Mind your P's and C's
Well, it's that time of year again. President's Day weekend has finally arrived, and there is no better way to remember two of our nation's noblest leaders, Abe and George, than to go out and shop 'til we drop (or our credit cards are maxed out)...
All right, enough of that. This isn't the web site for the Men's Wearhouse—this is the Orioles Warehouse. And as any serious Bird fan knows, this weekend's most important event is the annual ritual known as "pitchers and catchers report" day, when baseball players dust off their gloves, head to the tropics and begin to prepare in earnest for a new season. For the Orioles, that frabjous day was today, Saturday, February 19. (The date was moved up from Monday, February 21.)
But unless you're suffering from a life-threatening case of O's withdrawal, you may not want to race down to Fort Lauderdale just yet. The first week or so is designed to ease the players in slowly—there will be plenty of time later for the inevitable weeding out. Tomorrow (Sunday) the team doctor is to administer physicals to said pitchers and catchers, and the team's first official workouts will follow later in the day. Other position players will begin streaming in over the next few days, as their reporting deadline is Wednesday, February 23, and the first full team workout will take place on Friday, the 25th. Brief workouts and perhaps intrasquad games will ensue over the next week.
The first opportunity to see the 2005 Birds in competition with another team will be the following Thursday, March 3, when the Orioles open their spring training schedule at the Florida Marlins' Roger Dean Stadium in Palm Beach. The following day, Baltimore and the Marlins will do battle again at the Birds' spring home in Fort Lauderdale. Three much-awaited contests are the dates against the Washington Nationals scheduled for March 5 and 13 (at home) and March 25 (at the Nats' home in Melbourne). After 28 games in Florida (less if rain intervenes), the Birds will head to Oklahoma City for exhibitions against the St. Louis Cardinals on March 31 and April 1, then they will stop by Philadelphia for a Sunday warmup with the Phillies on April 3. And the real stuff starts Monday, April 4, when the Orioles will open the regular season at home against Oakland.
If you're planning on making the trip south with the Birds, a good general spring training resource is the site Spring Training Online. Tickets for March games can be purchased from the Orioles' official site.