Journal: Greenberg, travelin' man

After the season, Greenberg headed for winter ball in Venezuela to make up for some lost at-bats. He's playing for Caribes and has agreed to chronicle his Winter League experiences in a journal for MiLB.com. In 119 at-bats, Greenberg is hitting .277 for Caribes with three homers, 14 RBIs, two stolen bases and a .370 OBP.

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Sorry about the delay with this week's journal, but Internet access has been very difficult since we have been on the road, and I also wanted to include how Thanksgiving was for us Americans while here in Venezuela.

Thanksgiving 2005 will definitely be one I'll not forget. This was the first Thanksgiving in my 24 years that I have not spent with my family. Obviously, Venezuela doesn't celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. However, the management here went out of its way to make the Americans feel somewhat at home. Despite having practice on Thanksgiving day, we had a great dinner with the coaching staff, upper management and all of the Americans. A group of us, including Pat Mahomes, Greg Powell, Neil McDade and the two newest team members -- Ian Snell and Justin Reid -- went to our own little Thanksgiving dinner.

Also along were our friends from Curacao, Sharnol Adriana and Yurendell DeCaster. Even though Curacao doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, Sharnol and Yurendell have both played in the U.S. long enough to feel like U.S. citizens. They truly are great guys, and due to the fact that they speak fluent English, Spanish, Dutch and Curacao dialect, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, and we were glad they accompanied us. Although it wasn't totally traditional, we did have turkey and gravy, along with stuffing and green beans. Appetizers consisted of a full array of sushi, and dessert was apple pie and vanilla ice cream. So, as you can see, we all felt like we were back in the States, and I am thankful for the great group of guys and management that we have down here.

Our two newest members are both in the Pirates organization. Snell is a pitcher who came down along with his wife and son. He split time this year between Triple-A and the big leagues. He is only going to be here for a month, but we are all certainly glad to have another strong starting pitcher. Reid has played for four years here in Venezuela, but this is his first year playing in Puerta la Cruz. He is also a pitcher and this is his free agent year. He will be making his first start for us this week. Being a free agent and coming to winter ball gives a lot of teams one last opportunity to take a look at particular players whom they might be interested in signing. There are plenty of scouts down here at all the games.

Besides Ian and Justin, we had three more additions this week to help bolster our team for the playoff push. Renyel Pinto, a lefty pitcher who was in Double-A with the Cubs, and whom I've played with for the last three years, will join the starting rotation. Victor Martinez, catcher with the Cleveland Indians, and Juan Rivera, outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim), have both been added to the roster, as well. With these additions to an already strong team, we really believe we can win the championship down here.

A couple of stories:

A little over a week ago, we were playing a home game against Aragua. In the fifth inning, with the game tied at three, a man on second and Ronny Cedeno (shortstop with the Cubs) at bat, the second base umpire called a balk. Our pitcher, Tony Fiore, was told he didn't come to a complete stop. The sequence of events that followed left me, and everyone in the stadium, somewhat dumbfounded. During a heated argument, our manager, Louis Dorante, was thrown out of the game. While Dorante continued to argue the call, with his hands behind his back, the second base umpire shoved him with two hands. Amazingly, Dorante was subsequently given an 18-game suspension. Since that incident, our team has hit a bit of a tough stretch, losing five of our last seven games -- with Dorante watching from somewhere up in the stands.

Our next trip began with a drive to the airport in Barcelona for a 15-minute flight to Margarita Island. It was quite a trip! The bus picked us up at the hotel at 6:30 a.m. and we arrived at the airport about 8 a.m. for an 11 o'clock flight. We had a doubleheader that night that began at 5:30 p.m. After about four pitches the lights at the stadium went out for more than an hour. We finally resumed play at about 7 p.m. and proceeded to play a three-hour-long, seven-inning game -- that we lost. At around 10:30 p.m., we began the second game, which lasted another two-and-a-half hours. We ended up losing both games, so to say it was a long night is an understatement.

On Sunday, our game at began 4:30 p.m. -- and lasted more than four hours. It was a nine-inning game that was 4-2 entering the top of the eighth and turned out being something like 13-2. We were now on a three-game losing streak, and it was back to Puerta la Cruz.

I'd like to mention here that after the game on Saturday, some of the players went to grab something to eat and I ran into Jeremy Ward. Jeremy is a pitcher I played against this year in Double-A. He was with the Mississippi Braves. I had never met him before, but we got to talking and he asked me if I was the one who was posting this journal. He then told me that this journal was the reason he ended up coming to Venezuela. There has been a lot of negative publicity about Venezuela recently, about how dangerous it is. In this journal I have mentioned that during my personal experiences I have never felt unsafe or threatened, or for that matter, even uncomfortable. While Jeremy was making his decision about coming down here, he and his mother were doing some research and they came across this journal. Apparently, it gave him and his family enough of a comfort level for him to decide to come down and give it a shot. Mrs. Ward, Jeremy is doing fine and he wanted me to tell you hello, and that he is safe and having a great time.

The tough road trip continued. We left on Monday for a six-hour bus journey to Maracay, where we stayed for the whole week. We left Puerta la Cruz at 7 p.m. Monday and got to the hotel around 3 a.m., after stopping about an hour for food. We played on Tuesday in Maracay and lost. On Wednesday, we traveled two hours to Puerto Caballo. We were losing that game 2-0 in the sixth inning when the rain came. Since they didn't have a tarp at the stadium, a steady rain for two hours made the field unplayable, so we had to take yet another loss. Thursday we traveled four hours to Pastora to hang out there for a couple hours, only to find that the field there was also unplayable due to the previous night's rain.

They tried everything to make the field playable. They even torched the infield with gasoline, but the conditions were just too dangerous. So, back on the bus we went for another four hours. Friday, we traveled two hours to Caracas, where we finally snapped our losing streak of five games. We lost a tough game at Aragua on Saturday, and Sunday we played a doubleheader in which we won the first and lost the second. After the second game, it was back on the bus for our seven-hour trip home. We arrived back at our hotel at 7:30 a.m. for a well-deserved day off.

On the personal side, I have really begun swinging the bat better, working more walks, and have incorporated the bunt back into my game. The entire season to this point has given me everything I could have hoped for. The competition, the at-bats, and just the situation of being surrounded by veteran ballplayers who have a lot of experience and a lot to offer has been great. I certainly have improved as a player, and once again I have to say thank you for the opportunity.

I will end this week with a bit of disappointing news for me. After our game last Friday, I received a phone call and was told that the Cubs had decided to take me off the 40-man roster and designate me for assignment. That certainly will not deter how I play. If anything, I will just work that much harder to make sure that I end up back in the big leagues as soon as possible. I'm not sure if this will be my last journal as a member of the Chicago Cubs, but if it is, I want to say thank you to all of you Cubs fans. You have given me so much. I will always remember how you have treated me and I certainly hope that it continues.