Hey everybody, James Keithley coming at you again with some more updates up here in the fabulous Vermont. Over the past couple weeks it has definitely been a big change. We have struggled so much to get some wins it has been ridiculous. We went from being in first place in our division to dead last in a matter of 2 weeks. It has been pretty tough on me and the team because it just seems so inevitable of the outcomes of the games now but we still go out and really bust our “butts” to get back on the right track. So I’m hoping that in the last 2 weeks of the season we can turn things around and give a real good finish and finish strong.

So as the long season starts to come to an end there are a few things that I am excited about and that I am gonna miss very much as well. It has definitely been a grind coming straight from college call to here. I have basically been going full speed since January so it’s going to be nice to have a little bit of a break. (more…)

Finding the Olympic Ideal in Vermont
Written by Ted Leavengood
Monday, 11 August 2008

As thousands of international athletes gathered in the infield of Beijing’s Olympic Stadium Friday night for the opening ceremonies, the US announcers focused the viewer’s attention on the well-known competitors from each country as they filed past. For the media the story is the competition at the top, but every Olympic athlete is a hero of some sort. The commentators cannot tell them all but each athlete is a success story born of endless hours of hard work and competition at the highest levels.

The high school and college players recently drafted by the Nationals’ are not Olympians, but they have gotten to the pinnacle of the game of baseball through the same regimen of hard work and dedication. James Keithley was drafted in the 39th round of the 2008 June draft out of the University of Texas, San Antonio. He had a nice season for the Roadrunners, hitting .358 with a little pop, a little speed and a willingness to play any position on the field, even catch. He was contacted by scouts from the Nationals during the season and his hopes soared about the amateur draft. He wasn’t sure where he fit in, but he was hopeful that he had played well enough in his junior season to get a shot at pro ball.

When the first day of the draft ended and Keithley had not been taken, his hopes came back to earth a little. The next day he worked out and went through his usual routine, but late in the day his best friend texted him with the news. (more…)

So in all I think if I break up my day, at least 10 hours of it consist of something baseball related. But even though that is true I actually do have a life outside of it that consists of many different things. Even though I am living a life that most people dream of now it’s still tough to leave certain things back home. Now if you remember I live in Vermont now but am from Texas so that is a huge change. Where I lived in Texas and played college ball at was about a 10 minute drive from my dad’s house. So it was definitely very nice to be able at any point in time call him up and just be like hey pops you want to grab some dinner tonight. So life here without my dad is kind of different and I know its killing him not getting to watch baseball all the time anymore. Another thing important in my life as well are my friends and to leave them out of my life for a while it also rough. I had to just pick up here where I didn’t know too many people and basically start a whole new life. I also have a wonderful girlfriend back home whom I love spending so much of my time with and over the last 3 months I was lucky enough to even see her at all but it was only for 3 days and not having her around is definitely something I miss dearly. So as much fun as I am having up here playing ball it’s actually a real test of how bad I want it. Even though it’s a childhood dream there are many things that you have to sacrifice to try and meet your goals. So if your sitting there wondering if I regret my decision to go pro, the answer is no way! Sometimes as tough as times get you have got to look at the overall goal and in my life I have wanted nothing more in the entire world then play at the big league level. So my outside life has to be put on hold during the season and I’ll just have to pick that up when I move back to Texas. If you don’t got a dream in life, then your just not living the right way.

Til next time this is James and we’ll see ya.

So here i am again writing you about this unbelievable journey i am on. We made our first trip to Lowell, Massachusetts to play to lowell spinners who are the Boston Red Sox affiliate. All three games were a some of the best games i have ever been apart of. All three games were decided in the 9th inning. The first game was a walk off home run in favor of them, the second was a go ahead home run by us hit by robby jacobsen and the third game was decided by a walk off hit for them. Even though they got the the better end in 2 of the games and took the series, the games were so much fun. Also another big thing was in game 2 i ended up getting my first professional hit and my first stolen base. So it definitely felt good to have an average finally. After these games we then headed back home for a long homestand. The home crowd greeted us with open arms. We hadn’t had a winning record but yet we were still playing pretty good baseball. We ended up being 3 and 6 in the first 9 games. Then we finally turned it around and won 7 straight to bump that record around and get in first place in our division.

The life on the road so far is actually pretty easy. Every day its the same routine wake up and grab some breakfast. Then after that relax around the hotel then grad some lunch before we gotta hit the field. Once we did that, we just get to the cages to get some early work in then back to the clubhouse to hang out until batting practice. After batting practice had a little bit of a break again and then game time. Then sure enough we repeat the same thing the next day. Now these few trips to Lowell and Tri City weren’t too bad because they weren’t that long of a drive. But coming up we have our longest trips of all. So in a few days i will be letting you know how those go, could be a rough one going all the way to Ohio on a bus.

-But until then this is James Keithley once again over and out.