Ryan Braun was in good spirits Wednesday morning. Not only was he progressing well from off-season back surgery, it was actually above freezing as the Milwaukee Brewers' rightfielder helped collect donations during the team's annual Thanksgiving food drive.
"I feel pretty good, knock on wood," said Braun, who had surgery the week after the season ended to repair a herniated disc is his lower back. "The only surprise is the rehab is a little longer than I was anticipating, just a couple months of rehab. Other than that, everything was as expected.
"The first couple of days post-procedure were not fun; it was painful.