. Josh Hill came in and showed glimpses of good stuff, but got behind in too many counts and gave up two runs.

Over all we swung the bats well but I thought we went to too many three-ball counts out of our pitchers’ counts, which allowed them to get good pitches to hit or we walked them. We need to attack the strike zone more.

Caught up with a close mate of mine who was the manager of the Brewers at the end of last year - Dale Svuem. He is their hitting coach this year. He was in the big leagues with Boston while I was there and he played with Lloydy at the Yankees. We had a good talk and there were a few stories that were traded. Also caught up with former Melbourne Monarch Charlie Green. He is the catching coordinator for the Brewers. He was in the big leagues for a while, but after he retired he went into coaching.

Heading out for a quiet meal tonight. Early to bed for an early bus tomorrow. We have a game at 1 pm against the White Sox then onto a charter flight to Mexico."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted 7 March 2009 AEDST

Mexico
7 March

"Bad start to the day that got worse. The gastro bug has hit hard, with many players and office staff going down It is looking more likely that Phil Dale might have to start a game with Lloydy coming in to close.

Of course just kidding, but we are down to our bare essentials.

The day got worse as we got pounded by a big hitting White Sox 10-3. There weren't too many bright spots with all pitchers only going one inning as the pitch counts affect when they can pitch in Mexico. We needed everyone available. We borrowed a couple of pitchers from the Chisox. Ozzie Guillen was great - he was happy to help.

We watched Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko take early bp. They were awesome, as well as Jim Thorne. He looks in great shape - leaner than I have seen him in the past.

We showered after the game and were escorted to the tarmac, where we were searched, passports checked and put on the plane.

Roneberg spent the whole trip in the bathroom vomiting. There were a few up the front that weren't any better.

The card game started early with lots of players. PK and Lloydy were winners, as were Hughsey and Harmo. The latter must have thought they were playing the pokies.After they got up a certain amount they left the game. Lloydy will lay the law down to them tomorrow.

I was losing badly until the last hand but I picked up the pot on a beautiful pair of eights.

Arrived safely in Mexico and got to the hotel. Nice suites with plenty of room. The boys are pretty tired. They had a quick bite to eat and are all off to bed.

Training tomorrow at 1pm. We will leave the hotel at 11am. We are told it is not that far away, but lots of traffic. Hopefully we have enough boys on the track to get some work in."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted 8 March AEDST

Mexico City
7 March

"Boys had a good sleep in this morning and then the long bus trip to practice at the field.

The stadium was packed with spectators watching our practice. The stadium looks like it will hold around 40,000. With the high altitude here the balls were going way out of the ball park. We must have hit over 70 home runs and called for new balls as we ran out of them. The boys put on a show, with Huber, Snelling, Hughes and Risinger in Group 1 launching 10 or so each.

I don’t think the pitchers were happy with what they saw.

We had a long pitchers and catchers meeting today and talked about our 3 ball counts as well as getting behind in the count - 2 balls no strikes or 2-1. This killed us in Arizona and we need to do a better job getting ahead in the count.

The boys have a pool recovery session now then a function (team welcome) at 8 pm which will go to 11pm - lots of food, drink and entertainment.

The hotel is decent. Not like the one we had in Orlando for the last classic, but it is okay – just a bit tired and rundown. There are thirty restaurants in the hotel so there is really no need to leave the place.

We have been told to be on the lookout as people get kidnapped here and killed, as well as stealing from you. It is not a good place to be, Mexico City. We have lots of security around, so hope all goes well."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

9 March 2009 AEDST

Mexico City
Sunday 8 March
Australia 17 defeated Mexico 7

"Wow.

What a game tonight.

I am so proud of this team, the way they performed tonight. The Mexican crowd was unbelievable and when the nuts and bolts from the grandstand were hurled at our players they never took a backward step.

Our game plan is perfect execution. It is expected and required by everyone on our team to execute perfectly - that applies to the coaching staff, the physios, the outfielders, infielders, pitchers and hitters. And I am proud to say we executed perfectly. This is a requirement of this team. The scores in our games are irrelevant - as is the opposition. We have had this game plan now for five years and it really works.

The hitters were outstanding. We took a 15 game winner in the big leagues last year deep into counts and had a huge amount of quality at bats. Harmo had a ten-pitch at bat then drove a ball to right-centre. Snelling was on his death bed tonight but refused to stay out of the lineup. This is a quality kid who can really play. He is an inspiration to this team, he is never beaten. He had five quality at bats tonight with two home runs.

Risinger. What can I say? Three great plays at first and unlucky not to have two home runs. The first ball he hit to centre was going out except for the wind that sprung up for a few minutes. He put the game out of Mexico's reach with a bomb to put us ten up.

James Beresford. This kid has nuts the size of a gorilla. Nothing fazes this kid and he was outstanding.

The pitching for me was the best eight innings I have seen from any Australian players. Ando got knocked around but I thought he kept the ball down. A few balls we should have made outs on but he wasn't as bad as the scoreboard showed. Mildren was outstanding - remember in this ball park the ball flies out. We saw pop-ups go out today. It is very hard to pitch here.

I thought young Liam Hendricks was outstanding also. For a 20 year old kid to do what he did against a MLB side was amazing. This kid is not afraid also - he showed some real nuts and poise for a young kid.

Thompson was awesome. He went after those guys and didn't give an inch. He is a real chance to make the Angels pitching staff this year. We are very lucky he put his hand up to play, as he always does for Australia.

There were some disappointments. The fans were throwing nuts and bolts at the players, which was disappointing. The Australian Consulate people were there and couldn't get out of the stadium. They were pelted with beer and other objects. They had to get on our bus to get out of the stadium.

Our guys played this game in the face of a lot of adversity - the vocal 30,000 Mexican fans, the pelting of objects and the abuse of the Mexican fans, but this could not stop our boys from sticking to their tasks and coming up with a big win.

There is a long way to go and we need to beat the world champions. It will be tough. If we don't we will probably need to beat Mexico again. That will also be a tough assignment, so hopefully we put Cuba away in two days and go through to the next round.

Travis Blackley will pitch against Cuba. We have done a good job with our scouting reports and hopefully we can pull this next one off."

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted 10 March AEDST

Mexico City
10 March 2009

"Very quiet day today. We had a 11.15am bus to the field. The boys pulled up a bit sore after the game so we had a very easy practice run, stretch and throw. We went straight into an easy BP. Guys who didn't want to throw didn't, but we made sure we got plenty of ground balls as this field is lightning fast.

We had 3-4 bullpens, but mostly just hit and cleared out some lactic acid. The coaches took bp first, seeing who could take the ball out of this park. PK started and easily put five or six out. Lloydy - my favorite to win the home run derby - knocked out about the same. Baconhead was the disappointment. I thought I coached him better but he let the Vics down - 20 swings for 20 weak ground balls to 3rd and SS. He never got one off the ground.

Tony Harris( body beautiful) got 3 or 4 out, but when you spend that much time in the gym looking at yourself and building those muscles you surely have to get a few out. Yours truly hit lots of line drives. I added a few Deeble doubles down the rightfield line. I had one that hit the top of the fence, then exploded with the big one. It took me 50 more swings than anyone else, but I finally got one out. I would never have heard the end of it if I never left the park.

A member of the staff - the gorilla (Phil Dale) - was missing in action. We wanted to see what he had but he was nowhere to be seen

BP lasted an hour. We showered up and headed home. The boys had a recovery session at the pool then a nice dinner and an early night. The coaching staff got all the scouting reports together for tomorrow's game. We had my Redsox guy here in Mexico working for us, as well as Craig Shipley and a few others we have. Good reports on the Cubans. We had a nice dinner at the Hard Rock café. Guess what we ate? Yes, you are right – Tacos. They were awesome.

Interestingly, under the rules the Cubans and us were supposed to name our starting pitchers. We gave ours in at lunchtime (Travis Blackley) but they refused to do so. We thought we might have had a forfeit. But not to be. They aren't happy to be playing us.

As long as we keep executing and forgetting the opponent and score we are going to be fine. We will get their starter out early but we want to make sure we don't take away our aggressiveness. We want to work counts, but at the same time be aggressive, get the fastball and hit it.

Their starting pitcher will be a guy called Chapman. He is a 6.5 lefty who is 93 to 102 mph, but don't be alarmed. He is good but has poor control. We will work the counts tomorrow and hopefully we will have him out of the game in three innings. He is very good but I think our guys are ready for the challenge.

Beresford - although we are facing a lefty - will play second base. This kid is unbelievable, the poise and presence for a 19 year old kid is amazing. I love watching him go about his business. I don't think a lefty throwing 100 mph plus will have any effect on this kid. It is a tough assignment but he is up to it and we need his defence.

Here is our lineup:

Oeltjen cf
Hughes 3b
Snelling rf (what a player and a gamer)
Huber lf
Risinger 1b (superstar and club house leader)
Roneberg DH
Harman ss (superstar)
Beresford 2b (becoming a favorite of mine up there with a Scott Wearne)
Graham c (great job last night)

Blackley p"

deebs

[BQ Moderator]

Posted Thursday 12 March AEDST

Mexico City
11 March 2009

"What a tough game last night. I was that worn out I didn’t have the energy to do the diary, but back on track now and ready to get them today.

We are so proud of these guys - the way they went about their business last night. They took it right up to the Cubans but the baseball gods weren't with us.

Travis pitched an outstanding game. He worked to our game plan and had the Cubans against the ropes. When I went out to take him out he said “nuts, . I wish there wasn't a pitch count - I could throw the whole game."

James Beresford continues to amaze with the way he tackles these giants. Getting a hit off Chapman - who was throwing up to 102 from the left side - was amazing. Then to get another hit off Lazo was unbelievable. His poise has people shaking their heads. He looks like he belongs out there - all 150 lbs of him. Remember Chapman and Lazo are two of the top ten pitchers in the world.

The boys pulled up a little sore today after being hit three times by balls in the upper 90s. That’s no fun. Risinger got squared right up on the elbow, as did Harman. Those guys were coming back to the dugout saying Chapman’s fastball looks like a blur. All our guys battled him to the end and to hit him like we did was amazing. The guts our guys showed proved that
we can match it with anyone in the world.

It was a dead quiet clubhouse after the game. Our guys were crushed. We had a very rare meeting as our game plan is all about execution. Everybody executing their craft perfectly - from the coaches, physio, hitters, pitchers, defenders.

There is no need for a lot of talk, but last night was different. I brought the players together to talk about their performance and how proud we are of them. I told them we are all disappointed but we can’t let this drag on. They had fifteen minutes to have the disappointments, then time to start getting up. They did this to perfection. They were down, but then everyone started talking and the mood really changed. The music came on in the clubhouse. This was the medicine to get over the loss.

The boys will be ready tonight. It will be tough. They have three Major League pitchers going against us but I have no doubt these guys are up to it and we will go through to San Diego..

I told the players if we keep playing like we have done the last two days we will win. The Cuban catcher Pestano told our security guy that this Australian team are that good they could win the whole thing. That was a really nice thing to say - hopefully he is right.

I really want this game tonight as I want the Cubans tomorrow night and take that 600k bonus. I want to take the food out of their mouth."

deebs