Three cities, one day, does someone want to explain this to me? We started our day in Peoria, now are in San Francisco and will later fly to Las Vegas. We get home Saturday night; have a workout Sunday, then opening day Monday. Of course we hit the road three days later. Brutal! Nice schedule. At least I live in Seattle and know where I am going when we land. The new guys have no time to settle in. Oakland in comparison left Arizona Wednesday, played a game in Sacramento today and will play their next two here at AT&T park. Of course they open on the road, so maybe it isn’t as bad as it seems.

Enough griping. AT$T (oops, Freudian slip) AT&T park, or the park formerly known as SBC and Pac Bell, is beautiful. It also smells like meatballs, which is endearing me even more to it. It is good to be back in a big league park. The fans clearly love this team. You can tell the ones who are here, about 20,000 strong, are the ones who can’t wait to see baseball. They don’t care that this game means nothing, they are here to see their guys and their team. There was huge applause when the Giants were announced. When Barry Bonds came to the plate for the first time the crowd went nuts. They make no apologies for Bonds.

Brandon Morrow is still here, and from all indications, will be on opening day. Tonight was a bit of a homecoming for Brandon who played college ball here and grew up about an hour away. He is so rookie that he didn’t even know how to leave friends and family tickets. They had to fend for themselves, which in reality is a lot easier for the player. His mom and dad are here along with I believe his college coach.

The guys are in an upbeat mood, I think everyone is excited to get to Vegas and then home. It doesn’t look like they are taking this game too seriously. There has been a lot of smiles and talking with the Giants going on. Not to say that there has been sloppy play. Ichiro made a great running to his right catch and they have turned a couple of beautiful double plays.

Washburn got hit hard early. Five consecutive hits in the first, three in a row right back up the middle. Despite getting hit, when Rafael Chavez came out to talk to him, he was laughing. Not too much of a surprise, when Barry Bonds hit a home run off him in the World Series he laughed.

A bunch of minor leaguers are on this trip. You could hear them talking on their cell phones on the bus telling everyone where they were. It’s always fun to see the young guys excited.

For the moms out there, here’s the “awwww” memory of the spring. Adam Jones’ mom came to see him off this morning. She lives down here and we have seen a lot of her around the camp and other places. Adam, mom and friends were at McDuffy’s for just about every Cactus League Report show we did. When I was introduced to her she told me that she couldn’t believe someone so small was a reporter and that Adam had instructed her not to talk to the press. Later in the evening after the show, I was enjoying a beverage with friends when I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was Adam. He told me that mom was telling stories and that I should stop by his table. I went over and mom was holding court with a few of the younger players. It was great to see ball player and mother together, they are obviously very proud of each other. Adam just turned 21 and could be out tearing up the town and living large this spring but it appears his favorite date has been mom.

I think I will close it out on that note, not a lot of news today, just waiting for the final cut and to get this thing started!