Choo, Sizemore and Asdrubal Cabrera's wardrobe malfunction

Spent today at the Goodyear Ballpark facility watching morning practice and an afternoon game of the Cleveland Indians. The Indians share the Goodyear park with the Reds. My cousin and his son are from the Cleveland area and are here in AZ with me for three days. For those days we are focusing on the Tribe.

In the morning we headed over to the Indians' practice fields. First, we watched the major league team take BP. Fans have pretty close access to this part of the practice area. This is Grady Sizemore (I promise).

And this is Sizemore signing some autographs right in front of us afterward.

For a while, Travis Hafner "played" shortstop during BP. The balls that he fielded he had to flip underhanded to someone because of his shoulder injury. Asdrubal Cabrera really has nothing to fear from Hafner's fielding at short.

In the afternoon we attended the Indians game at Goodyear vs. the San Diego Padres split squad. This is the view from the gate to the park where we entered. I'll focus more on the new park later. In brief, I concur with the consensus that it's a huge upgrade over tired Ed Smith.

My primary interest was watching the two members of the Indians who are on my fantasy baseball team, rightfielder Shin-Soo Choo and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. Neither disappointed. Choo had two long extra-base hits and Cabrera added a stolen base to his hit and walk. Choo seems primed for a massive year. This is his swing on his first inning RBI double that bounced high off the left-center fence. Choo was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

This picture is from Cabrera's first AB of the game. Later while successfully stealing second base, he broke the belt to his pants and first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. had to take his own belt off and loan it to Cabrera before play could proceed. I just saw ESPN show the "highlight" of Cabrera's wardrobe malfunction.

David Huff started and pitched three solid innings for Cleveland. He had great control, getting his first pitch over on every hitter except for a temporary loss of focus with journeyman Matt Stairs at the plate. This is Huff warming up in the bullpen before the game started.

I'll post my thoughts on the Reds nice win on the road vs. the Angels later tonight. Tomorrow we are going to visit the Reds practice fields in the morning then attend the Indians' road game vs. the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Park.