All Things Bubba

It never rains but it pours. Nothing much happened over the weekend; the weather was awful, so I ended up doing such exciting things as re-organizing the cabinets and backing up my hard drive. Today, all heck broke loose. Computer disaster at the office (there was apparently a fire in the data center over the weekend). Crude oil hit a new intraday record high, and closed over $100/barrel for the first time, causing much excitement. Some home and family stuff came up. (Nothing major, but unexpectedly time-consuming.) And finally - an official announcement on the Bubba front.

Here's how AP wrote it up:

The Mariners signed outfielder Bubba Crosby to a minor league contract. Crosby played in 65 games for the New York Yankees in 2006 and spent all of 2007 playing for the Cincinnati Reds' AAA team in Louisville.

That's not quite accurate. He didn't spend all of 2007 playing for Louisville. He played only two weeks, and was on the DL the rest of the time. He'd have been called up if he were healthy.

It's disappointing that the Mariners wouldn't even give Bubba a spring training invite, but not really surprising. Especially with this year's market. He missed an entire year of baseball, and had shoulder surgery. He's going to have to prove himself all over again. If he plays well, he'll get a chance. With Seattle, or with another team.

The Mariners' spring training is at Peoria Sports Complex in Peoria, Arizona. Peoria is basically a suburb of Phoenix; if you go, you'll fly in via the Phoenix airport.

The minor league spring training games are free, and not many people attend. Which could be kind of cool, really. You'd be guaranteed good seats! (The Mariners have not released their minor league spring training schedule yet, but usually, the minor league games don't start until around March 15.)

Getting tickets shouldn't be a problem for the big league games. The Angels and Cubs games sell out, and weekend games may sell out as well. But it sounds like most days, you can just walk up and get tickets.

The major league spring training schedule is here. Looks like there are more day games than the Grapefruit League has.

In other news, Ron Villone signed a minor league deal with St. Louis. Still no word on Kevin Reese, but there's still time. Players are often signed during spring training, as teams see what they've got...and what holes they need to fill.