Sitting in the visiting TV booth here at Bright House Field in Clearwater we were watching as the grounds crew was taking the tarp off the field to a standing ovation by the fans here who have braved the weather to this point.  And they took it off the wrong way the first time and they got water on the outfield grass…a pretty good amount of it too…they had to drag it back and take it off the right way.  Like I said there has been a drought here in the area…maybe they forgot how to take it off?  Despite the mistake though, we hear the game should be starting at 1:45.  We are now listening to Jimmy Cliff’s version of, “I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone.”  After being serenaded as previously mentioned by some songs with rain in the title.  Such as:  It’s Raining Men, Have You Ever Seen the Rain, good job by the Phillies people in the booth.

Observations:  The place is packed…there are people beyond the outfield…the grass continues up a hill and people are on blankets getting their first glimpse of the sun…still mostly overcast here in Clearwater, but the sun is fighting its way through the doom and gloom.  There are grounds crew members preparing the infield…Chase Utley and some of his teammates came out to stretch.  Chen-Ming Wang went out to the outfield for long toss…and he will be starting NOT Brett Tomko as earlier reported.  Tomko was on the dry erase board in the media room, but it will indeed be Wang.  More and more Yankees are out of the clubhouse and doing their warmups.  Cano, Teixeira, Ramsom, Cabrera are all getting some running in on the outfield grass…