Closing In

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Major League Baseball’s season begins tonight with the Marlins vs. the Cardinals, so official Opening Day rosters are due later today.

After today’s final exhibition game against the Astros in Houston, the White Sox travel up to Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington to prepare for Friday’s Opening Day of the Robin Ventura era.  The team works out tomorrow from 11 am- 1 pm with media availability in the clubhouse after the workout.

There is a rumor that at least one foursome of Sox staffers is going to tackle the TPC golf course following the workout.

Yelled At

I got yelled at by ballpark security today when I wandered down the left field line to take a picture of the spot where Juan Uribe made his great ninth-inning catch in Game 4 of the 2005 World Series.  “We don’t allow people to come down past the photo box,” he said to me.  “I just want to take a picture of where Juan made his catch,” I tried to explain but then let it drop.  After all, we won.

Just For Fun

A group of 10 guys decided to have some fun with the Master’s Golf Tournament by selecting a pick to follow this weekend, so now I am rooting for Luke Donald (a pretty good option given I had the seventh pick in the “draft.”)  The first three … Tiger, Phil and then McElroy.

Confession

I’m sure I mentioned this before, but I happened to grow up a Houston Astros fan circa 1980-86 (it was my first Little League team).  So it was fun last night to see Jose Cruz around the batting cage.  On the wall entering the press box are team photos of all the Astros teams from 1962 to today.  Brings back memories of those playoff teams from the 1980s.  I may have been the only Terry Puhl fan in all of Iowa.

Apologies

Apparently, at least one reader “affiliated” with both the White Sox and the Kansas Jayhawks was upset that I did not mention the connection.  Sorry, Jacqueline Buzard, for not writing about your ties to KU, and sorry as well for the result of the game.

Nice to See

Former White Sox pitcher Kip Wells and current Astros radio broadcaster, Brett Dolan.  Kip stopped by and laughed at how the faces change and get younger.  Brett, who helped the Sox out while we were in Tucson and he was working there, is in his seventh season of broadcasting Astros games.  Time flies.

Happy Birthday

To Herm Schneider, literally the best trainer in the game today.  My guess is he will celebrate with a plate full of vegetables.