Friday, March 28, 2008

Spring Training

Justin Housman and I just got back from Spring Training and it was a blast. It was 90 degrees, something I am not used to living in the Pacific Northwest. As a nice "welcome back" it was snowing in Seattle yesterday. Oh well. From a fan's perspective, the most enlightening part of the trip was listening in to the banter of the players and the coaches. We came across the Cubs minor league camp and were able to observe play from about as close as one can get. The players sat next to you on the bleachers, they urinated next to you in the bathroom and they talked about the same stupid shit I talked about when I played. It makes me think I could have made it had I just hit the weight room and batting cage a bit more. The minor league games were so intimate that one could hear all the conversation going on. Like when the first base umpire called a runner safe on a close pick-off play and yelled out "he was in." A player from the Giants bench asked "you sure?" The umpire responded, "yes." The major league games were great too, but the feeling of being amongst pure baseball fans begins to diminish at the big parks. Take the conversation we heard during the Angels-Mariners game:

Idiot # 1 "Hey, I bruise easily."
Idiot # 2 "Do you have gout?"
Idiot # 1 "Gout's in you feet."
Idiot # 2 "Gout's in your joints"
Idiot # 1 "Hey, Frank, where do you get the gout?"
Idiot # 3 "In your feet"
Idiot # 2 "You have joints in your feet"
Idiot # 1 "You do?"

Anyway, here are some photos:

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One could almost walk onto the field at the Cub's minor league camp

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Hall-of-Famer Ryne Sandberg coaches the AAA Peoria Chiefs

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Dan Fouts, George Brett and Wayne Gretzky gabbing before the Dodgers-Royals game

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There is a lot of Spanish spoken in baseball these days

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The J-Ho under the Scottsdale Library having just found out he lost $10 because he didn't know where Carthage was.

3 Comments:

Blogger Wuj said...

That is why I don't make bets about "Carthage".

What is the only Pink Floyd song in which lead vocals are by someone other than a member of the band? And who provided the vocals?

12:57 PM  
Blogger Housman said...

Bill, I'll bet you ten bucks that you cannot remember why we bet on Carthage the first time.

1:53 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

you win, I can't remember. Please remind me.

10:40 AM  

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