First pitches of spring thrown today
Starting at 1:05 p.m. today, baseball spring training games get under way across Arizona and Florida. Some thoughts before the first pitch …• The Grapefruit League in Florida isn’t the same without the Los Angeles Dodgers training at Dodgertown in Vero Beach.
For 61 years, Dodger greats like Jackie Robinson, Don Drysdale, Fernando Valenzuela, Sandy Koufax, Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Maury Wills, Ron Cey, Mike Piazza, Duke Snider and Orel Hershiser started each baseball season taking fungos, batting practice and pitcher’s fielding practice at Dodgertown.
The Dodgers left Vero Beach after last spring and are now sharing a new $80 million training complex in Glendale, Ariz., with the Chicago White Sox. Another Major League Baseball team isn’t likely to call Vero Beach home for years, if ever again.
As a side note, the Dodgers had expected to sell 4,000 spring training season tickets at the new facility in Arizona, but have sold only about half of that.
I’m just glad I got to see the Dodgers play at Dodgertown many times over the years, and I’m glad Morning News assistant sports editor Mark Haselden got to tour the facility with me last spring, albeit on a non-game day.
• In its first couple months on TV, MLB Network has been a grand slam for baseball fans. The depth of news and notes from around the league has been something you can’t find on any other network. The on-field demonstrations in Studio 42, named in honor of Jackie Robinson’s jersey number, have been fun to watch and educational for young players. The network’s broadcast of the Caribbean World Series earlier this month was top-notch. And the network will start broadcasting spring training and World Baseball Classic games today with the Giants and Indians from Arizona at 3 p.m. and the Red Sox and Twins from Florida at 7 p.m.
• When it comes to steroids in baseball, I say baseball should leave the record books alone and try harder to rid the game of illegal performance-enhancing drugs from this time forward.
Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa might have been on steroids when they were shattering home run records from 1998-2001, but how do we know how many of those home runs were doubles or long outs turned into home runs by steroids? If you try to figure that out, you have to try to figure out how many home runs were kept in the parks by pitchers who might have been on steroids. There’s just really no way to know.
The only sure bet is a lot of players were doing steroids and some might still be using. Baseball rule-makers need to work toward tougher testing and harsher penalties, and our judicial system needs to work to prosecute players who might have lied during grand jury investigations or to congress.
The game itself, though, needs to and will move on with the knowledge that steroids have left an irremovable stain.
• A great quote from Hall of Fame infielder Rogers Hornsby, who batted .358 with 301 homers from 1915-1937:
“People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
Kind of sums up the strong feelings I have for the game.
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on 02/25 at 11:53 AM
