Arizona Diamondbacks Outfielder Justin Upton in Live Internet Chat

As the calendar turns to the final week of January, baseball fans begin pacing back and forth waiting for that fateful day when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. This event signifies the end of the long, dark winter and the beginning of spring.

For some odd reason, this final week of January just seems to drag by. Each passing minute of each day feels like an eternity as we wait for February and the return of baseball. The Diamondbacks games that I recorded last summer have been watched and re-watched to the point that I almost have the dialog between Daron Sutton and Mark Grace memorized.

I have gone back and read blog entries from last year (and frankly I have no idea what I was talking about in most of these posts). I have even tried to learn Spanish at least enough so that I could read the game logs from the winter leagues in the various countries. I’ve even considered taking my wife on a vacation to the Dominican Republic just to catch a game. She was all for it until she heard the word "beisbol."

No, it seemed as though I was being punished in an effort to teach me patience; a virtue I seem to be lacking in abundance. So as I moped around complaining that it should be Saturday already, yet the calendar still says Monday, I received an email that brightened up my day.

Michael Ehrlich happened to come across my blog and sent me an email informing me of an event I might be interested in. Eastbay in conjunction with Adidas is hosting an online chat featuring Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder and 2009 All-Star Justin Upton.

The online event will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 at 6:00 PM EST or 4:00 PM MST for those in Arizona. The chat is to be held at www.eastbay.com/adidas . This is a great opportunity for fans to ask Upton questions and learn what he has been doing during the offseason to prepare for the start of spring training.

Upton will take questions from the fans and offer insight into what it is like to be a big league player with the Arizona Diamondbacks. But that is not all, Eastbay and Adidas will also be offering gear giveaways during the chat session allowing fans to pick up some great stuff.

Suddenly, the week just became a lot shorter. After all, I’m not pacing around staring at the clock waiting for Sunday to arrive. Instead I am pacing around staring at the clock waiting for Wednesday to arrive. That seems to be a lot closer.

So join me and the other Diamondbacks fans at the Eastbay site on Jan. 27 and let Justin Upton know how much we’re looking forward to seeing him and the other players return to the field. It should be a great time.