HANK CONGER’S SPRING JOURNAL #3

WEEK THREE — 
March 8th, 2010

It’s Week 3 and the games have finally begun. We started our first game off against the White Sox and we ended up coming back to tie the game. I got to play in this game and it was exciting to catch and get some at-bats in. So far the workouts have been going great and the games have been a lot of fun.

The best part of spring training, for me, is the interaction with all the fans. Once the games start, you get to see a lot of people come out and watch the workouts and the games. I know for me, when I was younger, I always wanted to go to spring training and experience the baseball atmosphere, but I’d always have my own baseball games to play back home. This week, I also met a bunch of people who came out from Huntington Beach, my hometown, and saw some kids who are going to to Huntington Beach High School. We talked about my High School coach, Benji Medure.

It was also great to get to see my family and have them see me play the first game. Before pro baseball, my parents used to never miss one of my baseball games. Now they try to come out whenever they can if their work doesn’t interfere.

This week we had Tim Salmon come out as a special guest to work with some of the hitters. If ANYONE ever has the chance to ever get to talk to Tim for even a minute about hitting, and how he approached every at bat, you would be very lucky. Just getting to talk to him on one of the days, we were talking about the mental side of hitting and hitting approaches, and I felt like it helped me greatly!

Also this week, some of the other players and I got to help Reggie Willits and Scot Shields with their Toys for Tots program. Every year, Reggie collects some money from the guys, goes to Toys ‘R’ Us, buys a boat load of toys and donates them to a local school. He’s done it for awhile now, and it goes to a really great cause. Props to him for starting that program up.

On Sunday it rained hard and canceled our game, so this upcoming week I’m looking forward to more games and great weather.

Hank Conger

Read Hank’s WEEK TWO Journal here