{"id":3723,"date":"2016-02-25T23:51:57","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T04:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2016-02-25T23:51:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T04:51:57","slug":"train-to-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/2016\/02\/25\/train-to-reign\/","title":{"rendered":"Train To Reign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 25, 2016 – JetBlue Park, Ft. Myers<\/h3>\n

Spring Training workout<\/h4>\n

It’s great to be back in “The Fort” for my 14th spring training trip.\u00a0 The first time I went was 2003, also the first year in Red Sox camp for one David Ortiz.\u00a0 I’m still having a hard time comprehending his retirement and it disturbs me to think that when I come back next year he won’t be around.\u00a0 But for now, I’m going to enjoy Big Papi and his teammates as much as I can.<\/p>\n

The players took the field later than usual due to an MLB Players’ Association meeting in the morning, but they still held a full workout.\u00a0 Between warmups, fielding practice, live B.P., and regular batting practice I took my usual 300 or so photos.\u00a0 My top ten favorites, in no particular order,\u00a0are below.<\/p>\n

\"Eduardo

Eduardo Rodriguez spent a lot of time with fellow lefty David Price. Price is already embracing a leadership role on the team. (For the record, I hate the nickname "E-Rod" for Rodriguez because it sounds too much like A-Rod. For the purposes of this blog he shall be known as "Ed-Ro," which sounds more like Pedro.)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I

I am so happy to see John Farrell back with the team after beating lymphoma last fall. He made the rounds and kept a watchful eye on all the proceedings.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mookie

Mookie Betts is one of the guys I'm most looking forward to seeing this year. He runs, he hits, he makes amazing plays in the field, he bowls professionally, and he can solve a Rubik's Cube in under two minutes. What's not to love? <\/p><\/div>\n

\"David

David Price threw live batting practice to Mookie Betts, Pablo Sandoval, and Dan Butler. Let's just say there was not a lot of contact made.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The "Train to Reign" sweatshirts that many of the players were wearing are probably standard MLB issue that every team has in their colors, but I thought it was cool that President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski wore one as he visited the various drills.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Meet

Meet new outfielder Chris Young. He was taking batting practice in the same group as Big Papi and Hanley Ramirez.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"It's

It's not really officially baseball season until Pedey's in the house. As Dustin Pedroia took batting practice, David Ortiz sat on a water cooler and heckled him, calling him "Pee-Wee."<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Another

Another young player who I love to watch is Xander Bogaerts. We'll get you to the All-Star Game this year, X-Man!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Blake

Blake Swihart has already been anointed as the starting catcher. I look forward to seeing him build on the experience he got at the end of last year.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"And

And finally, here's the man, the myth, the legend, the soon-to-be-retiree himself, Big Papi.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a slow day on the autograph front – the only two I got were pitching coach Carl Willis and outfield prospect Bryce Brentz – but those often come in bunches and I’ve got four more days of workouts to watch. After practice we hit the beach in Englewood, north of Ft. Myers.\u00a0 With temps on the “chilly” side for Florida,\u00a0it was practically deserted, but\u00a0as New Englanders that didn’t stop us.\u00a0 (Actually the water was as warm as the air, the waves were beautiful, and if it hadn’t been for the wind it would have been perfect.)<\/p>\n

\"Englewood

Englewood Beach on a breezy afternoon.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, February 25, 2016 – JetBlue Park, Ft. Myers Spring Training workout It’s great to be back in “The Fort” for my 14th spring training trip.\u00a0 The first time I went was 2003, also the first year in Red Sox camp for one David Ortiz.\u00a0 I’m still having a hard time comprehending his retirement and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3742,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/3742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/redsoxdiehard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}