Spring training, day eleven

Day 11, Spring Training. Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland. Home of the Detroit Tigers. According to the Pirates program I picked up, the Tigers have the longest tenure in the same town – 62 years – of any spring training team. The Phillies are next with 61 years in Clearwater and the Dodgers have been in Vero Beach for 59 years. Fourth are the Pirates who are celebrating their 49^th year in Bradenton. The Tigers’ program said nothing about their tenure here, but the PA announcer claimed the Tigers were spending their 71^st year in Lakeland. So the numbers vary, but in any event, the Tigers have been here a long time.

It’s been dry as a bone all winter, but I was threatened with my first rainout today. It rained for the last half hour of my ride there and was sprinkling when I arrived. It rained hard about 50 minutes before game time, but quit about 20 minutes later. The game was delayed for 35 minutes for the ground crew to get the field in shape.

The stadium recently underwent a renovation and it looks great. Another spacious park – 340’ down the lines and 420’ to dead center. The power alleys are unmarked. There is an overhang all the way around the stadium (except for the bleachers in left), and as usual, there is more shade on the 1st base side. My seat was three rows up just past the first base bag. They added more rows of seats closer to the field during the renovation, so I was nearer the action than the players in the dugout. The stadium was packed except for the bleachers down the left field line and the berm seating (apparently the Florida standard term for sitting on grass on a hill) over the left field wall.

Saw the Phillies again. As usual, lots of Phillie fans in the joint. Although the Tigers wore their home white, the Phillies again sported those strange blue uniforms. I’m guessing it’s some kind of marketing campaign to get people to buy still another team jersey. But being Philadelphia born and raised and having seen the Phillies play more times than I can count, they just look bizarre to me in blue. All the stars for the Phils played; the Tigers were missing IRod and newly acquired Gary Sheffield.

Ryan Howard batted from the left side against lefty Mike Maroth. I can swear that he turned around and batted from the right side and hit a home run against CC Sabathia earlier this spring. Maybe I’ve been in the sun too long. Howard played first base, so I got a good look at him from my seat. He’s a wide body. After he left the game in the 6^th inning, I moved behind home plate as the changeable Florida weather was now bright sunshine.

As we get deeper into spring training, starting pitchers are going longer. Maroth pitched five, and Phils’ Freddie Garcia went into the 5^th, but was pulled after giving up a run and loading the bases in that frame. Tiger Brandon Inge greeted Phils’ reliever Brian Sanchez with a bases-clearing double. Sanchez was also bombed by the Reds when I saw the Phils earlier this month. After Maroth’s exit, Tigers brought on 40 year old Jose Mesa to pitch. I thought he was laughed out of baseball a couple of years ago after setting the record for highest ERA in the modern era. What can the Tigers be thinking? If Jose Mesa is the answer, what can possibly be the question? Phils quickly score three runs off him and retake the lead in the inning he pitched. But since the Tigers, who went on to win 12-9, score a pair in the bottom of the 6^th, Mesa gets the win! Curtis Granderson, Jose Guillen and reserve Timo Perez homer for the Tigers. Shane Victorino homers for the Phils. With the huge outfield, Tigers’ Brandon Inge and Phils’ reserve Mike Bourn triple.

This is the only stadium outside of Sarasota/Bradenton that I’ve seen so far that I’d consider returning to if I can score a ticket in the grandstand on the first base side. The drive was an hour and 15 minutes, but I didn’t get stuck in traffic. I also found the back entrance into and out of the parking lot making it even easier.

I’m hoping I like Bright House Networks field in Clearwater as much when I go there to see the Phillies play on Monday.

Dad

Spring training, day ten

Day 10, Spring Training. Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers. Home of the Minnesota Twins.

Hammond Stadium looked new to me. But if I understand the program right, it dates back to 1991, so they’ve maintained it well. After Legends Field, home of the goddamn Yankees, it’s the second biggest park and crowd I’ve seen during my spring training tour. The announced attendance was 8122 with not many empty seats. I expected the Yankees and Red Sox to be well supported, but I didn’t know the Twins had such a large following. Either that, or spring training games are real popular down here. The Red Sox also call Fort Myers their spring training home at another facility a few miles away. Not surprisingly, the Sox regularly sell out.

The stadium is located in the Lee County Sports Complex and has a nice piece of land for other training fields and parking. The concourse area in Hammond Stadium is kind of cramped though and navigating through it is a problem. The souvenir store was the most packed of any that I’ve seen. It may be just the layout and they simply need more cash registers. The stadium has overhangs on both the first and third base side. As with most of the parks I’ve visited, there was more shade on the first base side. I bought my ticket as soon as they went on sale, but my seat was still in the last of the box seat sections down the third base line. I was twelve rows up a little past the infield. Not a bad seat, but I’ve had much better. It was partly sunny and a humid 81 degrees at game time. As has been my practice, after one inning I moved up to a shady seat behind home plate. The press box and suites are tall enough that they shade the top half of the upper section of seats behind home plate. Like Al Lang Field in St. Petersburg, the upper sections of seats are metal bleachers with backs but no armrests.

Got to see the O’s play. The Orioles train in Ft. Lauderdale and don’t come as far north as Sarasota or Bradenton, but they do travel across the state to play in Ft. Myers. There were a fair number of O’s fans around. They yelled “O” during the National Anthem, as usual. I happened to sit near a quite a few of them. I had forgotten how grating on the ear the Bawlmore accent is. Another thing that I don’t miss from living in the DC area.

O’s get a couple of gift runs in the 1^st thanks to a couple of errors, but Mike Cuddyer starts the Twins’ rally with a solo home run and the Twins eventually win 4-2. Twinks score the winning runs in the bottom of the 8^th on a two-out, two-run double off the bat of reserve infielder Garrett Jones. O’s load the bases in the 9^th, but non-roster invitee Jon Knott grounds into an inning-ending, rally-killing, game-ending double play. Knott will not make the squad.

Traffic was miserable again both getting there and coming home. Ft. Myers is 85 miles south of me, so I can’t see making this journey again.

Tomorrow, I go up to Lakeland to see the defending AL Champion Detroit Tigers.

Spring training, day nine

Day 9, Spring Training. Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota. Game 3 of 4 to see the Cincinnati Reds. First and only night game. Mom came to this one. “The Ed” looks better at night. Darkness hides a few of the stadium’s warts.

The Reds have two pricing plans. The “premium games”, which are all the games with the Yankees and Red Sox and all night games, cost more. They go on sale first, and for every ticket to a “premium” game you buy, you must also buy one ticket to a “crappy” game. I had planned on going to several Reds games anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for me. Since they get more money for night games, I’m surprised they don’t have more of them. There are only three night games, and one is a split squad game with the Pirates (with the split game being a day game with the Pirates at Bradenton). By contrast, the goddamn Yankees play 7 of their 15 spring training home games at night.

The spring training games have been following a pattern. The regular starters play about five innings, give or take an inning depending on how many at-bats they’ve had, then the minor leaguers take over. Generally one or two young prospects start the game and often play the whole game when the manager gives the regular the day off. It’s like watching two games in one – about five innings of major league ball and about four innings of Class AA ball. I don’t see how the manager can evaluate his talent this way. Except for the prospects who play early, the minor league batters are only facing minor league pitchers and vice versa. How do they know if this young batter can hit major league pitching, or whether this young arm can get major league batters out?

I’ve seen a few prospects hit home runs and other strike out, but how much can you really tell from a couple at-bats? The biggest difference I notice is in the field. I’ve seen dropped fly balls and Bill Buckner-like ground balls that go through infielder’s legs. It’s not so much the inability to make the difficult play, it’s the frequent botched routine play that’s noticeable. I’ve also seen some pitching prospects throw well and others get bombed. But what can you really tell from one outing? Presumably, all of these guys must have some promise or they wouldn’t be here. So it’s how often do they get shelled or pitch well. Hard to tell when you only see them once.

It was a beautiful night to watch a game – 73 degrees at game time. Since it’s been very dry, the stadium was bugless. I couldn’t believe how many empty seats there were. I thought these night games would sell out. Saw the Devil Rays play for the second day in a row. The Rays departed from the usual substitution pattern and played almost all of their regulars for the whole game. Since they are now 1-13, I think they were actually trying to win the game. But the Reds, who lead the Grapefruit league at 11-2, edged the Rays 2-1. Rays manage only 3 hits, but all for extra bases. Rocco Baldelli homered, Carl Crawford tripled and catcher Josh Paul doubled. Reds only get five hits, but advanced what few runners they had with groundouts and stolen bases to scratch out a couple of runs. Game took only two hours, ten minutes.

I can’t figure out the use of the DH during spring training. The last time an AL club visited the Reds, they used the DH. Tonight, the pitchers hit.

Concession prices are also cheaper at these spring training venues. A good hot dog only sets you back $3.

Tomorrow, I head back down to Fort Myers to see the Minnesota Twins.

Dad

Spring Training, Day Eight

Day 8, Spring Training. Al Lang Field, St. Petersburg. Home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Located in Progress Energy Park in downtown St. Pete’s right on Tampa Bay. A little sliver of the bay is visible from the first base side.

The stadium faces basically south. Major League Baseball clearly states in rule 1.04 "THE PLAYING FIELD: It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitchers plate to second base shall run East Northeast." Didn’t they bother reading the rules? There is a fairly large concrete overhang over the middle two-thirds over the top of the stadium, but with the stadium facing south, it casts very little shade.

I toured the park before the game and tried to walk down to an observation point down the right field line, but was barred by an usher. Only holders of “berm” tickets – sitting on a hill of grass – were permitted past that point. My seat was four rows up just past the dugout along the first base line. Shortly after I arrived, two sets of front row squatters were chased by the rightful holders of those seats. So they guard the cheap seats, but let anybody wander down to the first row.

The Rays need to get with the program – literally. I tried buying a program before the game, but they don’t sell any. You can buy a scorecard and a roster for $1, but that’s it. So the stadium faces the wrong way, there are no programs for sale and the cheap seats are guarded, but not the expensive ones – and this is “Progress” Energy Park? I’ve seen progress, and this isn’t it. No wonder the Rays are a last place franchise with no hope of improvement.

It was hot with a cloudless sky. It’s more intense facing south directly into the sun, so in the 2^nd inning, I hustled up to a seat in the shade 25 rows behind home plate before they were all gone. Past the first five rows, the “Loge Box” seats (read: Grandstand) are all metal bleachers with backs but no armrests. But bleachers in the shade were better than sitting in my sun-blasted seat. In the 7^th inning, the place was invaded by a large flock of seagulls. I’ll bet this is their regular route, for they landed in the now deserted sunny seats and foraged for leftover scraps of food. For the bottom of the 9^th inning, I went down directly behind home plate. This section must have been zoned for scouts. I saw three radar guns and at least dozen folks charting the game on yellow legal pads.

Saw the Phillies for the fourth time. Again, a fair number of Phillie fans were at the game. Although the Rays were in dark green, the Phils wore those funky blue uniforms again. Even without Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, Phils outslug the Rays 11-8. Rays ace Scott Kazmir departed after four innings with the lead, but in the 5^th inning, the Phils put 8 runs on the board. In the 5^th, the Phils inserted Ron Calloway as a pitch runner who later came to the plate in that same inning and hit a grand slam. I wonder how many times in baseball history that has happened. Ty Wigginton hit two home runs for the Rays in a losing effort. Carl Crawford, arguably the Rays’ only legitimate major leaguer, went 0-3. The D-Rays don’t figure to win many games in the AL East this year (or any year), so they’re getting into shape by posting a 1-12 spring training record so far.

There was a fan who entertained himself whenever Jorge Cantu came to the plate by shouting: “If I can hit a home run, you Cantu”. It pays to have a sense of humor if you’re a Rays fan. God knows that the product they put on the field isn’t big league quality.

Tomorrow, it’s back to Sarasota again to see the Reds in a night game.

Dad

Spring Training, Day Seven

Day 7, Spring Training. Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota. Game 2 of 4 to see the Cincinnati Reds. There’s no substitute for knowing what you’re doing. Now that I knew where the entrance to the overflow lot was, I mapped out a way to get there from the other direction, so I had little trouble getting to the lot and parking. There is one potentially troublesome left hand turn, but if it’s backed up, I can just go past it a throw a U-turn, Florida’s most popular traffic maneuver.

According to the program, “The Ed” as the announcer calls the stadium, was built for the Chicago White Sox. But after training in Sarasota for 38 years, the White Sox up and left for the Cactus League in Tucson in 1997. The Blue Jays were the most likely successor, as they were looking to leave Dunedin. After seeing shitty Knology Park, that’s understandable. But the City of Dunedin demanded the Jays buy out the remaining two years on their lease.

The Jays balked, so instead the Reds moved to Sarasota from Plant City. The Plant City facility must be a real pigsty since the Jays could have moved there after their lease ran out. So for want of a few bucks, the Jays are stuck up at Knology. Serves the cheap bastards right. The Jays were also the Reds’ opponent today, so I saw them for the second game in a row.

“The Ed” has not improved since my last visit. The seats are worn, the paint is chipping off the armrests and the hardware holding the seats down is all rusted. It’s better than Knology, but that damns it with faint praise. The field is in good shape and fairly spacious at 340’ down the lines, 375’ in the power alleys and 400’ to dead center. The clubhouse is not connected to the dugout, since when the Reds’ regulars are taken out the game, they have to tote their gear and walk down the right field line and out the park.

My seat was almost the same a last time – four rows up from the field down the first base line a little past the infield. Parks with little shade are now worse with daylight savings time. The games essentially are starting an hour earlier so it takes lengthening shadows an hour longer to arrive. But today there was a mix of sun and clouds with a mild breeze, so it was pleasant throughout the game.

They played the game with three umpires. That happened at the Yankees game too. What’s the deal with that? Did one of them get the shits right before the game? They also played with the DH. At the two other NL home games I attended, the pitchers batted. Both of those games were against NL opponents, so it looks like when the visiting team is AL, they use the DH

Reds win 3-0 in a fast two hours, seven minutes. Even though most of the pitchers were minor leaguers, Jays manage only two hits and the Reds seven, with the sole extra base hit an RBI double by Reds’ sub Norris Hopper. The “Big Skirt” and Vernon Wells didn’t play for the Jays today. Griffey is still a no-show.

Tomorrow, it’s up to St. Petersburg to see the Devil Rays.

Dad

Spring Training, Day Six

Day 6, Spring Training. Knology Park, Dunedin. Home of the Toronto Blue Jays. The recommended route to the stadium on the Jays’ web page put you right past the Phillies’ stadium in Clearwater. I checked the schedule and since the Phils were home today as well, I plotted my own course since I didn’t want to get caught in traffic for two stadiums. I got there early since I knew parking was going to be a problem. I was able to park in a small lot for the VFW lodge across the street.

Knology Park is a real dump. It is an old, weather-beaten, ugly concrete stadium. The plastic seats are all faded from the sun and heads of the metal bolts holding the armrests are all rusted. There is a slight overhang at the top of the stands that provides shade only for the upper rows in the mid-day sun. There is the carcass of one old abandoned concrete light tower down the left field line standing forlornly beside its metal replacement. I sat at a picnic table in the concession area before the game to avoid being in the sun any longer than necessary. Looking up at the concrete overhangs, I saw lots of wasp nests, although I saw no wasps.

I have never seen stubbier foul poles. They were only about 15 feet high. Fortunately, there were no long fly balls hit down the lines, because it would be anybody’s guess whether the ball was fair or foul. A high school team would be ashamed to play here. The best thing you could hear about this place are three little words – scheduled for demolition. All this added up to the smallest attendance at any of the games I’ve been to so far – a measly 3162. And I think that was generous. Although the stadium is small, there were oceans of empty seats in the third base sun field.

My seat was three rows behind the Jays’ dugout, but all things considered, at $18 for my ticket, this was by far the worst value. I kept my eye on seats in the shade at the top of the stands on the third base side and after three innings, I went up there. I’m glad I went when I did, because lots of other folks wandered up there as time went on. It was still a good view from there, since it was only about 20 rows up about halfway between home plate and third base. By the middle of the 7^th inning, the seats a few rows up behind home plate found the shade, so I moved down there.

The Blue Jays also have the crappiest program. There was only one little article about the team and nothing about the history of the park or baseball in the area. The scorecard page was filled with ads so that there wasn’t enough room to write in all the replacement players. At least they charged a buck less ($4) than the programs elsewhere.

I guess a lot of crazy Canuks are down here, because more people sang the Canadian anthem than the American anthem. Maybe Canadians just like to sing more, eh?

Blue Jays power to an early 6-1 lead with homers by Vernon Wells, Lance Overbay and Alex Rios. As is often the case with these spring training games, things turned around once the minor leaguers came in. The Jays put Beau Kemp in to pitch the 6^th, but it was an inning too soon since the Astros kept their starters in and torched Beau for 5 runs. Astros go on to win 9-7, scoring all but one of their runs against the weak relievers.

Monday, it’s back to Sarasota to see the Reds again.

Dad

Spring Training, Day Five

Day 5, Spring Training. Chain of Lakes Park, Winter Haven. Home of the Cleveland Indians. A somewhat more pleasant place to visit compared to the “mistake on the lake” in northern Ohio. I don’t know what the “Chain of Lakes” is all about. I suppose there may be some lakes in the area, but there are none within eyeshot of the park. It’s a serviceable ballpark. The outfield is huge – 340’ down the lines, 380’ in the power alleys and 420’ to deep center. Three outfielders kind of look lost in all that acreage.

I sprang for a more expensive lower box ($13) rather than an upper box ($11) seat. Unfortunately, the upper box seats are all under cover in the shade while my lower box seat was in the full sun when I got there. However, past the first few rows in the upper box, there could be some obstructed view issues due to the support poles. By the third inning though, the sun cleared the top of the stands and I was in the shade. My seat was five rows up from the field just past the 3^rd base bag.

Bob Feller, hall of fame pitcher for the Indians was on hand signing autographs – if you were willing to pay him whatever was the going rate. I walked over to where he was doing the signing and saw money changing hands at the signing table.

I planned none of the visiting teams, so it’s by chance that I saw the Phillies for the third straight game. Checking my schedule, I see the Phils at total of seven times, including one at their home in Clearwater. Since the Indians wore dark blue, the Phillies were clad in their usual red. Now they looked recognizable to me. There were a lot of Phillie fans here too. They must travel well or there are more retired Philadelphians in the area than I realized.

In the second inning, Indian reserve first baseman Mike Aubrey lashed a foul ball into the Phillie dugout and broke some plumbing fixture. Water erupted like a geyser from the dugout and arched onto the field. It was quite spectacular. It took them a while to find the right valve to turn it off.

Indian all-star catcher Victor Martinez staked the Indians to a lead with a 3-run homer in the first. Ryan Howard, batting from the right side against lefty C.C. Sabathia, crushed a solo shot well over the wall between the 380’ and 420’ signs to start the Phillie comeback in the 2^nd inning. Phils eventually take a 6-5 lead into the 9^th, but Jim Ed Warden takes the 7-6 loss and the blown save when Tribe outfielder Shin-Soo Choo hits a walk-off 2-run single off him in the bottom of the 9^th. Old Jim Ed can pack his bags and head back to the minors. Choo is a local fan favorite. The chant of “Choooooooo” goes up when he takes his turn at bat.

It took about an hour and a half to get up to Winter Haven. I took the Interstate there, but took the back roads through scrubby, rural Polk County on the way home. There’s not much in this state between the two coasts.

Tomorrow, I venture up to Dunedin to see the Blue Jays.

Dad