Friday, March 02, 2018
Spring Training-2018
About a week
ago, catchers and pitchers were summoned to their Spring Training
facilities here in Florida, and also to Arizona. The teams in Florida
play in the “Grapefruit League”, those in Arizona play in the
“Cactus League”. As you well know, there really aren't leagues,
and these games played in Spring Training don't mean a damn thing.
They are simply training games.
Teams go to
the ball park early in the morning when it is cool. They work on
fundamentals: hitting, fielding, catching, covering bases, throwing
from the outfield to the correct place....learning how to do it right
when the occasion arises in game conditions.
In the
afternoon, or the evening they take the field to play other teams.
Managers, coaches, scouts, and other team leaders watch new players
carefully to see whether or not they are ready for the big leagues.
All teams have hundreds of players in their camps. Following Spring
Training players are dispersed to various levels in the organization.
Only a select few manage to make the Major League roster. The others
will be distributed to Rookie Leagues, Class “A”, Class “AA”
or to the highest level of ball outside the majors, “AAA” ball.
Throughout the year, players may move up or down, depending on their
play, or on the requirements of the organization.
Two teams
use Fort Myers for Spring Training: The Minnesota Twins and the
Boston Red Sox. Each has its own ball park and training facilities,
consisting of batting cages, pitching areas with mounds, and several
regulation-sized baseball fields. The Twins have a large residential
building to house their players, also used during the summer for the
minor league team called the “Fort Myers Miracle”.
We went to
the first Spring Training game that the Twins played last Thursday.
They played the University of Minnesota Gophers. It is a traditional
thing for Major League teams to play local university teams I n the
early days of Spring Training. I am sure that the college kids would
get a big thrill out of this. For some, it might prove to be the
pinnacle of their careers.
Justin
Morneau works as a special assistant for the Twins. He played in the
majors for 13 years with the Twins, Rockies, Pirates and White Sox.
The native of New Westminister, British Columbia, he also
represented Canada several times in World Baseball Championships.
Originally a
catcher, he moved to first base early in his career. He was one of
those guys with a sweet swing who could knock the cover off a
baseball. Standing 6' 4”, and weighing 230 pounds, he covered a lot
of ground around first base in the field. He first played in the
majors in 2003, and his last game in 2016. He was a 4 time All Star,
and the American League Most Valuable Player in 2006. He won the Home
Run Derby at the All Star Game in 2008. In 2014, he won the National
League batting title with the Rockies.
He actually
played one exhibition game for the Portland Winter Hawks of the
Western Hockey League, enough to get his named engraved on the
Memorial Cup! One assistant coach said,; “ He was young and raw, a
big guy who covered a lot of the net. I remember a conversation we
had with him when recruiting him. We told him he should go to hockey
because not many Canadian guys end up going very far and doing very
well in baseball. He showed us otherwise!”
The Twins
won the game 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Like I said, it doesn't
count!
James Hurst
February 27,
2018.
# posted by James Hurst @ 7:45 AM 
