[Early Arrivals], [New Season, New Look], [Matthew LeCroy update]

Early Arrivals:

Tomorrow (February 19th, 2008) marks the first day that all players may
report to Spring Training. But there are plenty of familiar faces already working
out at the Lee County Sports Complex.

More than 30 Major and Minor Leaguers were taking part in the voluntary workout
Friday morning on the back fields of the complex.

Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Jesse Crain, have all been working out all week and have also been throwing off the mound.

Joe Mauer caught a few pitcher's bullpen sessions Friday morning.

Jesse Crain is looking strong after just about 8 months after having right shoulder
surgery to repair a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff.

There were some new faces that joined the workout group on Friday some of
these new faces were pitchers Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey, both who were
acquired from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade.

The first official workout for pitchers
and catchers will take place on Monday



New season, new look:

Lots of changes were made during the offseason to the Twins roster, and to the
team's Spring Training complex.

Every year, the complex gets some slight upgrades.

This year:

- New Lights were installed at Hammond Stadium
- New Seats inside the ballpark
- Installation of a new batter's eye to help players see better
during the afternoon games.



Former Twin update:

Catcher Matthew LeCroy signed a Minor League contract with the Oakland A's
on Friday.

While LeCroy eventually hopes to go into coaching, he said at the time of
his call-up with the Twins last season that his hope was to play at least
one more year.

Liriano is going to be late to camp this year

Notes: Liriano to be late to camp

Today is February 17th, 2008, the day that Twins pitchers and catchers are supposed to officially report to training camp. But the team has already been told that Left-Handed pitcher Francisco Liriano is probably going to miss a few days of camp, due to some trouble he had obtaining his work visa from the U.S. Consulate in the Dominican Republic.

Liriano had planned to fly to Fort Myers on Friday but his visa application was flagged Wednesday due to a previous drunk driving arrest in March '06 in Cape Coral, Florida.

As part of a memorandum passed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last summer, visa applicants must be referred to panel physicians if they "have a single drunk driving arrest or conviction within the last three calendar years." The applicants must go to a counseling session and also have to pass a sobriety test.

According to the Twins general manager Bill Smith, Liriano had done everything according to schedule because the new order from the State Department was unknown to everyone in the organization.

It was passed last June and apparently no one knew about it. Even the MLB didn't know about this new law.

Liriano had an appointment scheduled for Friday to hopefully take car of the issue. The Twins have been in contact with Liriano's agent, Greg Genske, to get updates on the situation.

The hope is that Liriano will be in camp sometime early next week, although his new process could delay the pitcher's arrival as long as 10 day.

While it's disappointing that Liriano will not be in camp on the very first day, the team said that it's not a significant setback.

Bozell: TV Networks Ungrateful for Surge Success | NewsBusters.org

Bozell: TV Networks Ungrateful for Surge Success | NewsBusters.org

Wow. The media is so anti-bush that they wont give him credit for any successes in Iraq. The cemetary comment is hilarious.

McClatchy writers Jay Price and Qasim Zein tell us that:

A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.

Cemetary Workers feeling the pinch!

Trippy Dreams and Home in 3 days!

Whoooo!!!! Fall Break starts this Friday. I am going home and am going to be home from Friday (20th) to Wednesday (24th). So I hope I can see most of my friends and I'm visiting MA on either Monday or Tuesday so that should be fun, visiting some teachers and causing some trouble. You know the usual. Anyways last night I had a very trippy dream, first I dreamed that i went down the four or five flights of the Brandt staircase and then walked outside into a bitch black night, I couldn't see anything and was panicing because i couldn't find my way back into brandt. Well i woke up after this and I fell right back asleep and started dreaming I was singing and some people said my singing sucked but others said my voice was great. then i woke up to my alarm, the luther radio station. Wow those were super wierd dreams I know.

The last 50 songs I listened to!

The last 50 songs I've listened to on itunes: (from the playlist <3 songs)

1. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - The Beatles
2. Get Back - The Beatles
3. Lady Madonna - The Beatles
4. Under Pressure - Queen
5. I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow - O Brother, Where Art Thou?
6. I'm Looking Through You - The Beatles
7. All Together Now - The Beatles
8. Your Body Is a Wonderland - John Mayer
9. Snow ((Hey Oh)) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
11. Octopus's Garden - The Beatles
12. Floatway - The Bottle Rockets
13. Hey There Delilah - Plain White T's
14. Track 05 - Jedi Mind Tricks
15. 24 Hours a Day - Bottle Rockets
16. Paperback Writer - The Beatles
17. Temperature - Sean Paul
18. Get Up, Stand Up - Bob Marley and the Wailers
19. With A Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles
20. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
21. Go Getta (Dirty) - Young Jeezy Featuring R. Kelly
22. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
23. Maxwell's Silver Hammer - The Beatles
24. Little Deuce Coupe - The Beach Boys
25. Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston (Halfway!)
26. Mean Mr. Mustard - The Beatles
27. It Ends Tonight - All American Rejects
28. Guitars, Cadillacs - Dwight Yoakam
29. Animal Rap - Jedi Mind Tricks
30. Aint No Mountain High Enough - The Temptations
31. Passenger Side - Wilco
32. Here Comes The Sun! - The Beatles
33. The Weight - The Band
34. Suite Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby Stills Nash and Young
35. Midnight Cruiser - Steely Dan
36. Ignition (Remix) - R. Kelly
37. The Real Slim Shady - Eminem
38. Lookin' Out My Back Door - CCR
39. Swing, Swing - All American Rejects
40. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
41. The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles
42. Susie-Q - CCR
43. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
44. Because Of You - Ne-Yo
45. Good Morning, Good Morning - The Beatles
46. This Love - Maroon 5
47. Surrender - Cheap Trick
48. Ay Baby Baby - Hurricane
49. Holiday - Green Day
50. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix

(Sixteen Beatle's Songs!!!!)

I NEED AN EARLIER BED TIME! (you know 1 A.M or 2 :))) )

Wow today, I woke up very late. I spent much of last night trying to catch up in Martin Luther and only read about 20-30 pages and by the time I looked at the clock it was already 3 A.M! Wow I was so tired today. This needs to be fixed and I also need to set my Ihome alarm and not just have my cellphone alarm right next to me so I can just turn it off and go back to bed, in order for me to get up, I have to actually GET UP! brrrr... it is very chilling here in Decorah, Iowa! its 50 degrees and yesterday it was like 70. I know 50 isn't that bad but the wind makes it 10 degrees colder. brrrr!!! Anyways tomorrow I have a midterm in Global Politics, which I am kind of nervous for because we have to write a essay in class about a topic we have covered and show what we have learned. So I'm going to review what we have gone over and try to prepare myself for writing that essay. Okay enough procrastination.....I better get to it!

(I didn't have time for a bike ride today!) :(
But I think I will plan to go every other day. Tomorrow I might try to ride to Walmart and back. At least I'll try.

Nature + Exercise = Good Health

Wow! Today I went for an hour and a half bike ride after my only class of the day which ended at 9:20. I left at about 9:45 and went across the bridge and decided to take the path along the river (the upper Iowa river). The hill leading down to it was very steep and I almost fell down. I'm just glad I didn't decide to ride down it!!! It was so beautiful!!!! Decorah has so many interesting geoleogical and natural things. It has many cool rockformations, including Ice Cave! It also has hills and thousands of trees. It is a quaint little town, which I found out when I decided to ride to 'downtown' Decorah. It is such a nice little town, and it seems that everybody know everybody, So I'm sure I stuck out (being a city boy :) and I don't look like I'm from Decorah. lol. I look Minnesotan. lol. Anyways I took lots of pictures while on my adventure.

Here are a few of them:

Wikipedia is Amazing!

Hi. I have not blogged in a while.

Well today was like any other day. I went to class at 8 and it went until 9:30. Then I was done for the day. I spent time I probably should have been doing homework, looking random things up on Wikipedia. Like Dolphins, Sleep, and the U.S. Marine Navy Mammal Program, which uses dolphins for military purposes.

I hung out with my good friends Severi and Sarah today and actually saw them before 10 o'clock PM, unlike last night. I am in the library at the moment with Severi. I am supposed to be doing homework but i felt like blogging so thats what I'm doing. Well I better get off and start reading I'm starting to get tired. :).

Where were you on 9/11?

On September 11, 2001, i was in the 7th grade at Minnehaha Academy. School had obviously just began and we were just beginning to get the hang of things. We were in our first class of the day that Tuesday, which was Science (basically a Biology class). We had just started when a teacher came in and said the World Trade Center got hit by a plane. At this time i had no idea what the world trade center was, but i had never heard of a plane hitting a building in my life so i was amazed. The teacher said it was on TV and invited students to come watch it. I think i was so shocked that i didn't want to leave my seat, maybe i was confused, most likely both of those.

By the 2nd hour, everyone had heard about the planes hitting the WTC, of course at this time nobody thought it was an actual attack. Kids had been spreading rumors that our school was next and also that the mall of america was going to be attacked next. Of course everyone was scared, but they said over the loudspeaker that we should not be afraid, the attacks were over. This helped a bit, but no learning went on that day.

Later when i got home, it was explained to me in full by my parents. They told me what the WTC was and all the information they had gotten from the 24 hour continous news reports that day. It took a while for me to actually get it because i was 12 at the time, i had no idea what this meant or why this happened. It took about a month(?) i think, but it could have been longer until i finally grasped the concept that America had been attacked by terrorists flying planes into the two WTC buildings.

The attacks on the WTC, the attempted attack on the white house, and the attack on the white house, are really our Watergate, our World War, our Vietnam War, we will be asked to tell about the attacks and where we were for our whole lives. And i think that kids that were 12 in 2001, will be the last of a generation that will actually be able to recall where they were and what happened on that day. Which i am pretty proud of.

-Sam

Pictures from Decorah.

My Desk and My Bed!!
Campus
Beautiful View of the Upper Iowa River
"Downtown" Decorah
And last but not least, the famous Whippy Dip!