Turning the Page

From what I understand, my post titled, “One Bad Apple”, was published on a Korean website which brought a ton of publicity to the negative comments that Brian and I were receiving prior to leaving Daejeon. In response, there has been an outpouring of apologies for how we were treated and the things that were said to us and for that we are beyond appreciative.

There was absolutely no way that I could reply individually to each 100+ comments and emails received so I wanted to address everyone here that expressed their sincere apologies, support and well wishes to us. Those individuals will help us to remember the good about our trip to Korea and not the few negative people who had hurtful things to say. So thank you to the good apples! You are the people that we met and valued our encounters with in Korea and we thank you for making us feel welcome and for helping us to experience your country in a positive light.

Lastly, before closing the door on this past chapter of our baseball life, I would like to address those who have expressed concerns that Brian did not care about his job in Korea and believed he was only visiting the country to sight-see and have fun. Just to make it clear, once Brian was sent to the minor leagues, he still went to practice every day just like the other minor league players. He worked out, strength and cardio trained, pitched and watched every big league game on TV to analyze pitchers and try to learn from their pitching techniques, strategies and pitch sequences (if those are comments understandable to non-baseball people). Just because he spent time eating or exploring did not mean that he wasn’t working out and focusing on baseball as well. Each day has 24 hours to it and MY blog does not highlight each and every one of them. Not to mention, MY blog is just that, MY blog – it also doesn’t focus on Brian’s workouts, career, etc. If I would have known the outrage MY blog would have caused some of you Eagle fans, I would have made sure to document Brian’s training schedule for you as well. My apologies. And I will make sure that going to the zoo or playing Jenga is never in our schedule in the future as I wouldn’t want it to interfere with his baseball playing ability as you all have so nicely informed me that it may do.

With that being said, as we move on to the next chapter of our baseball life, we again want to thank the supporters and the nay-sayers alike. Because of all of you and our few months in Korea, we will move on as stronger individuals. Best of luck to the Hanwha Eagles in the remainder of their season. I hope they can pull it together for the loyal, dedicated fans they have.

And finally…we get back to life at home with our family, friends and this guy…

Who is beyond happy to have his Dad home and baseballs around the house again.

He sure does fit in nicely with this family, right?!

One Bad Apple

When you are a blogger who shares the ins and outs of your life, you have to be prepared for both the positive, supportive responses and also the negative, demeaning ones. You learn to take one with the other and grow thick skin. For me, the fact that I have a blog being paired with the fact that Brian is a professional athlete only adds further judgement.

I’m a sports fan so I understand getting fed up with losing seasons (I went through over a decade of them being an Orioles fan!) and with wanting to blame the easiest target or the worst performing player but some people truly are ruthless.

Since we have been here in Korea, a multitude of Eagles fans have come across my blog and for all of the positive feedback there has been the fair share of awful, criticizing feedback as well.  I’ve done my best to respond in the most mature manner possible, ignore some of the rude, childish my-baseball-team-is-losing-because-of-Brian and ignorant comments but they definitely have affected my time here in Korea.

Like take this mornings charmer of a comment….

From…

At first I planned to delete the comment and move past it like the majority of the other unnecessarily rude ones but that wouldn’t make me 100% honest about my overall time and experience here and I’m not one to just sugar-coat the truth, smile and nod and pretend life is one big bowl of cherries.  That being said, I wanted to share the bread-winning comment so that this lovely human being got the credit they are so badly yearning for and so that others could see the intended hurtful words being slung at us.

I know not everyone has these feelings or the audacity to actually comment on a public blog citing them and we definitely have felt the support from many other Eagles fans, employees and team members however, I cannot lie and say that waking up to this comment today hasn’t made me wish that our last days here in Daejeon go by in a hurry.

You know what they say…

….one bad apple can ruin a bunch

And So It Goes

If you have been following LoveEatRun for at least a few months now, you know that back in January, Brian signed a contract with a professional baseball team in Daejeon, Korea. Together we made the decision that I would quit my job and make the move around the world with him. He started his Korean career off with spring training in Arizona that continued in Japan and then made his way to South Korea where I met him here in Daejeon.

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Unfortunately, the season did not start off on a good note for him and after a bad start in his first outing, he was sent to the minor leagues to get acclimated to Asian baseball. Throughout his stint with the minor leagues, he started 4 games, threw 27 innings and had a win/loss record of 2-1 with one no decision.

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After over a month of playing in the minor leagues, with no other big league chance, the Eagles decided yesterday to release him. We are currently waiting out the seven day waiver timeline (in which another Korean team has the opportunity to claim him) before closing this chapter of our baseball life and heading back home to our family and friends.

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When a professional sport is your career, you always know that situations can change in the blink of an eye. A designation, a release, a trade, an injury…it only takes one instant decision and you could be on a new path in your career.

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We are thankful for the opportunity that we were given for Brian to play baseball here in Korea and we are walking away from these few months with a life experience not many others can say they had and for that we will always be grateful.  We had some ups and downs while here in Korea but met some great people along the way that we will always remember.

We are looking forward to the next chapter in our life and are hopeful that this crazy game of baseball that we call life still has more in store for us ahead.

Earthquake Drill

This afternoon, Brian and I decided to walk to Daejeon Station to get subs from Lions Sub for lunch. The weather was awesome today, so we casually strolled to the station, ordered our sandwiches to go and started our walk back home.

Not long into our walk home, we heard sirens going off and noticed that absolutely no traffic was moving on the streets. Cars were all pulled off to the curbs and at a dead stop.

Everyone walking on the sidewalks seemed to continue to go about their business so we did the same and continued walking home. Brian kept asking if we were missing something but obviously we couldn’t address our question to anyone around us since we wouldn’t be able to understand their Korean response.

The streets were quiet and traffic lights were flashing. We felt like we were in one of those movies, like The Day After Tomorrow or something.

Then, as suddenly as the city went quiet, there was another siren and everything was immediately back to life. Cars were again whizzing past us and it was nothing ever happened. Weird.

We made it back to the apartment, still trying to figure out what had just happened, when Brian checked his email for the first time today…

And it all finally made sense…

Our first Earthquake Drill here in Korea!

Dinner

Dinner tonight was a beef taco bar!

Ground beef, lettuce, cheese, rice, beans and corn and the obligatory chips, salsa and guacamole that comes with any Mexican dinner!

I had one taco, that was really more of a burrito since it was stuffed with rice and beans too.

And then ditched the tortilla when I went back for seconds and went with a burrito bowl plate instead.

I think we would eat Mexican for every meal if given the chance!

Now it’s baseball time! The Eagles are playing the KIA Tigers in Gwangju, so we are tuned in and cheering for the Hanwha win!

Question:

Have you ever been a part of an emergency drill in a foreign country and had no idea what was going on?