Spring Training

At last!

Pitchers and catchers reported for spring training yesterday, and I can't wait for baseball to begin! I even shaved off most of my winter beard. With a week from hell behind me, I have something to look forward to.

Monday all the 8th grade math teachers in my building had an all-day inservice. Tuesday, all Elkhart teachers had an all-day inservice. We actually had school on Wednesday and Thursday, only to be followed by a four-day weekend. Guess what, when school's back in on Tuesday data coordinators have a half-day inservice so I will miss three of my five classes. I'm sure my students' learning is going to improve from this schedule somehow, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how.

I was listening to XM radio yesterday to try to get the lowdown on the beginning of spring training, but all I hear is talk, talk, talk about Roger Clemens. Good grief, Senator Mitchell suggested in his report that we proceed from here: "Knowledge and understanding of the past are essential if the problem is to be dealt with effectively in the future. But being chained to the past is not helpful. Baseball does not need and cannot afford to engage in a never-ending search for the name of every player who ever used performance enhancing substances." Isn't that good enough? Let's develop tests to eliminate this crap from the game, not target and smear every player named in the report. Nothing good will come of that.

I finally found some good coverage of the Tigers in spring training from the Detroit News. I would give a lot to be in Lakeland, Florida this weekend. The Tigers made key trades this winter, and on paper the team looks to do well, but they have to play the games. I'm ready to see them! We'll be headed up to Kalamazoo, Michigan this weekend to see if we can find some Tigers wear for Sera for this spring. I can hardly wait!