Port Charlotte

On the Frustrations of Car Travel

Port Charlotte Stadium, 2015

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Minnesota Twins vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Port Charlotte Stadium

Grapefruit League

Port Charlotte, FL

1:05 PM

Outside the Game:
I woke up on the ass end of the morning and was on the road by 6:30 AM. It was a three-hour drive to Port Charlotte from my parents' condo, and given that it was a weekday, I had to take into account traffic. Given how much this stadium had been talked up in the last few days, I wanted to make sure I had time to see it and not run into the jetBlue Park situation of something such as park tours going on sale for exactly fifteen minutes, or some such.

I was out into the sunless morning, and a little while later, I had myself out onto the Sawgrass Parkway that crossed the state, trying to keep myself awake and interested for the next 2.5 hours. This was helped along by adrenaline, as the Everglades route was heavily covered in a deep fog that went from moderate to no visibility, seemingly at random. It made for an interesting trip until the blinding, rising sun eventually burned off the fog as I started to head north in earnest.

Fog aside, I made good time and didn't run into issues driving. I got to the park just as it opened, and subsequently parked pretty far up in the lot. I had to pick up my ticket at Will Call and did so successfully. I walked around to see what I could see and take some pictures. I found that the Major League practice fields were off-limits, but the guy at the gate told me to go around the other side through the Harley Davidson lot (which was selling cheaper parking than the official lot, as well), and I could see the minor league fields.

Taking the walk over, there was a small group of fans who filtered through to the minor league fields. I kept on the other side of the street and eventually found two balls that had been clobbered out of the minor league parks to the other side of the road.

I eventually got back and went in line by the (shaded) first base gate with two groups of Twins fans. We and the main gate minder talked about the weather back home and such while we waiting the last fifteen minutes until the gate opened. The older couple were looking to get in as soon as possible to claim one of the tables in center field, and they got in first and shuffled their way out there. (I would eventually see that they did, in fact, get a prime seat to watch the game.)

On the way out, there was a bit of congestion, and that would be a theme for the rest of my evening. All of the lots emptied out on to the same exit road, so it was slow going, and once you got out of the park, it was a bit of a sizable ride back to the main highways. Given the time and south Florida's love of stoplights on state roads, it took me at least a half hour to get back out to the highway.

The highway itself was fine, but I was headed to Fort Myers for the evening at a hotel that was away from the each, for obvious reasons. But the roads to get there had Maryland-style frustration lights every quarter mile, and a simple ten-mile drive took the better part of a half hour. What should have been a grand total of just under an hour took me more than an hour and a half.

I did eventually get checked in at the hotel, got set up for the next day, and then went out to Cracker Barrel for dinner, because I always seem to do so at least once on these trips. Back at the hotel after dinner, I pretty much lazed around a tried to avoid going to sleep too early, given my proclivities for the last few days.

It turned out that the abbreviation for the hotel was the WiFi user name, which just so happened to be nearly identical to the name of my most pain-in-the-ass client. This, plus the drive over, had my Spider Sense tingling.

Given that the next night was going to be in the heart of the Mouse, I figured I shouldn't have too much trouble finding a room. What I didn't count on is that I apparently picked the very minute that Hotels.com revamped their listings to find a place. I picked a hotel right down the street from the park, but when I went to finalize the reservation, it kept throwing an error. Doing as I was told, I called their 800 number. The nice lady on the phone told me the room wasn't available in her system.

This was a cause of consternation for me. The only hotels she saw were either extremely more expensive or much further away. She was trying to help when she said she was getting an update on her system. It eventually showed the hotel I was looking at for about $50 more than was in the app. So apparently, they update the mobile and Website info before they update their call center, which seems a recipe for disaster. I was finally able to make the reservation on my app at the original price (which saved me trying to email a screenshot of the app price to customer service), but it was a half hour I would have rather spent doing just about anything else.

The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Port Charlotte Stadium

Charlotte Sports Park is one of the newer "destination" parks in the Grapefruit League, just down the road from the team’s big-league home in Tampa Bay. Miami is slightly closer, but they are easily the second-closest Spring Training park to the top-level team in Florida. They seem pretty proud of it, as many signs tout the fact that they were named the best Grapefruit League park a year or so ago. And that may be true a year or so ago, but the more reason parks clearly surpass it.

The park itself is raised up on a hill from the surrounding parking lot, with walkways leading up to small stairways to the three entrances to the park at home plate, first base, and third base. There's a walkway connecting all the entrances, and beyond the first base entrance is the entrance to the practice fields, but apparently as the players also use that gatew as an entrance, you can't get to the practice fields that way. If you walk down the street, you can get around to the practice fields that way, but it isn't particularly fan friendly. The team store and the ticket booth are right by the main home plate entrance.

All the entrances down out onto the main promenade that encircles the entire park. There is a large plaza right by the entrance at home plate that houses the two-story team store and a bandstand. Regular ramps lead from the outer promenade into a smaller walkway in the seating bowl that splits the upper area from the box seats by the field. All the concessions and other services are on the outer promenade, and the outfield walkway is actually called the "Baseball Boardwalk," a planked walkway that runs from right field to left field behind center field.

The main grandstand runs from first base to third base behind home plate, with a shade covering every area except home plate, where the press box sits at the top of the seats. Picnic hills run from the bases top the outfield corners on both sides. Center field has a long-low building in right field that hosts luxury boxes, and all along the Baseball Boardwalk are first-come, first served tables and bar seats looking out over the field, and tiki bar rests in left field right next to the digital scoreboard in left-center. The single-level outfield wall is covered in local ads and looks out onto trees and endless Florida sky. All around the promenade are Tampa Bay historical moments, as well as smaller plaques celebrating the "firsts" at the park. Championship pennants are on the luxury boxes in right, and The Kids Clubhouse play area is on the promenade towards right field for the kiddies.

Mascot posse in the hizzouse

Both the major and minor-league mascots, Raymond and Stoney, make their appearances before, during, and after the game. The Rays have more than average non-baseball activates in the Grapefruit League, from pre-game interviews, to a standard fare of minor league contests, races, and give-aways. Even for a Thursday game, the Rays managed to get a pretty decent crowd for the game (even if a lot of them seemed to be fans of the visiting Twins), but they did seem to be there more for the spectacle than the game itself.

At the Game with Oogie:

Hot dog and souvenir soda

I had picked seats way-back-when in the second row of the upper section behind first base. I was kicking myself at this point that I didn't go higher up to get under the cover of the awning, but as it turned out, only the first row of the home upper section was in the sun, so I was in blessed shade for the entire game.

I got a regular "jumbo" hot dog as I went in, and managed to break a 50/50 computer by my presence. (The printer stopped working, and I had to come by later to pick up my ticket, which had eventually printed. I didn't win.)

I was spotted as working press by one of the guys at a concessions stand. He gave me a bunch of useful advice about the place that panned out, so that was nice.

Unstoppable prizes

Sitting with me was a group of older couples to my left, a small family to my right, and more older couples in front of me. Outside off taking a picture of a husband and wife behind me (at his request after seeing my camera), I didn't have a whole of interaction with the people around me, which helped me concentrate on my scorecard, at least.

The Game:

First pitch, Twins vs. Rays

This meaningless Grapefruit League contest pitted the Minnesota Twins against the home-team Tampa Bay Rays, and for whatever it was worth, the home fans went home happy.

The contest started off slow, with both sides going in order in the first. The second was the scoring frame, as the Twins jumped out to a two-run lead on the back of two singles and a double, but Tampa Bay got one back in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff single, another single, and a ground-out to third, leaving it 2-1 after two. Minnesota went in order in the top of the third despite a single thanks to a double-play, while the Rays only had a ground-rule double to show for the bottom of the inning.

The Twins threatened in the top of the fourth with back-to-back singles to start the inning, but an infield fly pop-up and a double play ended the half with no runs across. Tamps Bay was more productive in their half, with a two-out walk followed by a homer to left to make it 3-2. Minnesota went in order in the fifth, while the Rays stranded a two-out double and a single in the bottom of the frame. The Twins went in order again the sixth, but Tampa Bay manufactured another run with a leadoff single and two walks to load the bases, and then a sacrifice fly to bring the run in to extend the lead to 4-2.

Minnesota went in order again in the seventh, and the Rays only had a walk in the bottom of the inning, immediately erased trying to steal second. Both sides went in order in the eighth, while the Twins only managed a one-out walk in the top of the ninth before two more quick outs ended the game with the Rays 4-2 victory, for whatever it is worth, which is nothing.

The Scorecard:

Twins vs. Rays, 03/19/15. Rays"win," 4-2.

The scorecard was part of the slim magazine-size program that was full-color only on the cover pages. The scorecard was part of the centerfold spread on black and white. The scorecard took up about 3/4th of the page, with scoring instructions in the column to the left of the card. Each batting slot had space for a replacement, batting summaries at the end of each line, and inning summaries at the bottom of each column. The scoring squares were blank and of a comfortable size. The pitching lines were under the bating lines, with two columns for pitchers. Beneath those were summary lines under both teams scoring areas. There was a light grey background printed around the card so you could make notes, but the background was a little smudgy, although thankfully not the printing behind the scoring boxes. All in all, it was a decent scorecard, especially compared to some of the monstrosities around the Grapefruit League.

There weren't many plays of note. There was a strike-em-out-throw-out DP K-2-6 in the top of the third, and the bottom of the third had what was ruled a ground-rule double that I noted was clearly an E7. Besides that, it was all straightforward, with both teams doing the nearly full-team swap outs, with the Rays starting in the fifth and sixth, and the Twins doing nearly all of it in the seventh.

The Accommodations:

America's Best Value Inn

For the first time in a while, I was not at a friend or relations. After some searching around the night before, I settled the America's Best Value Inn in Fort Myers for a number of reasons. It was relatively cheap, it had good reviews, and it wasn't near the beach.

All of this would pan out. The one main room had a couch, bed, and nightstands on one wall, and a desk, TV, dresser, fridge & microwave on the other. In the back was a sink and vanity, and the bathroom and shower proper were to the left of that.

There were many pillows on my bed, and it seemed quiet. What more could you ask for? It was also populated with nearly all people over 60, so it definitely wasn't a Spring Break crash pad. And that panned itself out.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League