Whole new ball game for Barfield

Friday, January 26, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

An appearance on the winter caravan with the San Diego Padres means you can wear flip-flops and T-shirts, Josh Barfield mused the other day. Seventy-two degrees and sunshine.

But he is with the Indians now and was bundled against the cold this week as he bused around the state with new teammates, the temperatures outside nearing single digits, snow all over the place. "I'm going to have to get used to this," Barfield said, chatting on a cell phone.

This is only one adjustment the second baseman will need to make in his first season with the Indians. Barfield had just gotten settled in the National League and become familiar with its pitchers, and now he has to learn a whole new set of release points and breaking balls and fastballs, like a crash-course in French or Russian. "It'll kind of be like being a rookie all over again," Barfield said.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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