< Back to front page Text size – +

Roll call

Print | Comments () Posted by Eric Wilbur, Boston.com Staff February 20, 2007 01:39 PM

Tweet
E-mail

Aside from Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and J.D. Drew, Red Sox position players reported to camp Tuesday, with Alex Cora on the way.

“Other than that, I think everybody might have been on that field today,” manager Terry Francona said.

For the second straight day, Francona refused to comment on Julian Tavarez’s assertion that Ramirez will not report until March 1.

“Until I have something to the contrary of him being here, I sort of think it’s not correct for me to say something,” he said.

Red Sox pitchers Tim Wakefield, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Curt Schilling, and Jonathan Papelbon broke out the offspeed pitches during the bullpen sessions today. According to Francona, pitching coach John Farrell said the pitchers were able to get loose much easier today in the warm weather.

Francona continued to express how much he enjoyed doing pitchers fielding practice with the players, who turned it into a competition today by forming teams.

“They all improved today on their reaction and I like to watch them compete,” Francona said.

The balls the team uses for the drill are softer than a normal baseball, a substitute for the real ones Francona did use when he performed the spring training drill with the Texas Rangers, for whom he was a bench coach in 2002.

“There was nobody lining up for that drill,” he said.

No movement in the daily catchers drop contest, where Dusty Brown, Kevin Cash, Alberto Castillo, and George Kottaras all remained perfect through 200 pitches. The only dropped ball of the day in fact was by Doug Mirabelli, an asterisk hanging next to the lone digit in the catcher’s column on the sheet hung in the clubhouse.

*Knuckleball.