And so we wrap up the spring and descend into the Land of Preseason Predictions.

Which obviously is God's way of keeping baseball writers humble and grounded.

I don't know of any of my colleagues who don't feel foolish in September when they look back at how they projected the season in April. See, a lot of us go by what's on paper in the spring, and you know what they say about that's why they actually play the games on the field.

A few days ago, new Oakland manager Bob Geren and I were talking in the brilliant Arizona sunshine at Phoenix Municipal Stadium, standing on the emerald green grass and discussing the Athletics as the hitters trotted in and out of the batting cage and 2007 was as wide open as the desert.

Geren was raving about how well Rich Harden was pitching this spring, to the point where he said that Harden is a legitimate Cy Young candidate.

You're preaching to the choir here, I interrupted. I told Geren that Harden has been my preseason pick as the AL Cy Young winner in two of the past three years.

"Did you pick him this year?" Geren asked.

"No way," I told him. "He's burned me twice in three years. What do you think, I'm going out on that limb again?"

"Good," Geren replied, laughing. "You've probably been jinxing him."

If you only knew, I told Geren.

Two years ago, I had the White Sox fourth in my preseason predictions. My good buddy Tim, who is my daughter's godfather, was in town at the time, is a Chicago native and Sox fan and mercilessly ragged me for picking them so low. Of course, seven months later, Ozzie Guillen's club was winning the World Series.

Tim hasn't let me forget it. He now badgers me constantly, begging me never to pick the Sox to win again.

Meantime, my cell phone buzzed in Arizona this week and it was another good friend of mine from Michigan, Sam. A few minutes into the conversation the Tigers came up, and Sam wondered if I had finished my predictions yet. Not quite, I replied, but close.

"DON'T pick the Tigers to win," Sam quickly said.

No doubt, he recalls me picking Detroit to sweep St. Louis in the World Series last fall, and that prediction didn't quite go so well either. And let me tell you: For a group of fans who are supposed to be nice, friendly and respectful, I got so many unprintable and vicious e-mails from Cardinals fans who were poor winners following the Series and my prediction, it would curdle your milk.

All last summer, I heard from Mets fans who didn't think I gave their club enough respect in the preseason predictions. And I got more than a few "Told-ya-so's" in October when the Mets were making a strong bid for the World Series.

So we come to another spring, and all I can say is: My friend Sam will not be happy because I've got the Tigers beating the Dodgers in the World Series (hey, I try to look at this objectively and play no favorites). My friend Tim will be thrilled, because I've got the White Sox back down to fourth (which, he'll say, will give them a chance to win it all).

As for your team, whatever it is, I wish it only the best of luck this summer and I hope you have many, many enjoyable hours following it.

And if your club doesn't do as well as expected, go blame Sports Illustrated for jinxing them.

Likes: Reading as many baseball previews as I can scrounge up in the days before opening day. Sports Illustrated's is always terrific. USA Today is always stacked with good information. Most of the special newspaper sections are entertaining. Read and enjoyed the New York Post's section on the flight home from Arizona last night. ... The Sopranos returning a week from Sunday. ... Entourage, too. ... After almost six solid weeks on the road, home in time to see opening night of my fourth-grade daughter's school play tonight. Can't wait. ... Mets-Cardinals on television in the opener Sunday night, following a Saturday of Final Four games. ... Cincinnati for opening day on Monday. ... Summer right around the corner, it's hard to top this time of year, isn't it?

Dislikes: Can we never hear another word, please, about the Murderer's Row of Britney Spears, Nicole Ritchie, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan?

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"With his head cocked sideways
"At streetcorners
"As if he is just about to have
"His picture taken for Victor Records
"Listening for his master's voice
"And looking like a living question mark
"Into the great gramophone of puzzling existence
"With its wondrous hollow horn
"Which always seems
"Just about to spout forth
"Some victorious answer to everything."

-- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Dog

While everybody guffaws over Kansas City signing Gil Meche to that five-year, $55 million contract, what's completely overlooked is the potential benefit of the other free-agent pitcher the Royals signed over the winter.

That would be, ah. ...

Remember a closer named Octavio Dotel?

The Royals gave him a one-year, $5 million deal, which pretty much is pennies when you consider how important Dotel could be to this club.

Much of the reason the Royals kept getting their guts ripped out last summer was because their bullpen kept collapsing. Kansas City's 31 blown saves were an American League worst.

Dotel mostly has remained under the radar thanks to Meche, but he won't stay there for long if the Royals actually begin to hold onto some leads this summer.

"We knew we needed somebody at the back end who has done it before," Royals GM Dayton Moore says. "This was the perfect marriage. I think Octavio really wanted to go back to the Yankees, but there's no closer job open there, and he wanted to close.

"When we met with him in the Dominican Republic, his enthusiasm was evident. He's a winner, and he's a full year recovered from Tommy John surgery."

Nobody's picking the Royals to win or saying that they've patched all of their holes. But one interesting thing that continued to occur during travels through the Grapefruit and Cactus leagues this spring was the frequency with which, unprovoked, players, front office personnel and scouts, when discussing the AL Central, volunteered that they thought Kansas City had improved itself.

Likes: Scottsdale Stadium. Beautiful Cactus League park. ... Tim Flannery, third-base coach of the San Francisco Giants. ... Milwaukee entering the season with a real chance to stay in the race. ... The Best of Mary McGrory: A Half-Century of Washington Commentary. McGrory, a former columnist at the Washington Star and Washington Post, live on JFK in the 1960s is illuminating reading. ... Gonna have to look into the new compact disc release of Warren Zevon's Stand in the Fire, recorded live at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles in 1981. ... Difficult not to stop flipping the channels when you come across a Michael Douglas movie late at night on the road. ... The UCLA-Florida rematch Saturday in the Final Four. Should be great entertainment.

Dislikes: Absolutely nothing today. How can there be -- headed home for a couple of days, the Final Four games are on Saturday and another baseball season begins Sunday.

Sunblock day? I suppose you can never be too careful, but it was only 61 degrees when San Francisco and Milwaukee started in Scottsdale on Wednesday afternoon.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

OK, so the planes were to Florida and Arizona over these past six weeks, not to Spain. Still. ...

"So I bought me a ticket
"I caught a plane to Spain
"Went to a party down a red dirt road
"There were lots of pretty people there
"Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue
"They said, 'How long can you hang around?'
"I said a week, maybe two
"Just until my skin turns brown
"Then I'm going home to California

-- Joni Mitchell, California

He was The Greatest, and if you doubt that, you should see the way Muhammed Ali still fills a room.

Not much causes major league baseball players to stop whatever they're doing and gawk, but from the moment Ali shuffled into the Los Angeles Angels' dressing room at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Tuesday, it was as if a pope or a president had entered the joint.

Ali has a home in Paradise Valley, Ariz., and as you might expect, likes to get out from time to time despite the fact that he's 65 and suffering from debilitating Parkinson's Disease. Tuesday, he came to watch the Angels play the Chicago White Sox and was more than obliging in posing for pictures in the Angels' clubhouse.

Sadly, he no longer floats like a butterfly, nor does he sting like a bee. He shuffles along with a walker now, and there isn't much body movement. He doesn't talk -- at least, he didn't during his 30 minutes or so inside of the Angels clubhouse.

But his eyes are alive, darting back and forth, and it sure appears as if he's taking everything in.

His handlers sat him in a chair in the middle of the clubhouse, and counting players, staff, clubhouse guys and a couple of media members, probably 60 people had their photos taken with Ali.

"It was fun, because we did a similar situation in Houston in 2004, with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America at the All-Star Game, and you had All-Stars from both leagues," said Jerald Gibbs, who works with the Los Angeles-based marketing company employed by Ali. "It's kind of neat to see athletes pay their respects to former athletes."

Ali, given his stature and the way he transcends sports, is not just a former athlete, and you could tell by the reactions around the room. The normal laughter, teasing and banter of the clubhouse ceased as soon as Ali entered. Suddenly, it was library-silent.

"I've never seen the clubhouse get so quiet, with everyone just in awe, like it was today," infielder Robb Quinlan said. "That was pretty painful to see."

Pitcher Kelvim Escobar was first in line to have his photo taken with Ali.

"The Champ," Escobar said. "He's one of the athletes I admired most. Him and Michael Jordan. This was very exciting."

Ali patiently signed several bats and baseballs while he was there, a painstaking process because it is so hard for him to move with the Parkinson's. But he appeared to summon all of his concentration powers and got the job done -- small, neat signatures.

"I'm going to put this up at the house," said Quinlan after having a bat signed. "That's pretty cool."

Likes: Equipment trucks heading north. ... Goodbyes at Cactus League and Grapefruit League sites. ... Home in just a couple of days.

Dislikes: How can I not have one Final Four team still alive in my bracket?

Sunblock day? Warm, in the 80s, but very windy. Still, ya needed sunblock.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

I rarely do repeats here, but listening to one of Bonnie Raitt's greatest (lyricist: John Prine) the other night, despite using it last spring, I figured this is definitely worth it at least once a year:

"There's flies in the kitchen
"I can hear them, they're buzzin'
"And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today
"But how the hell can a person
"Go to work in the morning
"And come home in the evening
"And have nothing to say?

-- John Prine, Angel from Montgomery

It becomes a numbers game at this point in the spring, and the stuff is about to hit the fan in San Diego, where the Padres have informed second baseman Todd Walker that they are going to release him on Tuesday.

Result? An expected grievance to be filed by the players' union and a loud uproar from within the clubhouse, where the affable Walker was a popular teammate.

Walker's sin was to beat the Padres in arbitration. He won a $3.9 million salary this winter, but Marcus Giles is going to be the club's second baseman and owner John Moores isn't in the business of paying bench players excess cash.

Maybe he should think about it, because the whole key to winning these days after pitching is depth, but Moores doesn't want to win so much as he wants to spend just enough money to stay competitive.

So the Padres, after winning consecutive division titles for the first time in club history before being quietly bounced out of the playoffs each time, again will field a team that had better have its front-line players stay healthy. Or else.

And Walker, a solid clubhouse guy and very good hitter, will go job-hunting at the one of the worst times a player can do so.

The Padres, who will save $3 million or so by whacking Walker, will argue that he had a poor spring (just .225 with one RBI in 14 games) and that they already have enough lefties for their bench -- Russell Branyan, Paul McAnulty and switch-hitters Geoff Blum and Jose Cruz Jr.

The players union will point to the fact that Walker, 33, has a solid resume -- lifetime batting average of .289 with 107 homers and 541 RBI in nine full seasons, and argue that you can't cut a guy like that on the basis of 14 lousy spring training at-bats.

In fact, only one other player is known to have been released after winning an arbitration case over the winter -- Brian Hunter, the old outfielder who was released by Seattle on March 27, 2000. Four days later, he signed with that wayward home for free agents and other vagabonds, the Colorado Rockies.

Good luck to Walker, who already has played for Minnesota, Colorado, Cincinnati, Boston, the Cubs and, now San Diego, in finding work from here.

The cold, cruel facts of the business: When the Padres acquired him from the Cubs at last July's trade deadline, they had a gaping hole at third and asked him to play there immediately. He readily complied -- even though he had played second all season with the Cubs and hadn't done any work at third in years.

He made a throwing error in his first game and committed six total errors in 44 games in San Diego. He never complained or made excuses when he botched a ball while out of position at third base.

For that alone, he was owed more than a late-spring "see ya" from the Padres.

Likes: Zack Greinke having a good spring and rejoining the Kansas City rotation. Everybody should pull for the Royals, a class act trying to recapture some of their proud days of old. And Greinke, who left camp a year ago for personal reasons, is a great comeback story. His projected matchup against Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka in the third game of the season in Kansas City will be great theatre. ... Late spring trades: Florida needed a closer, and acquiring Jorge Julio from Arizona on Monday gives the Marlins something to dream about. ... Pitchers making their final starts of the spring. ... Players talking about breaking camp. ... Dmitri Young back in the starting lineup for Washington. ... T-shirt seen in the hotel restaurant: "Party 'Til She's Cute." ... The blackened scallops at Richardson's, a southwestern cuisine joint here in Phoenix. A party for your taste buds. Man, are they good.

Dislikes: The feeling that Tuesday's Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing regarding baseball's exclusive Extra Innings deal with DirecTV is simply another colossal waste of taxpayers' money and Congressmen's time. All signs point to the hapless committee being powerless to do anything other than conduct a day of hearings and listen.

Sunblock day? Back in business. Sunny and 80s in the desert. Opening day can't be far away, can it?

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Now every one of us was made to suffer
"Every one of us was made to weep
"But we've been hurting one another
"And now the pain has cut too deep

-- Annie Lennox, Walking on Broken Glass

Right about now, all 30 teams have one thing in common:

Get through what's left of spring training in one piece. Make it through five weeks, it's a nightmare if something happens to wreck good health at the tail end of camp.

Here in Tempe, the Los Angeles Angels, favored by many to win the AL West, are doing their best to avoid the injury plague. But it's nipping at their heels.

Third baseman Chone Figgins fractured two fingers in his throwing hand (middle and index) fielding a ground ball the other day and is expected to miss up to five weeks. That puts him on the sidelines pretty much for the entire month of April, and it opens up an opportunity for Maicier Izturis.

Meanwhile, Kelvim Escobar was lifted early in Saturday's Cactus League start against Colorado with a strain in the left side of his lower back. The Angels removed him for precautionary reasons, and he'll be re-evaluated on Sunday. They don't think it's anything that will sabotage him or them -- and they sure hope not.

Already, they may open the season without rotation fixtures Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver -- but not for long.

First, Escobar. Angels team orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum looked at the back Saturday and the club doesn't think it's anything serious.

"We feel a little better after they examined him," manager Mike Scioscia said. "There was no sense in pushing him and setting him back.

"We'll have the opportunity this week to get him where he needs to be, but anytime something happens with a pitcher and they're holding that area, you're worried about a rib cage or an oblique."

Colon, rehabbing a torn rotator cuff (he opted against surgery) and yet to appear in a Cactus League game, threw a bullpen session Saturday and the Angels were thrilled.

"Bartolo had a terrific workout," Scioscia said. "Better than last time, and last time was good. He's very close. He can possibly get in a game next week."

That happens, the Angels are likely to have him make a couple of starts at Single-A Rancho Cucumonga and he could join the rotation by late April.

As for Weaver, who was set back by forearm tendonitis, "he was lights out in the bullpen" on Saturday, Scioscia said.

If Weaver, last year's rookie sensation, isn't in the opening day rotation, he'll likely only miss one turn before rejoining it.

Likes: Tempe Diablo Stadium, home of the Angels, one of the most scenic ballparks in the Cactus League. Or Grapefruit League, for that matter. ... Khalil Greene's total game. I wrote about him yesterday, and his troubles with fractured fingers and toes. The kid is excitement on spikes when he's healthy, and I'd love to see what he can do over a full season. ... Projected opening day lineups. ... One week until opening day. ... Buddy Miller's Universal United House of Prayer album. ... The fact that two of the 30 major-league managers now are named Buddy -- Kansas City's Bell and San Diego's Black. ... Chipotle, the fast-food burrito joint. In a hurry, you could do a whole lot worse. ... Reign Over Me and Blades of Glory both look like pretty entertaining films. Looking forward to seeing both.

Dislikes: Just not nearly enough hours in the day at this time of year for baseball, the NCAA tournament and everything else you've gotta fit into your life.

Sunblock day? Yep, but hot in the sun and cool in the shade. Desert high of only around 70 -- though Sunday's predicted high is 80.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Freedom's just another word
"For nothin' left to lose "And nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free
"Feelin' good was easy, Lord, when Bobby sang the blues
"And buddy, that was good enough for me
"Good enough for me and my Bobby McGee

-- Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobby McGee

Well, now, there was new Arizona pitcher Doug Davis the other day, slithering around the Diamondbacks' clubhouse like a snake, hissing at all of his new teammates to get their paperwork in.

Some kind of rental forms for housing when the season starts?

Nope.

Something to do with scouting reports?

Uh, sort of.

Basketball scouting reports.

One of the entertaining things about this time in spring training, aside from guys fighting for the final few spots on the roster, is the way every camp shifts into NCAA basketball pool mode. And after the first weekend, when the 64 teams are reduced to the Sweet 16 and brackets are reduced to red ink, most clubs start anew with a Sweet 16 pool.

That's where Davis' organizational skills come in.

"They would say I've been running too many NCAA pools," Davis said, chuckling, regarding his new -- and young -- teammates. "But it's something I've learned in the past: It unites guys. It pulls guys together. It's something to help team unity."

Feel free to clip and save that quote for your boss next year, if he's short-tempered with office pools.

"I think we have eight or nine pools going right now," Davis said. "Everyone seems to like it and want to be in it. Some of the young guys are saying they can't afford it, but I'm not sure of that."

How much is it if the young Diamondbacks can't afford it?

Twenty bucks.

Sure sounds more like Bob Melvin's team might be cheap rather than fiscally tight.

"You said that," Davis said, laughing. "Not me."

Likes: Kansas City acquiring Tony Pena Jr. from Atlanta on Friday. What it means: The Royals are done with Angel Berroa, realized they had no shortstop going into the season and GM Dayton Moore decided he needed to move. ... Freddy Sanchez's versatility in Pittsburgh. If this is a new season, he must be playing, yep, second base instead of third. The Pirates feel about deposed second baseman Jose Castillo roughly the same way the Royals do about Berroa. It's the time of spring when something's gotta give. There's no more time to mess around. ... Ohio State and Tennessee trading 3-pointers during a scorching game Thursday.

Dislikes: Calvert DeForest passing away. Calvert, Larry "Bud" Melman, whatever name you knew him by on Letterman, a classic character. ... Rat poison found in the tainted pet food that's been making cats and dogs ill. What kind of sicko does that?

Sunblock day? I suppose, but it's down to 70 or so, 20-some degrees cooler than last week. The storms that blew in and either canceled or shortened the entire Cactus League schedule Thursday definitely cooled things off.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Well our hearts beat like thunder
"I don't know why they don't explode
"You got your hands in my back pockets
"And Sam Cooke's singin' on the radio

-- John Mellencamp, Ain't Even Done With the Night

Part of the reason Jonathan Papelbon will open the season as Boston's closer is because Mike Timlin will open the year on the disabled list.

But that's just semantics -- even if Timlin were healthy, he is not a closer. And the notion that he was a candidate to actually take the job was about as realistic as thinking Ted Williams would make a comeback as Boston's designated hitter this summer. Even if Boston handed him the closer's job, it wouldn't be long until he handed it back.

Mark Thursday down as the day the Red Sox came to their senses. Papelbon in the rotation is an intriguing prospect, but the guy was so good as a closer last season that it almost demands an encore. He's like the guy in your office who periodically talks about doing something else, but he's so good in his role that nobody wants to see him switch.

Papelbon compiled a 0.92 ERA last season, eighth-lowest in major league history among pitchers with at least 50 innings, and converted 35 of 41 save opportunities. Though the Red Sox suffered their lowest finish in the standings since 1997 -- third -- the addition of Daisuke Matsuzaka and a healthy Curt Schilling should improve their rotation.

The biggest issue will be Papelbon's health. His season ended last Sept. 1 with a subluxation of his right shoulder, and Boston is on record as saying that the club's medical staff had encouraged moving Papelbon back into the rotation for health reasons, that it would be easier on his arm.

That said, if he goes down again, it will set off another of those Great Boston Debates at which New Englanders excel. But the bottom line is, no matter what the doctors and trainers say, there are no guarantees. The kid is just 25, and as a starter or reliever, pitching in the majors is hard. There is no way to alleviate stress on the arm in any role.

Likes: Arizona veteran Tony Clark telling infielder Orlando Hudson, "O, did you know Wrigley's Extra gum doesn't cause cancer?" It was another genuine and loving nudge to steer a teammate away from smokeless tobacco. Hudson assured Clark he was going to give it up after this season. From the sound of it, Clark isn't going to stop badgering him for that long. ... Scottsdale Stadium. Great spring training venue. Really feels like a neighborhood park. ... The way spring camps shift into a sudden urgency about this point in the spring. Jobs are now being won and lost daily, and the players know it. ... Butler guard A.J. Graves, the kind of underdog everybody should pull for.

Dislikes: The Diamondbacks' new colors. They look like the Houston Astros. ... Bad day for Southern California infielders. X-rays show that Angels third baseman Chone Figgins has a fractured finger and Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal is carted off the field with an ankle injury. Figgins' absence will leave a huge hole for the Angels, because Dallas McPherson's back issues have sidelined him. And they were counting on Shea Hillenbrand to DH. Erick Aybar, who had been taking fly balls in center field, might begin taking ground balls at third base. As for the Dodgers, hello Ramon Martinez?

Sunblock day? Clouds. Lots of clouds. And morning rain. It was stunning, leaving the hotel early this morning and walking outside into rain. I cannot remember the last time I saw rain. I thought the sprinker system had gone awry.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Like a Mississippi bullfrog
"Sitting on a tree stump
"Like a Mississippi bullfrog
"Sitting on a tree stump
"I've got so many women
"I don't know which way to jump"

-- Big Joe Turner and Jesse Stone, Flip, Flop & Fly

Time was when pepper was played on baseball fields throughout the land.

But as boys began playing other sports like basketball, football and that infernal sport, soccer, and as big money entered professional sports, it sort of went the way of pregame infield, flannel uniforms and the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Well, for you old-timers out there and for you baseball-loving kids who are intrigued by pepper, make sure to check out the Texas Rangers before batting practice this year.

Each day this spring before they hit, the Rangers' catchers and infielders gather in three groups down the right-field line for a spirited game of pepper, and manager Ron Washington says they will continue it throughout the season.

Essentially, pepper is this: One player bunts ground balls and line drives, briskly, to three or four fielders who stand 15-20 feet away. The fielders field the ball and toss it back to the batter as quickly as possible, and the batter hits the return throw back to the fielders, and they keep it going. The point is to sharpen reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

Washington asked shortstop Michael Young over the winter what he thought, Young replied that it sounded like fun and now it's become the rage of Texas' camp

The players have concocted a point system, and the individual winner each day gets a designated bat to keep for 24 hours as the prize. The winner signs the bat with a Sharpie, dates it, and keeps it until the next day's winner is declared. Then that winner signs it, dates it, and keeps it for 24 hours.

It's highly entertaining watching the players trash talking with each other in the midst of a game -- "Yeah, have a taste of your own medicine!" "It don't matter if it hits your glove, it doesn't count! You have to catch it!" -- as well as watching the postgame "ceremony."

Catcher Gerald Laird won the other day ("This is my third straight!"). But whoever wins, the key is to remember to bring the bat to the practice field the next day. Because if you forget, you are stripped of your hard-earned title from the previous day.

Among the many signatures on the bat are a couple of X's through names with the notation "Forgot bat" written in Sharpie next to the crossed-out name. It must feel like the NCAA has put you on probation. Second baseman Ian Kinsler had his title stripped on 3/13 ("Forgot bat") and someone else did about a week or more ago.

Is that ... hmm, hard to read ... is it Young's signature that's crossed out?

"No," Young says quickly. "Gerald Laird. If I win, that bat's coming with me."

"The players just love it," says Gregg Elkin, Texas' media relations director.

Elkin should know. Laird forgot that bat in his locker again the other day -- and recruited Elkin's son, 8-year-old Jaret, to run back to the clubhouse and retrieve it before the other Rangers infielders could strip him of another title.

Says Rangers general manager Jon Daniels: "It's a beautiful thing. Here are some of the biggest stars in the game, and they're having fun. How critical is that?"

Likes: Padres center fielder Mike Cameron saying the health is good but his swing isn't this spring. Told him, isn't that like a fat guy being blessed because he can diet while an ugly guy is ugly forever? If Cameron's healthy, he'll hit, eventually. But if he isn't, he's got no chance. I think the guy felt a little better about his spring after our conversation. ... Watching a triple play in Peoria on Tuesday night, the Angels pulling off the ol' K-2-6-3-5 against San Diego. Ervin Santana fanned Josh Bard, and then the Angels picked Todd Walker off of first and then threw over to third to nail a straying (and sleeping) Brian Giles. ... Richardson's Cuisine of New Mexico off of Bethany Home Road in Phoenix. Outstanding, from the blue corn turkey enchiladas to the incredible fish they prepare with pineapple relish and all kinds of other innovative ideas. ... The mountains in the distance beyond the right-field fence at Tucson's Hi-Corbett Field.

Dislikes: Desert dust. ... Desert allergies. ... Laundry on the road. ... Gray and cool spring training days.

Sunblock day? Not even close. Cloudy, cool and a 20 mph wind. What happened to 90 degrees and smoking?

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Girls, if you got a good man
"And don't want him taken away from you
"Don't ever tell your friend, woman
"What your man can do
"Lord, Lord, I'm getting up in years
"Lordy, Lordy, Lordy, I'm getting up in years
"But mama ain't too old to shift her gears
"And I'm a big fat mama
"Got the meat shakin' on my bones
"I'm a big fat mama
"Got the meat shakin' on my bones
"And every time I shake
"Some skinny gal loses her home

-- Ida Cox, Four Day Creep

Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz and shorstop Michael Young were hit in the head with pitches in consecutive games earlier this month, so you can understand Rangers general manager Jon Daniels saying, "We've been knocking on a lot of wood lately."

The Rangers will continue doing so on several fronts, not the least of which is former uber closer Eric Gagne. But indications -- aside from a hanging curve ball -- were all good for Gagne on Tuesday as he made his first Cactus League appearance.

The first batter he faced, San Francisco's Kevin Frandsen, pounded a 1-and-2 flat curve over the left-field fence. After that, Gagne