Spring Training Part II

Instead of making our way up to Sarasota to check out the game at Baltimore, Seth and I decided to take in some morning workouts from the people who stayed behind. We made the trek up in time to hopefully see the bus leave but got there just a little bit late. We were hoping to see if Joe Mauer got on the bus in case the Twins were going to pull out a surprise like they did with Morneau and get him his first game action away from the fans, so instead we just kept an eye out for him at the complex (I saw him being carted around on one of the golf carts, so that settled it, he had stayed behind).

We wandered down to the minor league area for awhile and saw some of the younger players working out on their own on one of the fields -- we got a great view getting to wander right up to the fence behind the catchers as the caught some unofficial bullpen sessions. Eventually Tommy Watkins wandered out with a bunch of people from near the minor league batting cages and called everyone over for some live BP.

While they went to get everything ready for BP we went back to the major league area and saw some pitcher's fielding practice, which is always kind of fun to watch. Even though not much action goes on, you get to see a large variety of pitchers going through some basic drills at the same time.

I then wandered over to the batting cages under the stadium and saw Jim Thome hitting off a tee while Tony Oliva and Delmon Young watched. Meanwhile, Ben Revere was hitting next to him with Carew and Jason Repko watching him. Eventually Revere and Repko wandered away and Carew joined Oliva, Young and Thome. Thome started talking to Delmon and I could just hear pieces but he was talking about how the difference between being good and being great is consistency, and that that stems from finding consistency in your swing. It was great watching him just start pontificating and sharing his years of knowledge like that and I can only imagine how he drops little insights like that throughout the course of the year to his teammates.

Eventually everyone left the batting cages under the stadium and went for some live BP.

I will admit, most of my pictures are over people's rear ends. Ugh. I've got to work on my photography. But that's Oliva, Carew, Young, and Morneau -- pretty good collection of players leaning against the fence.

Big Jim!

I watched a few rounds of BP, and if you go over to Seth's site you can read a little bit more about some funny tidbits from there.

Eventually Tom Kelly told everyone to head to the stadium to keep working out. This is one of the moments, moving from that practice field to the stadium that all the players walk in front of a short little fence that everyone leans over and hollers for autographs. Everyone usually waves and acknowledges the fans if they get hollered at, but if they have some place to go and are in the middle of practice, it's not very likely that they can stop and sign for a long time at that fence.

Joe Nathan was one of the last people to wander over to the stadium and of course everyone was calling to him. He waved and ended up setting his stuff down and coming over to sign autographs for fans for a long time -- and actually I had seen him do the same thing the day before. He's really a great ambassador to the fans and takes lots of time out of his schedule to connect with the people who follow him, which is a great thing and will surely be missed if he doesn't come back after next year.

I hung around outside the stadium while Seth went inside to call into a radio show and watched players trickle out from the locker rooms one at a time. Ben Revere walked by and I congratulated him on the his great catch from the day before. Someone else went up and got an autograph from him and you could see the scuffs all over his hands from the diving catch. I'm definitely glad he's OK enough to play because I can't reiterate enough how amazing that catch was, he definitely could have come away more banged up than that.

Anthony Slama also walked out on his way to the parking lot and you could see some sort of a large butterly looking bandaid or bandage taped up on his right elbow -- Seth had noticed earlier how during PFP he was still going through the motions but was the only one not throwing an actual baseball. Hopefully he comes back and is able to play soon because he could be a valuable addition to an already questionable bullpen.

Finally we left the stadium and spent the rest of the day at the Sunset Beach Bar in Naples, drinking and walking along the beach, and eventually ended the night by meeting up with Steve from Gear Up For Sports and Twitter (@MNTwinsGUFS) and his friend who are both down here for Spring Training as well. We ended up eating at Michelbob's, a staple of LaVelle Neal's Spring Training dining guides and one of the best BBQ restaurants with ribs that just fall off the bone, perfectly smoked pork, and amazing peanut butter pie and key lime pie. If you come to Southwest Florida you need to make the trip there.

Spring Training, Part I

***Ok, it's been awhile. It's been quite awhile. In fact, every day it gets harder to figure out something to write because it has to be perfect as a re-entry into starting to write again. This is why I stopped trying to be a screenwriter ... writer's block. So easy to just put down the pen. And you know what ... this post isn't anything special. But I don't care because I just need to start writing again, and nothing gives me the urge to write more than actually watching a baseball game, which is what I got to do today...

Spring is here. I don't think I officially realized that until I stumbled out of the car and walked like a man in a dream over to Hammond Stadium on Sunday. It was raining all morning and the drive from Naples to Ft. Myers was as grey and overcast as I've ever seen it, but I had to get my fix.

Walking up to the practice fields I saw how empty it was. Fans were milling around aimlessly, waiting for some sort of action, but due to the rain (and the fact that the MLB Player's Association was having their annual meeting as I found out later...) no one was out on the fields. The biggest draws were a shuffling little Wayne Hattaway, Dick Bremer in sandals and some sort of golf visor, and Roy Smalley walking around in a salmon color shirt that screamed Florida golf courses.

I did notice the Japanese media -- wandering around with tripods and cameras -- I can only imagine how many are going to be showing up to Target Field over the course of the year. There were also a lot of fans, walking around in Ichiro jerseys namely. At one point a Japanese man in a flashy suit and a nice head of hair snuck out from the Stadium restricted access area and fans immediately started crowding around him asking for autographs -- he obliged halfheartedly -- but it was not Nishioka. He was a reporter or likely a TV anchor of some sort, and I don't think anyone realized that for awhile. At the first sign of a Japanese man in a nice suit they just reacted. Kind of funny.

Eventually though the rain cleared and the players took to the fields for some practice before their game with Baltimore. I didn't have tickets but I needed to see some sort of baseball so I stuck around to watch practices until everyone filtered back into the stadium for the game. Some of the things I noticed:

- Joe Nathan looks great. It's great to see him moving around and smiling and happy... I think he's psyched to be back playing baseball and I wish him the best

- I don't know what everyone's worried about with Mijares and his weight. I saw him doing sprints on a backfield with Nathan and he was keeping pace pretty quickly. I've seen him much heavier previous springs, he actually looks like he could've lost some weight.

- Dmitri Young was walking around and it took me until reading notes from the Star Tribune and Phil Mackey to realize it. I knew he looked familiar and he was getting a lot of love from players as he walked around but I didn't put two and two together.

- The person I did notice was Jim Kaat. I had decided to get his autograph at Twins Fest this year and he was the first face other than Hattaway and Smalley that I saw, wandering out onto the fields before the players, decked out in Twins gear and obviously in some sort of supervisory role.

While I didn't get to see any baseball on Sunday, I ended up back at the stadium on Tuesday for the tilt against the Pirates. I dropped of Nick Nelson in the morning and went to go pick up Mr. Seth Stohs from the airport. Nick got there just in time to see Morneau, which I'm sure you can read about if you go over to his site -- the "B" game definitely seemed to have an A-list feel to it with the last minute addition of Morneau and the ability to see Slowey, Delmon and Kyle Gibson all on the same practice field, they had quite the crowd there watching some free baseball by the time Seth and I arrived.

Thanks to Nick Nelson's generosity and Parker Hageman's seating hookups we had some pretty awesome seats to watch the game...

I realize this is just a nice view of some umpire rear-ends, but believe me that's not what we were focusing on...

Pavano didn't look particularly stellar -- in fact outside of Kyle Waldrop there wasn't much to speak of in terms of pitching today. Pavano wasn't shaky really, but he didn't seem to have his best stuff, still feeling out some of his pitches and teasing his velocity. But he didn't look bad either.

None of the pitchers really looked bad -- Neshek was suitable in his inning but got hit pretty hard even though some of them went for outs. Outside of the long homerun to Overbay he had a warning track flyball that looked like a sure double until Ben Revere showed his amazing range and tracked it down for what would be a Sportscenter Top 10 play for sure if only they had been televising the game. He must've been sore after that, diving for it onto the dirt track, and got a rousing standing ovation on his way back to the dugout.

Danny Rams was the other star of the game for sure -- not only did he spook the hell out of me when he caught a pop fly right at the fence (all of us were staring up to make sure the ball didn't land at us over the backstop and when I followed it down he caught the ball right in front of my face). He also had some towering doubles that could've left the fence if they'd had just a little bit more carry. He's certainly got quite the bat, I can't wait to see where he ends up in the next couple of seasons because with the grasp for Holm and Rivera we could certainly use some strong catching depth and he's the one to watch in my book.

Nishioka also played in the game today -- the fans loved him, he's certainly going to be a treat to watch. He had a nice solid single and flashed a little leather over at 2nd base -- I feel pretty confident that he'll be able to at least hold his own in the Majors this year.

Unfortunately I couldn't get a good angle on him with the ump in the way...

It was good to see some of the other players like Tosoni, Benson, and Hughes as well -- all of whom I have some strong hopes for this year.

Anyway, look for some more posts to follow soon -- Seth and I are going to make an early morning trek up to the Lee County Sports Complex to catch some workouts from the people who stay behind on the roadtrip so hopefully we have some more pictures and stories to share soon!

(Definitely check out Nick and Seth's sites tomorrow as I see them writing as I'm going to bed and I'm sure they'll have some better stories to read -- I think you can find Seth's today at the Star Tribune Twins Centric page.)