I want to laugh, I want to cry, I want to ... vacuum?

I'm not going to tell a bunch of lies about how horrible my job is because the reality of the matter is, at the end of the day, I sit outside in the beautiful sunshine every day of my life and watch the sport I've loved ever since I can remember caring about anything. AND - get this - they PAY me for it. I laugh every time I remember that.



HOWEVER (you knew that was coming, didn't you), my job isn't just to sit on my ass, eat hot dogs, enjoy baseball, talk to the players and go home; believe it or not, there's actually a little work involved. You know, like creating stories out of thin air, attempting to make them entertaining and then filing them in a timely manner (at least two a day). I've been doing this for nine years now, which isn't long at all compared to the rest of the writers here but still long enough so that most of the time the writing part is automatic and not brain-bending.



Saturday, I had a complete and total meltdown that left me crying with my head stuck in the freezer (don't ask). Sometimes, folks, you just can't write no matter how much you try, and Saturday was one of those days. I left the ballpark at about 3 p.m. and spent the next eight hours at home in various stages of ridiculous dress, staring at my laptop, threatening my own life and, eventually, filing my story before deadline.





I've never missed deadline. Ever. That doesn't mean it hasn't come close. Because I'm completely crazy, I'll do various things (if I'm at home) to inspire myself to compose. Saturday, I stopped after my introduction and changed clothes. Several times, except there was always one holdover from the previous outfit so that by the time I was done, I had: my hair in pigtails beneath a pink bandana, a bathing suit top, yoga pants and green-and-orange knee-high argyle socks on. It didn't do the trick, but it sure made me laugh when I passed by the mirror. :)





As a last resort, I took myself and my ridiculous ensemble out on the back porch in 35-degree weather and locked myself out of the house after making my friend promise not to let me back in no matter how much I begged until I was done with my stories for the night. It was cold, but it did the trick!





Most of the time, music helps. I have a steady rotation of the same songs I blast into my headphones to drown out everything else and put myself "in a zone." It's loud and it pumps me up, and today I got a new addition to the list courtesy of a good friend from back home. Thanks for introducing me to Exodus, Sander! I owe ya one. Now my playlist is a solid 15:



Suicide & Redemption - Metallica
10 Freaky Girls - Dux Jones
Dem Boyz - Boyz in Da Hood
Down with the Sickness - Disturbed
Symphony of Destruction - Megadeth
Master of Puppets - Metallica
Fire It Up - Black Label Society
Black Shuck - The Darkness
Where the Hood At - DMX
Bodies - Drowning Pool
Fireman - Lil' Wayne
Tank Dogs - Mac
Paint it Black - Rolling Stones
Before I Forget - Slipknot
Blacklist - Exodus



(Looking back, this, along with too many Korn, Zombie and Pantera concerts in high school/college, is probably what I can't hear for shit unless you're yelling directly into my face. Moving along...)



So anyway, I have these meltdowns about once a year, usually during spring training. Every time that baseball returns in the spring coincides with the best six weeks of my year, but that doesn't mean it's not stressful. I cannot for the life of me go to bed early, so my sleep is usually whittled down to between 3-4 hours a night. Sometimes I work at night, too, so waking up at 6:30 every day is its own beast.



Then there are the times that my body just revolts against me: On Thursday, I bent down to feel the water in the hot tub...and fell in, fully clothed. Some part of that must've been funny to my friend, who saw it from across the yard. "It was like watching a tree fall," he said. "You didn't put your hands out or wiggle around or try to stop or anything."



But it's baseball, and so I can deal with crying in the freezer. Occasionally. :) Thankfully, I have a lot of really cool friends who keep me sane, and even a crazy firefighter who comes over to make me watch Backdraft on occasion. ;)



Gettin' late...g'nite kids. :)

-Sportsgal

A funny little thing

So I was out and about the other night and came across a gentleman who asked what I did for a living. Normally, if they react at all, most people will say, "Cool," or "What do you want to do for a career when you grow up, then?" This guy asked me why I chose baseball.

For a minute, I thought he was the type of douche who a) didn't think women could possibly understand sports or b) didn't think my job was a "real" job, so I blew him off. But he kept asking, so I finally unloaded on him.

Yes, he was pretty drunk, but in the end I made him cry. "That's beautiful," he said. "I wish I could love what I do that much."

Very random, but still kinda cool.

Anyway, today was the first day of full-squad workouts. There were only three guys yet to show, one of them being Carlos Pena, so we talked to him after workouts. He, too, is someone who appears to genuinely love what he does. He's always smiling and laughing and joking around, and is a very friendly guy. I've never seen him have a bad day and the first day of spring makes him extra happy apparently, because he was bouncing around the complex like a kid waiting to go to a birthday party. It was pretty neat.

While we waited for Pena I also spoke with Rafael Soriano, the new closer, and Willy Aybar. It was shaping up to be an all-Dominican day until I saw Sean Rodriguez at his locker and slipped over to say hello. He came from the Angels in the Kazmir trade and is in contention for the second base job, but he's also a friend of Shane's from their Triple-A days which means he has to be an OK guy and somebody I wanted to go out of my way to say hey to. I didn't need anything for my notebook so we just b.s.ed for a minute before I took off to work on my stories. Busy, busy day, but fun all around.

I'm kind of looking forward to next week when things die down a bit, I'm starting to get delusional (I can't tell you how many times I've written 'Alfonso' instead of 'Rafael') so it'll be nice to spend a whole day being lazy sometime soon...I'm trying to time the day off to coincide with our next warm-weather front, so I can sit outside somewhere and enjoy life.

I'm going to enjoy sleeping in tomorrow (today); I've got a softball game to cover tomorrow night and I'm beat so I thought maybe I'd skip S.T. in the morning, but I won't be able to go Friday because that'll make that day a double, too, and then I'll be by myself the weekend. It's hard to pace myself early on because it's so much fun, but I know if I'm at the ballpark all day and doing preps all night I'm going to have a mental breakdown about March 3.

Plus, I need to get out to Lakeland at least twice this Spring to watch the Tigers play at gorgeous Joker Marchant. I'm not much for hopeless romantics, but there's something about sitting on the left-field berm when it's sunny and 70 and you're watching the team you've loved all your life that just makes me happy in a way no one could ever understand. I wish my dad were here to come with me. :)

Speaking of Detroit, I thought maybe today would be the day I could finally talk about the Granderson/Damon Tigers ordeal, but it's still too soon. I saw a bunch of pictures from Yankees camp that have Grandy dressed in pinstripes and it makes me sick to my stomach. Maybe tomorrow, heh.

Things probably won't get too exciting until games start since there aren't many position battles, but I'll try harder tomorrow. Maybe.

Nite, loves.

-Sportsgal

Busy, Busy

I hit my wall yesterday, and then laughed: I have 5 weeks and 4 days of spring training left! This is day 3! Fortunately, I remembered that this happens every year for the first week or so as I adjust to getting up at 6:30 a.m. instead of 2 p.m., and make the transition. Along the way I've made about 700 delicious mistakes, and my boss has caught every last one of them. Way to prove my aptitude, eh? This too, shall pass...

Yesterday was very busy but a lot of fun. I got to the park about 9 and stayed long enough to talk to the manager at noon before hopping in the car and heading north to St. Pete and Tropicana Field for the Rays' Fan Fest. There were about a million people there, EVERYWHERE, and I got what I needed for a story and left again as quickly as possible.

From there, I drove out to Lakeland to meet Shane for dinner. We've been friends almost 10 years now but only get to hang out once a year if that, so it was great to see him and catch up on everything that's happened in our lives since the last meeting. He sat ever-so-patiently at Starbucks while I typed my stories -- and we even had a celebrity sighting: Jason Beck of MLB.com fame! haha -- and then we went to Beef's for dinner.

It sounds like he's doing well with the Astros so far, which always makes me happy. He's fought so hard to keep playing, it's nice to see another team has picked him up and is treating him well. He's got big news coming up in the offseason -- he's FINALLY getting married! -- so that was exciting to hear about too. All in all, a short but good visit.

I left Lakeland and went into the office to tidy up my stories, and made it to bed by 2ish.

When my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I'd never been so disappointed in my life. Trust me on this one, I am NOT a morning person whatsoever. It helped immensely that today was a beautiful day and I had plenty to do. Oh, and God bless whoever made Diet Mt. Dew. I'm not a coffee drinker nor have I ever been, so this caffeine is how I start my day and manage to function. I <3 you, Mountain Dew.

The one beef I have with covering baseball -- and I'm fairly certain that this is the same for pro sport -- is the waiting game. We spend anywhere from 2-4 hours in the locker room each work day, depending on whether it's a regular-season game or spring training workouts, and accomplish very little. Because of the ADD, I get antsy when I have to stand in one place and do nothing (think of the goloden retriever from "Up" ... SQUIRREL!), and no amount of medication helps to stop me from bouncing in place. Luckily, there are about 10 TVs in the clubhouse so I've got something to occupy my time, but it's still the least productive way to spend a day. This is one of the very few instances that I prefer high school to pro: the older they get and the farther they advance in their careers, the longer we have to wait to hold court with them.

Today, I didn't get either guy I was camped out for, due as much in part to my ill-timed trip to the cafeteria with half of our group as it was the manager's meeting. Thankfully I've learned to grab other things while I'm waiting to make up for it just in case. It's a little bit more difficult to have things for advance during the first few days of camp, but this gets infinitely easier as the preseason wears on.

I wrote in the media room at the ballpark until almost 3 before calling it a wash and heading home to shower. A few hours later I'd wrapped up my work and decided to reward myself with a trip to my favorite bar, Linkster's, because tomorrow's my day off. Then I called my boss and before I had time to think, I'd already offered to work tomorrow. That's how crazy baseball makes me, haha.

Sorry for the long, rambling post, I tried to squish two days into one. Once this settles down a bit I'll have more time to make these more entertaining, promise. I'll try to snap some pics tomorrow too, if I remember. For now, it's all about finishing up my soup and sushi and heading to bed so I don't murder anyone when my alarm goes off at 6:30 again. :)

Night, kiddos!

-Sportsgal

Aaaaand we're off.

It's a beautiful day here and for once in a long while the temperature is actually creeping up to near where it should be (it's 60-plus degrees right now). I picked up my all-parks access pass at the front desk today, which always gets me excited, and along with it my Media pass for the Rays season. I'm not by nature a very photogenic person, so I'm grateful to my last breath that the one picture Tampa Bay took and has used for the past five seasons for my ID card is actually a fairly decent picture of me (I left it in the car, I'll update with a pic later on today). I hope they still use it when I'm 80; nothing is worse than being haunted by a nasty photo hanging around your neck (think driver's license).

We just finished up a noon press conference with the Rays manager Joe Maddon and Andrew Friedman, who talked about the disappointments last season, battles for position this spring, and what Joe is listening to in his '94 Beemer (In his 6-disc changer: two Boss CDs, two of the Rolling Stones, an Allman Brothers and Simon and Garfunkel, as if that's a surprise). Eighteen questions and 25 minutes later, it was done and we ate great food (Caesar salad, Italian wedding soup, grilled chicken, salmon and a potato medley).

There were lots more faces in the press conference than there were when I first started following Tampa Bay five seasons ago (yeesh, has it been that long?). Back then, it was the Times, the Tribune, MLB.com and AP, and occasionally a TV station or two. Today Jayson Stark was there, along with three guys from the Times, two Tribbers, us, the Herald-Trib and about six or seven TV stations I didn't recognize. I'm guessing that'll peter out at some point and I'll welcome it. I miss the days when it was a small group -- MUCH easier to maneuver.

On my walk back to the media room I ran into my first Ray of the preseason - Gabe Kapler - who was in a great mood and said he's happy to be back in town again and eager to get the ball rolling. I think even he was a little surprised at the media turnout because he stopped short when he turned the corner (where all the cameras were set up) and said, "Wow." It was pretty funny.

The back fields look great, and it looks like the Rays have constructed an awning of some sort behind the backstop of the field closest to the batting cages, which makes it look extra sharp. The sun felt so good on my face it was hard to tear myself away from the fields and get back to work. The novelty of this always, always wears off as the six-week Spring Training march wears on - and even moreso on about Game 90 of the 120-game minor league season - but I never, ever forget how great and exciting everything feels the first day back at the ballpark. I hope I never do.

I'm in the middle of trying to figure out what exactly I should write about for tomorrow's paper, given the fact that the topics were all over the place. I'm in a bit of a hurry because I've got a high school baseball game to cover in about an hour here.

Anyway, that's all for today. Not really much in the way of news just yet; lots of Rays have shown up and the rest of the pitchers and catchers should be accounted for by Saturday at the latest, and that's when things really start to get fun. As always, read the whole Rays story from camp tomorrow at http://www.sunnewspapers.net/.

-Sportsgal

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem - once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit. ~Al Gallagher

***********************************

Even at 7 a.m. this morning in 40-plus degree weather, my eyes snapped open early, beneath my burrow of blankets. Something smelled different about the air. Something better, something glorious. Something unmistakable.

Baseball starts today.

"That's the true harbinger of spring," Bill Veeck once said. "Not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball."

Of course, I can't exactly see the park from here and if I could, I know that most of the guys who show will just be checking in, getting a physical and leaving again just as quickly to either unpack or play golf but still, I know the ballpark is beginning to buzz with the sights and sounds of Spring Training and that's all it takes for me to get excited.

In the past, no ailment or life crisis I've had has ever been so grievous as something Spring Training could not cure. It's a perfect time of year; a time when, both for myself and the players, everything starts anew, the slate is wiped clean and the possibilities for the season are infinite. It is a time of true hope and limitless optimism: Settle on the berm with a hot dog and smell the outfield's freshly-cut grass for the first time of the spring and tell me you don't feel the same way.

There'll be a new found battle for roster spots. Some will surprise and finish in that heralded 25, some will battle to the end before they're handed a plane ticket to one Triple-A destination or another. The new draftees will debut and then move to the back fields, last year's top picks will stick around a little longer this time around and I'll inadvertently forget to wear sunscreen one day and suffer a red face for the week following.

From my position in bed this morning, the sun appeared to shine just a little bit brighter outside my window. The grass looked a little greener and the world felt warmer.

And pretty soon, things will really get hopping over at Charlotte Sports Park.

I can't wait to be there.

-Sportsgal

Revival

Looking back, it has been a loooong while since I've blogged (last year exactly, pretty much), but since baseball season is upon us I figured now is the best time to get going again!

I'll be updating daily on the happenings around Rays camp this spring, and on whatever else may be happening in lovely North Port, FL. Hopefully I'll find enough to keep you all entertained! If not...go elsewhere. :)

Toodles for now! There's lots to do to prepare for Thursday morning.

-Sportsgal