Sunday, March 8, 2015

Jupiter (Cardinals)

On a Pleasantly Short Sunday Sojourn 

Roger Dean Stadium, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Miami Marlins vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Roger Dean Stadium
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Jupiter, FL
1:05 PM


Outside the Game:
Jupiter was mercifully close to my parents' condo, giving me a chip shot drive of under and hour there and under an hour back, which was a good deal considering how much driving I had already done and how much more I had left to do. Either way, I definitely wasn't a Spring Chicken anymore.

And it wasn't helping that my father kept waking me up super early as he "quietly" got ready for golf. I mean, I know I should be grateful for a free place to sleep, but then again, it was a place to sleep, and I wasn't doing all that much of it.

I was up, breakfasted, and showered pretty early, and I only needed to leave for the park around 10 AM. I had been there before, so I even knew the way, and the traffic, such as it was, would be cleared up by then. I grabbed my game bag and headed out, and after putting the destination in the GPS, I was off for a quick ride up. I parked and did all my photography outside before heading out to the practice fields for some photos and then heading to an entrance for the short line to get in as gates opened.

Autograph hounds
Spring training autographs

After the game, I was out again in a flash, and even with the crowd, I was able to leave relatively quickly for the short ride back to the condo. I dumped my bags and shut myself into my parents' bedroom for another coma/nap. After that, I headed down to the clubhouse at the complex, because it was the only place that had Internet, and I mainlined some pop culture for a while and did some typing up and the planning for the next day.

Back in my parents' condo, I had dinner, and then set about using my voucher from an awful stay in Buffalo to secure a room for the next night before seeing how quickly I could kick my parents out of the living room so I could hit the sack early and perhaps get some real sleep before my father woke me up on the way to golf the next morning.


The Stadium & Fans:
Home to center, Roger Dean Stadium
Home plate to center field, Roger Dean Stadium

Not much about the Roger Dean Stadium had changed since the first time I visited, except that there were a lot more people in the stands and there was the pitch timer clock in the outfield. The Cardinals fans outnumbered the Marlins fans by at least three-to-one, and probably more. Each fanbase was clustered around their "side" of the field, with the Cardinals by first base and the Marlins by third.

Obviously, there was a big crowd for the game, and it was mostly dominated by Cardinals fans. Unlike some other places, the between-inning activities were still in full swing, but on a tighter schedule thanks to the shorter intermissions. There was still the general minor-league level contests and give-aways to keep people occupied and distracted from heat stroke. Fredbird didn't make the trip down for the Spring, so it was up to the human crew to shepherd the games around.


At the Game with Oogie:
Scoring
Sun scoring

It was a hot one, which is a statement I'd be making with alarming regularity for the afternoon Grapefruit League games in Florida. I got in as the gates opened, and it was a packed crowd, as the senior resident Cardinals were playing the junior resident Marlins, and the stadium was filled to capacity with all their fans.


Grub
Hot dog and souvenir soda

I wandered around the place and took supplementary pictures while drinking a lot of liquids. I grabbed a hot dog and souvenir soda, and later I supplemented that with a "Dean Dog" and a water or two to get me through the game. I had a seat that was at the very last row behind just beyond first, which gave me a nice view of the field, but absolutely no protection from the sun. I was packed in with Cardinals fans, although the people directly to my right were actual Braves fans down for the game. I kept my opinions to myself and made some small talk with them throughout the game.


The Game:
First pitch, Marlins vs. Cardinals
First pitch, Marlins vs. Cardinals

This meaningless Spring Training game pitted stadium-mate Miami Marlins against the home-team-for-today St. Louis Cardinals, with one of the home teams coming away with the victory.

As can happen with Florida afternoon games, it started slowly, with both teams going in order in the first. Miami jumped out to the early lead in the second, getting a run from a leadoff walk with another walk, a fielding error, and a ground out, earning them a 1-0 lead. The Cardinals again went in order. It was the Marlins turn to go in order in the third, while St. Louis stranded a walk and a single in their half.

Miami added to their lead in the fourth with a lead-off homer to dead center, making it 2-0, while the Cardinals stranded two more singles in the bottom of the frame. The Marlins just had a walk in the fifth, while St. Louis finally got on the board with three straight two-out singles, cutting the lead to 2-1. Miami managed not to score in the top of the sixth despite a walk and two singles, while the Cardinals went in order in their half.

The Marlins just had a double to show for the top of the seventh, while St. Louis decided to get all its scoring done. A leadoff double was followed by a homer to left, and a batter reached on an error to be driven in by another, two-out homer to left, leapfrogging ahead to 5-2. Miami went in order in the eighth, and so did the Cardinals, thanks to a double-play that erased a leadoff walk. The Marlins tried to get something going in the ninth with a leadoff single, but two groundouts and a strikeout ended the game, giving the Cardinals their pointless 5-2 victory.


The Scorecard:
Marlins vs. Cardinals, 03/08/15. Cardinals "win," 5-2.

The scorecard was the centerfold of the $4, full-color magazine program. While the scorecard took up the entirety of the spread except for a tiny strip ad at the top, it was printed on semi-gloss magazine paper, while did alright with regular pencil, but much less so with colored pencil.

Which is a shame, because overall, this was a great scorecard. Each batting line had space for a replacement, each batting line ended with batting totals, and each inning column ended with summary totals, including errors and left on base. The scoring boxes were blank and comfortable to score in. Pitching lines were under the batting lines and also included catchers' lines for each pitcher. The scorecard was printed on white, so there was space for notes on the margins. With different paper, this would have been a dream.

There were a number of plays of note. In the top of the third, there was a pitching change with a 1-0 count on the batter that got its own note. In the bottom of the fifth, with runners on first and second, there was a shot into the shift with the shortstop behind second base. The play went to first, too late to get the runner, and the heads-up runner at third went home on the throw. The throw to get him went 6-3-2 but was too late, resulting in everyone being safe. That play got a note as well. And finally, in the top of the sixth, a runner at first went all the way to third on a single to deep left, and he arrived safely, with the player tagging him after he arrived. But he kept the tag on, and the runner left the base, so he was count out CS 7-5 with a note explaining it all. That was a weird one.

All but two players rotated out of the game. The Marlins swapped all their players between the sixth and eighth innings, while the Cardinals swapped all but the bottom two players in the lineup a little earlier in the game, between the fourth and sixth.


The Accommodations:
I was on the pull-out couch at my parents' rented condo again, not quite comfortable, and definitely not getting good sleep thanks to my lead-footed father and his early golfing habits.




2015 Grapefruit League

No comments:

Post a Comment