Thoughts. Many of which aren't about baseball.

Moving day, and a good day for it. It's unseasonably chilly in the Tampa/Clearwater area this morning, hovering somewhere in the range of 7 or 8 degrees. A massive rain storm blew through last night, leaving me giddy at the prospect of surviving my first hurricane (hey, I don't have to pay to repair the roof).

My hopes were bumped when I heard the staff at a local Borders planning their evacuation routes. (By the way, the first four episodes of the first season of Friday Night Lights are pretty swish. Even if you have to watch them on an MacBook)

Sadly, no hurricane. But enough gale force to blow the dust out of my rental apartment. Cleaning averted again!

The team will stretch out beginning around 9:30 and then arrange their afternoon golf game. Remember to wear tearaway pants.

If you've arrived here in search of actual baseball info, here are the pitching starters for the first five grapefruit league games

2/28 (@ Detroit) Jesse Litsch
2/29 (vs. Detroit) Roy Halladay
3/1 (@ Tampa Bay) Dustin McGowan
3/2 (vs. Cincinnati) A.J. Burnett
3/3 (vs. Cleveland) Shaun Marcum

And here's the travelling line-up for the first game in Lakeland. If the formatting is balky, blame the Globe's Rob MacLeod. I stole it off his blog (hey, I'm a hell of a writer, but one lousy typist (that's what my mother tells me). I take those sorts of shortcuts where I can - with McEll's permission of course):

Pitchers: Josh Banks, Shaun Camp, Lance Carter, Gustavo Chacin, Mike Gosling, Litsch, Jean Machi, David Purcey and James Vermilyea.

Catchers: Rod Barajas, Curtis Thigpen, John Schneider.

Infielders: Russ Adams, Chip Cannon, Joe Inglett, Pedro Lopez, John McDonald, Sergio Santos, Marco Scutaro and John Tolisano.

Outfielders: Buck Coats, Reed Johnson, Adam Lind, Wayne Lydon, Ryan Patterson, Travis Snider, Matthew Watson and Eric Nielson.

PROVISIONAL LINE-UP:

1 - Reed Johnson - LF

2 - John MacDonald - SS

3 - Marco Scutaro - 2B

4 - Rod Barajas - C

5 - Adam Lind - RF

6 - Buck Coats - RF

7 - Chip Cannon - 1B

8 - Joe Inglett - 3B

9 - Travis Sinder - DH

*****

Another in the many signs that I am now in Florida. The pick-up idling in front of me had a faded bumper sticker on the back panel. It was emblazoned with a hammer and sickle and read: "Seat Belt laws. Helmet laws. What's next, Comrade?"

Didn't get ahead of the guy quickly enough to see if he was suffering the after-effects of severe head trauma.

Cathal Kelly