Countdown to baseball

[RedlegJake]

50 days until pitchers and catchers report! Winter may not exactly end then but baseball starvation does!

[RedlegJake]

49 days until we can quit arguing about when blockbuster trades occur and have some baseball to discuss...

[RedlegJake]

48 days until Mesoraco pops his Punsutawney Phil-like head out of the dugout and chitters at some pitchers....

[RedlegJake]

47 days. Cold empty baseball-less days.

[RedlegJake]

39 days! It's getting close!

[BluegrassRedleg]

39 days! It's getting close!

Just around the corner. Somehow. :beerme:

[SporkLover]

26 Feb, Reds first spring training game.... Against the Indians.

[WebScorpion]

Did they announce the 14th as the pitchers & catchers reporting date?

Spring Training Online (http://www.springtrainingonline.com/reporting-dates/) still lists the Reds reporting dates as TBA. The Indians report on the 11th which is only 36 days away or 35 now... :D

[RedlegJake]

Did they announce the 14th as the pitchers & catchers reporting date?

Spring Training Online (http://www.springtrainingonline.com/reporting-dates/) still lists the Reds reporting dates as TBA. The Indians report on the 11th which is only 36 days away or 35 now... :D

Yes - it is announced as the 14th.

http://www.springtrainingonline.com/reporting-dates/

[RedlegJake]

32 days to go

[RedlegJake]

30 days....a month! Then I can watch Jeff Francis pitching to Max Ramirez!!

[RedlegJake]

25 days...

[Bob Borkowski]

Man, this below zero and snowy weather is mind-numbing...not to mention what it does to my body.

Baseball, hurry fast!

[RedlegJake]

21 days....three short weeks!!

[RedlegJake]

20 days....moving right along!

[RedlegJake]

15 days...its getting close!

[RedlegJake]

13 days to pitchers/catchers report AND 58 days to the OPENER!

[PepperJack]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5BOWY6BH9E/TwIETQ4B1-I/AAAAAAAAANM/tL3u7xTbeaE/s1600/larkin.jpg

[joshua]

Twenty-three days until the first Spring Training game against the Indians. After that there's 33 games in 32 days with two off days, the 18th and the 30th. Then Opening Day.

I just want a damn box score to look at.

[RollyInRaleigh]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Q5BOWY6BH9E/TwIETQ4B1-I/AAAAAAAAANM/tL3u7xTbeaE/s1600/larkin.jpg

I kinda miss that player and that uniform. It was not as bad as a lot of people made it out to be!

[redsmetz]

My cousin's daughter whose boys play Little League, wrote on her Facebook wall this morning, "8 boxes of baseballs just arrived on my front porch...spring IS coming :)"

[RedlegJake]

11 days...and we have 6" of snow on the ground and 9 degree weather. If I could just read about spring training I'd feel warmer.

[PepperJack]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CKnvA9VQbVY/T1fxL33G0MI/AAAAAAAAASk/VrqX0uSQzLg/s1600/sparky_anderson_reds_1970_20101104150058_640_480.j pg

[PepperJack]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/cin/reds-pack-up-truck-for-trip-to-spring-training-in-arizona?ymd=20140204&content_id=67439688&vkey=news_cin



CINCINNATI -- It doesn't matter if a Reds offseason is busy or quiet, the benchmarks are always the same leading up to the next Spring Training.



On Tuesday came the final post before pitchers and catchers report -- the loading of an equipment truck for Spring Training. As usual, the process was supervised by Reds clubhouse manager Rick Stowe.

"We are packing up our lives for the next two months," Stowe said.



In past years, Stowe has packed everything from a fishing boat for Deion Sanders to quadrunner bikes for Barry Larkin.

"This year, Shin-Soo Choo left a bunch of stuff," Stowe said. "We have a whole skid of household stuff, kids' toys and stuff like that, that we're bringing out to Goodyear for him."

Choo signed as a free agent with Rangers, who also train in Arizona.



This is the fifth year that the Reds are holding Spring Training in Arizona. The club was in Sarasota, Fla., from 1998-2009 and at other locales in Florida for decades. In those days when the Reds had less space at their previous complexes, Stowe and his staff had to pack an entire weight room onto the truck.

"It's actually gotten lighter now that we have our own complex out in Arizona," Stowe said. "We leave all of our weight equipment out there. Now that we have a presence in Arizona and that nice complex out there, we just leave everything out there. It's gotten a lot lighter and a lot easier."


Starting to feel real.

I always loved the footage they show of the truck heading out, and then with the crew unloading the gear when it arrives.

[NebraskaRed]

In past years, Stowe has packed everything from a fishing boat for Deion Sanders to quadrunner bikes for Barry Larkin.

"This year, Shin-Soo Choo left a bunch of stuff," Stowe said. "We have a whole skid of household stuff, kids' toys and stuff like that, that we're bringing out to Goodyear for him."

Choo signed as a free agent with Rangers, who also train in Arizona.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/I_has_a_sad.gif

[RedlegJake]

ONE WEEK!!!

[cumberlandreds]

Why are the Reds packing up Choo's stuff he left behind? Tell the Rangers to come and get it.

[Jamz]

Errr mah geeeerrrdd. Start baseball already. They should just all have heated domes and play year round.

[RedlegJake]

six...6...days and the pitchers and catchers start getting ready...

[RedlegJake]

5 days...and here in NW Missouri the snows fall...come on spring!

[RedlegJake]

2 days. TWO days!

[cumberlandreds]

Looks like I will be shoveling snow as camps open up on Friday. In my neck of the woods a foot of snow is being predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Friday looks like a shoveling day.

[RedlegJake]

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

[Bob Borkowski]

Today is the day! :rockband:

[Roy Tucker]

So, winter is still here. Last night was a pretty decent snow fall. I walked the dog later on, shoveled the latest load of snow off the driveway, temperature kept dropping, and had a fire in the fireplace. Normal winter hibernating night kind of stuff. Getting a little old, but what are you going to do?

This morning, I'm sitting reading the sports page with a winter wonderland scene out the back window. Snow piled up everywhere, I've had to shovel paths to get the bird feeders, and the dog has a path worn down.

I turn the sports page and there, there are pictures of Reds stretching out in Arizona. Some smiles on their faces, some new faces, and some new facial hair.

But I literally got a shiver up my backbone. Because baseball is here again. Baseball.. all summer long. Chilly spring games, long hot summer nights, endless checking into RedsZone, listening to ballgames on WLW, watching games on FSN, getting excited, getting frustrated, getting exasperated, getting thrilled, going through all the ups and downs, all the little stories, all the big stories, some unexpected guys doing better, some being mainstays, some stinking up the joint, brilliant pitching, guys getting lit up like a firecrackers.

But that little shiver is the start of the 2014 season. Maybe it will end in thrills in October, maybe it will end with a dull thud, but it will play out and we will experience and revel in the whole 162 game Reds baseball season.

I can't wait. Melt, snow. Get green, grass. Warm up, air, C'mon. Move it. I want baseball to start.

[RedlegJake]

Tomorrow the whole team is supposed to be on hand...a week til the first ST game