every once in a while you really uncork a gem of a video on youtube.
be patient and wait for about 30 seconds into it...I've been laughing about this for 3 days now.
does anyone remember the show american gladiators? why was jose canseco never on this show! this guy makes me embarrassed to be from California...
okay now that the angels have signed Torii Hunter as per news reports- Gary Matthews Jr is now the most expensive 4th outfielder in the AL West. Or trade bait- we'll see.
there are starting to become more parallels between my former hometown team and the team I really enjoy watching fall short each year- the Yankee$.
Yes that's right. Arte Moreno is the new George Steinbrenner.
seriously though think about it- each team seemingly has "extra" players but since winning the world series both fail to advance further now that their teams are built or consisting of more money-whipped outsiders each year. Giambi, Arod, Matsui and Sheffield is now GMJ, K-Rod (just because he rhymes, I know he's homegrown), Torii and Garland.
take your jillion dollar payroll and swim in it like scrooge mcduck. lol.
Every time K-Rod pitches against us this year I'm just going to remember the enormous homer manny hit off him in the postseason.
enjoy your extended weekend...I will
no deers- just soccer moms and dads driving their gas guzzling Hummers around the metroplex...haha.
okay sifting through all my pics is nearly impossible- I've got 1600 photos from europe and that's not counting any that I took in England or New York. but I'm home now...thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes here and on myspace- I celebrated by waking up at 7am and heading to Motorsport Ranch (motorsportranch.com) and driving my old beast around the track for a few laps.
a lot of people ask me how I kill time and laugh when I say I don't have too much during the offseason...well I got a side job- I've been hired as the Director of Hip Brand Marketing for the Rangers...duties include fun stuff like making videos and designing stuff around the stadium like player posters and stuff like that. I'm also working on the 2008 slogan but I've got to compete against real ad agencies- so wish me luck. if you've got a great idea- don't post it as a comment- email it to me or send it to my myspace page (link on the left of the page) if it wins we'll work something out if you know what I mean!
day time:
Mo- Wed- Fri:
mid morning or early afternoon I've got 2 hour workouts with some of the guys on the team led by our weightroom sensei- Jose Vasquez. he's really well rounded and actually is big on martial arts to really cross train.
Tues-Thursday-Sat-
cardio, yoga, and/ or riding my new specialized roadbike around the katy trail or white rock lake- so far my highest session is about 15 miles- seats are quite uncomfortable compared to my car! My goal is to be able to do 40 miles straight by the time spring training rolls around...
PM
Mon-Tues-Wed- Fri
aikido workouts at the dojo for 2-3 hours per session. aikido is a japanese martial art developed basically between world war 1 and 2 and started as a method of defensive moves aimed at controlling, avoiding and finally defeating or subduing your opponent. It's great for me because it's not filled with those big bicep skinny legged crowd who usually does something "that involves punching people in the face or snapping bones".
in about 10-15 days I'll start playing light catch with the football to warm up my arm in the cooler weather and then throw light toss with the baseball.
usually I'm so tired after working out, I just eat some of my food from my nutritionist and respond to emails, fan mail and myspace messages. If i have 20-60 spare minutes and already ate- then it's guitar time. I haven't played halo3 in about a month because of the travel, and haven't picked up Guitar Hero 3 yet, but I will when I come back from Arizona where the baseball players union meetings take place from December 3rd-7th.
On sundays I want to drive on the track most of the time, then I get sleepy and take a nap while football is on tv.
oh yeah and the beauty of DVR is I can watch all my Heroes episodes whenever I want...
so that's what I do...try to stay busy, that way when the season comes around it's a reward for me to just play baseball.
okay I've been a total tourist over here but I've got some great advice for you on your travels to europe if you ever come.
dress weather appropriately. for me, right now I've just been wearing a T-shirt and a heavy G-Star jacket I got back in april. it's got HUGE pockets, which I can use to store my passport and international drivers permit, my sony cybershot, wallet, keys, and even my JVC HD camcorder. This is really handy. when I walk up to tourist attractions, I just look like a guy wearing a huge coat or a pudgy guy, but not an american tourist. then when the time is right, out comes the camera, snap snap snap, back in the pocket.
also- try a toblerone candy bar while driving through the swiss alps. or anywhere- it's really good and now I know why they're so expensive back home...
be prepared to sell your children, blood, or arms and legs for gas here. 9bucks a gallon in UK. it's between 5-7 dollars everywhere else in europe- I knew I was in trouble day one when I saw 80 euros as the bill for a fill up (well that's the downside of using 98-100 octane, eh?) and the gas goes really quick when you're zooming around at 105-160 mph(last night in italian alps..weeeeeeeeeeeee).
just make sure you never complain about gas again in america. But I know why it's so cheap for us- we get worse octane, worse street quality, and over here I've seen 4 gas station bathrooms so far that have all been immaculately clean, better than most locker rooms in MLB.
some things I've seen so far- the french national car collection in Mulhouse, FR. amazing display of bugattis , ferraris, porsches, formula one cars, audi, etc
I also stayed in Vienna, which was gorgeous, historic, and extremely friendly. My camera battery died so I didn't get any shots of the gorgeous opera, city hall, hapsburg dynasty mansions, etc but I shot a video in front of one of the castles that you'll see soon. Vienna is really cool because it's got a river than rings through the city creating very romantic and elegant streets and alleys along with districts in the city. Please go- you'll love it!
while I was here at breakfast I actually ran into some americans who went to school at University of San Diego, and we talked about baseball and stuff. Another succesful pair of new Ranger fans! The husband was really happy for me that I'm driving across the continent in a fancy car and wanted to know all about everything.
the next night, at the Kloster Gastof in Roggenburg which is a converted monastery- cheapest room I've found so far @ 65 euro with breakfast included. why did I stay there? 
no not because my roof froze overnight...
because it's really close to...
RUF
front door to Ruf with R kompressor (supercharged Uber 911)
Pavel Petrov (Bulgaria) and Estonia Ruf
700hp Ruf CTR3 supercar (euro 380,000-ouch!)
Alois Ruf on the right with his restored 901 #37(before it was called a 911).
The Ruf factory in Pfaffenhausen was an amazing experience. Ruf GmbH is a family owned car manufacturer and Porsche restoration and enhancement facility next door to where the main man Alois Ruf spent his childhood. This really was a series of amazing mementos as I was shown the workshop, design studios, special supercar prototype, test drove the RT12- a 650 horsepower monster/ 315,000 Euro (aka worth as much as my house) , and got to meet a few gentlemen from Macedonia and Bulgaria who were ordering their cars.
Everything in the shop is hand built, even the building which was constructed by the Ruf workers themselves a few decades ago. This is the kind of dedication that only exists in a few places on earth now...superpremium worksmanship, customized and perfected machines, hand painted, tested and guaranteed with the best one to one service I've ever seen. When you buy a watch, does the head designer call you to see if you're satisfied? For any amount of money, no other company in the world that sells cars does this. All the workers are super passionate and stand by their work, and will really do whatever they can to make you comfortable down to the smallest detail. Passion, precision, performance, service, satisfaction. Wow that should be a commercial!
Alois Ruf and his wife Estonia were gracious and even booked a hotel for me in Lake Como where I'm posting from. Ever since I played Gran Turismo 3 I've dreamt of visiting the shop there- and thanks to Ruf Dallas (my current mechanics in Texas) all of this was arranged for me. Being a major leaguer you take your status with you so to say, at local restaraunts or team hotels they always treat you well, but when you go to europe, you're no longer a big deal or anything and I like that anonymity- BUT- it was cool to be led around by Alois himself and introduced as a 'famous baseball player from america" to all the workers who can hopefully build my car one day.
during my visit, all the customers and visitors were taken to lunch at the local ruf-friendly german restaraunt and treated to a 5 course meal that was the best food I'd eaten in germany so far. I was also given a hat, key chain, lanyard, and the Ruf Faczination DVD set which chronicles the famous Ruf cars from today and yesteryear along with the story dating back to 1939 with the Ruf family.
truly special.
The next two days I'll be in Lake como converting locals into Texas Ranger fans at each opportunity.
in the mean time, I've been posting videos of youtube, some short little slide show music videos of all the photos I take on the road.
youtube.com/cjwilson36 I'll repost them here as well.
Ciao!
this is the best vacation I've ever been on in my life.
I'm currently in munich, having already covered about 700 miles in 2.5 days. oh and cricketing in UK was awesome too!
