12:55 PM Eastern

We’re just about set for our first webcast of the spring, and I’m hoping that most of you will be able to listen in on mlb.com. Even starting my seventh season in the booth, it’s still a really exciting thing to sit down and be part of broadcasting a big league baseball game, and I’m sure Jerry and Alan have those butterflies rolling around as swell.

Since the game is on the web, I won’t be able to do a live blog. Those will only happen on games that we’re not broadcasting at all. I’ll slap up the broadcast schedule at the bottom of this post.

The regular starters are all in the line-up today, after none of them made the trip to Lakeland. It’s interesting to see how John Gibbons lined them up, even though he said this wasn’t necessarily the way the batting order will go on Opening Day, but health permitting, it’ll be the same 10 guys. I find it a little odd that all three of the left-handed hitters are bunched at the bottom of the line-up (it’s Stairs, Overbay, Hill and Zaun hitting 6-9). I figured that Rios would be hitting second so that Vernon could hit third, which is what’s happening today, but I thought that Stairs would be between Thomas and Rolen in Gibby’s line-up. We’ll see if it stays this way throughout the spring when all the regulars start, which isn’t going to happen very often.

The Tigers didn’t return the favour the Jays did them yesterday, though you couldn’t have blamed them if they had wanted to keep everyone at home. Curtis Granderson is here, along with Placido Polanco, Edgar Renteria and Jacque Jones among the starters, and Marcus Thames and Brandon Inge made the trip as well. Also, Maxim St-Pierre is the starting catcher this afternoon for Detroit. The 27 year-old Quebec City native is back with the organization where he spent the first 10 years of his pro career, but he’s a long, long, longshot to see action anywhere outside Toledo this year. Still, always good to watch a Canadian play.

With Halladay on the mound in the spring, it’s fun to see how far under his planned pitch count he goes. Today, he’s probably expected to throw 30-45 pitches, and he’ll probably wind up with 18 in his two innings of work. He tends to have incredibly efficient springs, and I can remember at least three in which he wasn’t even scored on until his last or next-to-last spring start.

By the way, Halladay has a baseball card collection covering the nameplate on his locker. Four cards, all in a row – A.J. Burnett, Dustin McGowan, Shaun Marcum and Jesse Litsch. Does this mean the competition for the 5th starter’s job is over before it starts? Probably not, since that’s how the rotation looked at the end of last season and, ummm, Halladay doesn’t get to make that decision. But I know that I’ll be checking that gallery every day to see when Litsch’s card disappears and Casey Janssen’s pops up there instead.

Marcum’s card is also hanging on Russ Adams’ locker, and it’s autographed “To Russ”. I mentioned to Marcum that his card seemed to be a pretty popular one this spring, and he replied, “I guess people like me this year.”

I’ll be back with another post after the game. Until then, here’s our broadcast schedule. It’s not as busy as it was last year, which is unfortunate for me, because I get to do three innings of play-by-play during the webcasts (with the exception of today’s, because it’s Jerry and Alan’s only chance to get ready before we go on the air tomorrow), but Jerry and Alan need a bit of a break before they get into the everyday grind of the season.

Feb. 29 1:05 vs. Detroit – webcast

Mar. 1 12:30 @ Tampa Bay – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 2 12:00 vs. Cincinnati – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 4 1:05 vs. Yankees – webcast

Mar. 7 1:05 vs. Minnesota – webcast

Mar. 8 12:30 vs. Detroit – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 9 12:30 @ Philadelphia – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 12 1:05 vs. Pittsburgh – webcast

Mar. 15 12:30 vs. Pittsburgh – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 16 12:30 @ Minnesota – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 22 12:30 @ Yankees – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 23 12:30 vs. Philadelphia – Fan Radio Network (but not Fan590)

Mar. 24 7:00 @ Cincinnati – Fan Radio Network

Mar. 26 7:05 vs. Cincinnati – webcast

Mar. 29 12:30 @ Philadelphia – Fan Radio Network

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.