BRADENTON, Fla. — Spring Training can be something of a bubble.
While the rest of the country toils through the cold, wet, damp and occasionally still snowy months of February and March, ballplayers, snowbirds, and yes, baseball writers flock to southern locales for a taste of baseball in paradise. It’s 60 degrees warmer than it is back home, and the PA announcer will remind you of that every day. There’s palm trees, sun, and freshly painted chalk lines — a bucolic, baseball paradise.
For all of about three days.
After that, it’s work. Because for the people who are really involved in it — the players, the coaches and the front office staff, all the way down to the clubhouse staff and yes, the reporters, Spring Training is a grind.