Guide to Baseball's Spring Training: Floirda's Grapefruit League

Major League Baseball fans are blowing dust off of the cap of their favorite team and shaking out their baseball jerseys. They look to Florida for the Grapefruit League or west to Arizona to follow the Cactus League. While it has been a few months since the Chicago White Sox won the 2005 World Series, baseball fans have been eagerly awaiting the word from spring training camps and planning trips to Florida or Arizona. Whether they are warming up like a starting pitcher or polishing their sunglasses, a true baseball fan welcomes March. It is not the madness of college basketball that excites them. It is the unfolding of the deck chair and the tinny sound of an announcer on the radio saying "Strike Three!"

The month of March is full of exhibition games and hope for each team that did not make it to the World Series last year. Everyone is back to square one. Fans are working on their fantasy baseball picks, managers are evaluating players, and some smack talk has begun. Just today, February 27, 2006, the Chicago White Sox General Manager, Kenny Williams, had words about former slugger Frank Thomas, who signed with Oakland last month and has trash-mouthed the Sox in interviews, "He's an idiot. He's selfish. That's why we don't miss him." (Dallas Morning News) Well, all right then.

Or, we have the drama of Roger Clemens, ace aging pitcher. He is coming to the Houston Astros camp to pitch to miner leaguers in a simulated game. As a free agent, Clemens was not offered salary arbitration and cannot re-sign with them until May 1st. He is still deciding whether to retire or play his 23rd season of baseball. Another round of rumors occurred when Barry Bonds did not show up on the first workout day of San Francisco Giant training camp. He did show up on Wednesday, February 22nd, and is wavering as to whether 2006 will be his last year in baseball.