Friday, February 17, 2006

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!

You must forgive the local citizenry if they were confused by the recent strange weather in the Philadelphia area.  An eighteen snowstorm beginning last Saturday and concluding Sunday was nearly gone five days later following several days of sunshine and temperatures in the mid to upper ‘50’s and low ‘60’s on Wednesday and Thursday.

Late March snowstorms have been known to melt into torrents of rushing water in very short order, but big storms in February normally linger for weeks, the mounds of snow gradually turning gray, then black.

Perhaps the official beginning of Spring Training contributed to the overall warm up and thaw.

One thing is certain:  White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen doesn’t need Spring Training; he’s clearly already in mid-season form.

Speaking about Alex Rodriguez’s waffling over whether to play for the U.S. or Santo Domingo in the up-coming WBC, Guillen had this to say as quoted by ESPN from a Sports Illustrated interview:  

“Guillen, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, targeted A-Rod's much-publicized back and forth standing whether to play in the World Baseball Classic for the Dominican Republic or United States.

"Alex was kissing Latino people's asses," Guillen, who's from Venezuela, said in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated. "He knew he wasn't going to play for the Dominicans; he's not a Dominican!"” Here is the ESPN piece.

As they say, it should be interesting the first time the White Sox and Yankees meet.

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Hey, bloggers, you want more validation of your efforts?

Jayson Stark debuts today on ESPN’s web site with his new blog, a “lifelong dream” he says at first blush only to qualify that time line to six months at best.

Why would Stark need a blog when he already appears regularly on ESPN’s web site with his columns and on BBTN telecasts with his commentaries?

We’ll have to ask him…if we get the chance.

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