Signs Of Spring Training

In the middle of a Minnesota Winter, you're always on the lookout for signs of spring, especially on days like today when you wake up in the morning and the temperature is four degrees below zero. For baseball fans, one of the sure signs of Spring is the start of Spring Training. We mayb not have much in the way of signs of Spring right now, but there were a couple of news items over the weekend that show that Spring Training, at least, is on its way.

First, the Twins, as they are accustomed to doing, signed a couple of veteran pitching projects for their Spring training roster. Zach Day is a right-handed pitcher who underwent rotator cuff surgery in 2006 and pitched last year for the Kansas City Royals Omaha Triple-A team. Randy Keisler is a lefty who started three games last year for the St Louis Cardinals with a 5.19 ERA. Both pitchers are probably long-shots to make the team, but for the Twins to be successful they almost always need some kind of long shot to come through and surprise people.

Second, Spring Training tickets went on sale Saturday, and early reports are that the Twins sold about thirty-thousand tickets over the weekend. Doubtless the cold weather in Minnesota is making more than a few Twins fans interested in taking a trip to Fliorida.