According to Impacto Deportivo, Colon reached the deal after Ozzie visited the veteran hurler in his native Dominican Republic:

El dirigente Ozzie Guillén viajó a Santiago de los Caballeros a ver lanzar a Bartolo Colón.

Más tarde que nunca, ahora se verán los frutos.

Según supo este martes Impactodeportivo.com.do, Colón ha llegado a un acuerdo preliminar con los Medias Blancas.

Aka (my translation)

The manager Ozzy Gullen traveled to Santiago de los Caballeros to watch Colón pitch.

Better late than never, now we’ll see results.

Impactodeportivo.com.do has learned this Tuesday that Colón has reached a preliminary deal with los Medias Blancas.

The deal is pending Colon pass a physical.

So those of you familiar with our coverage of the Octavio Dotel deal a few weeks ago, know that we were, uhm, skeptical about the whole thing. In fact, Dotel’s agent had originally denied the thing, only for Ken Rosenthal to reveal that a “source” confirmed the deal.

So now, Impacto Deportivo once again brings the scoop and we can only assume its true.

Congratulations.

[ h/t South Side Sox ]

Um….just kidding. Wrong color Sox.

It appears that yes, great minds do think alike. Or perhaps it’s just that when pitchers and catchers report on Valentine’s Day, the true seamhead can’t help but make the obvious connection.

At any rate, hot of the heels of Nick’s post on the subject, I submit for your approval today’s Boston Metro Column: Feeling the Springtime Butterflies. Looking at the AL East as a whole, there’s plenty of reasons for Red Sox fans to be all of a-twitter about their team today.

Random note: I can’t tell you how refreshing it feels to go back to writing columns about baseball. As Madonna put it so well:

I made it through the wilderness
Somehow I made it through
Didnt know how lost I was
Until I found you

I was beat– incomplete
I’d been had, I was sad and blue
But you made me feel
Yeah, you made me feel
Shiny and new

Here’s to feeling shiny and new! Thanks, baseball!

(And here’s to buying cute Red Sox tees with hearts on them.)