The wife and I are getting ready for a road trip down to San Diego, stopping at San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Oregon Coast along the way for vacation.

Amid the Griffey signing news, and the fact that I'd been talking about how fun Spring Training would be, I came home this evening to the fact that my wife has bought tickets for us for the Spring Training opener in Peoria against the Dodgers on 2/27

This will be the first time I've been to Arizona, much less Spring Training.  I am going to go out on a limb and assume that others have had the pleasure, and so I'm looking out to the LL conglomerate to perhaps give me some insight as to what to expect.

Do the starters typically open up the ST opener?  Is it mostly the kids and NRI's playing?  Basically, for those who have been, was your experience fun and do you have any pointers?

Thanks for the input.

Link

The Giants signed Randy Johnson today.  I didn't see that one coming.    One year deal, no word on the specifics.  Low risk deal for the Giants, and the Unit still has another good year in him, I think.  And the Giants get to help Randy celebrate 300.

One less player for the 90's era Mariners Nostalgia tour.  Now if Junior would just sign somewhere we could put that whole idea to bed. 

http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20080131&content_id=23 60956&vkey=pr_sea&fext=.jsp&c_id=sea

And...done.

SEATTLE -- Seattle Mariners Executive Vice President and General Manager of Baseball Operations Bill Bavasi announced today that the Mariners have signed free agent outfielder Brad Wilkerson to a one-year contract. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

"The addition of Brad to our club gives us a number of different options," Bavasi said. "He is a solid left-handed bat who can play all three outfield positions and first base."

In anticipation of the wonderful I-5 backups that are coming in the next week or so, I've taken a shine to my iPod.  Unfortunately, music gets old really quick for me.

Anyone into podcasts that can recommend some?  Topic doesn't particularly matter, just something that is interesting that is updated regularly.  I could listen to KVI but Brian Suits > Kirby Wilbur and I can't stand KJR anymore.

So the "in" thing for stadiums these days is the LCD video screens across the stadium (like in STL or ANA) along the second level seats...

Are there any plans to upgrade the video/presentation system at Safeco anytime soon?  We're starting to look a bit "dated" compared to all those new fangled stadiums ;o)

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2851879

Pokey Reese 2k7.  

I was actually looking forward to seeing good ol' Arthur pitch again in a Mariners uniform.  Oh well.  I still remember the old days well.  He didn't actually look that bad in Spring Training either.  For what it's worth, Rhodes is my setup guy for J.J. in MLB 2k7 and doing quite well.

For that matter, the M's are 22-11 so far.  I like video game Mariners better than real life Mariners.

If you're on the Mariners e-mail list, you just got an e-mail with the 2007 commercial campaign.  Looks like they're sticking with the "My Oh My" slogan from last year.

The last few years' commercials haven't been very good, and this year continues the trend, in my opinion.

The Lopez/Betancourt "Double Play Twins" was a pretty good one, though.

Lopez: What? Too Much?
Beltre: <shakes head>