First! Pitchers and catchers report today!

I don't actually have much to add, and this day is one where virtually nothing will happen. There are no actual workouts, we're still a long way off an actual game - even a meaningless Cactus League one - and some players will literally be phoning it in, since the term "report" is loosely enough defined that a call will count. But it's still the day where the long, dark winter, populated by NFL, NBA and NHL is finally over. Can't be many times that pitchers and catchers have reported in the same week as the Super Bowl.

For right now, it'll just be us, like good hosts, always being the first to arrive at the party. The Dodgers see their pitchers and catchers appear on Saturday, with the rest of the Cactus League showing up at some point between February 11 and 16. We'll have Salt River Fields all to ourselves for more than a week, with the first of the Colorado Rockies not even starting to show up until after St. Valentine's Day on the 15th. By then, Arizona will already have had three full days of workouts - and, I trust, also have snared all the best parking spots at the complex and put up "Reserved for Arizona Diamondbacks" signs on them.

Kirk Gibson will be about today, so it'll be the first chance to ask him about the contract extension. Though whether any of the assembled media will actually dare... Put it this way, I'd prefer to lob him a softball about what he did over the winter. It's a little too early in the season to lose a finger. :) We'll report on whatever he has to say, later in the day.