All Things Bubba

Well, I said I didn't want any more snow. I guess I should be careful what I wish for. No snow today. Instead, we got pouring rain. Which turned all the mountains of snow into lakes of slush. Ugh. Early mud season...

It's been pretty wet in Florida, too. Lots of rain-shortened games today. The Reds-Indians game was called after 4-1/2 innings. Andy Phillips was 0 for 1 as a pinch-hitter. Paul Janish was 1 for 1 with a RBI. Reds won, 7-4.

Meanwhile, in the desert, Seattle played Oakland. Once again, Miguel Cairo led off. He stayed in for the whole game, too - rather odd for spring training. He was 2 for 5 with a run scored. Sardinha entered the game as a pinch runner, and didn't get any at-bats. Final score: Oakland 9, Seattle 6.

In other dugout were former Reds outfielders Chris Denorfia and Jeff Fiorentino. Deno's struggling - a .083 batting average. IIRC, he got off to a really slow start last year, too. Fiorentino was 1 for 2 with a walk. He's batting .400. Many thought the Reds should have kept him and gotten rid of Drew Anderson instead.

On the subject of former Reds players...according to the Baseball America minor league transaction report, Enrique Cruz, AKA "the gay porn star," signed with the Mets.

The big news today is MLB's new restrictions on Internet use of their content. It's pretty draconian. No more live-blogging of games. Limitations on photos, audio, and video. Pretty ridiculous, IMO. Do they really think that blog descriptions or a few photos can take the place of going to a game or watching it on TV? I thought their blackout rules were bad, but this is really too much.

And just when I thought I'd heard it all...Lisa sent me this link:

Marlins looking for tubby men for cheerleading squad

MIAMI - The Florida Marlins are looking for some footloose fat men.

The Major League Baseball team is creating an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad to be dubbed the Manatees. Tryouts were scheduled for Sunday.

The team hopes to recruit seven to 10 tubby men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and Saturday home games this season.