Each year before Spring Training begins, the Arizona Diamondbacks hold a Ballyard Chat with several of the players and coaches. This year, it was held today at Linkrugel's Ballyard Brewery at Bank One Ballpark. There was Randy Johnson along with Bob Brenly and Joe Garagiola Junior. They talked for nearly an hour about the state of the game, what they were looking forward to, what holes they felt were still in the roster and how they thought they would close the gap on the other teams in the National League Western Division. Each season, I try to attend the Ballyard Talk. It is not so much to see or hear the speakers as it is to just be at the ballpark. February is the hardest on me. It is at this point that spring training is right around the corner and yet opening day seems so far away. Granted, it would have been nicer if they would hold the Ballyard talk down on the field so that I could have checked out the status of the turf but I guess I can't have everything.
It is kind of strange to see the players not in uniform. You get so used to seeing them in short sleeve pinstripes and a baseball cap that it is difficult to envision them wearing street clothes. In most cases, if you didn't look closely, you would not recognize the person sitting next to you at the movies was a baseball player, unless that player was Randy Johnson. Given my luck, I would be sitting right behind him during Titanic and for three straight hours, all I would hear would be "iceberg dead ahead!" while looking directly into a dry scalp.
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