Viera

On Mishearing What You Want to Mishear

Space Coast Stadium, 2015

Monday, March 9, 2015
Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals
Space Coast Stadium
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Viera, FL
1:05 PM

Outside the Game:
I was in a much better place for what would be another driving day. I was literally getting out of the elder complex, going on 95, and heading north until I had to take an exit. From a lack of complexity standpoint, it had a lot going for it.

I was a little worried about whatever qualified as "rush hour" down here, as I'd never been around during the week in my previous visits. It was about a two-hour drive to the stadium as the crow flies, so I gave myself two and a half just to be sure. Once I got onto the highway, there was a certain amount of congestion, but the traffic was moving along at the speed limit on a happy little clip. With the exception of a brief slow-down due to an accident, the ride up was without incident.

... with the exception, perhaps, of my tragic re-introduction to drive-time radio. Not wanting to tempt another unforeseen charge with the rental company, I didn't try to active the satellite radio, which left me at the mercy of the broadcast stations, and they all were some variation of the "wacky morning" program. One, I swear to god, had a homosexual accountant named "Gay Larry," who was played in to a version of "Jim Dandy," with his name replaced in the chorus. ("Go, Gay Larry! Go, Gay Larry!")

Suitably horrified, I eventually found a sports talk radio show about the latest college basketball scandal, or something, and when that is infinity preferable to the alternatives, you know we have scraped the very bottom of the barrel.

Radio horrors aside, I was eventually at the exit, and a short drive later through a maze-like commercial complex, I found my way to the large, grass field that was designated the parking lot, for which I was to pay $9 to drive my car across. I parked up and went to do my pre-game thing.

On the way out, even with the amount of people who had bailed before the end of the game, there was a sizable contingent trying to find their way out of the unlined field. I eventually went in the first logical direction, which landed me in an unmoving gridlock. Not content to die there waiting in a field, I drove to the other side of the field, found a small road, and drove it up and out of the parking lot, around the line that was gridlocked at the other side. Fifteen to twenty minutes of teeth-grinding logjam later, I was able to get back to 95 and head west across the state again.

My route today was the northern route that passed the direct toll road that crossed Mouse Country. As I was getting to the area, my tiny fuel tank was down to a few Doritos of power, so I had to make a quick detour to get some gas before skirting by the airport and twenty-seven different exits to the various Disney properties.

Say what you will about that anti-Semitic, frozen-headed bastard, Walt had a lot of vision if nothing else. Heading west to east across the area, you see a lot of what he first saw when he came down there so many years ago: endless murky swamps filled with insects and alligators. You can argue about what it has become, but to be able to see what he saw and think, "This is going to be the biggest tourist attraction in the world," and deliver on it, well, that's at least something.

Eventually, I was on the flip-side of Orlando and heading towards Tampa Bay. I had spent the 5 o'clock hour traversing the state, so I was coming into Tampa post-peak rush hour. Outside of a small delay on the bridge to St. Petersburg due to another traffic accident, I kept moving along to my hotel near the airport.

I arrived at around 6:30 PM, again, annoyingly as predicted by the GPS, and I checked in, dropped off my bags, grabbed some food next door, and then went up to my room for a good, long soak in the tub, happily re-united with the Internet that had been denied me for the last few days. Oh, captioned cat pictures, I missed you so.

The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Space Coast Stadium

Space Coast Stadium (not be confused with Space Ghost Stadium) seems to be named from another era. But the park opened in the mid-90s, decades after the glory days of the space program. Not surprisingly, the space references start outside, where in addition to a statue of Casey at the Bat, there is a memorial to the space shuttle program in the area between the parking lots, practice fields, and the main stadium. The main entrance is also space themed entrance, with stairs leading up to a plaza and walkway to the main home plate entrance that looks like the gangway of the nearby space launches.

Handsome devil

A large lake is across the complex, and underneath the entrance walkway are the admin offices and player entrances to the park. The team store and box offices occupy on outcropping building on the ground floor as well. You can walk all the way around the outside of the park, and the practice fields are just across the parking lot from the main entrance. In a very old-time feel, all the players walk the short gauntlet from the practice fields to the player entrances, where they are swarmed by autograph-seeking fans before each game.

Are you signing today?

The entrance dumps out onto to an exterior walkway that goes around the park, but it narrows out in the outfield. A smaller walkway runs in the main seating bowl from around first to third base, splitting the upper seats from the box seats close to the field. The lower deck seats run to the outfield corners, topped with rows of bleachers separate from the main seating area. The press box sits over the main entrance ramp behind home plate, flanked by some luxury boxes that extend out to the dugouts. The second section of regular seats behind the dugouts are equipped with some sun shades that mostly service the top of the stands until the light gets lower in the afternoon. An additional section of bleachers sits in left field, beside the picnic berm hill and the Corona Party deck in left-center.

The main digital scoreboard with a small video board on top (along with the new pitch clock) sits in left-center along the palm-tree-lined outfield view. The back of scoreboard has the (now retro-) futuristic stadium sign. All the concession line the exterior park walkway, including a tiki bar out in right-center field.

For a weekday afternoon game, there was a pretty good turnout, with fans filling most of the areas and dribbling out onto the bleachers on both sides. This was another case of the mascots not coming down for Spring Training, and there was a minimum of minor-league entertainment activity between the innings. However, instead of the regular mascots, the giant, foam, one-term “retired Presidents” flew the flag down South, schmoosing with the fans and running in the retired presidents’ race in day-glow tropical shirts and surfer shorts.

At the Game with Oogie:

More sun scoring

It was another hot one, and as I was lining up to get in, it turned out the gate guy was from New Jersey, and we had a chat about home for a little while we waited. I immediately did my photography run and got a hot dog basket and souvenir soda before grabbing another hot dog and some water to get me through the game.

Hot dog basket and souvenir soda

I scored a seat between home and first base in the first few rows of the upper seating section. I was in the sun for the entire game, pounding back water as fast as I could drink it while also trying to ration it for the rest of the game. I was wedged in with Nats fans, mostly families who were trying to cope with the heat just as I was. The thermometer topped out at 85, but it seemed way hotter than that as we slowly baked through the afternoon, for what thankfully was a very quick game.

The Game:

\

First pitch, Braves vs. Nationals

This meaningless Spring Training game pitted the Atlanta Braves against the Washington Nationals at the unconventional start time of 2:35 PM. The game clipped along to just over 2.5 hours, with the home team taking the unimportant loss.

The game creaked to life slowly, as both teams went in order in the first. In the second, Atlanta moved a one-out double to third base on a ground out, but left him there, while the Nationals went in order yet again. The Braves got on the board in the third with a one-out single followed by a home run, staking them to a 2-0 lead. Washington strung together two singles in the bottom of the inning but left them on the bases.

Atlanta went in order in the fourth, while the Nationals only had a walk to show for their part of the inning. The Braves threatened again in the fifth with two singles and a fielder's choice, but the runner was left to wilt on the basepaths, and Washington went in order despite a two-out double when the runner tried to extend it to a triple and was gunned down. Atlanta got a walk to third in the top of the sixth, but left him there, and the Nationals did the same with a leadoff single in the bottom of the frame.

The Braves had basically a walk to show for the top of the eighth, as did Washington in the bottom half. Atlanta just put up a walk and a single in the top of the ninth, but showing some life at last, the Nationals came close to a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. A leadoff single was followed by a walk and a double to bring in a run and leave it second and third with two outs and the winning run in scoring position. However, the last batter wasn't up to the challenge and struck out, giving the Braves their unimportant 2-1 victory.

The Scorecard:

Braves vs. Nationals, 03/09/15. Braves "win," 2-1.

The scorecard was the centerfold of the $4, full-color magazine program. The scorecard itself was on cardstock paper, so it was easy to write on in pencil, and it took up the entire spread on a white background, making it comfortable to write on with places for notes. Each batting line had a designated space for replacements, and there were batting summaries at the end of the line and inning totals at the bottom of each column. The scoring boxes featured a quasi-Scoremaster system with a pre-printed diamond and boxes for balls and strikes, but it was organized in such a way and with such space that it wasn't an issue. Pitching lines for the teams were at the bottom of the batting lines, game totals were next to the pitching lines, and a place for player reserves was under the pitching line (but those reserves were never announced, s it was a bit useless).

All-in-all it was a pretty quick and conventional game, with a couple of exceptions. There was a CS 9-5 in the bottom of the fifth as the runner tried to turn their double into a triple and failed. The Nationals swapped out all of their players in the sixth and seventh innings, but the Braves only took out the top half of their order between the sixth and the eighth, leaving four players in for the whole game, the most I'd see all Spring Training.

The Accommodations:

La Quinta Inn

So, this was my one-night stay at the La Quinta Inn by the Clearwater Airport to burn off my free night pass I got for surviving Buffalo last year. When I blew into the lobby, the counter person efficiently got me set up in a very Eastern-European kind of way and got me packing off to my room.

The room was a standard "aspiring to be fancy" mid-range hotel. A small efficiency area was to the left of the entrance, with a microwave and refrigerator, right next to the bathroom. A dresser was on one wall in the bedroom, with a desk further down the wall, and a king-sized bed, end tables, and a lounge chair on the opposite wall.

The TV even had a spooky white noise feature where there were one of three channels to tune to that played various white noise sounds with suitable backgrounds. I left the TV to a nighttime tropical scene with crashing waves playing continuously.

Whether it helped me sleep or not, I can't really say, but for $0, you can hardly complain.

Click here to see all the photos for this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League