Spring Training Games Have Begun!

Spring training games began yesterday in Florida and Arizona. My adopted hometown team, the Colorado Rockies, played the Arizona Diamondbacks in Scottsdale, Arizona, beating Arizona by a score of 12-8. Brenton Doyle hit a grand slam for Colorado in the 4th inning, after which the Rockies squandered a 5-1 lead before rallying in the 9th. Expectations are low for Colorado this season, and most experts are predicting another 100-loss season for them. Meanwhile, this afternoon at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona, my South Side heroes, the Chicago White Sox, will be facing off against their North Side rivals, the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs are all about making the playoffs this year, while the White Sox are all about not losing another 121 games, as they did last year, setting a major league record for losses in a season. Surely they won't be as bad this season, right? Right? In any case, I took the photograph above back in March of 1996 during spring training at Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach. That stadium is long gone, as are the Expos, who used to train there along with the Atlanta Braves, who now train at Cool Today Park near Venice, on Florida's west coast. However, a few years ago, West Palm Beach built a new facility, where the Washington Nationals - who used to be the Expos - and the Houston Astros now train, and so spring training still lives in WPB. Let's play ball!