Padres and WBC-Day 4 Spring Training-March 10th
Our last day of Spring Training was a very big day for my friend Rebecca Herman aka The Baseball PHD. She was contacted by Josh Ishoo that she would be granted an opportunity to interview Padres manager Bud Black at the Padres complex. We arrived early Sunday around 8:00AM and Rebecca walked into the offices. Players were coming in and some dealers were waiting by the gate hoping to catch the players coming in and get their cards, ball and pictures signed. Gates to the practice fields opened at 9:00AM, so I was able to walk to the fields and watch the players come out. The players broke into 2 groups; the rookies walked to the minor league area and the veterans walked to the main practice field. The rookie were going over basic instructions which included; spikes must be 60% black or the MLB will fine you, no alcohol, no women in your rooms, no drugs including spice and bath salts. They were told, “you have a golden ticket in your back pocket, so don’t blow it.”
Rebecca’s meeting ended at 10:00AM and Bud Black told her the following….like I would reveal that here! Please follow her at The Baseball PHD and I’m sure she’ll eventually write about it.
We packed our stuff and headed to Chase Field to watch Team Canada vs. Team USA. We got seats behind home plate and walked around and took pictures. I got a picture with Phillippe Aumont of Team Canada (he’s in the Phillies organization) and tried to take a pic with Tim Leiper, but he declined to take a picture.
We settled in our seats and saw Team Canada jump out to an early lead, only to have Team USA come back and win the game 9-4. We spent most of the game listening to a couple of guys and talk and talk! One of the men claimed to have seen Babe Ruth hit a home run in person (something I very much doubt.) We chatted with some fans in front of us from Canada who were extremely nice, but were about to kill me for heckling Team Canada. They were cool and we gave them cards with our info for our blogs.
With the game over, we walked to our car and made the long 6 hour drive back home, but not before stopping for one last meal at Cracker Barrel in Yuma. The trip was wonderful and I look forward to Spring Training 2014, which is only 50 weeks away, but who is counting…
The "Casual Fan" Of Baseball 
Great story – great day! Yes – maybe “someday” I will share the insights from my interview with Buddy 😉