Just a Few Notes

Forget about Groundhog Day. The surest sign that spring is on the way is the opening of baseball's spring training, which happened earlier this week. In today's Dayton Daily News, I got my first dose of news from the Reds camp. I'm pretty stoked about the opening of the season. Although football and basketball have surpassed it, baseball was the first sport I really enjoyed, and the Reds were the first sports team I followed with any real interest.

The Reds have made some decent acquisitions this offseason, so I'm really looking forward to the coming season and hoping they can compete in the National League Central Division. It'll be interesting to see how the outfield situation will play out, if Ken Griffey Jr. can stay healthy. With him, Adam Dunn, Wily Mo Peña, and Austin Kearns, there are four potentially great starters for three spots. One way or another, I hope they find a way to get Peña plenty of at-bats. He's going to be incredible. I believe Reds tickets go on sale this Saturday, so I'll have to hop online and get some.

Last weekend I heard the new Rob Thomas single, "Lonely No More," for the first time. I think I like it, but it'll probably take a few more listens before I'm totally sure. It's a pretty different sound from what he's done with Matchbox Twenty. Maybe it's more a matter of just getting used to it than making sure I like it. I don't know why he's embarked on a solo career, but I hope it doesn't mean the end of the band. At their best, they had a dark sound that I liked a whole lot.

Speaking of music, how brainless are people who listen to Top-40 radio? The station that's constantly playing in our office at work (which I have no control over, just for the record), at the end of each hour, plays "the hour's most-requested song." Either they lie about that or the people who listen have no imagination, because the songs that are played are the same damned songs that are played about ten other times throughout the course of the day. It's been a really, really long time since I've called a radio station to request a song, but if I was ever going to do it again, I would request something I hadn't heard for a while. I would not request something I could hear at least once an hour without any effort.

It seems like I always have more things I intend to put into these "notes" posts, but I can never remember all of them when the time finally comes to make the post. I need to start carrying a notepad or something.