I just got back from the opening doubleheader for the Red Sox.  Both games were fun, and I got to see a total of 14 pitchers and 33 position players from the Red Sox organization.  (It’s really hard trying to keep score during a college exhibition game, so all numbers are approximate.)

My flight home is early tomorrow morning and I still have to pack, so check back Thursday evening for my full post including my pictures and stories from both games.  Until then, I’ll leave you with video of batting practice pitcher Ino Guerrero’s second at-bat (wearing Papi’s #34 but batting from the right) in Wednesday afternoon’s game against Northeastern.

Update:

Game 1 – Red Sox 15, Northeastern University Huskies 0

We got to the park early, and I was able to get autographs from Mike Cameron and Fernando Cabrera before the game.  It was chilly by spring training standards (62° announced at game-time, but I think that thermometer’s in the sun, and it remained at 62 all day, even throughout the night game.  I’ll go with the 58° reported by the Globe as more reasonable) but at least the sun was out.

Top prospect Casey Kelly was starting the game, but his outing was so quick I didn’t get many good photos.  He looked strong, and ended up with two strikeouts and a groundout on only 10 pitches.  He was followed by Manny Delcarmen (one hit, but the runner was erased on a double play), Adam Mills, Felix Doubront, Dustin Richardson (all three of whom threw perfect innings), Ramon A. Ramirez (the new Ramon Ramirez, not the one who was with us last year), and Robert Manuel.

Ramon "New Guy" Ramirez struck out two in his inning of work.

On the offensive side, we got to see Jacoby Ellsbury, Bill Hall, Victor Martinez, David Ortiz, and Jed Lowrie – all coming soon to a 25-man roster near you.  Ellsbury walked twice, and Martinez hit a double.  Big Papi blasted a two-run homer over the right field fence in his second at-bat, which was great to see.  Once Papi went into his home run trot, it finally felt like baseball was back!

The Red Sox take on Northeastern University on a sunny afternoon in Ft. Myers.

Lowrie also walked and singled, but most of the offensive firepower came from the prospects at the bottom of the order.  Che-Hsuan Lin, who started in center field and projects to open the year at Double-A Portland, had two singles and an RBI, and only a diving catch from Northeastern’s centerfielder prevented him from a third hit.  Gil Velazquez, the infielder who played a handful of games with the big league club in ‘08 and ‘09, was 3-for-4 with two doubles, including a bases-clearer which drove in the first three runs of the game.  (Waving all three runners in was Tim Bogar’s first big decision as third base coach, since switching from his position as first base coach last season.)  Catching prospect Luis Exposito also had two doubles and added 4 RBI.

One of the highlights, in what is now becoming an annual tradition, was seeing major league staff member/batting practice pitcher Ino Guerrero get two at-bats.  He came out wearing Papi’s #34, and grounded out both times.  I almost didn’t realize it was him in the on-deck circle, because I had just noticed Dustin Pedroia in the dugout.  He wasn’t playing until the night game, so I was busy trying to zoom in with the camera to see if it was really him, and saw Youk there too.  It wasn’t till he stepped in to bat right-handed that we realized it was Ino, and that’s why the early-arriving players for the night game had come out onto the top step of the dugout.

City of Palms Park on the afternoon of the annual college doubleheader.

Game 2 – Red Sox 6, Boston College Eagles 1

The nightcap was being broadcast on NESN, so one of the first things we did when we re-entered the park was seek out Jerry Remy’s autograph.  The NESN booth is behind the last row of seats (under the Oakland A’s logo), but it’s so high that we can’t see into the window once we’re standing in that row, so the trick is to go down a couple of rows, catch Remy’s attention and ask him for the autograph, and then climb up on a seat in the back row to hand the photo up to him.

It was great to see the Rem-Dawg back in the NESN booth.

Boof Bonser, who had pitched with the Minnesota Twins for years (he gave up Big Papi’s record tying 50th home run in 2006) and was now with the Sox as a possible long reliever/spot starter, started the game.  Like Casey Kelly in the afternoon, he also made swift work of the college lineup, retiring the side in order on two groundouts and a strikeout and needing only 9 pitches.

For the night game, we got to see the whole major league infield as it will look on Opening Day: Kevin Youkilis at first, Dustin Pedroia at second, Marco Scutaro at short, and Adrian Beltre at third.  Unfortunately the pitchers (Bonser was followed by Michael Bowden and Junichi Tazawa) were so quick and efficient, that there wasn’t a whole lot of work for the infielders to do.  There were a couple of 4-3 putouts and a 3-unassisted, but nothing that involved the new guys.

Adrian Beltre and his teammates in the infield didn't get much action other than their warm-up tosses.

Pedroia and Youkilis put two hits together to drive in a run in the first, and another run came in the back door on a double play in the third.  Phenom Jose Iglesias came in to pinch-run in the third and played shortstop for the rest of the game.  Like the other infielders, he didn’t have many chances, but he did get in on one exciting play, applying the tag when Jason Varitek gunned down a would-be base-stealer in the fourth.  Iglesias had more of an opportunity to impress with his bat.  With the bases loaded in the fourth, he swung at the first pitch and smashed a double into left, driving all three runners home.  He hit the ball hard in his next at-bat too, but it was a line-drive snared by the Boston College second baseman.  Centerfielder Ryan Kalish had a good day at the plate, too.  He singled, walked, scored two runs, and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

The Red Sox faced Boston College in the nightcap.

My one pet peeve is that the substitutions aren’t always announced, and some of them are announced but are clearly wrong.  Even if I wasn’t trying to keep score, I would still be interested in knowing who I was watching.  It sounded like Carl Beane, the real Fenway Park P.A. announcer, but even if he was given bogus information, it only took a quick glance at the field to see that they weren’t the people he was saying they were.  We knew from going to these games in the past that the first and third base coaches don’t usually do both games, and we had seen Tim Bogar and Ron Johnson in the first game.  Two different guys wearing different numbers came out for the second game, but they were announced as Bogar and Johnson.  I correctly surmised that Torey Lovullo, the new Pawtucket manager, was coaching third, and when the announcement was finally corrected a couple of innings later, we learned it was special assignment instructor Alex Ochoa coaching first.

It also made it tricky when some of the kids called up from minor league camp for the second game wore numbers the same as guys in major league camp.  In the second game there was a #71 who caught the ceremonial first pitch, and then came in to pinch-run for Jason Varitek before moving to left field for the rest of the game.  In big league camp, #71 is Ramon A. Ramirez, whom we had just watched pitch in the first game, and the announcer called this obviously-different guy Ramon A. Ramirez.  But unless he had changed his stature, position, and ethnicity in between games, it was clearly not Ramon A. Ramirez.  (We joked, “How many other Ramon Ramirezes did they find?” and decided to call him Ramon Q. Ramirez until he came to bat a couple of innings later and was finally revealed to be Daniel Nava.)  There was also a #60 who looked nothing like the real #60, Gil Velazquez, who had played in the first game.  He never got an at-bat, so I had to wait till I got home and watched my recording of the NESN broadcast so see that the #60 in the second game was Oscar Tejeda.  But if Don Orsillo and Jerry Remy can be provided with the correct info, why can’t they do the same for the announcer?

With Kris Johnson on the mound for the Red Sox in the sixth inning, Boston College used two singles and a stolen base to score their only run of the game.  The whole team rushed out in front of the dugout to congratulate the kid who scored the run as if he had just hit a walk-off homer.  The Red Sox wrapped up the 7-inning game with a 6-1 win, and we got to hear “Dirty Water” as we walked out.  (They only played the first verse before switching to “Happy Trails”, but it was still good to hear.)  My flight home was scheduled for the next day, exactly a month before Opening Day.  I’ll be there that night, and it will probably only be a little colder than this game was.  I only hope the ending is as sweet!

On Tuesday morning, we knew there was a chance of rain which was predicted to come through in the morning just as workouts would be getting underway.  And if it did, the players would work out in the clubhouse and batting cages and the workouts wouldn’t be open to the public.  We planned on going in a little later than usual, so that we’d get there when the players took the field instead of an hour and a half early like we had on the previous days.  It was raining and windy when I woke up, and just before we left we read on Extra Bases that the players were indeed staying indoors.  That saved us a trip to Ft. Myers, but it was quite the bummer, because I already missed out on one workout when my flight was delayed a day, and now I was missing another.

When the final workout of the year was rained out, it was time to move 2.6 miles down the street to the stadium and get the games underway.

Around 10:30, just as the Red Sox would have probably been wrapping up their abbreviated workout if they had had one, the sun came out and it was  a warm, beautiful Florida day.  I was even able to wear shorts for the first time all week.  I joined my parents on their daily 2-mile walk and we planned a trip to the beach in the afternoon.  But after lunch, a cold front came through, and the temperature dropped and the wind started up.  We drove to beautiful Siesta Beach in Sarasota, but by then it was completely overcast and so cold it wasn’t worth staying very long.

Now that the workouts are wrapped up, it’s time for the games to begin.  I’ve got tickets to both college games tomorrow.  For those of you in New England, the nightcap is on NESN at 6:05.  Boof Bonser is starting, so don’t miss it!

I’ll leave you with some additional pictures I took during the past three days of workouts which I didn’t get to post at the time:

Saturday: Mike Cameron was all smiles as he practiced with his new team.

Sunday: J.D. Drew prepared for an interview with NESN's Heidi Watney.

Monday: Victor Martinez greeted Big Papi as he joined the group for batting practice.

Monday: Marco Scutaro chatted during B.P.

On Monday it was back to Edison Ave. for my third straight workout.  This time the weather was actually nice for a change.  It was sunny all day, and by the end of practice, I was able to wear a short-sleeved t-shirt instead of bundling up with a sweatshirt and coat like the past two days.  I finally felt like I was in Florida instead of Boston.

As the Red Sox stretched out, I went up to the back row of the stands of an adjoining field to get some shots of their exercises from above.  Here’s a video of the guys limbering up.  See if you can pick out Big Papi (blue jacket with red sleeves at the back of the second row).

Today I watched the pitchers go through their PFP routine again.  I also saw Daisuke Matsuzaka long-tossing, which is his next step toward being ready to start the season.

Obligatory shot of the Big Three - Josh Beckett, John Lackey, and Jon Lester - as they listen to the instructions before one of their drills.

After the different fielding drills, I expected to see live B.P., where the pitchers throw to their teammates.  But instead it was regular batting practice sessions, with the coaches lobbing ‘em in there so the hitters could actually get some work in.  I watched a group that included Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Marco Scutaro, and Adrian Beltre, followed by Victor Martinez, David Ortiz, Josh Reddick, and Kevin Youkilis.

Getting a look at the new guy: Adrian Beltre finishes up a round of B.P.

Victor Martinez gets ready for his turn at bat.

When that was over, we headed back up and got autographs from a couple of minor leaguers, Gil Velazquez and Angel Sanchez.  We waited around up near the clubhouse while various interviews were conducted, in the hopes that one of the players would come over and sign afterwards.  We saw Terry Francona give his daily rundown, Hideki Okajima talking with the Japanese press for a long time, and Jacoby Ellsbury doing an interview.  When Ellsbury’s interview finished, he and some camera men headed back out onto the field to film something involving him stealing bases.  [Update: I found what he was filming.  It was a segment on The Red Sox Report.]  We waited around, even though all the other players had gone in, and were rewarded when Jacoby came over and signed for everyone who was still there.

When he was done, we were just getting ready to leave when we noticed Marco Scutaro had come back out.  He was seated, doing an interview, when Brewzer, the clubhouse guy’s dog, was allowed out onto the grassy area.  The dog wandered over to Scutaro during the interview, got a pat on the head, and then laid down.

Ever the attention-seeker, Brewzer the dog makes an appearance in Marco Scutaro's interview.

After practice, we spent the afternoon at Ft. Myers Beach.  It was finally a warm, sunny, beach-like day – the first one since I’ve been here.  Tomorrow we may not be so lucky, because thunderstorms are predicted all morning, threatening to wash out the practice.

Sunday brought us back to Ft. Myers, early again as usual.  This time the day was sunny, so even though it was still cool, it was much nicer.  One of the players I wanted to get a look at this year was Jose Iglesias, the slick-fielding 20-year-old from Cuba, who is being projected as the shortstop of the future.  So when the players split up after stretching out, I found the field where the minor leaguers were fielding grounders.  The following video shows Iglesias (the smaller player with the red sleeve) and Yamaico Navarro taking ground balls at short:

After fielding practice, the infielders, outfielders, and catchers joined the pitchers who weren’t scheduled to throw on Field 3 for a rundown/cutoff-throw drill.  When that was done, they split back up again for live B.P.  On one field, Tim Wakefield was throwing to Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz.  Neither hitter was able to get ahold of anything, and Big Papi kept muttering, “You gotta be kidding me,” as the knuckleball danced.  He did let out a cheer when he finally lined a bloop hit into right.  On the adjoining fields, John Lackey, Jon Lester, Josh Beckett, and Clay Buchholz also threw to their unsuspecting teammates.

John Lackey throws live batting practice.

NESN was broadcasting throughout the morning, and I stopped to watch a couple of times as I walked between fields, when Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett were being interviewed.

Josh Beckett stops by the NESN stage for an interview.

When most of the batting practice sessions wound up, we headed back up near the clubhouse.  I had gotten Dustin Pedroia’s autograph in the morning, and was happy to add top-ranked prospects Ryan Kalish and Casey Kelly at the end of practice.

Casey Kelly (in the front, wearing red) and Zach Daeges sign autographs after practice.

Cute moment of the day:  After he was done with his workout, Kevin Youkilis played on an empty field with his stepson and two other kids, who were climbing all over him.  I just missed getting a shot of him doing push-ups with the three kids sitting on his back, but I did get the aftermath:

When practice was over, Youk went through a rigorous second workout.

That wrapped up another fun day, and tomorrow we get to do it all over again.

My first day at the Red Sox minor league complex did not disappoint.  We arrived with the first bus just after 8 am, bundled up in sweatshirts and jackets because it was barely 50 degrees, and had a good spot to watch the players as they took the field.  I even managed to get Clay Buchholz’s autograph (along with his lesser-known teammates Tug Hulett, an infielder who has a cool name, and Gustavo Molina, who is a catcher but isn’t related to the other catching Molinas Bengie, Jose, and Yadier) as they made their way by.

After the whole team stretched out on Field 2, they split up to work on different drills.  My first stop was Field 3, where the infielders were practicing taking ground balls.  Mike Lowell split time between third and first, which is how he’ll likely be spending the coming season (hopefully with the Red Sox).  It was also my first chance to see newcomers Adrian Beltre at third, Marco Scutaro at shortstop, and Bill Hall at multiple positions.

Mike Lowell fields grounders at first base.

Next I headed over to Field 4, where the pitchers were running through PFP.  In the following video, relievers Jonathan Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, Brian Shouse, Joe Nelson, Daniel Bard, Manny Delcarmen, and Ramon “The Original” Ramirez are practicing fielding bunts, while a group of starters (including Tim Wakefield and Boof Bonser) practice covering first in the background.

After that, it was back to Field 3, where the pitchers joined the infielders to do a series of drills involving covering bases during rundowns.  That’s when it first started to rain, and when the drill was over all the players started heading back up toward the clubhouse.  I was afraid they’d be spending the rest of the morning working out indoors, but it turns out they were just getting their bats, and the workout continued with live batting practice.

Dustin Pedroia finishes up a round of B.P. against Ramon Ramirez.

Most of the starters had thrown B.P. yesterday, so today I watched both Ramon Ramirezes, plus Randor Bierd and Adam Mills, pitching to their teammates.  I eventually found Jose Iglesias, the 20-year-old shortstop from Cuba who’s getting rave reviews on his defense, but he was in one of the hitting groups, so I didn’t get to see him field yet.

Youk takes a break between rounds of B.P. It was so cold that even he couldn't work up a sweat.

There were more small bursts of rain throughout the morning, and it never warmed up.  (Even when we got back out to the car at 12:30 it was still only 55°, which is by far the coldest it’s ever been at any of the workouts I’ve attended over the past 8 years.)  It was actually great weather… for a Fenway Park opener or a playoff game.

Tim Wakefield does an interview for the Japanese media. Not sure what he was going for with this half-dressed outfit, though. Who does he think he is, Papelbon?

We went back up near the clubhouse when the guys started to come off the field.  I was able to get Hideki Okajima’s autograph, and we held on through the increasing rain to get autographs from infielder Lars Anderson and outfielder Zach Daeges, too.  We really lucked out, because just as we got back to the car, the heavy rain started.  It was great they were able to get the whole practice in, even if the weather was more suited to Boston in April.  At least now we’ll all be ready for Opening Day!

Finally!

After losing a day of my vacation thanks to a nasty storm, I was able to fly down to southwest Florida this morning.  It was snowing when we took off, but it was nothing compared to the monsoon of the previous day.  By the time I arrived, it was too late to make it to the Red Sox complex, but we did manage to spend some time at a beach in the afternoon.

The beach was nice and sunny, but none of the seagulls signed autographs. I hope to have better luck at the Red Sox complex tomorrow.

Tomorrow it’s off to Edison Ave. for my first look at the 2010 Red Sox.  I can’t wait!

Well, it’s official – my first rainout of the year!  I was supposed to fly to Florida tonight, but due to heavy rain, wind, and fog, my flight was cancelled.  I’ve been re-booked and will try again tomorrow, but that means I won’t be there in time to see tomorrow’s workout.

My view of Spring Training today.

I know it seems like I have tickets to every rainout, but I thought that just applied to games…