Good morning, everyone. First off, a quick plug to join in for my first live chat of the spring this afternoon at 2 p.m. You can find the link on the Nats Home Plate site, also known by the spiffy address: www.washingtontimes.com/section/sports02. If you want to send in a question early, feel free to contact me at natsmailbag@washingtontimes.com. Then come back at 2:00 and join in the fun.
Meanwhile, back here in Viera, it's reporting day for position players, which is a bit of a misnomer. In order to "report" a player doesn't actually have to appear at the stadium. He just has to phone the team to let them know he's in town (or will be in town by the end of the day). Many guys don't make their first appearance until tomorrow morning, when physicals are done. This will be the case with Elijah Dukes, who will technically report today but won't make his first appearance until tomorrow. Stay tuned for that.
A few more guys did show up this morning, though, including Wily Mo Pena, who looks like he could have started at outside linebacker for the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. What an imposing figure. If he really does get 500 at-bats this year, anything less than 30 homers would have to be considered a significant disappointment.
For those wondering about Paul Lo Duca's status following knee surgery last month, he's getting closer to being ready. He said he's going to be participating in some drills today and hopefully will start hitting off live pitching within the next week. The main issue, though, is going to involve squatting behind the plate. When he can move in and out of position with no pain, he'll be good to go. "That will be the tell," he said. Still shooting to make his Grapefruit League debut around March 15 or so, which will be enough time to get his swing down for Opening Day.
That's it for now, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the thunderous sonic boom we just heard here at Space Coast Stadium a few minutes ago. Shuttle Atlantis has returned from outer space and landed at the nearby Kennedy Space Center at 9:07 a.m. We couldn't see the shuttle in the sky -- Cape Canaveral is about 25 miles from here -- but we certainly could hear it as it broke the sound barrier. Very cool. There's another shuttle launch scheduled for March 11 at 2:30 a.m. I'm not expecting to get much sleep that night.
