Scenes From Columbia, S.C.: The Diary Of Paco Figueroa
June 5, 2002
Hey Hurricanes fans. Like many of you, I read my brother Danny’s diary from Gainesville. In fact, I read it online with the rest of my family. I promise you that mine will be a little more entertaining and informative. Ok, I’m just messing around. Danny’s my twin brother, so I have to give him a little grief. For those of you who don’t know, we are identical twins. And yes we are very competitive, especially with each other.
The day started with practice at Mark Light. I got to the ballpark at about 11:45 am, so that I could get ready. Most of my morning had been spent getting packed for the trip, so I thought I should get to Mark Light a little earlier, and make sure that I didn’t forget anything.
I’m sitting here in the locker room, now, getting ready for practice. I thought this was as good a time as any to start writing my daily diary. From 12:30 to 1:30 we’ll be practicing. Nothing major, just some hitting and fielding drills as well as our catchers working on some fundamentals. When practice is over, we’ll shower and change and board the bus. From there, we’ll be going to the Miami International Airport. I know that there will be someone here taking pictures of our practice and departure, so I’ll leave a little space here in the diary, so that our website people can place the link to the pictures. We’ll, we’re ready for practice, so I’ll write again once we arrive in Columbia, SC.
Practice & Departure Photo Gallery
It’s now 11:00 PM here in Columbia, South Carolina. Our flight left Miami at about 4:30 pm. While we were getting ready to board, we learned that the New York Mets had drafted Troy Roberson. There was a bit of congratulating as we got on the plane.
We checked into our hotels at about 9:00 pm. By this point, we were all starving. The players were given the chance to split up and go to some of the local restaurants for dinner. T.J Prunty, Erick San Pedro, Dan Touchet, Danny Figueroa and I decided to eat at the Fuddruckers. They had tv’s there, so we were able to watch the Lakers vs. Nets basketball game. When we got there, we realized that Coach Jim Morris, Gino DiMare and Greg Lovelady had the same idea. So, we ate burgers and watched a bit of basketball. It was a great way to end a day of traveling.
We’ll, I’m getting ready for bed now. We have a wake up call set for 9:30 am, and I’m even harder to wake than my brother, so I better get to sleep. We’ll pick this up again in the morning.
