According to Star Ledger Mets beat reporter Brian Costa, David Wright had this little nugget to say to reporters today:

“We expect to win the National League East.”

That statement literally makes me want to hop in my roflcopter and fly straight to lmaoland to ride the lollercoaster. Now you could say “Well, what is he supposed to say? We don’t expect to win?” and the answer is, yes. After three straight embarrassing years you would think someone on the Mets would learn to dodge such statements and just stick with the cliches. At least he didn’t say they are the team to beat? Then again, there’s still plenty of time for Jason Bay to say that.

GLOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDD.

I received an e-mail from a reader of The Fightins the other day and it went:

Just thought Id let you guys know that one of these exists. The best part about this, I was absolutely shitfaced at some random house after a night at the bar, and saw it laying on the floor. I needed a pic to make sure it wasnt the alcohol. Apparently, the guy also owns a CHP and Abraham Nunez jersey. Unreal.

Just a piece of advice for our mystery Gload wearing jersey friend: hang that shit up when you come home at night — you’re a cot damn wrinkled mess, man.

As of 9:22 yesterday morning, baseball season has arrived.

Thanks to the intrepid reporting of Milwaukee’s own Todd Zolecki, we have the first bit of evidence that baseball has arrived in Philadelphia, vis a vis Clearwater, Florida. It is the first such activity in Phillies baseball since Shane Victorino grounded out in early November, and brother, not a moment too soon.

Of course, it’s technically been baseball season in Philadelphia since December 16^th, when Ruben Amaro pulled the trigger on two trades that are likely to define his place in Phillies history, when he sent Cliff Lee to Seattle in exchange for prospects, while bringing in Roy Halladay, whereupon he inked a tidy, team-friendly extension to keep him in Phillies pinstripes for the foreseeable future.

Since that day, it’s been three months of Christmas Eves. Nothing but anticipation and wonderment for what’s waiting on the other side of tomorrow.

Well, we can wait no more, folks, because tomorrow has arrived, and it is officially the start of spring training, as pitchers, catchers, and a handful of motivated position players arrive to start the magical ride known as baseball season.

From here, it’s a few short weeks until split squads and starts by guys we’ve never heard of, and before you know it, Doc will be taking the mound in Nationals Park on April 5^th.

So allow me to kick start your 2010 season with a list that I like to call…THE SIX MOST IMPORTANT MEMBERS OF THE PHILLIES IN 2010.

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Shhhhhhh… don’t say anything. You’ll just ruin the moment.

(Image via Yong Kim/Daily News)

I think.

In Todd Zolecki’s J.C. Romero piece from this afternoon on The Zo Zone, Juan Carlos insists that he thinks he’ll be good to go come the opening week of the ‘10 season and plans on getting a spot on the Opening Day roster. That would certainly be ideal considering the lack of a veteran left arm coming out of the ‘pen, but if I were J.C., I’d be more worried about being healthy enough come playoff time than making sure he’s on the squad on April 5th.

Regardless, that really wasn’t the point of this post.  Romero was explaining that he thinks he’d only need around 12 innings of so in the Grapefruit League because he doesn’t necessarily have anything to work on; he’s always had some control issues.

So then he says to Todd, he says:

“I’ve been effectively wild my whole career, so nothing is going to change unless I start throwing like Jamie Moyer — finesse.”

OH SHIT!  Is it just me or does that roughly translate to, “Sure, I can throw nothing but strikes, but then I’d get hit around that weak old man who had the worst ERA among major league starters last year.”

Just me?

Romero Eyeing Opening Day Roster | The Zo Zone

Check out what the proprietor of The Zo Zone took for everyone:

I can’t really make out who the players are, except that pitcher all the way on the right looks like Jay Happ.

Is the guy in the middle Tyler Walker maybe?

SPRING TRAINING HAS (unofficially) OFFICIALLY BEGUN!

Time to break out a new feature that will most likely never return again on The Fightins dot com! Here’s the dilly-o: you get three scenarios of what Shane Victorino might have done this weekend, and it is up to you to decide which one is true and which two are false.

Ready? No cheating…

a.) On Saturday night, Shane Victorino was in attendance at the University of Hawaii’s home game vs. Louisiana Tech where Shane tossed up the ceremonial opening-tip. Shane didn’t seem to bring his hometown college much luck, however, as the Rainbow Warriors (are they still called that?) fell to the Bulldogs 66-60.

b.) Before heading off to Spring Training, Shane made a pit stop at the Topps company headquarters in New York City to sign some baseball cards that will eventually be placed randomly inside packs of 2010 Topps Series I.

c.) He hung out with these guys at a club in Las Vegas:

Get the answer, after the jump…

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The purpose of this exclusive The Fightins dot com feature is to foster a rivalry between the Phillies beat writers by keeping a running tally of who scoops who on Twitter and turn it into a year-long dick joke. You can play along by reading their tweets in this convenient list.

Their scores as of February 14, 2010:

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Nearly thirty-five years ago, as the Red Sox were facing the Reds in the ‘75 World Series, there was another — perhaps more important — baseball championship going on that had yet to be decided.

Throughout the course of the 1975 season, former MLB catcher-turned-broadcaster Joe Garagiola and his friends from Bazooka gum were on a mission to find which major league baseball player could blow the biggest bubble.

So Bazooka engineers took their delicious product and specially-designed bubblegum measuring calipers from ballpark to ballpark in search of each team’s best blower. Once they found the best on each team, they would then face off against the other team’s representatives until each league had a clear-cut, bubble blowing champ.

After all of the gum had been chewed, stretched to it’s maximum bubble-blowing limits, and measured, there were two gentlemen left standing — Kurt Bevacqua of the AL-representative Brewers and Johnny Oates of your Philadelphia Phillies would represent the NL.

And the stakes were high, the winner of this match would not only be crowned 1975 Joe Garagiola/Bazooka Bubble Gum Blowing Champ, but would also take home a cash prize of ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS!

But before we find out who blew victorious, let’s see how they got there, shan’t we?

And yes, that *was* Tim McCarver who said the gum is ready when it is “bubbleable”.

Watch the thrilling conclusion, after the jump…

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It’s not often you find a :57 second clip of an 18-wheeler backing up completely fascinating, so when you do, it can only mean one thing… SPRING TRAINING IS COMING!!!

UPDATE: It left!

UPDATE II: via Todd Zolecki on Phillies.com, we now know how much cargo was packed for the trip:

The team loaded 15 cases of gum, 12 cases of sunflower seeds, 20 coolers, a palette worth of drink mix, 300 batting helmets, 350 pairs of shorts, 450 pairs of socks, 600 pairs of pants, 600 hats, 200 fleeces, 1,200 bats, 2,000 T-shirts, 10,000 cups, 15,000 baseballs and 150 pairs of batting gloves.

And taken from CSN Philly’s SportsNite, the most important box we picked up this offseason:

• jackass on Nicole Brewer interviews some schlub about his dumb website
• meech.one on Nicole Brewer interviews some schlub about his dumb website
• Bridge to Lidge on Nicole Brewer interviews some schlub about his dumb website
• John on Danny Bonaduce throws out the first pitch before the Phillies game
• Bobby Payne on Nicole Brewer interviews some schlub about his dumb website