If you need a primer on the differences between East Coast and West Coast baseball, look no further than "Truck Day". In Boston, the event is celebrated in sub-zero wind-chills—with the actual loading of the truck done in classic blue-collar "hands-on" fashion. Then we have Los Angeles.
Magic Johnson's Dodgers do Truck Day quite differently. The team just consummated a deal with UPS to bring
a more "streamlined" approach to the big spring move. UPS "palletized" the equipment so it would be easily loaded by forklifts—
forklifts, not guys from Quincy and Somerville! Said Dodger equipment manager
Mitch Poole,
"We used to do it by hand and had to arrange it like a puzzle. Now it's all organized. It's a lot faster and easier." Sure,
easier, but is it meaningful? Hell, no! The Dodger trip to Glendale, Arizona (hmmm, what's
that town famous for lately?) might be high-tech, but we'll take the low-tech road to Fort Myers any day.
