So the Giants just asked the comissioner's office if Bonds could DH at their home park, a request which has already been accepted for the Reds and Griffey. My initial response was, "Hold on -- they can't EXPAND the designated hitter rule!" but then I realized how stupid and reactionary that is. Spring Training used to be a time when teams just played games to get the rust off. I don't think MLB was even involved. And apparently you could walk over to the local bar and hang out with players after the game -- obviously things like that don't last, but even when I went to Fort Myers just 5 years ago the whole thing was totally relaxed -- a fun way to take in a meaningless game. But now it's different -- a Sox-Yankees (split squad!) game gets 150 reporters, half of New England is down there...and Spring Training is now Spring Training (tm). The whole thing's become almost as serious as the Regular Season [soon to be the Regular Season(tm)]. So I guess I'm happy that MLB is letting the teams bend the rules a bit -- it keeps the whole thing a bit loose. Even if it does mean we have to see more of Bonds.
On a related note, why exactly did Bonds get surgery on his right knee on January 31, and not, say, late last fall? I mean, given he had surgery on the LEFT knee back then, wouldn't it have made sense to...
Two things:
ReplyDelete1. Yes Spring Training is supposed to be relaxed, fun, etc. The pitchers still do some running in the OF DURING the game. I know this b/c I saw it happen yesterday.
And sometimes in the extended spring training games, a team will have a guy bat leadoff every inning just to get them some extra ABs.
2. As for Bonds' knee surgery - as I hear more of it than most (being located here and there is actually a radio station that has intelligent conversation occasionally), there has been quite a bit of talk about it. Even some speculation that it was timed to distract some of the possible steroid talk. Obviously that didn't work. So yes, I wonder why he did not have them both done at the same time. I guess its just Barry being Barry.