Exhibition in sight

With spring training well underway now, we can set our sights to the cactus and grapefruit leagues starting up this week. One in Arizona (Cactus) and the other in Florida (Grapefruit). The action begins on Sunday with the Phillies taking on the Spartans (I assume that is Michigan State, but I am probably wrong) in Florida. The first big-league action begins next Tuesday with several teams beginning their schedules. The first cactus league game will be Tuesday with the Giants taking on the A's at Hohokam stadium in Mesa, Arizona. The Padres begin their tune-up games on Thursday against the Mariners in Peoria! Both teams look to be really good this time of year as the shiny new cars get to show their stuff for all teams. Full-squad workouts, as mentioned last week, began on Tuesday. There are many friendly competitions this spring training to fight for a starting spot on the 25-man roster. The bullpen, the last spot in the rotation, and some position and bench spots are up for grabs this spring. Even better news is that the only injury of camp has been a slight groin strain from Casey Kelly. He is fine now, though. Let's just hope that is the case, especially since there are a few Padres who are coming back from Tommy John surgery (Luebke has had two in the past two years). The recovery time of an injury of that scale is typically around 12 months at the very least. Anyways, I digress. We still have 6+ weeks until opening day so sit back and enjoy what we have until then.

While all the hoopla around the excitement of opening day looms, there is still a somber feeling at Angels camp. Josh Hamilton has perhaps relapsed back to cocaine and alcohol abuse -- addictions that temporarily derailed his career while in the Rays' minor league system. He then went on to go sober for close to a decade, winning the AL MVP in there once with two world series appearances. He met with MLB officials the other day and looks to have some suspension. I hope he can come back out of this. He is a great player and can make an immediate impact on any team when healthy both physically and mentally.

In the NBA, the stories are pretty much the same entering the final seven weeks of the season. As of tonight, Russel Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder has recorded his third consecutive triple-double in a losing effort in Portland. The Cavaliers fell to the Pacers tonight since LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were both out of the lineup. But they beat the Warriors yesterday and looked really good doing so. If this team is healthy, they will look to be dominant come playoff time. Meanwhile, Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls has yet another knee surgery today. He has become the true definition to injury-prone players. He will be out another 4-6 weeks since it was "only" a meniscus tear. Both conferences are toss-ups to see who will win. What an exciting time to be a fan.

I know I have not talked about college basketball all that much. It is because it can be boring at times. However, Kentucky is doing something pretty amazing right now. They have a good chance to end the season undefeated, which would be the best season in school history. It already is the best start in team history (which is quite a history), but the main questions remains: will they be able to win come March? That is when it really matters. My favorite team, BYU, is looking like a team whose bubble will be burst since they have not beaten anyone relevant this season and also have losses to Pepperdine (twice) and San Diego -- two teams who aren't even playing NIT-worthy basketball. The best way they can get into the tournament is if they beat Gonzaga tomorrow. No problem, right? Don't forget, the bulldogs only have one loss this season and that came in Tuscon against Arizona in overtime. So the #3 team in the country will be heavy favorites heading into Spokane on Saturday. The next chance BYU has to get in will be to win their conference tournament, which will most likely go through Gonzaga again. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best, right?

 Well that should do it for this week. Tune in next week when I will post weekly updates on scores to all of the Padres action in Arizona and throughout the year!

Spring is in sight

I can smell it in the air; the new polyester jerseys; the fresh-cut grass; and the recently unwrapped baseballs. It all means one thing.... Baseball is back! Most of the major league teams have had their pitchers and catchers report to spring training including the Padres and their fired-up team. Please check out the daily updates from Peoria on Padres.com for your Padres baseball coverage. Each and ever major league team has in-depth coverage of spring training. So visit your favorite team's site to prepare for what is an optimistic year for every team. As for the Padres, their first workout as a cohesive unit was today and several position players have already reported as well including big fish Matt Kemp. Others include Abraham Almonte, Rymer Liriano, Alexi Amarista and Clint Barmes. There are others, but a list of all the players will be listed once the full team reports to spring training in four days. The first full-team workout is Wednesday and first cactus league game is March 4 against the Mariners in Peoria. Exciting times indeed.

Rarely will there be a time where I will post about boxing, but this is almost a necessity. After years and years of mere speculation, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have finally agreed on a fight on May 2nd! I know close to nothing about boxing or any type of fighting sport, but I know that this may be the biggest fight in a few decades. It will most likely be on pay-per-view but I am excited to see who the best of the best is. Both fighters will earn millions of dollars whether or not they win but this will be for the fans. 

The NBA continues to catch our eyes. Last weekend was the all-star game in Brooklyn with the Saturday events highlighting most of the weekend. Steph Curry won the three-point contest with Zach Lavine from the Minnesota Timberwolves winning the dunk contest in an incredible way. He imitated Vince Carter's contest-winning dunk from 2000 when he did a 360 and turned the ball behind him and slamming it home. Here is a link to all of his dunks -- the last one won it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYbx_PV3318


 The all-star game itself was a victory for the western conference with no defense. Final score: 163-158. In other news, the trade deadline hit us this week. With all the drama surrounding this day, I think Chris Bosh got too stressed out and was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung. That wasn't the reason for his blood clot, but he still may miss the rest of the year in recovery. Blood clots are very dangerous because if the clot gets loose and travels to the heart, there is a chance that a fatal heart attack will result. Meanwhile, the trade deadline saw Goran Dragic get his wish and take his talents to south beach along with his brother. Kevin Garnett will go back to Minnesota probably to finish his career, guard Reggie Jackson had some harsh words for the Thunder on his way out the door to Detroit, and Amar'e Stoudemire was released from the Knicks to then go on and sign with the Dallas Mavericks. Looks like teams are set in stone for the next 30 games or so until the regular season ends. The race for the best in the west is sure looking to be exciting. We'll see what happens in the end.

That should do it for this week. Tune in next week for more spring training coverage as the full squad will be in the swing of things by next weekend.