Dec. 19, 2012

Day 7

Day 6

Day 4

Day 3

Days 1 & 2

Not in Kansas Any More

The Kansas Jayhawks are spending eight days in the Dominican Republic. Kansas will play eight games during their trip, mixing in charitable efforts along the way. Head coach Ritch Price (pictured below) will check in each day with thoughts on the journey.

(Photo by Jeff Jacobsen/KAI)

Day 5 – Wednesday

After four games in three days, I gave most of our experienced players the day off and gave our young guys a chance to play against the Cleveland Indians’ Dominican Academy. The game went about as I expected it to. I really like our freshman class; I think they have potential, but I think they have a long way to go to be able to play in the Big 12 Conference. They got a glimpse of that today.

The young man who started for the Indians today, Gabriel Vizcaino, is 16-years old, but he was sitting at 92-94 mph and touched 96. He’s got a special arm.

We got dominated at the plate by him and two of the other Indians’ pitchers and we didn’t play that well defensively. It was like I told our guys afterwards, it’s a tremendous learning experience for those guys, because a lot of them think they’re ready to play, but they got exposed big time.

Our coaching staff has its work cut out for us. We’re going to have to continue grind and work hard and hopefully we can get those guys to make the progress that they’re going to need to in order to contribute for us as our season progresses.

It’s shocking to think that it’s already Wednesday. Our days have been filled with leaving at 8 a.m. each morning and then not returning until 6 or 7 o’clock at night. I gave the players the afternoon off today so they could go to the beach and have some downtime. It’s well-deserved for them.

I’d like to thank John Mirabelli, who is the Scouting Director and Assistant General Manager of the Cleveland Indians. He helped us set up these games with Ramon Pena, who is the Director of the Dominican Republic Academy. Both of those gentlemen were there today and they have both treated us first-class.

So far, this trip has been a one-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us. We’re looking forward to getting back at it tomorrow.