By Jason Kendall FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW This spring, I'm struggling to hit my weight, which isn't good considering I lost five pounds last weekend when we were in Mexico City. Our two-day trip was great for the fans, it was great for the people of Mexico, but I'm not going to blow any smoke and lie. I was really scared to eat the food or drink anything when we were down there because I didn't want to get sick. I think the whole time we were down there I had three Power Bars, about 15 gallons of bottled water and a few bottles of Sol beer. On the whole, the conditions were nice. They put us up in a good hotel and the stadium was pretty nice, better than I expected. The playing surface was really fast. They have the same artificial turf the Devil Rays use at Tropicana Field. But it was dark in the alleys, so it was tough to catch. It didn't bother me too much when I was hitting, but I could really notice it when I was catching. The fans seemed to be pretty into the games, too. They had their horns going on, they waved flags, and they knew baseball, which was good to see. I think they enjoyed having the major-leaguers come in, especially Jose Silva, Francisco Cordova and Vinny Castilla. One of the funniest things about the games was this lady who came in and swept our dugout. She would come in every half-inning and sweep up. I felt bad for her. I wanted to pick up the sunflower seeds and stuff myself so she didn't have to do it. After that second game, I couldn't wait to get home. I knew that after Mexico City we were going to be getting down to the end of spring. Maybe in a couple years, I'll look back and tell you it was a pretty good experience for me and I'll say I was glad to be there. But right now, I'm just happy to be home and counting down the days until the season starts. We got home pretty late Sunday night, so I don't think anybody was upset that we were rained out Monday. After that long flight and switching back from the time change, it was nice to have the day off even if the weather wasn't that great. We actually had two straight days off because our off day was Tuesday. I used the day to go fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with Tommy Sandt, Keith Osik and our team photographer, Dave "Felix" Arrigo. I caught a bunch of catfish. Well, actually Tommy did. I was the anchor boy. Tommy gave me that nickname because my main job was to pull up the anchor and throw it back out. I'm going to have Tommy take over in my column now to tell you how I did. TOMMY SANDT: "Jason was fantastic. He took a lot of pride in it. He knew he had a job to do. The hardest part was getting back to shore. We couldn't have done it without our anchor boy. If not for him, we'd still be out there." There ya go! Told you I did a good job. Unfortunately, I've also been anchor boy at the plate. I didn't get a hit again Thursday and I'm batting about .150. I've been getting my work in this spring and playing a lot of games. But hitting-wise, I'm not where I'd like to be. I have felt better the last couple of days. I've got to get my timing down and have the hits start falling for me. About the only good news for me was that Keith and I got three of our six teams through the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament: Maryland, Southern Cal and Gonzaga. I was surprised to have three teams left. It gives me something to watch when I get home, and I was excited to see Maryland and USC advance with wins Thursday night. Maybe one of those teams will come through for me and get to the Final Four. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. - - - Pirates catcher Jason Kendall is the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's guest baseball columnist during spring training.