AJPettersen

When I was younger, my brothers and I loved to play video games. We took a liking to games of all kinds, but especially enjoyed playing baseball games together. Typically we wouldn’t “play” many of the games, we would simulate them. This allowed us to get in a number of seasons in a short amount of time. We would sit for hours in front of the television, hanging on every game in the careers of imaginary players on a screen. It sounds ridiculous, but video games gave us a hope that these players ...

With the end of Spring Training and the beginning of a new season, things have gotten back into a routine. Here in Fort Myers the weather is steaming, so if you are looking to escape the extended winter and can find a cheap flight, we welcome all fans. I am always up for a free dinner as well.

I wanted to give some highlights up to this point in the year. A lot has happened in the first few months of 2013. Here are some of the things I remember well:

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With minor leaguers officially reporting for camp tomorrow, we are doing our final preparations for the year. I wrote an article on Baseball America a few weeks ago that outlined a typical minor league offseason. This includes lifting activities slowing down and baseball specific activities ramping up. We are trying to best prepare our bodies for the rigors of the season.

A couple of weeks ago we began taking live batting practice off of pitchers. Last year I was unable to do this until ...

While the frost persists in the north, the sun is shining here in Fort Myers and I wanted to give everyone an update on what’s going on. Baseball season always seems far away when the snow is falling, but it is right around the corner. Pitchers and catchers reported for big league camp today and minor league camp is coming up.

I have been rehabbing my wrist here for the past month to get fully prepared for Spring Training and the season. A few of my friends and teammates from last season ...

Sorry it has taken me a few days to get to this post. We just got internet at our new place, so I had been unable to get online.

Day 3 started early in the morning. We got up and hit the road at 4am Eastern Time, which felt like 3 to us Midwesterners. To avoid Atlanta traffic we had to be through the city before 6:30 came. We made it to Atlanta around 6 and drove through an amazing cityscape for 10 minutes until we got to a southern suburb. Our first stop was to eat, get gas and more ...

6:15 alarm clock. Pack up. Starbucks stop for caffeine. Hop on I-39 towards Normal, IL. No one above average allowed. Pass through Paw Paw, IL. Home to as many animals as humans. New pup, Willa, hops in the car in LaSalle. Time to take my singing talents to an audience. Go with a Taylor Swift crowd-pleaser. Willa whimpers. Then falls asleep. Alarming number of passengers playing IPads. Apple commercials everywhere.

Farm.

Oversized semi.

Passed by an Illinois ...

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Cars are packed. Directions printed. Snacks ready. CD on blast. 1719 miles to Estero, FL.

After a lot of time spent preparing for our trip, my wife and I began this afternoon and will arrive at our final destination by Thursday night. My wife begins her new job in Naples on the 7^th and I will start to workout at the Twins complex on the same day.

Today we drove from the Twin Cities to Beloit where we are staying with my host family from the season, the Hatchs. They are ...

The “typical” day in the offseason is quite a bit different from those during the season. I put typical in quotations because not many days are the same for me. My wife and I spend most of our time in Rochester, MN, where she is a nurse at St. Marys Hospital. Today she worked from 7:00-7:30pm, here’s how my day went…

At 5:40, Emily (my wife) wakes up to get ready for work, I grunt, roll over and fall back to sleep until a little after 6:00. Twenty minutes later, I give Emily a ride ...

The season ended last week. It wasn’t the way we all wanted it to finish, but overall it was successful. We won consistently throughout the year and gave ourselves an opportunity to advance in the playoffs. I hope everyone enjoyed following the Snappers in 2012. Thanks to everyone who cheered us on through this site, at games and through other avenues. It is really cool how much support we get in the minor leagues. I had a great time playing the game I love for ...

Being a minor league baseball player has taught me to be an expert packer. I travel with a baseball bag and a backpack, what goes into my backpack has to serve a purpose because everything takes up space and there isn’t very much of it.

Game Glove
My glove gets treated well. I often use the phrase, "treat your glove well and it will treat you well." On airplanes it is carried on, if it is a passenger in my car it usually rides shotgun. Ask many infielders and they will ...

I wasn’t in the lineup yesterday and I thought I would give you an idea of what the off day looked like for me. The minor league season is long, so having routines is important to staying fresh and ready when opportunities present themselves. My off day routine is a bit different than when I am playing.

Pregame

Knowing I wasn’t in the lineup for the game, I would need to get some extra work in to be prepared for the next time I was. I went out to hit in the cage a little ...

As the first half comes to a close, I thought I would write about the best moments of the season to this point. 67 games into my first professional season and I already have a number of memories I won’t forget. After 3 more games, we will be exactly at the midpoint. We have a number of stellar players on the way to the All Star game. I will be going home to see my friends and family.

Stadiums Throughout the Midwest
Coming into the season, I had yet to see a Midwest League stadium. ...

It seems like yesterday I was playing for a 12 year old in house championship. Baseball has taken me from the grass backyards of Minnetonka to either coast and a number of places in between. There are moments I will never forget, there are others I would rather forget. Each day baseball teaches me more and more about myself.

The game recently took me to Kane County for a 4 game series against the Kansas City affiliate. Here is my recap:

Memorial day weekend is an important ...

Baseball dominates a lot of our time in Beloit, so when we have a day off, we are left without an idea of what to do. An early game yesterday followed by an off day left me with loads of free time, but no clue how to fill it. What could I do to fill a day without baseball?

I woke up early to help Jhonathan Goncalves make a trip to the dentist. He is one of the happiest and nicest guys I have ever met. I was friend/teammate/translator for the morning. The best way to learn a language ...