Spring training, day seventeen

Day 17, Spring Training. McKechnie Field, Bradenton. Game 4 of 4 to see the Pittsburgh Pirates. I saw the Phillies for the seventh time and matching up against the Pirates for the third time. This used to be a fairly good rivalry between the Pennsylvania teams until expansion put them into different divisions.

We have a mystery concerning the foul ball I found here on Monday. I told a local who has season tickets about the cheap foul ball I recovered from the used car parking lot across the street from the stadium. He told me he once got a foul ball and it was a regular MLB ball. The walk from the parking lot runs along a chain link fence that surrounds the outfield wall that contains most of the home runs balls. Today, a stadium employee was gathering up batting practice home runs and tossing them over the fence to passing kids. I saw a couple of them and they were in fact regulation balls. So what’s with the cheap ball I found? The only theory I can advance is that the ball was leftover from when the rookie leagues played here last summer. But it’s hard to imagine that almost the whole month of spring training went by with all of the foul balls hit into that lot and nobody looked under this car to retrieve the ball. I’m stumped.

I had another nice seat 14 rows up a little to the left of home plate in the generous McKechnie shade. All things considered, McKechnie Field has been my favorite venue. It’s a short drive; traffic and parking are not an issue; and there are plenty of close-in seats in the shade. Except for Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland and Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, none of the other parks I’ve visited outside of the Sarasota/Bradenton area are worth going back to again considering the length of the commute and the traffic and parking hassles. I figure I’ll go to a half dozen or so games here next year. I’ll buy the premium games against the Bosox and the goddamn Yankees plus whatever tie-in games are linked to them. I’d like to see the Phillies and the Devil Rays, since they’re now my local team. Perhaps another game or two so that I’m going at least twice a week to some spring training game. A couple of mild complaints about McKechnie Field – the seats don’t flip up, so navigating down the aisle is difficult and the leg room is barely adequate for someone my size.

Three umpires worked the game again as did on Monday. On Monday, there was a play where a little bit of everything happened. There was a broken bat bloop single hit to left with part of the broken bat pin-wheeling into the infield. There was a runner on first who tried to make it to third and was thrown out on a close play. When the dust settled, the Pirates’ pitcher was on the ground injured in foul territory on the third base side. He was taken off the field in a cart. There was so much to watch on that play, I had no idea what happened to the pitcher. It turned out that the home plate umpire was huffing it up to cover third base due to the shortage of umpires and crashed into the pitcher on his way to backup third base. The pitcher stepped on the umpire’s foot and broke his ankle. Seems like a good reason to always have four umpires on the field so they don’t unnecessarily interfere with the players.

Chase Utley doubled in a run and scored in the 1st inning. Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell hit back-to-back home runs in the 3^rd inning to give the Phillies a 4-1 lead. Jason Bay doubled twice, scored once and drove in three for the Pirates. But in the end, another spring training tie. This game ended 5-5 after 9 innings. I guess the Phillies wanted to get on the bus back to Clearwater and beat the rush hour traffic, so they had no interest in playing an extra frame. With camp breaking this weekend, I suppose the coaches, players and management are eager to start the season and get the hell out of Florida before it gets too hot.

I wind up the month with another return trip to Sarasota to see the Reds tomorrow.

Dad