Well, I have been back in the office instead of sitting at games the past few days, and I want to take a few minutes to talk about the pretty cool things I saw that didn’t make it in the blog thus far as well as talk about the happenings in all the camps recently.  Let’s start with the big shocker today, which is Tony LaRussa nabbed for drunk driving because he fell asleep at the wheel while at a light, with the car running and in drive.  He’s so lucky that his foot stayed on the brake, as he could have been killed either by driving off  the road or rolling into the intersection into another car.  A lot of managers drink, but most at this point are careful to avoid anything like this.  I’d like to think he was just tired, but his breathalizer test proves their were contributing factors.  It will be interesting to see how this is handled over the next few days.  Maybe he will come out and say he was just drinking a Budwieser!  (The team plays in Busch stadium and Budweiser owns part of the team.)

One of the cool things that happened while in Surprise visiting the Rangers was I got to see Sammy Sosa swinging again.  He hit into his 11th straight game that night, though he struck out in his next at bat.  Still, the streak shows something as does the numbers he’s put up.  His swing looks exactly the same, his timing is good, and hopefully his back holds up and his eye stays sharp.  His smile still looks a bright, too.

My last game was at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson on Saturday March 17th, St. Patty’s day.  The Rockies gave out purple Mardi Gras Beads with a Coors Light coin attached, seems appropriate for the day we normally wear green. (Actually, it seems cheap, since most teams ususally give out green hats or T’s.)  The Rockies were hosting the Giants, and as its a 2.5 hour drive from Scottsdale, most of the older regulars (read Bonds) didnt make the trip.  The Giants with a surplus of starting pitching did seem to be shopping Brad Hennessey, who started the game.  The problem was, I’m not sure Hennessey wanted to be traded.  He might have been the worst starting pitcher in spring training game I have seen all spring.  And they left him in.  They probably didn’t bring a surplus of pitchers, and perhaps they were hoping that he would show some promise to the scouts that were present eventually.  By the 4th inning the score was 10-0, and he was having a tough time getting outs.  Now, under some spring games where the real starter aren’t playing behind a pitcher like this, one might look for outs that would have been made by regulars that can’t be made by the minor leaguers getting playing time, but in this case it was all him. He walked batters, he gave up home runs.  I think there was 1 ball hit to a young shortstop in his 6 innings that could have been gotten if Omar Vizquel would have been playing.

Lastly, I guess I should talk about the ARod deal, but please tell me if this is too boring for  those of you outside NY.  ARod has said he might opt out of his final years, and we all know Boras is his agent and he pushed JD Drew to do that in Las Angeles.  He may do that, but he may finally find his way to settle in here in NY and become the local hero, which would be more gratifying for the boy without a dad, then a few more million.  And of course Brian Cashman has said he wont chase him..should he bid against himself?  Why would he do that?  Cashman also isn’t going to upset all the other players that he has said they won’t address until the fall, so why would he give a different answer to a guy who may not want to be here.  I think there are better stories out there to chase, lets worry about ARod when the time comes.