Spring forward: Pitchers and catchers ready to go
By John Schlegel / MLB.com
02/17/10 12:00 AM EST
To connect with more than a century of history, to actually feel the flip of the calendar, to know exactly what time it is in your own life, three simple but distinct clues are about emerge, starting officially Thursday:
The smell of the grass.
The pop of the glove.
The crack of the bat.
With those sensory delights, baseball begins anew, and awakens us all to a new year with baseball in Florida and Arizona. And, just like every year, isn't it about time?
From Sarasota to Surprise and Clearwater to Maryvale, the smells, the sights, the sounds -- they'll all be budding out in baseball's sunshine states with hundreds of baseballs, gloves and bats, all operated by the most talented professionals in the universe.
Indeed, many ballplayers have already gathered in Florida and Arizona, beginning their workouts -- and the spring ritual for all fans to share -- a bit earlier than the official first workouts that will take place Thursday.
Among them, members of the last teams standing last fall are hitting the ground running this spring, with ace CC Sabathia working out in pinstripes Tuesday to start off his second spring with the Yankees in Tampa, and Cole Hamels welcoming Roy Halladay to Phillies camp in Clearwater.
The Yankees, coming off their 27th World Series title, and Sabathia, coming off his first, don't sound like they're preparing to take the foot off the accelerator.
"You want to win again," Sabathia said. "It makes you want to get back to that feeling again, and get back to that stature."
That quest begins Thursday, but it begins for everyone. Also in Florida, the Orioles will make their move to Sarasota a reality, joining the Phillies and Yankees in initial workouts for pitchers and catchers, along with the Pirates in Bradenton and the Cardinals in Jupiter. In Arizona, the Royals will hit the fields for the first time in 2010 in Surprise, as will the Angels in Tempe, the Mariners in Peoria, the Giants in Scottsdale and the Rockies in Tucson, and they all will welcome the Reds to Goodyear.
That's only the beginning of baseball's renewal, of course. Come Friday, another handful of teams -- the Padres and Rangers in Arizona, and the Tigers and Rays in Florida -- will hit the fields. The remainder of the Major Leagues' 30 teams will make it to their respective camps and begin 2010 in earnest over the next several days, first with pitchers and catchers taking the fields and position players a few days afterward.
Then, starting March 2 with the Mets hosting the Braves in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the games begin -- and MLB.TV subscribers will be able to watch more than 150 of them, live from Florida and Arizona on laptops and mobile products, along with the full schedule of 2,430 regular-season games.
See, you don't have to be there to smell and hear and view the sensory delights of Spring Training.
Then again, if you've been a baseball fan long enough, you can take it all in by closing your eyes and imagining what's already been done, time and time again, year after year, but never before like 2010. It might be snowing outside where you are, but it's spring in your baseball heart.
At every camp, the emerald fields will be pristine, the ballplayers jogging early in the morning, running through drills -- all on a blanket of not frozen tundra or piles of snow but beautiful, green grass, sending off the unmistakable scents of spring. It's a scent so strong and so poignant that it can be smelled in places like Pittsburgh and Baltimore, right through this crushing winter's wind.
Ahhhhhhh.
At every camp, early in the morning as workouts begin, two lines will form in the outfield grass and the greatest players on earth will go through the same routine performed on every Little League field: playing catch, echoing in the morning sun with a glorious symphony of ball meeting glove.
Pop!
At every camp, batting cages will be buzzing with early-arriving hitters and pitchers running through their own rotations of bunting and batting practice, with more and more of that work moving outside as the days go along, position players descend on the camps early next week and time heads toward the exhibition season.
Crack!
And at every camp, one quality will be shared by everyone: sunny optimism.
The Yankees and Phillies have no more right to that than anyone, from the teams charging the gates of the defending league champions to the Pirates, who are coming off a 99-loss season but have every reason to think 2010 will be much better.
"These are very exciting times for us right now," Pirates manager John Russell said. "These guys are going into Spring Training ready to play."
Their fellow NL Central foes, the Reds, are hitting the reset button all the way around, moving to Arizona and bringing with them a team that includes the most intriguing signing of the offseason -- 21-year-old Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman -- and a veteran-laced roster that has them believing in a Cincinnati surge.
Every team has it now. Every team is in it now.
Perhaps new Nationals starter Jason Marquis, joining a rotation expected to include 2009 No. 1 pick Stephen Strasburg, exudes the optimism of spring as well as anyone could. Following Washington's 103-loss season a year ago, a .500 season isn't going to cut it for him.
"I don't know why we can't shoot for the stars," Marquis said. "Why do you want to limit yourself to 81 wins? Why do I want to limit myself to 15 wins? If I'm taking the ball 34 times, I should win 34 times. We are going to step on the field 162 times -- we should win 162 times."
Other new faces will find their places in the coming days, including the ace-go-round of John Lackey joining the Red Sox, Halladay moving to the Phillies and Cliff Lee landing in Seattle. Jason Bay will be wearing his Mets uniform soon enough, and Curtis Granderson will join Javier Vazquez in Yankees pinstripes. The Mariners will trot out Chone Figgins, Milton Bradley and Lee to join a club that was on the upswing in '09 and by all accounts had a turbocharged offseason that could make them legitimate postseason contenders.
Wherever it all ends, it all starts with those first moments of camp Thursday, those first official steps on the field, those first lineups of catch, those first swings in the cage.
A new chapter in history is about to be written. The calendar is really, truly flipped now. It's that time of life for every baseball fan.
The smell of the grass.
The pop of the glove.
The crack of the bat.
Ahhhhhhh.
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