On Tigers and Tummy Rubs
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| Joker Marchant Stadium, 2015 |
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Detroit Tigers Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Joker Marchant Stadium
Lakeland, FL
1:05 PM
Outside the Game:
I awoke to find myself not the only person on two legs in the house this morning. The youngest child had fallen ill, so both father and son were at home as I dragged myself downstairs. After five minutes of re-establishing myself in the canine pack with scratches and pets, I was off to the game an hour hence.
I stopped along the way for breakfast and then went to the park, which was heavily entrenched in a residential area. I parked in an extensive tarmac next to the park (the entire parcel of land used to be a flight training school) and got out to do my business before going inside.
On the way out, not fully baked to a crisp thanks to the merciful shade, I worked my way through the congestion and out to the highway for an uneventful drive back to my friends' house.
I again arrived just before dinner, and I again grabbed a quick shower before the eating festivities. We watched some TV, but after the kids went to bed, I found myself on the stairs with Josie, the 15-year old Beagle doll, with the task of giving her scritchies for the rest of the evening. She would eventually roll over and lie down on my leg and arm to the point that I couldn't leave if I wanted to. Eventually, she started to make what I thought was an angry noise, but I was informed was actually her happy noise. So, I like to think that I got out of a little bit of Purgatory time by making an old dog happy for an evening.
Exhausted from my efforts, everyone turned in around 10:30 PM, and I, at least, slept like a log.
The ballpark itself is done up in the Spanish colonial style that is so prevalent in Florida. Palm trees stand guard in front of arched gallerias that house the ticket booths, entrances, and stores accessible from the outside of the park. The practice fields for the teams, named for Tigers' luminaries, are in the back of the compound, just beyond right field.
The left field entrance opens early on game days for those with special tickets, which just provides access to the left field picnic hill so you can watch batting practice. There's also a small selection of concessions opened in the area before the closed gate to the rest of the park.
Joker Marchant follows a standard minor-league stadium arrangement, with all of the entrances opening out onto a large outside promenade that circles the park and the grandstand, while a smaller walkway in the seating area splits the lower from upper seating sections and connects up with the promenade at the end of the grandstand and through ramps at regular intervals that extend up into the seating bowl. Behind first base is a large colonnaded plaza with a big grouping of carts, stores, and services.
The main grandstand runs about from dugout to dugout behind home plate. A lower level of box seats is right by the field, and the upper level is regular stadium seating, broken up by stairwells. The top of the grandstand has some cover from a small overhang, and the top of the seating bowl holds some luxury boxes, the Flying Tigers Club, and the press box. There are bleachers down the left field line ending in the picnic hill in left-center, and the Tigers Spring Training and minor-league offices sit down the right field line, above a VIP seating area on the outfield wall. The digital scoreboard sits in right center, above the single-level outfield wall covered in local ads. Palm trees and blue sky are all you can see past the center field wall. A number of memorial and dedication plaques are in the right field plaza area.
The game was nearly full and the crowd was into it more than just the autographs that they swarmed to get before and after the game. Paws sadly doesn't make the trip south (probably to avoid heat stroke in the furry costume), so the humans run the limited between-inning activities, which are the standard minor-league contest, races, and other games.
At the Game with Oogie:
On the way out, not fully baked to a crisp thanks to the merciful shade, I worked my way through the congestion and out to the highway for an uneventful drive back to my friends' house.
While your first guess might be "Batman Villain Store" after a quick look at the name for Joker Marchant Stadium, it is in fact named for local luminary Marcus "Joker" Marchant. "Tigertown" had its origins as a World War II army air corps training facility, and plaques around the stadium grounds talk about the war usage of the repurposed buildings still standing. A number of these old hangars and officer quarters are now (baseball) training facilities and clubhouses.
At the Game with Oogie:
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| Hot dog and souvenir soda |
It was another super-hot one this Thursday afternoon, and luck was finally with me as far as seating went. Either by accident, intuition, or otherwise mistake--I honestly don't remember at this point)--I picked a seat right behind home plate, and as such, I was under cover and in the shade, if unavoidably behind the foul ball netting. It was a small price to pay that day for a bit of respite from the sun.
I started early, since I got a batting practice ticket and was out in the early-admission left-field picnic hill area long before the game to watch some BP. This let me use the facilities and starting to down an outrageous amount of fluids to keep me hydrated. After watching batting practice for a while, I stayed in whatever shade I could find until the rest of the park opened up, and then I was out and about and taking pictures.
Somewhere during my endeavors, one of the staff asked why I was taking so many pictures, and I told him about my trips and that I might be doing a review of the stadium, which he seemed to take with great gravity.
With all the heat, I only grabbed a hot dog with a souvenir soda for lunch, although I loaded up on many more beverages for the duration of the game, because even in the shade, Florida was starting to get to me.
My seat was up the grandstand behind home plate and offered a very nice, if netted, view of the stadium. I parked in my seat relatively early and closed my eyes for a bit before the start of the game. The stadium was quite crowded, but there was no one directly around me (probably season ticket holders who don't come to every game) except for a gaggle of college-aged bros two rows ahead of me.
The Game:
I started early, since I got a batting practice ticket and was out in the early-admission left-field picnic hill area long before the game to watch some BP. This let me use the facilities and starting to down an outrageous amount of fluids to keep me hydrated. After watching batting practice for a while, I stayed in whatever shade I could find until the rest of the park opened up, and then I was out and about and taking pictures.
Somewhere during my endeavors, one of the staff asked why I was taking so many pictures, and I told him about my trips and that I might be doing a review of the stadium, which he seemed to take with great gravity.
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| First pitch, Phillies vs. Tigers |
This meaningless Spring Training game had the Philadelphia Phillies facing the Detroit Tigers. Nearly all the scoring was packed into two efficient innings, which was of little comfort to the home kitties, who lost out in the end.
The Phillies went in order in the top of the first despite a one-out double, thanks to a failed steal attempt of third. Detroit, however, jumped out to an early lead thanks to a two-out homer to center. They threatened more with a single and a two-base error by the left fielder, but they were stranded by a final fly out to the same left fielder. Philadelphia went in order in the second, while the Tigers grabbed another run on two singles and a sacrifice fly, extending the lead to 2-0. The Phillies went in order again it the third, while Detroit managed just a walk in the bottom frame.
Both sides went in order in the fourth. Philadelphia decided to get all their scoring done in one inning, as they piled on six runs in a bat-around fifth thanks to three singles, a triple, a single, a walk, an error by the first baseman, and one other single, grabbing a 6-2 lead. The Tigers just had a two-out double in the bottom of the fifth, and the Phillies did exactly the same in the top of the sixth. Detroit went in order in that half inning.
In the top of the seventh, Philadelphia scattered an error and a walk, while the Tigers settled down into a scoring frame. After a leadoff single, two fielders’ choices grabbed two quick outs, but two walks and three singles quickly led to three runs, closing the gap to 6-5. The Phillies went in order in the eighth, while Detroit scattered two singles. Philadelphia again went in order in the ninth, while the Tigers started off their last licks with a single, then grounded into a double play, hit another single, and grounded out to second to secure the Phillie's useless 6-5 victory.
The Scorecard:
Both sides went in order in the fourth. Philadelphia decided to get all their scoring done in one inning, as they piled on six runs in a bat-around fifth thanks to three singles, a triple, a single, a walk, an error by the first baseman, and one other single, grabbing a 6-2 lead. The Tigers just had a two-out double in the bottom of the fifth, and the Phillies did exactly the same in the top of the sixth. Detroit went in order in that half inning.
Phillies vs. Tigers, 03/12/15. Phillies "win," 6-5.
The scorecard was the centerfold of the $5, full-color, magazine program. The scorecard took up the entire spread, with about 75% of the space used for the scorecard and the remaining space for strip ads. The semi-gloss magazine paper made it hard to write in pencil, and the red colored pencil was almost transparent. There was undesignated space for each batting line to have a replacement (that I had to draw out), and each batting line ended in summary stats, and each innings column ended with summary date. The scoring squares were white, but small and a little cramped. Pitching lines were under the batting lines, and full-team summaries were to the right of the pitching lines for both teams.
There were a couple of oddball plays in this one. In the top of the first, a one-out double was caught stealing 1-6 when the runner was caught daydreaming off second. There was a weird two-base error in the bottom of the first, as the left fielder mangled the ball over the wall on a bounce, leading to an E7 ground rule double.
The ceremonial changing of the guard happened between the fifth and the seventh for the Phillies and nearly all in the transition to the seventh for the Tigers, except for swapping out the DH in the second. All players except the Phillies' DH were rotated out at some point. The Tigers used eight pitchers, at the rate of nearly one and inning, with only started Verlander going more than one.
The Accommodations:
The Accommodations:
I was in the guest room for one more glorious evening. It was easy to get used to essentially a really nice AirBnB that I didn't have to pay for.
2015 Grapefruit League
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