For my money, you can shut down spring training right now. Unless Yaz, Jimmy Rice and the disembodied (but still all-knowing) head of Teddy Ballgame suit up for tomorrow’s grapefruit jamboree, or Tina Cervasio breaks down on-air to confirm her desire to mate with me, we’ve just heard the camp’s best story.
If the 18-20 scouts who were on hand to watch Jon Lester and the Twins’ Sidney Ponson in a “B” game at Hammond Stadium yesterday morning had just climbed out of a cave, they never would have known that Lester is coming off a winter when he was treated for anaplastic large cell lymphoma. They saw a big, strong kid throwing the ball pretty well — hitting 90 miles per hour with one fastball, 89 on two others — in an eight-pitch outing in which he got three ground balls before hitting the shower.
And, as always, good to see Shady Grady.
