Chris Ray Writes In His Journal

The following entries have been transcribed to computer text from the original handwriting for purposes of legibility.

April 23

Pitched in a game again today. First time in a few days. And they didn't score! Felt good, felt great to be active. Was worried that I'd forget how to pitch in a game if I went long enough. Haha! Writing out "haha" feels weird when you do it with a pen. On a computer you can type a laugh as quickly as you actually laugh. With a pen it's all slow and drawn-out. Handwriting "haha" makes it sound sarcastic in your head, even if you're the only person who picks up on it. I guess it reads the same to everybody else. Who else is going to read this? This is my journal. I'm always going to read that "haha" as being slow and drawn-out and sarcastic.

April 24

Didn't pitch today but I was able to give the ol' arm a breather. And between me and me, Aaron and Jamey gave up some runs, so maybe Skip'll trust me a little more once he realizes he can't actually trust anybody. What's that line about being the slowest gazelle? I like it here so I don't want to be the slowest gazelle. I am a fast gazelle.

April 25

Day off! But, Detroit. :( Went to dinner at Popeye's and it was like I was a tourist attraction. I wish that we could spend all of our days off in Florida. Airplanes are fast, I checked online. We could totally fly to Florida the night before a day off, and fly out of Florida the morning after the day off. Or we wouldn't even have to leave if we were already in Florida! Then we'd get more time in Florida, instead of Detroit.

April 26

Didn't pitch today. David and Brandon were solid. Team won 7-3 though so I'm kinda mad. David and Brandon could've given up some runs. I'm sitting here, just me and a rookie with four-digit ERAs. If I can't bring mine down I wish someone would bring theirs up. It's embarrassing. I want to ask the guys to maybe give up a run or two when they can but I don't know the best way to do that. Maybe a cake?

April 27

boooooooorrrrreeeeddddd

April 28

Didn't pitch today. Been a really long time since I threw. Arm feels weird, kinda weak. Harder than usual gripping this pen. It's taking me twice as long to write out this entry as it usually does but I guess you already knew that, since you are me. Journals are so weird. Seriously why am I writing this? When am I ever going to read my old journal? Chris Ray doesn't live in the past, Chris Ray lives in the fuckin moment

April 29

Didn't pitch today. Worried. Coaches had me get up in the pen and I almost got in but then Jaime looked at Jason and said something about atrophy. I could hold a baseball and move my arm forward but the ball would just kind of drop with a thud a few feet away. Just writing this by hand is a chore. This has already taken me two hours, I even skipped dinner to do it. Maybe that was the wrong decision.

April 30

Doc look @arm nvr see nething like it, total atrophy, sez I shuld have ben using it 4 more thanwriting evn when not pitching, made a grave mstake

May 1

bad

May 2

/illegible scribble, two asymmetrical frowny faces

May 3

/coffee stain