I know I was kind of incommunicado from when pitchers and catchers reported until the first games of spring training, but let’s be honest, without Manny claiming that his 8th grandmother was sick it was a dull two weeks of workouts. Looking back at the workouts all we learned was that JD’s back hurts (shocker), everybody is in the best shape of their life (except JD), Papi doesn’t like steroids, A-R*D took steroids and perhaps the most surprising thing to come out of Spring Training, Tito got a hole in one.

I’m not going to focus on either of those last two things because this is a Red Sox Baseball blog, not a MFY Golf blog. That said, if I may channel my inner Nelson from the Simpsons for a moment: haw-haw. The most important thing is that the grass is green down in Fort Myers, the players are ready, and the only people happier than all of us fans for today are the BC baseball players who will get destroyed by a major league squad and like it. So take your jerseys and hats out of the closet people, we’ve got some games to watch!

Happy Truck Day everyone! Unlike Valentine’s day, at least this holiday is meant to celebrate something real (the official beginning of spring), not just that Hallmark told you to buy presents. In honor of this most sacred of holidays, Kim and I are a taking a trip to the land of warm weather, humidity and palm trees. No, not Florida. I didn’t say the land of warm weather, thunder storms and old people. We’re heading off to Maui! But for those of you still stuck in the cold and the snow, just remember, baseball is almost here. And you can kill me later.

The long Red Sox National nightmare is finally over; the Sox finally signed themselves a part-time catcher to round out the 2009 roster. It seems like The Nation is pretty split as to whether they wanted The Captain back for another season (and possibly two more). Is $5M too much for a .220 hitter who couldn’t catch up with my sister’s fastball? Sure. (No, my sister is not named Jennie Finch.) But even from somebody who rips Captain Intangibles on a regular basis, Varitek is too ingrained in this pitching staff to ignore the non-statistical aspects of his game. He’s been the rock of the Sox staff for the past 11 seasons, and getting rid of him would have been like having your IT director quit without giving two weeks notice. Will you eventually figure out where everything important is? Sure. But you’re going to have a month where you only receive 50% of your email in the meantime. This way, hopefully Tek will be able to train a successor in the next two years so the Sox can have a nice smooth transition to the post-Tek era. Of course, that does require trading for a good young catcher…

In other news Kevin Millar may stay in the AL East, but will now be booby trapping the visiting manager’s office north of the border in Toronto. I hope he realizes that all his prank phone calls are now going to cost international rates. He’s probably going to go through his paycheck just by calling up Tito to ask him if his refrigerator is running.

I don’t care what Punxsutawney Phil says, eight days until winter ends, eight days.