If I have learned anything in my two weeks of spring training (plus three previous years of periodic game coverage), it is that the day-to-day grind of the baseball season is a weird beast. It can take its toll on even the most savvy veteran. I have trouble remembering what day it is half the time, as each day sort of runs into the next.
Not that this isn't the greatest thing in the world. Being around baseball, doing what I love to do, is reward in and of itself. But given the daily nature of beat reporting, there are only so many questions we can ask without being repetitive. For about 10-15 minutes every morning, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, Tony Jackson of ESPN LA, Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, J.P. Hoornstra of the LA Daily News, and I talk with manager Don Mattingly about the day's events.
Sometimes there are other reporters that drift in and out of camp for a day or two at a time. David Brown (aka @AnswerDave) of Yahoo! Sports' Big League Stew was at Camelback Ranch today, and was among our throng talking to Mattingly about the Dodgers.
Hernandez was filming some short video pieces that will be up on LATimes.com at some point this spring, and they involved asking Mattingly some general questions about the team, pretty much the same stuff that we have been over in some form or another for 13 previous days. Hernandez, in his sixth year on the Dodgers beat, decided to mix in a little levity in his questioning...
Unfortunately this video was expertly edited as it was immediately followed by Mattingly busting out laughing, unable to hold it in any longer after embellishing his praise of Hernandez.
That definitely lightened the mood, if not made things a little loopy, which was taken to a new level by Brown, who asked Mattingly a few more questions (and I happen to show up in the background).
In case you were wondering, yes I did get a haircut. Thanks for asking.