Countdown to Kissimmee...

It's March 17. In some circles that's cause for wearing green and drinking beer in Irish pubs. For me, it's the day I've been waiting for over the long winter months: Travel day to Astros Spring Training. Never mind that the Astros haven't won a regular (non-WBC) Spring Training game since the first one back in February. One win, fourteen losses, and two ties - not inspiring, but no matter. On Opening Day, they will have the same 0-0 record as everyone else.

They've had weeks now to assess the non-roster invitees, to give the prospects from the farm a chance to strut their stuff, and to wait for some of the regulars - Oswalt, Lee, and Tejada - to come back from the WBC. So let's just say that a lot of the guys who were trying out for spots on the roster aren't going to be on the field come Opening Day. The current crop of catcher wannabees has been so ineffective that none of them are likely to play that day - the current gossip is that (despite copious denials) the Astros are signing Pudge Rodriguez after all. The pitching rotation is kind of shaking out - with Russ Ortiz and Jose Capellan pulling ahead of the rest, including injured Brandon Backe. Nobody's hitting much, but hey - we've seen that act before.

There's something totally different about Spring Training games that aren't even televised and Spring Training games that you see in person. It's easy not to care too much about losing when you just see the box score and a few game notes and gossip from Alyson's blog. There's always something to like, someone who's impressing the coaches, or at least some excuse - well, he (the goat) is going back down to the minor league camp any day now. But when you're there in person, of course, you want your team to win.

I got an email from Alyson Footer - she wrote: "If they start winning when you get here, I'll consider you the magic potion!" It's hard for me to imagine that the Astros are going to lose all five games when I'm at Spring Training. (I don't think that's really egotistical; it's just a lack of imagination.) I won't be really surprised if they start winning when I'm there though -- halfway through Spring Training, you'd expect to see the kids migrating back to the minor league camp, and the nonproductive invitees invited to leave. You'd expect to see more playing time by the regulars, and more innings from the intended starting rotation. In short, you'd expect to see your Opening Day team start to jell, and maybe even start to win...

In any case, I'm well equipped to document it: I have a new camera. For the fifth year in a row I thought about - and then decided against - moving to a DSLR. Too heavy, too expensive, too much trouble to learn to use. There's always next year. In the end, every other year, I just upgrade to more megapixels and more X optical zoom. This time, with a jump from my 6 meg and 12X to 10 meg and 20X, the camera is already feeling more like a SLR than a point-and-shoot. I played with the new camera a bit yesterday when I got it home from the store. But snapping shots of my husband and the dog, or macro closeups of the instruction booklet isn't really satisfying. I want to be taking pictures of slides into second (or better, home!), big homerun swings, pitchers in motion. What I really want is the chance to photograph Oswalt on the mound, but for that Team USA needs to lose so he can come back. I'm not that into the WBC anyway.

So I'm packing my bags, counting the hours, flying later this morning. Next posting from Kissimmee...