ST: The word

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Keyboarding a few thoughts early on a Monday morning in the Valley of the Sun, the first week of Cactus League play, there are so many things that have already transpired.

Watching Giants World Series legend Madison Bumgarner hurl his first inning of the year was a highlight Fri., Feb. 24, in the opening game of Spring Training West. (You see one of this year's logos a lot, featuring the "West" theme for Phoenix/Tempe, alongside the "East" with an arrow to the right representing the Grapefruit League in Florida.)

The lefty, though, got shelled--so to speak--in his one inning of work. The Reds touched the 2014 World Series hero up for two runs in the top of the first inning, though I doubt that Bumgarner really cared.

When your arm is worth $8 million a year, you take care of it like gold and stick to a pretty regimented throwing schedule that pays no attention to results the first inning of a practice game.

Yesterday, at the Indians' Spring Training complex in Goodyear, Arizona--a half hour west of Phoenix on the Interstate 10--I was able to watch nifty shortstop Jose Lindor participate in morning fielding practice.

A Cleveland fan, retired, ran through some of the names of the Tribe infielders that I might recognize from last fall's World Series. Lindor was using some kind of funny fielder's glove, predominantly white on the normally-brown leather mitt. He also appeared to have a tiny glove in his arsenal, which he uses possibly to challenge himself more to fine-tune his glovework. I'm not sure.

The Ohio retiree alongside me behind the fence said he was staying in the area two months. I was salivating. I've lengthened my annual stay at Spring Training to six days, Thursday to Tuesday. When I first began coming in 1994, the year after I moved to San Diego, I only spent a long weekend here.

I asked my fellow baseball enthusiast why the two months--to watch baseball? "To get out of Cleveland," he said, warming to the topic (pun intended). What is the temperature back home right now? "28 degrees," he said.

I have to realize sometimes who I'm talking to. In a faux pas earlier in my stay, I was recounting to another gentleman how last year at Sloan Park, the Cubs' facility, "I had never seen so many Chicagoans in shorts, with untanned legs, wearing dress shoes and dark socks." Something like that.

My fellow conversationalist, looking down at his attire and untanned appearance: "I'm from (Chicago or Illinois.)" I was laughing at myself. Of course I was talking to a Cubbie fan who fit the very description I gave!