Mark Teixeira out 8-10 weeks

New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira will miss eight to 10 weeks due to his injured wrist, manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday.

Teixeira strained his wrist Tuesday while taking batting practice with the United States’ World Baseball Classic team.

The Yankees initially estimated Teixeira would miss just two weeks. But Wednesday’s update indicates that Teixeira will miss the entire month of April and could possibly be sidelined into mid-May.

Posnanski: The Unbeatable Kansas City Royals

Practice? We talkin’ about practice?

Now, let me make this clear: I believe this 10-game spring training winning streak means almost exactly nothing. It means about as much as an NBA player making 20 three-pointers in a row during warmups or an NFL kicker making a 68-yard field goal in pre-game. It might buoy the confidence a bit. It might sell a couple more early season tickets. It might help create a more positive atmosphere in the clubhouse. But that’s it. The Royals began last year by losing their first 10 home games in the regular season — THAT means something.

But … hey winning 10 in a row is better than losing 10 in a row. And there is something exciting about this team. That exciting thing is, paradoxically, something kind of boring: For the first time in what seems like forever, the Royals don’t enter a season needing miracles. They don’t need some crazy-good year from Emil Brown or Dan Reichert, they don’t need supernatural comebacks from Chuck Knoblauch or Jose Lima, they don’t need for anybody to transform into one of the Avengers. Few are expecting the Royals to really compete for a playoff spot this year … and they might not. But for the first time in forever, they COULD compete without an inconceivable series of magic tricks and freak occurrences and James Bond luck….

Does this mean the Royals definitely will compete in 2013? Of course it doesn’t. They still need all the things teams need — they need to stay healthy, especially in the starting rotation. They need for some young players to break through and get better, Hosmer in particular. They need for some veterans to repeat what they’ve done in the recent past. They need some luck. But these are the things all teams need going into a season. As one Royals executive said Tuesday, “This camp feels more businesslike than any I can remember.” That might not sound like much, but having been around the Royals for a long time I thought what he was really saying was: “Hey, look, we actually have good players.”

[OTP - March] Scott wants money for spring training teams

While working at the Detroit Tigers’ spring facility in Lakeland, Gov. Rick Scott announced today he will ask the Florida Legislature to set aside $5 million a year for projects specifically aimed at improving the Major League Baseball training facilities in the state.

“It’s my job as governor to make sure Florida remains the number one destination for spring training and that is why we will work to provide $5 million annually to only be used for spring training facilities,” Scott said in a statement that was released while Scott was participating in one of his “work days” with the Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.

Ernest Hemingway: The Spring Training Stories

No one has explained what the knuckleballer was seeking at that altitude.

He was an old manager for team in a city near Canada, and he had gone one hundred and nineteen days since winning a pennant. On the first day the pitcher had been with him but the pitcher had been sandoval which is the worst form of unlucky and the season had ended and the old man had gone home to wait the nothing months out until spring and the start again.

“There’s a hell of a lot to be done,” Kevin Towers said. “I’m thinking of trading Paul Goldschmidt for Marco Scutaro. And I don’t like the way Ian Kennedy looks when he pitches. He says it is mechanics, but I think he’s just trying to look pretty. That isn’t the Diamondbacks way.”

“Stop it,” Brandon McCarthy said.

“Did we tell you we got Cliff Pennington?” Kirk Gibson said. “For Chris Young. The A’s were eager to take him. I am not sure why.”

“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it,” Brandon McCarthy cried.

It was very late and everyone had left the restaurant except a well-tanned man who sat in the shadow. The two waiters knew the old man was a little drunk and they knew that if he was more drunk he would put on a fake moustache and try to leave without paying.

“Last year he was fired from his job.”

“For what reason?”

“Because his team drastically underperformed expectations. Also: there were some interpersonal concerns.”

The well-tanned man tapped his glass. “Another Sapporo.”

The younger waiter went over to him. “Why did you question the motivations of Youkilis? He is a Yankee now and it is your fault. You drove him away.”

The well-tanned man nodded.

Verducci: Baseball is back (thank goodness) and it’s better than ever (really)

Chicks dig the hit-and-run.

• Fans like close games and close pennant races more than home runs

One of the great myths about The Steroid Era is that steroids “saved baseball” and made for a great period of huge economic growth. It’s baloney. After the great home run race of 1998, per game attendance went down three of the next five years. Take the best per-game attendance in The Steroid Era (1995-2003) and it would be the worst attendance rate of The Testing Era (2004-2012).

We are in an extremely rare period in the game’s history because offense is down and attendance is up. There are many reasons why this is happening, including something as macro an issue as the frightening pace in which America is becoming an entertainment-based society. We spend roughly three times as much money on entertainment as we do education. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, our overall spending from 1991-2011 rose 33 percent, but our spending on “Fees and Admissions,” which includes what we pay to watch sports, jumped 65 percent.

To an audience craving entertainment, baseball has provided more competitive games. Home runs are great, but having an outcome in doubt is better. The stands empty out in a blowout and stay full for a close game even if the ball never left the yard.

Spring at last! Reporting Dates for all 30 Minor League Teams

Pitchers and catchers today for the Red Sox, Cubs, Indians and Rockies. Follow the link for the full list.

AZ Republic: A’s, Mesa near deal for Hohokam Stadium

A move by the Oakland Athletics to Hohokam Stadium is all but a done deal, thanks to action Thursday by the Mesa City Council.

The council approved a memorandum of understanding sketching the broad outlines of an agreement that will bring the A’s to Mesa for at least 20 years, with options for two five-year extensions.

Oakland conducted spring training in Mesa 1969-78 — an era whose legendary teams won consecutive World Series 1972-74.

“We think they’re sort of coming home,” Mayor Scott Smith said. “When I was in junior high and high school, the A’s were the team in Mesa with Reggie Jackson, Sal Bando, Rick Monday — the ASU trio.”

Oakland has trained at Phoenix Municipal Stadium since 1984. But their lease expires at the end of 2014, the same year the Phoenix stadium turns 50, and the team couldn’t reach an agreement with Phoenix about upgrading the ballpark.

Phoenix Muni is now seen as the most likely future home for the Arizona State University baseball team, which would be displaced if ASU moves ahead with plans to redevelop the site of Packard Stadium.

Lower in the story, there’s this weirdness:

Wolff said Phoenix had told the A’s it couldn’t afford to upgrade Muni to match the team’s desires. “We really needed a major remodeling of the Municipal Stadium,” he said. Lacking that, “we started looking for another option.”

The expiration of Oakland’s contract with Phoenix was perfectly timed, he said, with the Cubs’ departure from Hohokam, leaving a window during which Hohokam can be renovated before the A’s begin playing there.

“We try to fulfill all of our contracts,” Wolff said. “Sometimes we wish our players would do the same.”

Now what’s THAT about?

Nationals Consider Moving Spring Training Home

One option being considered by Lee County officials is to charge the Nationals $1 annual rent for the City of Palms Park facility until the county’s tourist tax fund replenishes enough to make major renovations. That would save the Nationals about $5 million in rent over 10 years, according to commissioner Frank Mann, while putting them close to teams such as the Red Sox and Twins, with the Tampa Bay Rays’ and Pittsburgh Pirates’ complexes less than an hour away.

Shorter Spring Training road trips mean more time betting $100 bucks you slice into the woods.