Baseball is about to drop

Stop me if you've read this before: When I began writing this blog about seven years ago – has it been that long? – I intended it to be about baseball only. If you think the current format of me writing about sports and weather is dull and boring, a blog about baseball rainouts would have been a snooze, bro.

What would I have done in the baseball offseason? Oh, I guess the same thing I do now: let the blog sit for months at a time without an update.

Anyway, had I stuck with the baseball-only format, today would have been – actually, it still is – a perfect day to simply say, "Hey, spring training is here and baseball and its inevitable rainouts are right around the hot corner.

So today, with my first blog update in more than a month, I give you this cool Associated Press photo from St. Louis Cardinals spring training in Jupiter, Fla.

What's this photo have to do with weather, you ask. Check out the glove on the fence. Tiny rain spots. Duh!  

According to the photo caption, rain fell at Cardinals camp… team goes into the clubhouse… rain stops, team goes outside to stretch… rain picks up again… blah, blah, blah.

Cold, Wet Sox

Think it’s always sunny, cozy and warm in Florida during spring training? Think again. Temperatures were in the mid-40s and Red Sox pitching prospect Michael Bowden could see his breath during a workout at the team’s training facility in Fort Myers when Boston Globe photographer Jim Davis snapped this photo. But don’t feel bad for the champs; temperatures climbed to near by mid-day.

Here’s another neat pic from Davis catching Red Sox reliever Hideki Okajima and his interpreter, Jeff Yamaguchi, under an umbrella walking from the team’s indoor batting cages to the clubhouse.

Rain Ks Matsuzaka Workout

Yippe! We have our first sight of rain at spring training. In this Associated Press photo, Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is seen darting off the field at the World Series Champs' Fort Myers, Fla., complex during a driving rain storm this morning. The second-year Japanese pitcher was in the middle of a workout – no doubt tossing a few gyroballs – when the rain began to pour.

Speaking of major league hurlers, Roger Clemens is getting hit pretty hard on Capitol Hill at the moment.

Update: This is from Amalie Benjamin's blog on Boston.com:

Right around 9:30 a.m., the clouds started looking a little ominous. The thunder and lightning were clearly indicating rain was coming. And, yet, Daisuke Matsuzaka remained out on a far bullpen mound without a golf car in sight.

About 15 minutes later, after much of the media had taken refuge in the locker room as the gusts of rain started soaking the facility, Matsuzaka burst through the door, rain dripping off his mullet, his shirt dark red with rain, and his breath short. He had sprinted from the far mound, clearly demonstrating his speed -- Masa Hoshino, his interpreter, plus a group of other personnel. He laughed as he walked in.

And speaking of Matsuzaka, the pitcher has been parking his monster white Hummer in a prime parking spot right by the locker room door, while Hoshino has been driving around in ... a Kia. Not everyone can be a star starter, I guess.