Even though spring training hasn’t officially opened, the Cubs have enough early reports to make things feel legit. Perhaps more than the men in workout gear, it’s the media swarm that tells you baseball is really underway. The pictures on Twitter, some of which come from an actual camera rather than from a 2004 Motorola Razr, tell hundreds more words than tweets ever could, but the social media coverage of interviews and pressers is equally invaluable.
Before I continue, I should probably clarify something about the beat writers: No one’s actually got a phone that old. Not after Gordon Wittenmyer and Mark Gonzales finally upgraded to iPhone 4’s at the end of the season.