From Eric Neal's weekly baseball column on Page 2

ESPN.com: Page 2 - Read it and believe it: ... First, if you haven't already heard, today is Jackie Robinson Day in the Major Leagues. So do something special in honor of the day Robinson first stepped onto the field at Ebbetts, would ya? I'm planning to steal home on the mailman this afternoon, slide right under his bag just before he gets to the box, then pop up, brush myself off, and tell him, "That's for Jackie."

... David Wells threw eight pitches in the first inning and 36 in the second. In the first, he was a wily wizard. In the second, he was sweaty and desperate. This is a cruel game.

... John Thomson stood on the mound at Shea, stoically soaking up the cold New York rain, and it hit me that the best thing about spring baseball is how bloody unlikely it is some nights. I love hitters trying to keep their bats dry, and pitchers trying to keep mound mud from gumming up their spikes. And even more than that, I love the nut jobs in the stands wearing parkas and ski caps, reciting teeth-chattering prayers over cold cups of hot chocolate and never once thinking they should be anywhere else.