I'm off to Braves Spring Training tomorrow and I cannot freaking wait. I can't wait to get down to the warm weather and away from this schizophrenic Atlanta weather. I can't wait to be off work for a week and a half! I can't wait to act like a kid again at Disney and Universal. I can't wait to hopefully see the Space Shuttle launch (if it actually goes off anywhere near on schedule this time).
Oh, and I cannot freaking wait for some BASEBALL!
There is just nothing else like spring training. Wandering around the minor league fields watching all the up and comers running drills and playing in games. Sitting through a lazy nine inning spring game while eating a hot dog and drinking a beer. Laughing at the fans who are really taking the game seriously (seriously, its exhibition).
Part of what I get to do that's a little special during the spring is to go to the games as a member of the press corps. Yep, little old me just hanging out on the field and in the clubhouse; fighting off crazy O'Brien and old man Bowman for the latest scoop. Okay, it's not that cheesy, it's more or less a lot of waiting around for the player you want to talk to and hoping they have the time to give you not just an interview but more than the usual clichéd interview.
I drive down to Whorelando tomorrow morning, meet up with a friend of mine and his son, and we'll head over to Viera for a Mets-Nats game. I've never been to the Nats stadium in Viera, and I figured I should get over there before a strong breeze swept it off the face. I hear its real "old school." After that, I'm seeing two games at the WWOS, I'll be taking in two days at the theme parks, and then I'll be spending two days in the trenches with press credentials. Being that my passes are towards the end of the trip and I'll be on vacay over the weekend and early next week, the site might be thin with posts, but then they'll really pick up. As usual, I will try to squeeze every opportunity for an interview into the two days I have at Braves camp, then we'll ride those interviews through the end of spring training and on into the season for the minor leaguer interviews.
As I usually try and do, if you have any general questions for players or a specific question for a player, post it here in this thread and I'll try and ask it. I've been collecting questions throughout the winter, so hopefully I'll have some new and different angles to approach players with this year, but if any of you have any suggestions of questions you've wanted to see asked by all means post them here.
Oh, and once again while I'm down there the Space Shuttle is scheduled to launch. The last several times I've been in Florida near the Cape, the shuttle was scheduled to launch only to be postponed. This time it's scheduled for Tuesday the 11th at 2:30am. Yucky time, but I hear night launches are pretty damn cool. If I stay up that late and go to the coast, that thing better launch.