It's going to be a real dog fight in the AL East between the Sox, Jays and the MFY.
KERRY: "Bring it on!"
I couldn't resist...
Posted on 02/15/2006 6:51:35 AM PST by Nachum
It is the secret of the world that all things subsist and do not die, but only retire from sight and afterwards return again.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
And so it happens again today, as it has through a lifetime, with the first Major League Baseball players returning to sight after retiring for a winter.
All is good with the world again.
It begins in Florida and in Arizona, with pitchers and catchers for eight teams reporting this afternoon to their respective Spring Training camps. Leading the way this year are the Tigers, Orioles, Rangers, Angels, Mariners, Cubs, Dodgers and Giants. This official reporting process, the mere act of professional ballplayers showing up and "checking in," is now regarded by everyone as the start of an epic and gripping novel that has a happy ending in late autumn for only one of 30 teams.
Formal workouts begin Thursday morning, and progressively over the new few days all pitchers and catchers are due to report and start things off. Position players join the workouts shortly thereafter. Then come the exhibition games. Then comes the regular season, and life's routine begins again.
"I'm excited to see actual baseball instead of just talking about it and reading about it," said new Rangers general manager Jon Daniels, whose club expects to compete for a playoff spot. "I look forward to getting back to why I enjoy the job: coming together as a team, playing the games, the clubhouse camaraderie. It's putting the business side down and getting back to why you get into this in the first place.
"You have 30 teams that are optimistic. Everything is right, just about everybody is healthy. Thirty teams believe they have a chance. Some are more realistic than others but it's a very positive time of the year."
One-hundred eleven days have passed since Bobby Jenks threw the last pitch in a Major League game to clinch the White Sox' first World Series championship in 88 years, and now the game returns at last.
See, they return, and bring us with them.
-- T.S. Eliot
'O Earth, O Earth, return!
'Arise from out the dewy grass;
'Night is worn,
'And the morn
'Rises from the slumberous mass.
-- William Blake
They return, and some of them return in bigger ways than others. Consider Jim Leyland. He managed the Pirates of the early 1990s to the playoffs, managed the 1997 Marlins to the World Series title, and managed the Rockies before retiring from sight. Now, as Emerson put it, he returns again as the new manager of a Tigers club whose pitchers and catchers file into Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla.
It marks the 40th anniversary of the club training in that familiar spring home, and Leyland brings with him new hitting coach and his former Pirates catcher, Don Slaught. Although Leyland says he's "not a big guy on performance in Spring Training," now he gets to find out what he has to work with.
"I came here to win and see if we can get it done," Leyland said.
Another non-player in Florida who will get a lot of attention at this time is Leo Mazzone. After all those years of working with dominating Braves pitchers, he will be rocking back and forth in the Orioles' dugout this time. His pupils will include starter Kris Benson, who came over from the Mets, and first-year closer Chris Ray, the replacement for B.J. Ryan, who signed with Toronto.
For solitude sometimes is best society, And short retirement urges sweet return. -- John Milton/Paradise Lost
It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people.
-- Calvin Coolidge
This year's return brings one especially unique circumstance. Not long after players report and begin their workouts, select players all around the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues will leave their regular teammates for a bit and report to their World Baseball Classic team. That inaugural 16-nation event will be played March 3-20 at sites in Florida, Arizona, Japan and Puerto Rico.
The Cubs are just one example. Carlos Zambrano is due to report to Mesa as usual on Wednesday, and later he will join his Venezuela teammates and will be on a strict pitch count in the WBC as will other pitchers there. The Cubs might also go without their top three catchers for most of March, because Michael Barrett was named Tuesday to the 30-man USA roster; Henry Blanco is expected to play for Venezuela; and Geovany Soto is on Puerto Rico's roster.
Mark Prior reports Wednesday for the beginning of what he hopes will be an injury-free season after two consecutive years that were not. Greg Maddux, who turns 40 on April 14, returns as well and hopes for his usual 200-inning term.
See, they return, one, and by one ...
-- Ezra Pound
The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.
-- Oscar Wilde
The Mariners? They lost 192 games over the last two seasons, but they are happy to return. Two reasons: veteran Jarrod Washburn and youngster Felix Hernandez, who report to Peoria, Ariz.
The Angels? They don't have Washburn or Paul Byrd (now with Cleveland), but Kelvim Escobar is expected to return to the starting rotation. Bartolo Colon, John Lackey and 2005 playoff sensation Ervin Santana are back on that staff, and the fifth starter is open to competition at their camp in Tempe, Ariz.
The Giants? While it's all about the players who are returning, for them it also is about a beautifully renovated facility that greets them in Scottsdale, Ariz. It was a $23.1 million project by the City of Scottsdale to keep San Francisco training there through 2025.
The Dodgers? Eric Gagne comes back to another camp after missing most of 2005 with elbow surgery. He is throwing without discomfort, but now comes the test of throwing to batters. Ned Colletti, the Dodgers' new GM, comes to Vero Beach with his new players and hopes the revamped roster equals a big comeback season.
"What I would most like to see is the players have the seasons they are capable of," he said. "If you take every starting pitcher that people say are penciled into the rotation, they're all capable of 180 to 210 innings. If we get that, we'll be in decent shape. I've learned to never expect or require performances that exceed the player's ability. If they just equal their ability, that's what you want."
This is how baseball is supposed to be.
Everything is supposed to return to where it began. In a perfect world, it happens that way when you run the bases, starting at home and then finishing in the very same place. If the world is a run, then on Wednesday everyone is back home, safe, ready to go again. Pitchers and catchers are reporting at last.
All things return, both sphere and mote,
And I shall hear my bluebird's note.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mark Newman is enterprise editor for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Baseball bump!
Go Red Sox!
It's going to be a real dog fight in the AL East between the Sox, Jays and the MFY.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine, watchin' it from the bench;
You know I took some lumps when the Mighty Casey struck out.
So Say Hey Willie, tell Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio;
Don't say "It ain't so", you know the time is now.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, I can be Centerfield.
Yeah! I got it, I got it!
Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes;
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all - a moment in the sun;
(Pop!) It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye!
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, (yeah!) I can be Centerfield.
Oh, put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Put me in, Coach - I'm ready to play today;
Look at me, gotta be Centerfield.
Yeah!
It's going to be a real dog fight in the AL East between the Sox, Jays and the MFY.
KERRY: "Bring it on!"
I couldn't resist...
Yesssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like hockey for sure, but when they are playing hockey in mid-June, and there is a AAA baseball game being played, for me baseball wins every time...
That it so not fair. Kerry is no Sox fan. Hillary can probably name more Yankees than Kerry can name Sox players.
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