Ready, Set, March
Sunday, March 1, 2015 – JetBlue Park, Ft. Myers
Spring Training Workout
Sunday was photo day for the players, when they pose for the pictures that will be used throughout the year by the team, media, and advertisers. They wear their home whites for the photos, but this year they changed back into red practice jerseys before coming out to the workout. Today we watched Pitchers’ Fielding Practice, rundown drills, and batting practice, and we got autographs from Jemile Weeks and Rich Gedman, the former catcher who’s now the hitting coach for the PawSox.
The players all posed for their official photos in the morning, so the current incarnation of Mike Napoli's beard is the one you'll be seeing all year. You've been warned.
Koji Uehara starts off a play during the rundown drills. We also watched him and his fellow pitchers practice fielding ground balls and picking off runners in PFP.
Dustin Pedroia chases after a minor leaguer in the rundown drill. Pedey goes all-out in every drill he takes part in! (The baserunners are guys who are not among the 57 players in big league camp. They always call in a few players from the low minors to act as baserunners for this drill.)
Mookie Betts walks between fields to get to batting practice.
Rich Gedman, Red Sox catcher of the 1980's, is now the hitting coach for Triple-A Pawtucket, and he threw batting practice for Brock Holt, Daniel Nava, and others. Then, after practice, I was able to get an autograph from him.
Shane Victorino waits his turn in batting practice.
The Tres Amigos as they've been dubbed - Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, and David Ortiz - look like they're really enjoying themselves in everything we've seen them do this week. This year's team is going to be fun to watch!
David Ortiz's batting practice sessions have become must-see events. But let's face it - it's always fun when Big Papi is around.
Finally we got the southwest Florida weather that I had been looking forward to, and after a nice, sunny practice, we were able to spend a couple of hours shell-hunting on the beach.
