I watched this woodpecker 'sleeping' at the feeder the other morning. He was there---immobile, head back, just hanging---for at least 20 minutes. I was making breakfast when I first noticed him and finally had to stop what I was doing to watch. At last he stirred and flew away.Today's game vs. the Braves was on the radio. How much better to listen to Larry Andersen and Scott Franzke, a super duo. LA is, of course, not at all into spring training games. Today he was ripping on inept pitching by lefty relievers. His theory is that parents should train their kids to be lefty relievers because just about any lefty throwing anything can get a job in the bigs. Needless to say, he thought many of them should be in another line of work---or learn how to pitch.
Brett Myers started and was followed by Chan Ho Park. Both pitched pretty well. The bats finally came to life against the first lefty reliever trotted out by the Braves. In the end, the Phillies won 7-3. All of our combustible relievers from the first couple of days came in today and held their own.
Franzke told about waking last night to find a hummingbird flying around his room and what it took to get the bird out. I had an encounter this summer with one, unable to find its way out of the summer kitchen. Like Franzke, I was able to marvel close up, eventually in my hand, at the jewel-like creature that is a hummingbird. So a woodpecker that sleeps by day and a hummingbird that flies by night.
The game, which was the last for all the guys playing in the WBC, was played at the Braves' complex in Orlando. Franzke and Andersen talked about the Make a Wish kid battling leukemia who was bat boy for the game. His wish had been to work out with Jimmy Rollins, which he did before the game. Afterwards, J-Roll and some other players, including the effervescent Victorino, were going to Disneyland with him.
