Today’s picture is from the Flickr stream of “Barnkat” and is used under a Creative Commons license.
In it, we see Reggie Jackson, in all of his afro’d glory, talking to Bill North during Spring Training, 1973.
Is it a problem that I could identify Justin Verlander and I think Phil Coke based simply on Verlander’s profile and I-Think-Coke’s facial hair (unless Todd Jones is now a coach for the Tigers or something…)?
This image is under a creative commons license and was taken by Roger “HueyTaxi” Dewitt.
Earlier today, I had a list of 15 things that were going to happen in Spring Training. But, well, it was only a few hours late and it turns out that number five on the list isn’t going to happen, since Michael Bourn has signed with the Indians.
So, uh, I guess it’s only 14 things that are going to happen in Spring Training now. Whoops.
With pitchers and catchers now beginning to report, there are now two new countdowns on the side of the main page: The first is to the first spring training games (exhibitions by the Red Sox against college teams), and the second is to the 11:30 PM Eastern game between Taipei and Australia that will open the WBC on March 1.
The following things are guaranteed to happen during spring training:
1. At least one player per team will be declared to be in the best shape of his life.
2. On at least one day, basically every Grapefruit League game will be cancelled due to rain.
3. You will check the box score of every exhibition game against a college team, just to see if any MLB players were struck out by a college pitcher or a college pitcher got a hit off a MLB pitcher.
4. At least one game will be delayed due to a weird reason, like a tornado warning or a large swarm of bees.
5. At least one person will write an article questioning whether Michael Bourn‘s continued free agency is a sign of collusion, as opposed to the reality, which is that the Minnesota Twins basically removed Washington and Philadelphia- two of the most likely destinations for Bourn- when they traded Denard Span and Ben Revere, unintentionally destroying the demand for Bourn in the process.
6. Somebody will try to liken something going on in Spring Training to the going-ons in Vatican City, and it won’t make for a good metaphor.
7. A MLB player will tweet out a picture of what his NCAA bracket looks like.
8. There will be confusion when a player on a World Baseball Classic team plays an exhibition against his usual team.
9. While watching stock footage of players doing routine workouts, you will inexplicably get the theme from The Rookie stuck in your head.
10. Somebody will have an embarrassing injury that will have more to do with their own stupidity or bad luck then some sort of baseball activity.
11. After the Astros lose a Cactus League game, somebody on Twitter will declare that they have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
12. We will hear about some humorous clubhouse prank.
13. At least one notable veteran will announce their retirement.
14. The Yankees will be declared doomed, the World Series favorites and a Wild Card contender… possibly all on the same day.
15. Everyone in Tampa, at Yankees’ camp, will be on 24/7 Alex Rodriguez watch.
As we near pitchers and catchers, we now have a countdown to 8:00 AM of February 11 over on the side of the page. The 8:00 AM time is just some random time, since just putting it at midnight wouldn’t be be quite true.
So, yeah, we are in the home stretch, everyone!
The Baseball Continuum 