Rites of Spring: Sneaking a look ahead to Spring Training and Opening Day

But I’ll be at work. So raise a glass for me!!

That place is turrible.

The reason for this is in case Opening Day gets rained/snowed/frozen out, they make it up the next day and don’t fuck up the schedule.

And I was just kidding, anyway. That’s just the line my parents used to use when they’d wink-wink-nudge-nudge take us out of school for Opening Day. I’ll just take the day off. Goodness knows I’ve got enough comp time coming to me.

+ the few times a month the Reds are on national TV. Worked great last year!

gotta love a good Indy reference. The Reds fans were out a lot more around Indianapolis, I hope I see a lot more this year. I am tired of all the the bleeding heart Cubs fans round these parts

Crucial Taunt ain’t that bad, neither. Those guys wail. Your sense of taste remains highly suspect.

How about now?

I saw that and thought maybe Uncle Walt and Uncle Bob were feeling pretty good about the season ticket sales. You’re right though… that’s a heck of a lot of money to spend on a Utility infielder even if he is practically guaranteed 100 starts with BP and Rolen’s injuries and getting some spot starts at SS and maybe a couple of starts at 1B.

has the gory details.

Young feels a breach of trust occurred with the Rangers in part because they told him they were not trying to trade him when they actually were, tweets ESPN’s Jayson Stark. Stark adds that Young would be willing to consider expanding his eight-team list on a “case-to-case basis.”

MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan has the list of eight teams Young is willing to accept a trade to: Cardinals, Yankees, Twins, Astros, Rockies, Dodgers, Angels, and Padres. The team has said they are dealing with just those eight teams right now.

Young reportedly feels he’s been “misled and manipulated” and he’s sick of it.

thinks it’s really about his diminished role on the team:

Two years after getting a long-term mega-extension that manifestly was not merited by his performance, Young threw something of a fit when the Rangers made it clear that Elvis Andrus was going to play shortstop in 2009, theoretically pushing Young to third base. I say "theoretically" because he initially said that he simply would not play third base, that the Rangers would have to trade him to a club that would let him keep playing shortstop (poorly, we might add).

Not that we should hold that against him, because he soon agreed to make the switch and by all accounts took to his new position with good grace (if not success; he cost the Rangers about as many runs playing third as he had playing short).

We shouldn’t hold his current frustration against him, either. Just imagine that you’re the highest-paid player on your team, you’re No. 1 or 2 on the list in many of the franchise’s all-time statistical categories, and you’re still (you think) in the prime of your career. Would you be thrilled about losing your just-learned position to a free agent, and then seeing your last option filled, at least to some degree, by Mike Napoli?

Do. Not. Want.

But, dammit… I WANT BLOOOOD.

It seems ridiculous that smart, wealthy, successful people like the Wilpons wouldn’t have suspected something. OTOH, they’ve been so inept in other matters, why not this, too?

But then again: in the past generation, top management did not seem to know that a general manager, Steve Phillips, was having an inappropriate relationship with a woman during spring training. Likewise, ownership did not seem to know about an assistant clubhouse man, Kirk Radomski, who became one of the major sources of steroids during baseball’s drug generation.

Last fall, the Mets fired their longtime clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels for gambling and stealing. He had been a fixture in the clubhouse for 25 years.

Madoff was deeply entwined with the Mets. When there was deferred money in players’ contracts, it went to Madoff, so the Mets could profit off the higher interest. They even tried to get some players to invest with Bernie.

will probably get two more when I buy Reds Un Cut ducats.

Opening Night will now be Opening Family Night. I’m even going to wear a lanyard and feel lie a Big Timer!

and put it towards my NLCS Game 1 tix.