Walk this way

One of the great things about spring training is seeing the players up close and personal in a more “relaxed” atmosphere. Sunday prior to leaving for their game with the Rockies the Angels were gathered in Tempe for a little stretching and batting practice. Torii Hunter was being; well, Torii Hunter. Torii was teaching Peter Bourjos how to walk with rhythm. Rather than try and explain how he did this, let’s just go to some video…


Bourjos appears to be everyone’s little brother. When fans called out for Bourjos to encourage him, Howie Kendrick made sure we all knew that he should be referred to as P-Bo.



This is the kind of fun stuff you learn at spring training. I also learned that Joel Pineirio is a funny guy. He was having a lot of fun with Bobby Abreu Sunday. Abreu was playing catch and Pineiro was giving him grief about even bothering with playing catch; saying “you’re a DH now, your life is in the little circle (referring to the on-deck circle).” A short time later, Abreu who was pretending to be a catcher (Vernon Well pretended to be a pitcher) – missed a ball that skipped off his glove. Pineiro (who was sitting the time), got up and handed Abreu his bat and glove, as if to say – “I told you so.” It was classic.



Equally classic was Reggie Willits hitting one out of the park during batting practice and then taking a bow as the crowd began to cheer. Cheryl and I had seen something along these lines before….

After the Angels left for the Rockies game, we headed over to the minor league complex where a couple of Single A games were taking place agains the Cubs. We managed to get a brief glimpse into the future when we saw Kaleb Cowart.



Below are a few more pictures from Sunday.

First up, raise your hand if you're the ace of the staff! Next, anyone seen an Angels legend lately? Could that be Bobby Grich? Why, yes it is! Next... Joel Pineiro is having a good time:



More pictures... Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos, Dan Haren....



More pics... Looks like Bobby Grich is doing a little mentoring with Howie Kendrick; Vernon Wells plays a little catch, and that's Reggie Willits chewing the leather.



And yet a few more... Jered Weaver with Hisanori Takahashi, Jeff Mathis (don't say it...), and Maicer Izturis walking with Howie Kendrick.



It was just a great trip over all and the perfect way to get ready for the 2011 season.