The State of Our Season

Beautiful sunset in Springdale, AR this week

It is CRAZY that the season is just a few short weeks from ending! It feels like it has flown by so much faster than last year. We have a guaranteed spot in the playoffs because we won the first half, so we shall see how far into post-season play we will go.

I figure this would be a good time to share a little about how our season has been in general!

Hannah-
This season has been GREAT for me. I don't think I have shared much about it here, but last fall I started working as a personal/administrative assistant for two ladies who are high ranking Beachbody coaches. This has been a huge blessing for several reasons! First, it is beyond amazing to have a job where I can work remotely and be able to make money while traveling with Cy full time. Second, it is so nice to have my own tasks and responsibilities to focus on outside of baseball. I have my work, Cy has his work, we get to focus on our own things instead of all baseball on both of our brains constantly. Third, the nature of my work is SO social and community focused, which is so great for my social butterfly self! (If you're a baseball girl interested in a position like mine, shoot me an email!) Plus, I get to use a lot of practical skills and knowledge from my degree, which is great ;)

We are living with an INCREDIBLE host family (I seriously am amazed by how many truly wonderful people we have been able to live with in our past 2 seasons!!) and really they make baseball life doable. My host parents and I kind of accidentally started working out a couple months ago and now have a nightly group workout routine! It is really fun to do together, and I feel so great getting consistent exercise in- something I honestly have never really enjoyed haha.

I have been traveling a LOT. I've gone on a good majority of Cy's road trips, plus a trip home to Alaska for my best friends wedding at the beginning of August! It has been super fun but starting to wear me out, I am ready for the offseason to just be in one place for awhile!


Cy-
"This season has been good! There have definitely been some frustrating moments pitching wise because I feel like I haven't been quite as consistent as I was last season or as I am capable of. But all in all I am happy with my season. We have won a lot of games, which is always fun. I really enjoy the staff and the organization as a whole.

Our host family is awesome, makes life a lot easier. We have eaten a lot of great food and seen some fun new places this season- no complaints! It is really great to have Hannah with me full time, not everyone is able to make that work during season and I am thankful we can because it makes all the difference in the world.

This offseason is going to be good. I am excited to graduate in December and be DONE with school. Looking forward to doing manly stuff like hunting and chopping trees/firewood. Plus, getting to spend time with family and reset my mind and body to get ready for next season."


Us-
We are rapidly approaching our 2 year anniversary, which is crazy. Sometimes it feels like it was just last week that we got engaged, but at the same time it feels like we have been together forever. It's cliche but really, life is great when your spouse is your best friend! We are making lots of memories and enjoying the slightly crazy life that baseball gives us. Always an adventure ;)


So for our offseason, barring any crazy changes that baseball might bring, we are headed to ALASKA!! Yes, for real! All of the pieces just fell into place for us to spend most of our offseason up there near my family. We are really excited! I haven't been home for longer than like 3 weeks at a time since I left for college, so it will be great to spend extended quality time with our loved ones there.

Here's to the last few weeks of this season!!

xo, Hannah

The Article

The title of this post makes it sound so dramatic. But hey, I'm not dramatic at all..... ;) Anyway, the ballpark here puts out a program each month that lists all the players and coaches bios, advertisements from sponsors, and includes an article or two. Cy and I were asked to be the featured article for August! This is the first time anyone decided to ask for my input on anything like this, so I was super excited for my 5 minutes of fame.... ha! Since this is a print feature and not online, you'll have to bear with me and read it from these (admittedly low quality) pictures. Hope you enjoy getting another perspective on our journey this season!

xo, Han

The All-Star Classic

After a loooooong 12 day road series (during which I went to Alaska to meet my perfect new godson, more on that later!) and an awesome game at Miller Park, Cy finally came home just in time for us to head to Peoria, Illinois for the Midwest League All-Star Classic this week!

It is SUCH an exciting honor for Cy to be named to the All Star team. Basically, the managers (coaches) across the league vote on players who have performed well in the first half of the season to be selected for the team (voting happens differently in different leagues/levels- in some places player and fans get a portion of the vote too). Then the selected players from the East and West divisions of the league get together and play a game. Two players from the Timber Rattlers were selected, Cy and Carlos Leal, one of our catchers.

Each year a different team in the league host the Classic, and this year the Peoria Chiefs took their turn. Peoria is about a 5 hour trip from Appleton, so Monday morning we hit the road. A big group of the staff from our front office went, so we had a nice little caravan of rental minivans cruising down the highway ;)

via TRats marketing directer @hilarybauer7 on twitter

We arrived late in the afternoon and got checked in. Boy oh boy was it a great change of pace to stay in a nice hotel! Most of the time on the road, Cy's team stays in some pretty...interesting... places (think bedbugs) MiLB glam, y'all. So we were absolutely thrilled to stay somewhere nice, clean, and comfortable!!

That evening we headed to the CAT Museum for a pre-dinner cocktail hour. It was so cool to see all the Cat equipment and dozers and motors and stuff. If you know how much of a gear head Cy is, you know he was in absolute heaven. From there, we were shuttled over to the ballpark for dinner. The original plan was to have dinner at a restaurant on the riverwalk, but the rover was flooding so the riverwalk was shut down. The Chiefs did a good job of pulling together a plan B at the last minute! We ate and hung out for a while, then headed back to the hotel for the night.

Tuesday morning we slept in and walked to a little cafe for breakfast. Cy had to head to the field at noon, so I basically spent the rest of my afternoon doing pretty much nothing. It was really relaxing though! I met up with Carolina (Carlos' girlfriend- love her!) at the field at about 5 for the home run derby.

The derby was interesting. They decided to have the hitters hit in towards the fans instead of out like normal. Great idea in theory, but in practice it was kinda boring because there weren't a lot of home runs hit into the stands AND the players were way out in the outfield and hard to see. The game started after that, and it was different than your typical game because they switched pitchers at least every inning so that everyone got a chance to play. This made it kiiiinda drag out a bit haha! Cy threw the first 2 outs of the 6th inning with 5 quick pitches. After the game there was an awesome fireworks show, and then we headed to the post-game street party at a nearby pub. By the time the day finally ended we were exhausted! The next morning we headed back home to Appleton and enjoyed the day off.

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but a very cool experience! All in all though, Cy and I are boring creatures of habit, so we are glad to be back to our "normal" after over 2 weeks of crazy ;) We are playing at home pretty much until the 7th (with just a quick 1 night trip in the first week of July) and I am so glad. Right now 2 more girlfriends are in town visiting (along with the now THREE of us who are here full time!!) so our little group is having a blast.

Hope your week has been wonderful!!

xo, Han

Cy- Road Trip Life

It's that time of year again! Cy is taking over the blog today to give you a little firsthand look at the finer details of life as a minor league baseball player ;)

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When the bus starts pulling away from Appleton on the way to a road series somewhere in the greater Midwest area there is always one strand of thoughts in my mind and the minds of many on the bus: "Did I pack everything?  I know I brought my jersey, but I bet I forgot my belts.... I know I have my coat and cleats but do I have all my hats? Ehh... oh well, too late to worry about it now." A movie is generally playing on the small bus TV's right away to help kill some time.  Baseball movies are common, as well as comedies.  About half the guys watch and the other half either sleep, listen to music, or watch a show or movie they brought along.  Once the movie is over the bus usually quiets down... but not always.  This is why I bring along a pair of headphones and ear muffs.  Sure, the ear muffs are designed to protect ones hearing while shooting guns or working around jet engines but when the bus gets rowdy they do the job just fine.  Most guys have a similar idea but opt for the noise canceling headphone version, which look a little cooler but also cost substantially more.

Generally we have been stopping to eat along the way at this little truck stop diner joint that is pretty good.  Most of the time I sit with some of the boys and we shoot the breeze over some french toast, chatting about who is being loud on the bus or recounting funny stories from the last few games.  After we eat it's back to the bus and the headphones come back on.  I usually crank a little country music through them, and recently have been playing Aaron Watson's new album The Underdog very regularly the past few trips.  If you haven't heard that album do yourself a favor and look it up, the guy has some good stuff with just enough twang for my liking.

Finally we arrive at our destination. The way we do it on this particular team is to head directly to the field when we get into whatever town we are playing in, play the game, and then check into the hotel that night.  This works very well because often hotels can't have all our rooms ready for us to check in to right away (because we require so many with the amount of people we bring) so instead of rolling the dice we just check in late.

Once you get to the field and enter the locker room you had better have your wits about you.  The locker you pick that day will stick with you for the remainder of the trip and a bad choice can mean for a rough weekend.  The ideal locker is one that is located close to food, showers, and bathroom as well as power outlets and, if possible, empty lockers.  These are usually located in corners but it can be a double edged sword.  Guess the number of lockers available wrong and you could be stuck sharing a corner with a larger, sweaty, hairy individual which, lets be honest- few dream of doing.

On the field, a good stretch and conditioning session are in place to wake up your stiff limbs from the bus ride.  After that we play catch, and depending on the day, I might throw a bullpen.  One thing that cannot be dodged is shagging fly balls in batting practice (BP).  This is where pitchers like me are really unsung heroes.  Without all of our athletic ability chasing down fly balls outfielders could only dream of catching, and starting pitchers running a bucket full of balls back into the hitters every so often, hitters wouldn't get a chance to hit.  And if hitters couldn't hit the team wouldn't be able to score runs and if you don't score runs you can't win games.  So pitchers shagging BP causes the team to score runs, its that simple.  Where would they be without us? (This is mostly sarcasm)

After BP is my favorite activity of the day, crushing the pre-game spread!  It usually works out where pitchers come in a little before the hitters after BP where we all grab a plate and crudely slap together a PB&J with a side of animal crackers and/or gold fish.  It is a minor league meal and its the kind that fuels the team when we take the field each and every day.

During the game if you aren't keeping a chart (game statistics) you get to have lengthy in depth conversations with other pitchers about almost any topic under the sun.  From these conversations I have come up with one of my favorite sayings regarding getting to the big leagues: Take all your natural talent, things you learn, development, and anything else you can acquire, learn, or steal that'll make you better and throw it in a pot.  Heat it up with your work ethic and stir it together with a minor league lifestyle.  If it comes out good enough, ride that concoction like its a $2 pony to the big leagues.  Get every ounce you can out of it and throw new things in whenever you get the chance. 

After the game, we head to our hotel for the night. Hotels can be very hit or miss, you might be at a nice hotel one trip and the very next you are trying not to get bed bugs at some rundownplace in the bad part of town.  What I have learned from this is to always check the hotel name before you leave, so you know if it would be beneficial to bring along some type of antibacterial spray, extra sheets, a sleeping bag, or all of the above.  The moral of the story is you don't want to be the guy that everyone talks about for getting some type of disease from a hotel (even though it was years ago), trust me it happens...

So far this season, all of our road trips have only been 3 game series. Since they are so short, Hannah hasn't been coming on the road trips with me. On longer trips, she will come for part of the time and be able to stay with me at the team hotel. She can't stay in my room with me, but I am allowed to book a separate room at the team rate and stay with her since she is my wife. I just have to let the team manager know ahead of time.

So that's kind of what a minor league roadtrip is like.  It can be a little rough at times but a good amount of fun as well.  There is nothing quite like getting a paycheck every 2 weeks for playing baseball. Even if it technically puts you under the poverty line, it is something that can be oh so worth it if you are one of the lucky few that plays in the big leagues. 

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Hope you enjoyed hearing from the bearded guy himself :) Pretty interesting huh? The Timber Rattlers are part of the Midwest League, and all of their road trips are bus trips. The team will travel 9,447 miles over 13 road trips this season to play teams in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan. Some trips are just 3 days, while some are close to two weeks long. What a life!

xo,

Hannah

Life Lately + Food

Happy Monday! I am that weird person who loves a fresh start each week (though I was having an emotional morning watching those heartwarming pieces on the Today Show/GMA/Kelly & Michael..)

Anyway, since last week I got a little personal and shared about why I travel during baseball season, I didn't share what we have been up to! So without further ado, here's our life over the past couple weeks in pictures. Also, lots of food is included. I can't help myself.

A couple weekends ago, sweet Chandler came to town for a few days! She is dating David Michael, who Cy rooms with on road trips. We had such a great time hanging out, visiting coffee shops, chatting about baseball life, and even got some delicious macarons! She is planning to come visit again this season, and I am SO excited. 

Cy has had some great outings!! If you click on the "Baseball" tab at the top of the page, it will give you some links to his stats and some recent articles. Also, the Timber Rattlers mascot Fang has started wearing a mustache when Cy starts, too funny!!

Cy and the girls, Greta and Belle. We sure lucked out living with such fun and sweet pups this season.

Last Monday Cy had an off day, such a rare and much needed treat! One of the local golf courses lets the team play for free, so we spent the afternoon working on our swings. We are HORRIBLE golfers but hey we sure had fun!

These pictures are unrelated but they fit side by side.... ha. During games, I usually sit next to the guys who chart/take game stats. The other day, they let me run the velo gun for a little bit. I felt so incredibly useful ;) And on the right is a picture of the sunrise over the lake a few nights ago, super peaceful.

This one is pretty self explanatory. For almost the past week I have been dealing with a miserable head cold. I am finally feeling better but gosh it was not fun.

And my favorite part... the food. Perkins has 1/2 price pie slices after 9pm, makes for a cheap date night after games! We also love that no matter where we are, we can enjoy the lunch specials at Buffalo Wild Wings. I usually try whatever limited time sauce they have out with my wings and a salad, and Cy always has lemon pepper wings with fries. On Thursday night Cy came home from his road trip early enough for dinner, so I made my famous (infamous?) "Diabetes Alfredo" for all of us for dinner, he was thrilled! And Saturday night we had grilled pork chops with homemade applesauce and asparagus. When Cy has day games, we eat dinner at home with our host parents, which is SO fun. We just love them!

Thanks for following along with our life! It means so much to both Cy and me that our friends and family keep up with our adventure. I say that every time, and I mean it!!

xo,

Hannah

((( ALSO, Cy wrote a guest post that I will be sharing later this week or next, stay tuned! )))

The Best Dessert of All Time in the History of Ever

If the title of this post has you expecting something amazing, GOOD. Because this will probably rock your world.

A little background info. Cy loves sweets. Like LOVES sweets. He would like to have a dessert with every meal. Unfortunately for him, I'm not much of a baker. I can cook anything you want, but baking has never been my strength- my sister Haley got that talent (and she frequently spoils Cy with a batch of cookies from scratch). I generally just bake brownies or cookies from a box and call it good.

However, now that we are living in a hotel room without an oven, poor Cy is left without any baked goods.  He has been content with a nightly Klondike bar, but the other day I came across this Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel Oreo Pie recipe on Pinterest.... And, well, the picture pretty much speaks for itself. I saw it and HAD to check out the recipe.

image via Kevin & Amanda Blog

Lo and behold, this is one of the easiest recipes in the world. No baking required, and you don't even have to perfectly measure out ingredients. The hardest part for me was crushing the Oreos since I don't have a food processor here!

This pie is incredibly indulgent, absolutely decadent, and completely delightful. The buttery caramel paired with the rich chocolate and the hint of salt is absolute food perfection. Do yourself, your friends,  family, neighbors, etc., a favor and whip this up. It is THAT good.

Click << here >> for the recipe!

xo,
Hannah

Cy- A Day In the Life of a Minor Leaguer

 Today Cy is taking over the blog to share what an average day looks like for him. Hope you enjoy! 

A Day in the Life of a Minor Leaguer

As sunlight streams through the windows of my room early each morning, I continue to toss and turn on my mildly uncomfortable and very tiny bed. It has a single sheet that always seems to get bunched up, and a Tweety Bird blanket that I actually really like.  The bed is only about an inch longer than I am and too narrow for anybody over the age of 7, but it works.  I doze into a light sleep and wake up periodically for the next couple of hours before I finally get out of bed. I live with a host family and three other players from my team- one is an outfielder from the University of Kansas (we share a room), and the other two are from the Dominican Republic. 

I send my fiancé a good morning text, throw on some shorts, brush my teeth, and start the day.  Breakfast can vary day to day, anything from a small bowl of cereal and a doughnut to a full blown breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon made by the host family.  After eating, I head back to my room and check my email, turn on the next episode of House, M.D, and start looking at trucks, baseball stats, and hunting stuff online. I am currently searching for a truck to buy, but I am very particular so I rarely find anything worth much attention.  If anybody would like to donate to the “New Truck for Cy Sneed Fund” please contact me immediately.

Around noon I go grab a sandwich and start getting ready to head to the field.  I toss on a collared shirt and jeans (we are required to wear collared shirts for anything work related) and go hop into my roommates 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 LT double cab, it’s brand new and it smells GREAT every day when I get in.  We drive the 15 minutes to the field and then head into the clubhouse.  We usually get there around 1:15 and I twiddle my thumbs until 2:45 when I have to go out and stretch with the rest of the pitchers, aka 2^nd worst part of the day.  After we stretch we go through our throwing program, which is basically just playing catch.  I play catch with a guy named Brandon every day, he went to school at Mississippi State and is “just a good ole boy from Mississippi” (said in very southern drawl).  After playing catch it’s time to condition- aka the worst part of the day.  Conditioning isn’t awful, but running in general is just never ever fun or enjoyable.  After conditioning I head back into the clubhouse and sit there for 30 minutes or more and wait for BP (Batting Practice) to start.  During BP, pitchers get to pick up the balls that are hit out to us, called “shagging”. Shagging BP isn’t a low or a high point of the day, it just is what it is- usually full of shooting the breeze with the other pitchers and tossing in a few balls that are hit at the group I happen to be standing with on that day. 

When BP is over it’s back to the clubhouse where there is a post BP spread which can be anything from grilled chicken breasts to PB&J’s.  Everyone hangs out in the clubhouse for over an hour and reads, snacks, plays cards, drinks coffee and/or messes around in the training room until it’s time to head out to the game.  This is arguably the most boring part of the day seeing as I am not much of a reader, I don’t know how to play many card games and the coffee doesn’t help me sit still.  The position players leave to go stretch before the pitchers have to go out for the game, so that means that there is more time for doing nothing... which every minor league pitcher will tell you they have mastered.  Before the game we usually have to go out and catch first pitches for kids who are good readers at their school or do some other great thing that gets celebrated by coming to the local professional baseball game. The community is pretty involved, which is cool. 

As a pitcher I only throw in games about every 5 days, so most of the time I sit in the dugout and sometimes I go sit in the bullpen.  I always said I would never enjoy hanging out in the pen but I have started to come around.  The conversation down there consists of anything from how much we make an hour (we have figured out it’s somewhere around $2 an hour) to practical jokes people want to play at the local fast food drive through.  Usually the conversation has nothing to do with baseball but on rare occasions we do spend hours discussing pitching, mechanics, and mentalities.  We act like children in the bullpen; playing stupid games, throwing dirt clods at each other, and basically reverting back to the age of 7 where almost everything is funny.

After the game we head into the clubhouse, the coaches talk to us about the game and then we shower and eat.  The food is usually pretty good, but quantity isn’t its greatest strength.  When I finish eating I head out of the clubhouse and give Hannah a call.  I haven’t talked to her since I got to the field earlier in the day because the Brewers have a no phones policy while you are at the field, so those 15 minutes of talking are  much needed, even though she is usually sleepy since it is pretty late by then.  When all the roommates are ready to go, we hop back in the truck and head home.  When we get there I usually get on my laptop for a little while and unwind.  Then its time for bed, I crawl back on my tiny mattress (which is part of a bunk bed, I forgot to mention that before). Then I open up my One Year Bible and read what it has marked out for that day.  After I finish that, I say goodnight to Hannah and try to go to sleep.  Before I drift off to sleep, I think about how today makes it one day closer to the ultimate goal of making it to the show and playing in the big leagues, and it also makes it one day closer to November 7^th aka wedding day(!!!!).  

That is pretty much an average day in the life- it’s full of waiting around and can sometimes feel like you’re getting almost nothing for your time. It's full of totally different people, all sorts of snack food, green grass, new gloves, low seamed baseballs, and little kids who think were heroes because we get to suit up and play ball every day.  It’s not very glamorous, but it’s my life and I’m thankful for the opportunity to live my dream every day.

For  more info on Cy's team," like" the Helena Brewers Baseball Club on Facebook :)

Until next time,

Hannah