What a whirlwind ride the last few weeks have been. Last time we spoke I mentioned how the Uni-lions of the Taiwan League, a.k.a C.P.B.L., brought in former Brewers pitcher Nelson Figueroa and it was a numbers game to who went home. Well, it was me.

I was upset but I understood. I was pitching fine but the revolving door method is how many teams in the C.P.B.L. use foreign players. I am grateful for the opportunity that the Uni-Lions gave me. I was blessed to provide for my family by playing a game. I hope to continue to do this in some capacity in the future.

The process of getting let go is a lot different in Taiwan. In the United States you get called in to the managers office and he gives you one of the typical responses:

"We’re going to send you down to get more work."

"It's a numbers game," or simply, "You need to go down and work on something specific ... aka, you sucked."

In Taiwan, my interpreter came to my apartment and let me know. It's kind of odd that the person you form a bond with while you’re there is the one to bring down the bad news. I think the culture as a whole, or at least in this aspect the industry wants to avoid confrontation. None from me, I would have liked to play out the season but such is the business of baseball. Once they told me, I had a few days to spend in the country before my flight home.

Since I was told that I was going to be going home, I have started to flip my days. Taiwan is 12 hours different. It's been crazy going to sleep during the day while everyone else is out and about. I have been rather successful in flipping my days and I am hoping this makes my transition home much easier.

Once I get back to the United States, I will regroup and see what's out there for me. At this point, I may be applying for jobs in the real world, real soon.

A religious experience?

In Taiwan we have a Japanese manager and some Japanese coaches. They bring some of their tradition and religion (Shinto, I think) with them. More on this in a minute.

Well, one day during a game I had a toothache, in the past or back home in the States I would swish in my mouth some hydrogen peroxide. This would solve my toothache. So while in Taiwan I began asking for hydrogen peroxide. This was an adventure in itself as no one knew what I was talking about.

After about 15 minutes I began to give up on the hydrogen peroxide and look for alternatives. I decided on salt to swish around in my mouth. Salt to my surprise was not a normal commodity. I was at a loss. My tooth was killing me and I had to do something.

This brings me to my beginning about my Japanese coaches and their customs. It is customary to have salt piles called mori shio. These mori shio (piles of salt) are supposed to cleans and remove negative energy and just your basic clear all things bad. The coaches had these piles placed in and around the dugout and on the dirt.

Well, my tooth was hurting real bad so I had to do the unthinkable, I used some of the salt from the piles to rinse my sore tooth! The Americans on the team got a huge kick out of this giving me the "what in the hell are you doing look," the Asians looked confused and in the end I think most people found it hilarious. After I took the salt, I said a quick prayer to Jesus, making sure my God knew I wasn't parting in another religions ritual and began to swish it around.

End of the story: it worked. My toothache was gone by the end of the game.