Spring training, day eighteen

Day 18, Spring Training. Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota . Game 4 of 4 to see the Cincinnati Reds.

This was my last game. It was also the last home spring training game for the Reds. The Reds have a split squad game tomorrow with the minor league players going up to Dunedin to play the Jays in dilapidated Knology Park , while the major leaguers break camp and head to Dayton to play the Marlins.

Sarasota may lose the Reds. The Reds have tired of Ed Smith Stadium. (Who hasn’t?) The Reds agreed to kick in $10M for a new stadium provided that other sources would pony up the rest. There appeared to be a deal in place, but now it looks like it might fall through. The Dodgers will move to Arizona at the end of Spring Training next year, so the Vero Beach slot opens up for the Reds. There are also rumors of the Reds relocating to Arizona as well. There were tons of empty seats for this last home game of the season. The announced attendance was 4213, but that must have been the paid attendance. I don’t think anywhere near that number of people were actually at the game. I can understand that folks don’t want to sit in the blistering sun, but there were still plenty of seats in the shade available. In fact, I moved into a shady seat in an almost empty row just past home plate on the 3^rd base side after 3 innings. The night game I went to here didn’t come close to selling out either. The Reds just aren’t well supported here. Maybe a new stadium will help. By contrast, the Pirates do fairly well up the street in Bradenton .

I saw the Reds matchup with the Devil Rays again. Despite being the local team, there were few Rays fans at the game. Come to think of it, there are few Rays fans at the regular season games at Tropicana Field. The Rays played without Carl Crawford. Without Crawford, even with the other “regulars” playing, the D-Rays are indistinguishable from a minor league team. Who are these guys? The always amusing Jorge Cantu (Cannot! Cantu!) didn’t start, but pinch hit and popped out.

Ken Griffey, Jr. finally played. He singled in a run in the 1^st and got his exercise for the day scoring on Juan Castro’s double during a Reds’ 5-run outburst that inning, which the Reds nursed to a 5-4 victory. Otherwise, Griffey walked slowly back and forth to his position in right field. He looked uninterested in the proceedings. He left after four innings. I don’t understand playing Griffey in right field rather than his usual position in center. He broke his hand, so presumably he is in good aerobic form, so covering the position shouldn’t be a problem. There is no longer throw an outfield has to make than the throw from right field to 3^rd base, so throwing can’t be the issue either.

The game started with two umpires. A third appeared at the bottom of the 1^st; and later in the game the full complement of four were on the field. Did they get lost? Couldn’t find a parking spot? Another piece of strange behavior I’ve noticed with the spring training umpires. Even when there are four available for the whole game, they don’t stay put. After a few innings, the first and second base umpires may switch bases. I’ve had a few seats near the first base bag, so I’ve seen it happen several times.

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to see all the Grapefruit League stadiums and it’s also given me an opportunity to tour the state. Of all sports, I think baseball improves most when seen on person rather than TV. In person, you watch where all the foul balls go. You can watch a particular player or whatever you feel like watching rather than what the TV decides to show you. You can watch an entire play unfold such as an outfield hit with runners on base. It’s also much better seeing a game in smaller parks that seat 5000 - 8000 compared to big league stadiums that seat 40,000 - 60,000.

I’ve already started some preliminary planning for Spring Training 2008. I might make the journey across the state next year to see the Dodgers’ last season in Florida . The problem is that it’s about a 3 ½ hour drive – too long to see a single game. So I might try to Priceline a cheap motel room and see a couple of games on the east coast. The Nats and Mets train over in that general area as well. Otherwise, I’ll see games in Clearwater , Lakeland , Sarasota and Bradenton .

And so this spring training odyssey finally comes to an end as we bid the “Boys of Spring” a fond farewell as they make their trek north to face a promising, yet uncertain future in the regular season.

Dad

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

Spring training, day sixteen

Day 16, Spring Training. Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee. Home of the Houston Astros.

This was the longest and farthest drive of my spring training tour. Mercifully, there were no traffic or parking problems around the stadium, although I did have to endure a series of short, expensive toll roads to get there. The Disney area has a lot of them.

Since the Astros train in the middle of the state, some of the east coast Florida teams play here, including the Nats. I wish I had planned the away teams better so that I could have seen an east coast team play rather than see the Indians again. This was the Astros’ last spring training home game and the Indians are a “premium” ticket in both Bradenton and Sarasota. So this all added up to – tons of empty seats. I get the feeling that the Astros are not the best supported of the spring training teams. A fair number of Indian fans attended the game, but not any more than any other of the away teams that I’ve seen.

There was an Astros pre-sale for spring training tickets. The pre-sale was limited to their preferred customers who needed to enter the proper password to buy their tickets ahead of the availability to the general public. I did a web search and found that the password was “Oswalt”. So my seat was in the second row behind home plate right behind the left hand batter’s box.

According to the program, the stadium is 22 years old and was renovated four years ago. There is a vague attempt at a Spanish look, but at least it’s not an ugly mound of concrete. There are modest overhangs on the first and third base sides that provide some shade, especially on the first base side. Another spacious outfield at 390’ in the power alleys and 410’ in center. Overall, it’s an average spring training venue. Luckily for me, there was a high overcast, so I was able to stay in my close-in seat the whole game.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a seat so close to the field in any professional sport. I could call the balls and strikes and see what kind of stuff the pitcher had. I could tell fastballs from off-speed pitches from other seats I’ve had, but from here I could watch the curves. In spring training, they throw mainly fastballs, though. My seat was at ground level, so I had a problem with depth perception. It was hard to tell how hard and how far fly balls were hit.

It was also the buggiest stadium I’ve attended. Swarms of these little flies were buzzing the whole game. Apparently it’s a chronic problem, since a guy in the front row brought a fly swatter with him and was active in using it. They should sell them in the souvenir store – Official Astros Flyswatters. Something to put next to your “South of the Border” mementos.

All the Astros’ regulars played, but Victor Martinez was the only marquee player from the Indians who was on the field. Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner took the day off.

The Astros regulars took a 5-1 lead, with Morgan Ensberg homering in the 1^st combined with a 4-run fourth inning against Indians’ starter Paul Byrd. But then came the parade of mediocre spring training relievers. The Indians eventually tied it in the 9^th thanks to a lead-off walk and took the lead in the top of the 10^th on a walk and two run homer by sub Luis Rivas. Then it was the Indians relievers’ turn to play give-away in the bottom of the 10^th. A walk and a couple of singles loaded the bases for reserve catcher Humberto Quintero, who hit a walk-off bases clearing double to win the game. The Indians’ center fielder, minor leaguer Jason Michaels, took a couple of steps in on the ball only to see it fly over his head for the game winning “hit”.

The final two games on my schedule are close to home. Thursday, it’s the Pirates in Bradenton and I finish up in Sarasota on Friday with the Reds.

Dad

Spring training, day fifteen

Day 15, Spring Training. McKechnie Field, Bradenton. Game 3 of 4 to see the Pittsburgh Pirates. While last Friday was my “premium” game seeing the Yankees, this is my “crappy” game seeing the Blue Jays. I guess the Jays don’t have much of a fan base in Bradenton.

The Pirates require you to buy the same seat for a specific game for each premium game, so I was back in the same seat I had for the Yankees game. No buying a good seat for the Yankees game and buying a throw away cheap seat for the crappy game. By contrast, the Reds let you buy any ticket to any other game for each premium game. Despite the tie-in sale requirement for this game, there were a fair number of empty seats. A couple of scalpers were outside trying to sell tickets, but I’ll bet they were lucky if they got face value.

So I started out in the same top row obstructed view seat. In the first inning, a foul ball was hit over the stands and bashed onto one of the used car junkers across the street. Nobody was around to shag foul balls, so I took note of about where the ball landed and went across the street after the game and found the ball under a car. They use cheap balls for these spring training games. There is a faint “Skyline” insignia on it but no other markings. No Major League Baseball emblem or the commissioner’s signature or whatever else they put on regulation baseballs.

Like most stadiums, the Pirates have a large board in the concourse where the starting lineups are posted. There are always a handful of fans that are keeping score (like me) who are standing in front of the board copying down the lineups. Invariably, some idiot will walk in front of us, notice the board and stop to contemplate it, blocking our view of the lineup board. I’ve tried saying “Excuse me” and “Hello” but these people are oblivious to everything. They’re the ones who drive slowly in the left lane. Today, the guy beside me who was trying copying the lineups yelled to one of them: “If you’re going to stand in front of us, you might try jumping up and down. That makes it worse.” That got his attention. I’m going to have to remember that line.

The Jays started only one regular (Alex Rios). No Vernon Wells, Troy Glaus or Lyle Overbay. Like the Yankees and Giambi, the Blue Jays don’t play Frank Thomas in NL road cities where there is no DH, so no “Big Skirt” either. I guess the manager is still trying to figure out who gets the last spot on the bench. After an inning, I moved down a dozen rows or so to a better seat. I was now sitting beside a Jays’ fan who cheered for everything they did. He seemed to know all of the players’ names – even the minor leaguers’. In the 4^th inning, Jays’ left fielder David Smith dropped a routine fly ball. I remarked to the Jays’ fan that the left fielder won’t make the roster. He told me that Smith’s mother and father were sitting next to him. A Southwest Airlines “Want to get away?” moment.

Jays and Bucs play to a 2-2 tie in 10 innings. Pirates’ reserve catcher Ryan Doumit managed to sneak a home run just over the wall and just inside the left field foul pole in the bottom of the 9^th inning to tie the game. I’ve seen a number of 10 inning ties in the spring training box scores. Apparently, that’s the agreement between the clubs – they’ll only play 10 innings.

Tomorrow, I make my last long road trip and go up to Kissimmee to see the Astros.

Dad

Spring training, day fourteen

Day 14, Spring Training. McKechnie Field, Bradenton. Game 2 of 4 to see the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Like the Reds, the Pirates also have a “premium” game system. The “Gold” games are against the Braves, Indians, Red Sox, Tigers and goddamn Yankees. If you buy a ticket to one of these games, you must also buy a ticket to a specific “Red” game (also known as a “crappy” game). These tickets go on sale a week before the single game tickets. The goddamn Yankees and Red Sox I can figure, but what’s the attraction of the Tigers, Indians and Braves? Checking the Reds’ schedule, their games against the Tigers and Indians were also premium games. (The Braves don’t play at Sarasota this year.) I guess these teams must be popular locally and draw well. This is my “premium” game seeing the goddamn Yankees.

McKechnie was full, as expected. About half the crowd was rooting for the goddamn Yankees. The goddamn Yankees wore dark blue uniforms that were almost indistinguishable from the Pirates’ black. The only way to tell them apart was that the goddamn Yankees wore traveling gray pants while the Pirates wore home white pants.

Although I bought my ticket the instant they went on sale on the Internet, I was still in the top row of box seats a little to the left of home plate. This whole section is covered, so it was a shady seat. The support poles for the roof are at row 13. My view from row 22, first seat in, had a support pole block part of the first base line between home plate and first and a strip of right field. A mild nuisance, but still a good view. From the top row, I could watch a guy retrieve all the foul balls that were hit over the top of the stadium onto the used car lot across the street. All the cars in this lot looked like real junkers, so it wouldn’t particularly matter if any got hit by a foul ball. The neighborhood doesn’t appear to be the ritziest section of Bradenton.

No Jeter, ARod, Posada or Giambi. That severely limited the players I could boo at. Only the outfield of Abreu, Damon and Matsui was intact. Giambi probably never plays in NL road venues where there is no DH.

There was a stiff breeze blowing in all day that knocked down all fly balls. Pirates win 3-2. Reserve catcher Humberto Cota doubled in the go-ahead and eventual winning run in the 7th. I don’t care that it was spring training and mainly minor leaguers playing, I still enjoyed watching the goddamn Yankees lose.

It’s back-to-back seeing the Bucs as I go back to Bradenton on Monday.

Dad

Spring training, day thirteen

Day 13, Spring Training. Cracker Jack Stadium, Lake Buena Vista. Also known by the Disney folks as the Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. Home of the Atlanta Braves.

Free parking! Having experienced the Disney magic at nearby attractions, I can assure you that the Disney folks are not bashful at finding innovative ways of getting into your wallet. My ticket was the most expensive at $22.50, so I can’t believe free parking. At 16 home games times $10/car (I’ve paid $7 twice and where else can you park?) times several thousand cars is pushing a million bucks left on the table. The programs were priced at the usual $5, but used some kind of waxy paper that made it damn near impossible to keep score with a pencil. Perhaps I was supposed to buy a special Disney pen to keep score.

The facility is very attractive. Like Bright House Networks Field, it’s Spanish style architecture. Unlike any other spring training venue I’ve visited, it has a full upper deck from third base around to first base. Disney also has the only exploding scoreboard in spring training as well as the loudest and most annoying public address system. Apparently, this stadium is an example of “Build it and they will come.” The Disney folks built this place 10 years ago and lured the Braves here.

The Mets traveled from the east coast (Port St. Lucie) and packed the place. The attendance set a spring training record at 11,591. The facility only seats 9,500, so the rest were on the berm over the left field wall, where you could hardly see a blade of grass and standing room, which ringed the lower level from the first to third base side behind the lower deck seats.

The Devil Rays are going to play three regular season games here in May. April would have been a better choice since the oppressive summer heat will have probably settled in by May. The stadium is small by Major League standards, but since the D-Rays draw flies in St. Petersburg, they may actually do better here.

Stupidly, the stadium faces south-southeast. There’s all kind of land around here, so Disney could have oriented the stadium any way they wanted. Facing basically south, only the last three rows of the lower deck get any shade. My seat was 12 rows up just to the left of home plate. While there were some clouds, I didn’t think I could take facing the bright sun for the whole game and luckily found a vacant seat behind me after the first inning that put me in the shade from the waist up. Facing south, the sun line didn’t move the whole game, so I stayed partially in the sun. A couple of innings later, I noticed some bastard had moved into my vacant seat. I felt like going down and kicking the sumbitch out of there, but under the circumstances, it didn’t seem appropriate. The other major stadium design flaw is the men’s rooms. There are only two on the ground level and one has 4 urinals and the other 6. I’m surprised this meets the building codes.

The Braves wore dark blue, the Mets medium blue and the umps were in light blue, so who knows who was on what side. John Smoltz, who turns 40 in May, pitched six strong innings for the Braves, the longest outing of any pitcher I’ve seen to date. You’d think they’d give the guy a break and not wear him out in March. It was fun seeing Smoltz face 48 year old Julio Franco, who started at first base for the Mets. You won’t see too many older starting pitcher/batter matchups. Probably makes all the retirees feel good. According to the radar info posted on the scoreboard, Smoltz’s fastball was consistently in the 93-94 MPH range, so he can still bring it.

Braves win 7-1, breaking open a close game by scoring five off Mets’ closer Billy Wagner in the 7th. The decisive blow was a three run homer by Tony Pena.

Tomorrow, I stay close to home and go back to Bradenton to see the Pirates again.

Dad

Spring training, day eleven

Day 12, Spring Training. Bright House Networks Field, Clearwater. Home of the
Philadelphia Phillies.

I can remember listing to the Phillies spring training games from Clearwater on the radio as a young boy. It always marked the promise of spring to hear baseball again on the radio. It was high on my agenda of things to do in retirement to go see the Phillies in Clearwater.

The park was brand new in 2004. It is easily the prettiest spring training park I’ve seen so far. It looks like a Spanish mission, rather than the usual ugly bare concrete stadium. The website directions claim parking is on the right as you approach the facility. There is a lot there, but it was already full when I arrived. Another larger lot is on your left before you get to the stadium, so I threw a U-turn to get back to it. No signs to help you, of course. There’s a side entrance to this lot that I would use in the future now that I know where it is.

The shady seats are to the right of home plate and on the first base side as well as in the “club” seats on the second level beside the luxury boxes. My seat was just to the right of home plate 13 rows up. I was in the sun briefly; shade found my seat just as the game started.

Bill Giles, the Phillies’ chairman, was on hand to autograph his new book. I guess he has to scratch for every cent he can after Chase Utley’s contract. Naturally, Philly cheese steaks were available at the concession stands.

It was a gorgeous day – a dry 71 degrees at game time, climbing to 76 at game’s end. The place was packed. Even the berm seating in the outfield was crowded. The announced attendance was 7992. Even though this was the third largest crowd I’ve encountered, I didn’t run into too much traffic getting out since I took the side exit to the parking lot and did an end run around the principal line of traffic. It only took a little over an hour to make the commute in each direction.

The Phils were in their home red so they looked like the Phillies to me. The also looked like the Phillies during the game, bowing to the lowly Pirates 5-1. Both Abraham Nunez and Ryan Howard got thrown out trying to stretch singles into doubles which killed what few promising innings the Phils had.

I’ll definitely come back here again. I’m thankful that the Phillies don’t play in a dump like Knology or in ugly Ed Smith.

Two days off until my next game, which is a long commute to the Orlando area near Disney World to see the Braves.

Dad