When Will Spring Training Start in This Blog?

I keep thinking that I should start writing about baseball - games, players, pitches, prospects - instead of hotels and rental cars and cheap air fares. After all, they've been playing games for almost two weeks already. You might not know that from reading my blog.

The Astros won their first game.

They haven't won any real games since then. In fact, they've lost a bunch of games pretty spectacularly, especially the Away games that fill the lineup card with prospects and invitees trying out for a place on the roster. They're probably in line to set a record for the most runs walked in.

Maybe subconsciously I'm waiting for the Astros to win, for when Spring Training really starts...?

Maybe. But I think it's actually much more fundamental than that: I can't see anything. For all that I complain that watching games on the computer limits my view to what the producer thinks I should be interested in, at least I can see the regular season games. There have only been a couple of Astros Spring Training games televised. So it's hard to really see what's going on - who's hitting the ball hard - even if the ball is caught, who's making the great plays, who's swinging wild and crazy. There's radio coverage, but I've only been able to listen in to a few of the live broadcasts - they mostly play in the afternoons when I'm at work. So I'm not really even hearing the KTRH guys tell the story. And even those guys are still getting back in shape - in today's broadcast, they didn't catch on until the last inning that Backe had left the game after two (not three) innings. They said Hensley and Backe look a lot alike on the mound. I guess they'd know - they can see the game and I can't.

Well, not yet. I'll be at Spring Training in 10 days. One week, five games, and hopefully a morning at the practice field too. That ought to give me enough opportunity to have something more meaningful to say about baseball than "The Astros lost again today."

What I'd like to be saying is that some prospect sure looks good, but some of those prospects are probably going to be in minor league camp by the time I get there. I'd like to be getting a good look at the invitees too, but some might be cut by the middle of Spring Training. That's the price of going the second half. I'd also like to be saying that Carlos Lee sure looks strong or Tejada's in good shape, and most of all, that Roy Oswalt is still The Man. But due to the WBC this year, I'm not sure which of them is going to be back by the time I get there. And I'd really love to say that it's heartwarming to see Jeff Bagwell in uniform, out on the practice field with the minor league guys - but I don't know if he'll be there the week I'm in Kissimmee.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, there are Alyson and the Chronicle guys, and a gazillion blog commenters - most of them annoying, but a few with ideas worth reading, some with blogs of their own. And of course there are always the numbers. Somewhere in the stats and box scores there are hidden stories. It's just hard to pick them out, sitting out here in Exile.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see.