Dawn

Ahh those magical four words:
Pitchers and catchers report.

When players for the Orioles, Cubs, Reds, Rockies, Royals, Yankees, Phillies, Pirates, Cardinals, Giants and Mariners show up tomorrow at the respective spring homes, the off season will be over.

Players will be in uniform.
Jobs will be on the line.
And each team will not only be 0-0 in the standings, but players on lousy teams will be thinking about the 2008 Rays... the 2007 Rockies... the 2006 Tigers... the 2003 Marlins... teams that were not given a chance by the experts and yet made it all the way to the World Series (and in the Marlins case, won the whole thing.)

It's a great time of the year.

It's dawn.

The Billy Crystal thing

A bunch of people have e mailed me asking my take on the whole Billy Crystal at bat for the Yankees.

Some people and some writers have acted like this is the biggest disgrace in sports history.

Um, have they seen Clemens and McNamee in Congress?
Have they seen an NBA ref betting on games?
Have they seen a superstar QB with a killer dog ring?

There have been a few things trumping Jodie Dallas from Soap taking a few cuts in Florida.

How anyone could get upset by the Billy Crystal thing is beyond me
It's a spring training game, he gets the AB out of the way at the top of the game.

There are too may spring training games anyway and they all blend together.

And this isn't in a regular season
3 and a 1/2 foot Eddie Gaedel batted for the Browns and he has an entry in the baseball encyclopedia because it was a regular season game



Minnie Minoso got at bats in regular season games in 1976 and 1980 at age 51 and 55 as another Bill Veeck publicity stunt.


You want to complain about the integrity of the game there, I'll listen.

Then again Minoso singled off of Sid Monge in 1976... so maybe it wasn't THAT bad.

Crystal's at bat was harmless and kind of fun, breaking up the monotony of a spring training schedule.

And if other teams want to do it, why not?
If Ben Affleck wants to take a cut with the Red Sox, so be it. He still owes me nearly 3 hours of my life back for Pearl Harbor.

If Tom Hanks wants to lead off for the Oakland A's, fine. But Billy Beane would then trade him for 3 younger actors.

If Jimmy Carter wants to play for the Braves, why not? Hell, he's younger than Julio Franco who put in some years with them recently.

Everyone calm down! It's spring training!

My e mail box has been filling up about my man Clay Buchholz getting lit up his first few games.

People are panicking that A-Rod is being a DH instead of playing third.

The Mets are resting their players left and right and people are asking why!

IT'S SPRING TRAINING!
In fact it is still early...
We're not a week from opening day. We're a week before teams start to break out those stupid green St. Patrick's Day uniforms.

It's practice.
These games don't mean squat.
A player's performance doesn't mean squat.
They could be trying out pitches...
They culd just be getting armed up.

How anyone can get excited or distraught over a spring training game is beyond me.

I'd rather ever player works out the kinks in Florida
It's like people who cheer pre-season football


Why not keep score in a simulated game bullpen session?

Red Sox fans... would you rather see Clay Buchholz kick butt in the Grapefruit League or the pennant stretch?

Yankee fans... wouldn't you rather the Yankee's new 10 year contract with A-Rod not be blown out before Ron Paul bows out of the race?

Quick!

Without looking it up...
How did the Yankees do in Spring Training last year?

I have no clue how the Red Sox did.
I know that spring training games end with guys wearing #85 and #99 1/3

Quick!
What was the most dramatic spring training game you ever saw?

Ken Burns didn't cover a lot of legendary spring training games in Baseball