HOUSTON -- Baseball season brings forth many annual rites of passage, beginning with the exhausting practice of moving a team's day-to-day operations from its home city to its Spring Training headquarters.

It all begins with a 54-foot truck, packed full of everything the Astros need to get through a seven-week excursion to central Florida to train for the new season. About a dozen workers loaded the truck early Friday morning, and by mid-afternoon, the giant 18-wheeler was headed for Kissimmee, Fla., due to arrive sometime on Sunday.

The list of inventory is lengthy, and for the most part, remains unchanged from year to year. To refresh the memory, here's the rundown:

Hats. T-shirts. Long-sleeve shirts. Short-sleeve shirts. Dry fits (undergarments that soak up sweat). Athletic supporters. Belts. Underwear. Tights. Long-johns. Stirrup socks. Shoes -- running, spikes, turf. Uniforms -- jerseys and pants. Lightweight jackets. Heavy-weight jackets.

And don't forget the gum -- 10,000 pieces. Plus the coveted 36 boxes of sunflower seeds.

The athletic training staff loads their entire operation on the truck, too, as does the video crew. Several pieces of equipment from the weight room are going to Florida this year as well.

Astros equipment manager Dennis Liborio and his staff begin preparing for Spring Training soon after the regular season ends, spending their days and months over the offseason taking inventory, ordering necessary products and packing, packing, packing.

"It's a little bit here, and a little bit there, all the time, for three or four months," Liborio said.

And even as the truck pulled out of the lot at Minute Maid Park and heads to Florida, Liborio wondered if they got it all.

"We're kicking our brains in to make sure we have everything," he said. "But these guys have been doing this for a long time, and they know what they're doing. That's the biggest help."