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Ryan Flaherty documents his experience playing for Team USA
during the 2007 Pan American games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
FRIDAY, JULY 13TH ENTRY
Black and Gold Fans,
Day Three of my Pan-American Games experience was the best one so far.
We had a chance to sleep in today and then went to practice to get ready for our first game Saturday night against the Dominican Republic.
They will be a very good test as their team is made up of many former major leaguers such as Raul Mondesi, Enrique Wilson and Jose Offerman to name a few.
The USA Baseball National Team is the youngest team in the Pan-Am games which will give me a great experience playing against older players.
Today also was the Opening Ceremonies for the 2007 Pan-American games and it was held in the same stadium which Pele (the Brazilian soccer player) scored his last goal ever.
Going into the event we were told that we would be “booed” and “cheered” by the local fans. As the bus drove close to the field many of the locals expressed their hate for Americans, however, by the time we entered the stadium filled with over 100,000 people all you could hear were cheers.
The experience was one of the best in my life, and is something that will always stay with me.
Tommorow will be our first game outside of the country and will give us a good idea of how we compare to some of the best competition in the world.
Till next time,
Ryan