ARLINGTON - Dave Bales, the Rangers assistant equipment manager has been packing and unpacking for spring training for 31 years now. A lot has changed.
No longer does the club pack up its entire front office and weight room, put it into a truck and then send the equipment managers off for a 17-hour drive. They no longer have to pack untold boxes of sunflower seeds, bubblegum, water cups and sanitary socks into the trailer. All that gets shipped directly to Surprise, Ariz.
Instead, let's talk ball cleaning.
Yes, ball cleaning.
A pair of red cylindrical units, which are used to buff scuffed baseballs and repair them to workable shape were perhaps strangest thing that went into the PGL Logistics truck over the last couple of days ,new equipment manager Brandon Boyd said Tuesday as the last items were ceremoniously piled on and the doors closed.