MiLB Married Life: Our First Spring Training

Hello from sunny Arizona! Since my last post, we packed up our apartment, put most of our things in storage, and took the long 15 hour drive to Phoenix for Spring Training. (And the blog got a facelift, hope ya like it!)

I've decided to start a little series on what married life in the minor leagues looks like for us. Obviously it is different for single guys than it is for married guys, and it's also different for couples who travel together full time than for couples who don't. So over the course of the season, I plan to give you a little look into the slightly unusual lifestyle we live on the road. If there's anything in particular you'd like to hear about, please let me know! 

If you're not super familiar with baseball, Spring Training is when all of the players in each organization gather together for practices and exhibition games before the start of the regular season. Each organization has a training complex, about half in AZ and half in Florida, where their entire group of Major and Minor League players come together to prepare for the season and determine at what level each player should start, basically. 

Generally single players stay in a team hotel, and some in apartments or rental homes (especially those whose families travel). We are staying at an extended stay hotel, we have a small kitchenette and the front desk folks are super nice! Next week I'll share more about how I'm making this hotel room a home for the month we are here :) We are located in a pretty central area, so it's generally only 20 minutes in any direction to anywhere we would want to go, which is convenient.  

This week, Cy only has to be at work from 8am to about noon. A lot of the minor league hitters don't report for another couple days, so they haven't started playing games in the afternoon yet. This means that since he is just at the field for a few hours, there is no point in me driving him over there and battling traffic back, just to go pick him up again 2 hours later. When his schedule gets a little more demanding next week, I will start taking him to work in the mornings and then have the truck to run around and keep myself occupied during the day, but for now I'm hotel-bound. I'll be honest, the first 2 days I was SO bored and pretty pitiful, but yesterday I got myself on a little schedule including some exercise and I feel so much better! Cy's routine at the field is pretty low-key right now, just basic workouts and throwing, so I'll share more about that later when they really get the ball rolling.

Here's a rough outline of what our days look like (this week, at least!)

• 7am- Wake up (even though I could sleep in, its easier to just stay on Cy's sleep schedule)
• 7:20- Cy leaves
• 7:30- I get up and make some breakfast, then get back in bed and have my Bible time, then watch some Downton Abbey
• 9:30- Get up, get dressed, make the bed, tied the kitchenette, etc.
• 10:00- Youtube workout videos! 
• 12:00- Cy comes home, fix lunches
• 1pm-5:00- Pretty much chill- read, watch tv, play board games, run to the grocery store..
• 5 or 6- Dinner: We have a small kitchenette, so we will mostly just eat here. There are lots of cool restaurants around here we want to check out though!
• 9pm- get ready for bed! We are generally asleep by 10:30

The exercise time is great for me. I'm used to being pretty active (going for walks/running intervals while Cy did his offseason throwing and workouts, just being a busy bee in general) but our hotel isn't near a residential area where I could walk and it doesn't have a gym, so doing different workouts on youtube is a good solution for me right now. I'm trying to mix it up with yoga, cardio, dance, zumba, or p90x type stuff... Literally because it keep me from being bored- I never thought I would see that day haha! Hopefully starting next week I can find a park to walk and run in or maybe a gym to take a class or something. I'm reminded every day that this baseball life is all about being flexible and going with the flow, so who knows!

The big league teams are playing games already, but we haven't gone to any. I am so looking forward to Cy's games starting and can't wait to meet some of the baseball ladies I've made online friendships with already! The baseball wives and girlfriends "network" is really awesome, it's cool to interact with other girls who are in the same crazy lifestyle and understand its nuances. 

Anyway, I'm off to do some laundry and start getting ready for dinner- tonight we are meeting up with one of Cy's former DBU teammates who plays for the Angels :)

Until next time,

Hannah