Spring Training, Day One

Day 1, Spring Training. Legends Field, Tampa. Home of the New York Fucking Yankees. Had to jump in the shower as soon as I got home because my flesh was crawling after being in close proximity to so many Yankee fans.

Yanks trotted out a few of their legends as “guest instructors”, including Reggie Jackson and Yogi Berra. Reggie was animated; Yogi looked dead. Maybe he was. The Yankees had 101 guys on the roster. 101! 8 coaches, 14 instructors, 9 guest instructors, 3 support staff, 2 equipment staff, 30 pitchers, 9 catchers, 9 outfielders, 16 infielders plus Joe Torre. Makes it fun trying to figure out who is who when two guys are wearing # 43, two wearing # 58, etc. I guess they just didn’t want to go to triple digits on the uniforms. The dugout was so packed that about 15-20 of the wannabees had to stand on the top step of the dugout until the regulars left the game and headed for the showers. I don’t see how Torre can possibly play them all.

Highlight of the game was when Carlos Silva plunked AFraud in the 1^st inning. Alas, it just grazed him. Wouldn’t it have been great for ARod to get a season-ending (maybe even career-ending!) broken wrist in the first inning of the first spring training game? ARod already looked like he was in post-season form. He made a crappy throw to second on a ground ball so the Yanks couldn’t turn a double play in the 3^rd, following an ugly strikeout in the 2^nd. He did manage a single to left in the 4^th, but got thrown out at second to end the inning stupidly trying to stretch it into a double. I’m sure that really pissed off Matsui, because all of the other Yankee regulars were pulled after end of the 4^th, but Torre sent Matsui back into the field to play the 5^th, since he was now first up in the bottom of the 5^th. Matsui figured he was done for the day, so somebody must have had to pull his ass out of the locker room since he was real late taking the field for the top of the 5^th. By the way, Matsui made a nice diving catch in left, but what was he thinking? A diving catch in a spring training game? Steinbrenner probably pissed his pants when he saw that.

Speaking of Steinbrenner, I saw him by his luxury box. My seat wasn’t bad – down the third base line a little past the bag. But when the Yankee “faithful” vacated the place in droves after the regulars were pulled, I moved over to behind home plate a little up the first base line. I saw everybody looking behind me, so I turned around and Steinbrenner had come out of his luxury box to get a breath of air between innings. (It doesn’t look like the luxury boxes are air conditioned since all the doors and windows were all wide open. It was a little hot – low 80s – but a nice breeze if you were outside.) I figured if this seat was good enough for The Boss, it was good enough for me. I was in the full sun for about an hour until it came over the top of the stands (which by the way have a faux Yankee Stadium façade). I don’t think I’ll be able to take the full sun on a hot day for 9 innings.

I didn’t recognize a soul on the field on either team by the 7^th inning. I looked at the program trying to identify folks. Who is this #74? What position is he playing? Left Tackle? By the way, the Yanks beat the listless Twinks 6-1. Damon homers to open the game and Giambi adds a two run shot in the 2^nd, by which time the Yanks were up 5-0. Justin Morneau of the Twinkies edged Jeter for the AL MVP last year, so Morneau drew a smattering of boos when he made his first trip to the plate. Gotta love those Yankee fans. The most popular T-Shirt in the place was “Got Rings”? It showed the Yankees’ 26 World Championships beside the few that the Red Sox won with a caption that it won’t take 86 years for them to win their next one. Good to see that they’re still smarting from the ALCS collapse from a couple of years ago.

Well, tomorrow I get to see the Bahston Red Sox in the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. I’ll feel safer wearing my Red Sox hat to that one.

Dad