Various stuff from Spring Training reports

1.  John Patterson has a new haircut.  He says he’s healthy and badly wants to pitch on Opening Night to make up for his Opening Day start last year (which, we all remember, didn’t go so well.)  Somehow, I believe in Patterson.

2.  Elijah Dukes is late already.  Who knows, maybe the cat ate his gun registration….

3.  Odalis Perez just signed with the Nats after choosing us over the Red Sox.  Odalis Perez deciding which team to play for is a bit like Jason Alexander trying to start a bidding war between Fox and Columbia Pictures for the DVD rights to "Bob Patterson."

4.  We signed another ex-Cincinnati Red, Bret Boone.  YES!!!  He says he wants to start and I’d like to see it on the one hand, but on the other hand Ronnie Bellard gets amazingly hot at times and plays a mean and highly underrated second base (or is it short right field?)  Belliard is a gamer, I’d hate to see him lose his spot. 

5.  The team now has the entire late 1990s Cincinnati Reds infield on its payroll– 1b Dmitri Young, 2b Bret Boone, ss Barry Larkin (who looks to me like he still is the best ss on the payroll) and 3b Aaron Boone.   Can Pokey Reese or Ernie Taubensee be far behind? 

6.  I drove by the stadium over the weekend and there is a big ‘NATIONALS PARK’  written just above the jumbotron on the scoreboard.  Could that mean that there will be no naming rights sold for a while?

7.  Justin Maxwell, whom I refer to as the "The Mighty Max" for no apparent reason, was interviewed on NBC4 last night.  A good guy from all appearances — one wishes it were he and not Elijah Dukes slated as the fourth outfielder.   Max is a guy you want to root for.