Friday, March 24, 2006

Sound of spring -- brrr

Made it to St. Petersburg and I'm glad I brought a jacket and a sweatshirt. Biscuits manager Charlie Montoyo said it had been warm this week, just before he accused me of bringing the cold weather with me.

Nice enough drive (just more than 500 miles, if you're curious). I have to wonder if there is any longer stretch of blank road than that between Tallahassee and Lake City. Rolled past a wreck in Tampa where a cement truck had overturned. It blocked all three lanes of traffic and police directed cars through the emergency lane. It took about 50 minutes to go five miles.

I hit the minor-league complex first and it's amazing how many people you meet when you cover a baseball team. Everybody is saying hi. Delmon Young, who was sometimes frosty last season, was warm and friendly. With his obvious baseball talent, if he can embrace that kind of personality, he'll be a major star.

Rolled down to the major-league game tonight and the Reds beat the Rays 6-1. Carl Crawford hit an inside-the-park home run for Tampa Bay. Ruddy Lugo, who was with Montgomery last season, had a nice two innings and gave up just one hit. New Rays owner Stuart Sternberg was in the house and talked about how his efforts to revive the franchise.

1 comment:

Biscuits2004 said...

Delmon was nice to you????
What a nice surprise that is. Keep up the great work