Catchers and Pitchers Report

Baseball field 

Catchers and Pitchers report for spring training and that means baseball season is just around the corner. Baseball season is a great time of year for me and my family. It is a long 162 games of blood, sweat, and dirt. All leading up to the playoffs. Thirty teams go in, one goes out with the trophy. But it all has to start somewhere and where better than beautiful -- at least in spring --Arizona or Florida.

Spring training field in Arizona

Pitchers and Catchers are prepping for a long season of injuries, wins, and loses. But that all begins during spring training. Arizona and Florida are two great places to kick of a baseball season so when we are here in rainy Portland, Oregon the sun is shining bright in Arizona and Florida. Each spring training area hosts about 238 games. Each team invites more than just the 40 players which make up the normal roster -- only 9 players play at a time but they have 25 on a set team, almost half of which are pitchers. The other 15 are on a major league roster, but even they spend time in the minors once the joy of spring ends.  Spring training is a great time for minor league players to show that they can make the jump from AAA, the minors' highest level, to the Majors. Even if they don't make the major league team, they have hopefully showed what they can do and impressed the coach and might make it next year or get called up to the show in the middle of the season.


For my family the baseball season is a fun and entertaining time of year, and we keep on hoping the Cardinals can get another World Series ring. I have grown up in baseball land with older brothers that would play, and I would sit up in the stands and day dream of when I could play. Every game -- watch, dream, repeat.

The regular season consists of 162 games and injuries are inevitable, even after all the spring training warm-up. A lot of players injuries are day to day but some are season or sometimes career ending. Sometimes the injuries are a bruised shoulder. Some are torn muscles. Some of the worst ones are torn ligaments or severe concussions. Imagine you are so exited for the first game of the season and then in a practice having a season ending injury right before the season started.  Some injuries happen later, like Shohei Ohtani (last year), who made a huge impression only to have his pitching season -- and possibly career -- ended by a ligament injury.  He could still hit for a while, but even that reality disappeared when he chose to have Tommy John surgery.  For Jonny Cueto, this year its possible his whole season may disappear because he is on the 60 day DL after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year in August.

2018 playoff bracket 

Spring training starts with all teams hoping to make the playoffs.  In the March heat, even Kansas City and Baltimore think they have a chance.  The best team from every division makes the playoffs, along with two wild card teams one from each league. The winners of the one game wild card series goes on to play in a best of five quarter final series, and then, whichever teams win play in a seven game series in the semifinals, although baseball people much prefer to refer to that as the league championship.  Then, the winners of those two series go on to play in a seven game final series.  That series is the World Series.

But there is no better place to start than beautiful and sunny Arizona or Florida. This is were spring training is held and the season beings. Whether you are playing in the games or watching the baseball season it is a very fun and entertaining time of the year.  It also means summer is coming.