Angels: Morning spring training update
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PEORIA, Ariz. -- Brandon Wood gets the start at shortstop for the Angels today. Wood, the Angels’ top prospect, could be hitting himself onto the roster as a shortstop/third baseman/designated hitter. He enters today’s game batting .412, with a .719 slugging percentage that ranks second on the team, behind Howie Kendrick.
Wood hit .127 last spring, with no walks and 22 strikeouts in 55 at-bats. In 32 at-bats this spring, he has three walks and two strikeouts.
It’s a sad day here in Peoria, the spring home of the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. We’re thinking about Seattle, and about the vacant press box seats here that belonged to John Hickey and David Andriesen of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The P-I printed its last edition today, leaving two of the top baseball writers in America without jobs. I worked with Hickey in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s, when he covered the Oakland A’s; he loves the game and loves covering the game, embracing the day-in, day-out grind that wore down so many others. He bids farewell to his readers here. Andriesen worked hard and worked smart, providing readers with depth and substance not commonly found in baseball coverage. An excerpt from a poignant farewell note he posted on a website for sports journalists:
I have never taken a journalism class, and started out writing rural high school gamers on a typewriter for a tiny weekly. What happened to me was a 1,000-to-1 shot with a lot of luck involved. For nearly a decade, I’ve spent my days inside the inside of the highest level of a sport that means more to me than I’ve ever been able to adequately express. The people I’ve known, the things I’ve seen, the places I’ve been -- I know many, many people would kill to have experienced that.But right now there’s only the cold emptiness of having it taken away without any say in the matter. My infant son will never know a father who is living his professional dream. He’ll know a dad who at best is writing press releases about the latest in riding lawnmowers, and at worst is selling roses in front of the gas station. Then again, he’ll never miss a father who is away at spring training or on an East Coast road trip, either. So there’s that.
A tip of the cap to Hickey and Andriesen, and to all the journalists that lost their jobs.
Today’s Angels lineup:
Gary Matthews Jr., cf
Jeff Mathis, c
Juan Rivera, lf
Robb Quinlan, 1b
Brandon Wood, ss
Matt Brown, 3b
Sean Rodriguez, 2b
Chris Pettit, rf
John Lackey, p
-- Bill Shaikin