It Really Feels Like Spring Now

Jonathan Papelbon arrived in Fort Myers today and now I'm ready for spring. I really had no idea how much I missed the man (although the way I spazzed out at the mere mention of his name probably should have been a clue.) He sat down with the media earlier and had this to say.

Per the Globe:

"Spring training's always fun. Spring training is a time to relax, at the same time start getting ready for next season. I always get excited. Just on the way down here, driving and stuff, you think about what happened last year, going out there and doing it again. You turn the radio up loud. You cruise. It's always a fun time of year for me."

Per the Herald:

Regarding the "the dog ate my world series ball" story:

"If you believe it you believe it, if you don't you don't."

Regarding Clemens: He feels sorry for him but he hopes that the whole thing will help clean up baseball whether Roger did it or not. But

"if somebody is shooting him up with something he knows what's in it."

And lastly:

"If the Red Sox aren't the team to beat, he'd like to know who is."

Be still my heart (though that last one does seem a little dangerous to say outloud.) What can I say? He's a charmer and a goofball. And he looks quite good in slate blue (my Amelie Benjamin moment for today.) I think I can say, without exaggeration, that he is everything that is good and right in the world personified.

Edit: There is a video on the NESN website of Papelbon saying that he doesn't want to go to Japan. But if he has to, he hopes there is a McDonalds there. Awww, sweetie. Tokyo is a huge city with almost 13 million people in it; very modern, very urban, and as Eastern citites go-quite Western. You're not going to be living in a pagoda in the middle of a rice paddy. You'll probably be staying in a Western hotel, all of the staff will speak English, and will be happy to ply you with all the steak and potatoes you could stomach. If you desperately wanted to go to McDonalds, it wouldn't be hard to find one; but why go to McDonalds when you could visit Americatown? It has occured to me (two days later-but I'm all about accuracy around these parts) that they went to Osaka and not to Tokyo. So I guess Americatown is out.

Hell's yeah (my Papelbon moment for the day) it worked!