And we're off.....

Here we go! After six months of training and a 24 hour drive down to Jupiter, spring training is finally here…kind of.

Wednesday the 10th was our “report date”; all that means is that we had to be checked into the hotel sometime during that day. After we got checked in we had a welcome to Jupiter moment. We were both sitting around the room feeling kind of worthless so we decided to wander about Palm Beach and find a place to get a quick little workout in. We drove around for no more than 5 minutes before we found something. All we needed was a one day pass and that wasn’t cheap! I’ve bought numerous amounts of one day passes and have never spent more than probably $8, but when it comes to Jupiter/Palm Beach prices are thrown out of the window. Take a seat if you’re standing up, this next statement may cause you to get light headed. A one day pass cost…….$15! I know, I know, you’re now thinking “You didn’t actually pay for that did you?” Well I did, and here’s my reasoning. When the lady at the front desk told me that I swear my jaw almost slammed down on the counter, and then my jaw did hit the counter whenever she told us that they were on of the “cheaper” places around. Welcome to south Florida, here’s my $15.

Yesterday was we had our physicals and some testing to see how good of shape everyone is in. Our physicals include a blood test, an EKG test, a tuberculosis test, talking with the orthopedic surgeon about our bones, an eye test, and finally the dreaded hernia test. But before I did any of those, I checked in with our strength and conditioning guy. My goal this off season was to get down to below 200, I weighed in at 198. I passed all my flexibility tests with flying colors, had a good score on our grip test, and had a 33.5 vertical which was I think an inch and a half better than it was year. So all in all I thought I did pretty well in showing our strength and conditioning coordinator and the organization that I worked my butt off this off season.

Today was supposed to be our first day of workouts, but the rain had other ideas for us. Instead of being out in the sun on the green grass at 9:00, we were all crammed inside a lunch room. The first day always includes a lot of introductions, rules and regulations, and expectations. After about a 45 minute meeting we were done for the day (we couldn’t hit in the cages because the Red Sox were in there getting ready for their game against the Cardinals). So Curry and I got another quick lift in and now we’re sitting back here at the hotel about to watch a movie.

It’s been a great start so far, the weather is supposed to get better for tomorrow and I can’t wait to get everything going and be on a new routine. My main goals for this spring training are to stay as positive as possible, soak in as much as possible, and not worry about the things that I can’t control. So send me some positive vibes! Check back tomorrow for an update on how the first workout outside went.