Zito’s got a new bag!

After arriving to his first Spring Training session with the Giants, Barry Zito made three rather goofy moves on just his first day. He arrived to the clubhouse & his new locker (2 away from Bondsy’s with an empty one in between) carrying his usual Oakland A’s bag. Seems to me the highest paid pitcher in all of baseball can easily afford a new gear bag, so I’m just guessing that was his not-so-subtle way of showing his respect for his old club. I like to think he’s that cool in my head.

But things get funnier still… While being interviewed, someone asked him if he realized he was sitting in Bondsy’s chair. He didn’t, of course, & while he didn’t stress about it, he did acknowledg that the other Barry probably would & got up to find the chair with his name on it. Bondsy’s going from 5 to 1 lockers this season & losing his paid entourage he normally has tagging along with him so I’m dying of curiosity here wondering how he’s going to react having Zito so close to him all season (or at least til he breaks hanks record & retires.) I’m guessing it’ll be like having a cool little kid always around that everyone but you completely adores. He won’t be able to find a reason to hate him, but I betcha he won’t been too friendly either.

Then things got real screwy. Zito took to the mound for his first throwing session pulling a camera on a tripod! He set that up then measured out his new, longer step. Then he started to throw and all around everyone was asking each other “What the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks was that?”

His new pitch took off way faster, way harsher, & um, kinda dorkier too. He pushed off hard & his legs looked really weird. You just gotta see this new toss for yourself. It’s so very, very different. Much like Zito himself.

Zito‘s been quoted as saying he put on 10 lbs. of muscle into his legs this Winter, which shows in the funky lil jumpy-thingy he did to start his push off. Then he pushed it all the way through delivery without a pause. It kinda looks awkward, but the ball comes off sharply.

The G’s bossmen were the most surprised. He’d had told them he’d done some tinkering, but this was the first they’ve seen to hint that there’d been a major change. The camera pretty much threw them for a pretty good loop too: “I guess you haven’t seen that too much, have you, Bruce?”

“Not only not too often,” Bochy said, “I’ve never seen that.”

“Tiger changed his swing a couple times when he was at the top of his game,” Zito said. “If he can pull it off…” (Let's just not mention to Sabean that it took Tiger a year & a half to get back on track after that adjustment k?)

Of course, maybe Zito's just messing around with them since they did have him show up on Wednesday, just after he just found a possible new Valentine… (So far the only confirmed rumor is that he & Miss Duff were seen leaving a trendy Hollywood club together a couple weeks ago, but she is quite the lil cutie!)

If the Giants didn’t make sure he had a new gear bag by the end of the day, I’m sure his new lady could set him up with a lil something from her brand line:

Thanks to GiantsFan9 for the info thats always more interesting that the guys getting paid to write come up with...