This will be my seventh season as official scorer for the Silver Hawks. I've been coming to spring training since my second year. I think I've only missed the trip once. So, even though I usually come down here on my own, I always see a lot of people I know.
There's a couple sportswriters around the press box I see every year. Of, course I always see Mark Haley. And the coaches who have come through South Bend, like 2004 Silver Hawks manager Tony Perezchica. Diamondbacks VP and special assistant to the General Manager, Bob Gebhart --- a regular in South Bend the last few years --- was hard at work at the minor league complex, despite a minor heart attack at the beginning of spring training. Though I noticed he was without his trademark cigar.
When I saw Hawks hitting coach Francisco Morales, the first thing he asked me about was the weather back home. When I told him that it had been in the 60s last week, he seemed encouraged, but I promised him that it would be plenty cold by the time he got to town.
The first thing Haley asked me when I saw him was whether I was reading his blog in the South Bend Tribune. I assured him that I was, but warned him that he had competition now in the local spring training blog market. He tells me he has a good one on the way. I'm sure he'll step up his game now that we're going head to head.
And there's always a few people you don't expect to see. When I wandered into the media dinning room for lunch at Tucson Electric Park I saw someone I knew I recognized from somewhere. I figured he must be a scout or someone like that. I quickly realized I didn't recognize him from the Coveleski press box, but from every documentary about the golden age Yankees I have seen on ESPN Classic and HBO. It was Jerry Coleman. On top of playing second base and shortstop for the Yankees from 1949-1957 --- after flying combat missions in the Pacific as a Marine Corps pilot in World War II --- Coleman is the radio broadcaster for the San Diego Padres, today's opponent. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a broadcaster in 2005. The chicken parmigiana was pretty good too.
Before lunch, I spent some time at the minor league complex watching the players run drills. For the entire month of spring training, the minor league players spend every morning running drills. They'll spend half and hour or so practicing the same play again and again. Every type of play you can imagine, everything you see in a game all summer, these guys have spent several mornings during spring training doing it over and over.
One of the things I watched this morning was catchers handling pop-ups. Using a modified pitching machine, a coach will shoot balls straight up in the air. As you can imagine they go way up there. And in Tucson you're fighting the sun. A few guys were having trouble pulling the balls in, and I don't blame them. Just watching the balls go up into the sun from my seat on the bleachers, I was starting to get sunscreen running in my eyes. And I wasn't moving around or wearing all that catcher's gear.
In the major league game today there were a couple of odd situations. In the bottom of the sixth inning Mark Reynolds (SB '04-05) came up to bat with men on second and third, two outs, and the score tied 0-0. The Padres intentionally walked him. Now maybe its the right strategic move, but in a spring training game? The Padres and Diamondbacks are going to face each other plenty this season. If you're the manager, don't you want to see how your guys respond against a power hitter with runners in scoring position? Well, maybe it was the right call. The next guy grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning.
I thought that was strange. But I hadn't seen nothing yet. In the bottom of the ninth the D'Backs were down 4-2, but tied the game with two home runs. In the bottom of the tenth --- which would have been the last inning no matter what happened --- Arizona managed to get runners on first and third. When Ollie Linton (SB '08) came to bat San Diego moved their right fielder into the infield. They tried to put him on the line, but that would have put the first baseman at the second base position. And you can't play second base with a first baseman's mitt. So they put the right fielder just to the left side of second base, and moved the shortstop over to the right side of second base.
Perhaps distracted by the view of five infielders, Linton struck out. Linton's a left handed batter. The next batter, Jake Wald is right handed. So the right fielder switched places with the shortstop. Right on cue, Wald hit a looping fly ball into right field. The center fielder made a good effort getting to the ball and diving, but it was just off his glove, and the runner scored from third. The Diamondbacks beat the Padres 5-4 in 10 innings.
Most importantly, the game time temperature was 78 degrees with just a few clouds in the sky.
In other news, my quest for Mexican food and margaritas was stymied yesterday. Los Betos, the carryout by the stadium, closes early on Sunday. And the bar in the hotel was out of limes, a key margarita ingredient. Too tired to go anywhere else, I settled for a rum & coke and the hotel's enchilada. It was good, but a lot like the enchilada you could get at a hotel in Mishawaka. There was talk around the pressbox today that one of the best places for Mexican food in Tucson is a place called El Charro. If baseball writers know anything --- other than baseball and writing, of course --- its food. So if you need me tonight, that's where I'll be.
Marc Krauss waiting for his turn in the cage.
Mark Haley doing what he does best -- standing around while looking pretty (HA!).
A.J. Pollock taking his cuts in the cage.
Look at that view!
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