Port St. Lucie

On Seeking Karmic Justice

Clover Park, 2020

Friday, May 10, 2020

Houston Astros vs. New York Metropolitans

Clover Park

Grapefruit League (Spring Training)

Port St. Lucie, FL

1:05 PM 

 

Outside the Game: 

After another early night to bed (or, as it is known in Florida, "going to bed at the regular time"), I was up before 9 AM again, even losing the hour at the end of Daylight Savings. I showered, dressed, and grabbed my stuff to leave. The drive up to the park with my dad went quickly, but for some reason, my father just would not stop the car to let me out so I could go to the training area. He kept driving and driving until I eventually just left the car when he hit another red light. I mean, really.

The ballpark had undergone yet another renaming over the winter, now sporting a "Clover Park" moniker after yet another sponsorship deal. (The Clover wasn't luck this year, was it, gentlemen? WAS IT?)

I took some pictures of the new features outside (more on that later) and went out to the still ramshackle entrance to the training area. Thanks to my father's recalcitrance to dropping me off, I only had under ten minutes before they started closing up. I took my pictures and went on my way directly to the team store before the big crowd from the training area got back. The store was much improved and enlarged, I made my misguided purchases and got on line to get in.

Thankfully, there was shade on the line, and I occupied myself reading a Stengel biography on my Kindle. Eventually, the gates opened up, and I was quickly inside the complex.

On the way out, we had a big wait for my father again, who had to go before we went while the bathrooms were overflowing with people waiting to do the same. As it turned out that this was the tenth year we were doing these Spring Training trips, we got together in a dugout photo op outside the park and took a picture. My father would eventually send it to me a week later just as the lockdown started, and it was a weird reminder of the world that was.

I napped on the way back to the condo, showering and packing when we arrived. Just my parents and I went out for a Sunday dinner again at a local Italian place that liked to serve up lots and lots of food that was acceptable enough. Back to the condo we went, and I watched some TV on my tablet while finishing up packing and going to bed early again for the flight the next day.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home to center, Clover Park

So the newly renamed Clover Park was the latest in the carousel of names the Mets' Spring Training facility has had over the years. The newest one is the naming rights for a point-of-sale company, and the "clover" name didn't turn out too lucky, but we didn't know that at the time.

In the off-season, in addition to the name change, the park has had a bunch of improvements, both cosmetic and structural, and it really did invigorate the old concrete lump of a stadium as much as is probably physically possible.

Starting on the outside, the entrance to the training facility was moved from behind left field to behind right field, and was slightly more pleasant than before. The training facilities themselves got a bit of an upgrade, with some photo points added in, and most of the fields getting some TLC besides.

Outside the park got a big renovation as well. The largest was the consolidation of all the entrance gates into one big entrance right behind home plate, no doubt to accommodate the now-mandatory metal detectors. The old gates in left and right field are gone, and now the home plate entrance dumps out into a largish-plaza area with a stairway straight up the main promenade.

The outside of the park underwent other upgrades and changes. The 9/11 and other memorials were moved a short distance, and the outside was clad in orange and blue banners showing players and luminaries both past and present, with the home run apple added to the elevator spire. The team store was moved and renovated from its claustrophobic former self into a two-story space that had entrances both outside and inside.

Once inside, most of the interior was gussied up and changed, mostly for the better. The walkways have all been mostly wallpapered with logos and slogans from years past, as well as things like 1969 World Series' tickets and scorecards, and rather clever mixed photos of old and new players together, such as Tom Seaver and Jacob DeGrom holding onto Cy Young awards. Members of the Mets hall of fame are on banners affixed around the park, as well. For a team that usually does really poorly with its history, this was a nice change of pace. All the victory pennants and the like are now houses on the press box deck behind home plate.

The left field area was complete redone into the Budweiser Terrace and the Jim Beam Bourbon Bar, with stairs leading down into the Training Complex. The right field berm was re-christened the SunCoast Sun Deck. It wasn't all good, as most of the concessions stands were standardized, and things like the UltiMet Grill were moved out to the outfield--a shadow of its former self--and all the other specialty food stands seemed to have been removed.

Let's get this out of the way: It was the first Spring Training match-up with the Metropolitans and the Astros after the cheating scandal of the year before. (Can I even remember when it was really important?) People were starting early and often banging on the trash cans around the field in mockery of the Astro's cheating signals of previous years. Pretty quickly, the staff asked people to stop banging on the trashcans. This led quickly to something they couldn't really prevent, which was banging the plastic chairs, which sounded almost as good, and there was certainly a lot more volume through so many people doing it.

The Asterisks were booed the entire game. Every single guy who came up got booed pretty unmercifully, and since it was a split squad game, there weren't even that many regulars there, but Verlander was pitching, and he got it both barrels until he was pulled. It was a nice mob justice moment, but it was ultimately blunted by the fact that it didn't achieve anything except piss the Astros players off--but really, that is all we could have hoped for.

At the Game with Oogie: 

The last of the spring scoring

As mentioned, this was the yearly game with my family down in Florida. I had my parents call everyone and warn them that the clocks moved ahead that morning. They ended up mostly showing up before the end of the first, but it was everyday issues that caused the delays, not the clocks.

I was all by myself for most of the pre-game. I walked around to see all of the improvements to the parks, take my pictures, and get some chicken tenders and fries from the Ulti-Met Grill, which had inexplicably moved around the stadium as well. I took a run through the team store that was open from the inside of the park, as well, before settling into my seats and waiting for everyone else to show up.

We got into the cheering and booing as much as anyone. It felt a little cathartic to have our moment of hate for the Astros, and it really did seem to bother the players, which made it even better.

 

The Game:

First pitch, Astros vs. Metropolitans

This meaningless Spring Training contest between the Metropolitans and Houston Asterisks only gained meaning in that it was a fight of good versus evil, and good won. Also, Verlander and Thor were starting.

The Asterisks went quietly in the first in order, while New York stranded two singles. Again falling under the power of Thor, Houston again went in order, while the Mets stranded only one single this inning. The Asterisks started strong in the third, stringing back-to-back doubles into a run, while New York went order for their half, with Houston at a 1-0 lead after three.

With Thor out, Houston managed a lone double in the stop of the fourth, while the Mets did their darndest not to score. A leadoff walk was erased on a double-play, while a double was followed by a single, with the lead runner getting gunned down at home. The Asterisks went in order in the fifth, but New York got going with a single and two doubles turning into two runs, to give them a 2-1 lead. Houston stranded a walk and a hit in the sixth, while the Mets went in order.

The Asterisks only had a leadoff single to show for the seventh, while New York stranded an error and a single. In the eighth, Houston went in order, but the Mets started their half with a homer to left, ending their half with a now 3-1 lead. The Asterisks repeated a Mets achievement from earlier in the game in their half of the ninth, with a one-out single getting gunned down at the plate on the double that followed, securing the Mets pointless--but upstandingly moral--3-1 victory.

The Scorecard: 

Astros vs. Metropolitans, 03/08/20. Metropolitans win, 3-1.

The scorecard was the centerfold in the $5 Spring Training program. Disappointingly, it was still on glossy paper with colored backgrounds, making it the worst for pencil scoring and erasing. For no good reason, a quarter of the top of each side was wasted with generic baseball pictures, though there was white space around the edge of the card for notes. Scoring tips and rules and regs took up another 10% of the bottom of the card, leaving only about half of it for the scorecard.

The scorecard itself lacked pitching lines. I added them in an unused box at the bottom of the lineups. The scorecard featured 17 player lines, just enough to not have space for each player and a replacement. The player lines were number, player, and position, and had 11 columns for innings, ending in at bats, RBIs, runs, and hits. Each column had a split, presumably for runs and hits per inning.

There weren't a lot of plays of note. In the bottom of the first, a hit was ruled a single when it was really an E6. In the bottom of the fourth, a runner on second tried to score on a single and got caught at home CS 9-3. Similarly, in the top of the ninth, there was a runner on first trying to score on a double who was cut down CS 7-6-2. The only other noteworthy event was in the bottom of the eighth, when a hitter got a single to left against the shift that I thought was worth of a word or two.

The Accommodations: 

Back at my parents' condo for the evening before my flight the next day.

On the Coming Storm and Amazing Symbolism

Airports, always too early

Monday, March 9, 2020

Jersey City, NJ

 

Outside the Game:

Those of you keeping track of dates will notice that this is the Monday of the week when everything got shut down. As you'll remember, the country, the government, and especially Florida were largely ignoring things as infection numbers started to go through the roof.

I had bought a seat upgrade the night before for a window seat and premiere boarding, so I got up this morning with little concern, showered, and finished packing before the short drive to the airport. Except when we got to the airport, it was was anarchy: police everywhere, backups, check points. Our beloved leader was coming down to golf again through West Palm Beach Airport, no doubt thinking of the decisive action he was going to take on the pandemic that was raging around him. I eventually got dropped off at the terminal with time to spare, but the security line took longer than at Newark and I got the gate just before boarding was to start. I ran next door to get a Croissanwich from the Burger King and ran back just to hear that boarding was delayed.

It was short, however, and we boarded close to on time. I was in a row with an old lady, and we had a seat empty in the middle of us, which, in retrospect, was probably a good thing. There were people who were freaking out and wiping down everything in their seat area with cleaners and disinfectants, but I thought it obsessive at the time. The airlines were already cleaning the planes. Wiping down your tray table wasn't going to save you from this thing when we were all crammed in together otherwise. No one at this point was wearing masks.

I spent most of the flight asleep, and we got off at Newark after another small delay, related to the president flying out earlier in the day, so Trump got me coming and going. I called a Lyft and went home to unpack and do laundry and other things necessary before the return to work on Tuesday, though it would only be for two days...

The Accommodations: 

Back in my apartment, which I would become intimately familiar with over the next several months...

POSTSCRIPT:

I hope everyone out there reading this is safe and sound with their friends and families. This isn't a hoax and shouldn't be political. Wear your goddamn masks (even you, Karen) and stay distanced, and we'll get through this all.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2020 Spring Training

Elizabethton

On Unexpected Enlightenment

Joe O'Brien Field, 2017

Wednesday, August 9, 2017
Greenville Astros (Houston Astros) vs.
Elizabethton Twins (Minnesota Twins)
Joe O'Brien Field
Appalachian League (Rookie+)
Elizabethton, TN
7:00 PM


Outside the Game:
I had a lazy morning the first day in Tennessee. I rolled out of bed and down to breakfast, and then rolled back up to my room where I took a supplementary nap after a shower.

Eventually up and out the door, I headed downtown to the excessively named "Birthplace of Country Music Museum." The museum refers to the "Bristol Sessions," a set of recordings by a New York record producer in 1927 to sample what was then known as "Hillbilly Music." These recording would launch the careers of the first real stars of what would become known as "country" music.

The Birthplace of Country Music Museum

Now, outside of a penchant for Johnny Cash, I'm not by any stretch of the imagination a country music fan, but this was exactly the sort of place that I loved to find on these trips. Under normal situations, I would never, ever go out of my way to see a place such as this, but it was quite informative to me, and I learned a lot. I walked out of the gift shop with a CD of the recordings and a biography of the producer who made it happen, and I know much more now than I did then. And that's all I can really ask out of life. Before being the "Big Bang" of country music, Bristol was famous for being bisected by the Virginia/Tennessee border, and an electric sign arch over the road where the state line passes is another tourist attraction, which I saw as I drove to the museum earlier.

Proper hole in the wall

I stayed in the area downtown after the museum to look for lunch, and I saw a hole-in-the-wall lunch counter called the "Burger Bar" that wouldn't have been out of place in the 40s. It was everything I hoped it to be, as I sat at the crowded counter and got a relatively cheap burger and fries combo to die for. And it wouldn't be the last time I visited.

Less impressive in the daylight

After lunch, at the suggestion of my friend, I drove a little out of town to the Gray Fossil Site and Natural History Museum, an active archaeological dig site that came into being after road construction turned up a mother lode of dinosaur fossils. I went through the small museum they had and tramped out to watch somehow-still-pasty paleontology students digging at the outdoors site, as well as even more pasty paleontology students in the labs upstairs working on the bones that were dug up. I had told the person at the counter that I was interested in a walking tour out to the site, but she went on break at some point and did not tell the new person at the front, who apologized and said it would be another half-hour before someone could take me out due to the missed connection. Not wanting to see the dig up close that much, I jumped into my car and went back to downtown Bristol.

Nothing like pasty grad students outdoors

I tooled around in the row of antique shops on the main drag for a while, picking up a couple of old knickknacks for my trouble before heading back to the hotel for a nap. After waking up, I grabbed my game bag and got ready for the short, 30-minute drive to the park.

The drive was uneventful, but the address for the stadium did not have me ending up at a stadium. After some fiddling with GPS, I was able to get the stadium as a location and not an address, and I got within sighting distance of the light towers, which is all I generally need to get to me a park these days. I parked up, bought a reserved seat at the ticket booth, and then headed in.

After the game, it was another quick ride back to the hotel. Falling into a rhythm, I finished up my scorecard, soaked in the tub for a bit, and hit the hay.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Joe O'Brien Field

Joe O'Brien Field is about as far from a "cookie-cutter" ballpark as you might imagine. The main entrance is a low facade of a building right by the main parking lot. You can't much go around the park before access is cut off. The park is jutted up against the river, which you can't see from the main entrance. The field is at the end of a river park, and once I entered, I found out there is another entrance from the river park, essentially a back-door wedged in behind third base.

The entrances both empty out onto a large plaza, and a smaller walkway underneath the stands and buildings runs from third to first base outside the seating area. The main plaza area is behind first base, and houses two low buildings that hold the sole concession stand and souvenir shop. A small group of picnic tables and the Road to the Show run under the first base stands, along with a stand-alone Italian ice cart. A small inflatable fast-pitch also sits in this area, along with a 1960s-era drink machine in the back of the ticket booth.

There is one section of actual seating behind home plate in an uncovered grandstand. On either side are two pillbox buildings up on stilts over the claustrophobic walkway that holds the handicapped seating underneath. One box is the press box, and the other is "The Cave" party area. Two rows of bleachers run separately from the dugouts to the bases on both sides.

The double-decked wall is covered with ads along the outfield, with the exception of the blacked-out dead-center batter's eye, the digital scoreboard in right-center, and a championship and league board further towards right field.

The park has been there for a while and has accumulated a number of memorials. Hrbek, Puckett, Mauer, and Morneau all have wooden placards at the top of seating areas, with the dates they played for the team. There is also the aforementioned Road to the show under the first base seats. Additionally, there were a number of veteran memorials, including the de rigueur POW/MIA seat in the plaza, reserved veteran seating in the parking lot, and another banner for vets in the plaza.

There again was a prayer before the start of the game, and in the program, they advertised a "God and Country" night, which was probably to be expected. The mascot didn't make an appearance, but there was a decent crowd for the game, and they were into the action on the field, as there were again limited between-innings antics and contests. It was also safe to say that a lot of the people in the stands knew each other, as most folks didn't get five feet walking before greeting someone.


At the Game with Oogie:

Brat & chicken sandwich

So, after sitting on the hard concrete and then the metal bleachers on the previous night's games in Bristol, I decided to splurge on a reserved ticket, which at least ensured be a plastic seat with a back. Sadly, they were molded plastic, but it was still an improvement over the last night.

I grabbed a brat and chicken sandwich at the sole concession stand at the park and did a little shopping at the sole merch stand next door. I was running low on money as I forget to grab cash that day, and was down to my last $100, which was going to have to tide me over until after the game at least.

I had an assigned seat behind home plate and had the row pretty much to myself. Right in front of me were two locals and behind me was a family of fans for the visiting Astros. The Astros family got loud, but they were good-natured about it, especially when their team started to tank the game.

I again won the program contest, scoring a $5 local Dairy Queen gift certificate. Not ever going to be back in the area, I asked the guys in front if they wanted the prize. After a bit of negotiation, they agreed to take it. They also wondered if I was working for a radio station or something because they heard me "calling the game" behind them. I had to sheepishly tell them that it was just me muttering to myself (too loudly, it would seem) as I scored the game. They seemed satisfied with that answer.

Winner, winner

This also marks the first time I’ve ever been called a "Yankee" to my face. The gentlemen in front of me also inquired if I was one when they heard me speak, so another check mark for that day.

As the sun set, a large flock of mosquitoes (subsequent research has informed me it is called a "scourge") settled in to snack on the crowd, but the lighting of some torches on hand for just such an occasion lessened their impact.


The Game:

First pitch, Astros vs. Twins

This match between two top teams in the Appalachian League looked to be a better match-up than we actually got, with the hometown Elizabethton Twins blowing the visiting Greenville Astros out of the water.

The Astros went in order in the first, while Elizabethton managed to waste a leadoff walk and double with no one across in their half. Grenville had two walks and a single to load the bases in the top of the second, but likewise got no one across, and the Twins went in order. Both sides hung it up in the third, going in their respective orders.

In the top of the fourth, Greenville stranded a one-out double, but the Twins got on the board. A leadoff single was followed by a homer to stake them to a 2-0 lead. The Astros stranded a lone single in the top of the fifth, while Elizabethton kept on going. A walk and single went back-to-back to start the inning, and a wild pitch moved them over to second and third, and a subsequent single brought them both in to open the lead to 4-0. Greenville went in order again in the sixth, while the Twins racked up three doubles and two runs in the bottom of the sixth to open a commanding 6-0 gap.

Both sides went in order in the seventh, while Greenville finally got on the board in the eighth with two walks and a single to close it a little to 6-1. The Twins scattered two baserunners on an error and a single to no avail, but the Astros only had a single to show for the top of the ninth, leaving Elizabethton with a 6-1 victory.


The Scorecard:

Astros vs. Twins, 08/09/17. Twins win, 7-1.

The scorecard was part of $2 color newsprint tabloid program. The profits went to charity, so it is hard to work up much of a froth about it, but it was a pretty bad scorecard. It was part of the centerfold spread and perhaps half of the top of the spread was dedicated to the scorecard, while the rest was 75% ads and 25% scoring instructions. There was a colored background, which was smudge city on newsprint, especially colored. There was only one line for each lineup spot, but it was long enough to allow substitutions on the same line. The scoring boxes were unnecessarily tiny, which made it hard to score legibly.

There were a couple of scoring plays of note. There was a strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double play in the bottom of the fourth and a ground-rule double in the bottom of the sixth that went off the third baseman and into the stands for the double, which is an odd way to get a double to be sure. On the disappointing front, in the bottom of the seventh, there was a 3-6-1 DP, and I know that is how they are running the play these days, but it will never be as satisfying as the old 3-6-3 DP. I will now go and yell at some clouds with an onion on my belt.


The Accommodations:
I was at the Hampton Inn again. Not much to report, there.

Click here to see all the pictures from this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee

Lillington

On Being Deep in MAGA Country

Jim Perry Stadium, 2017

Friday, August 4, 2017
Carolina Mudcats (Milwaukee Brewers) vs.
Buies Creek Astros (Houston Astros)
Jim Perry Stadium
Carolina League (A+)
Lillington, NC
7:00 PM


Outside the Game:
Even with a solid night's sleep, it was a lazy morning in the hotel. I had breakfast at the buffet, and then spent time packing up all the formerly wet clothes and gear from the rainout the night before.

Once I was all packed, I made my final decision for the day. Instead of staying in Myrtle Beach for another day to try and get the game in here, I decided to head through North Carolina to pick off one of the new teams. It made for a shorter drive the next day, plus the forecast for Myrtle Beach wasn't all that great again, so there wasn't a big benefit to staying.

I left at about 11:30 AM and grabbed gas, stopping for an early lunch at a Burger King on the road, where a dog sat plaintively outside, staring at me eating my lunch for the duration of my stop, making me feel guilty. I was then out on the road again.

Now, this area of the state is centered around Fort Bragg, a major Army base. One of the main roads through the area runs right through the base, and as I drove up to it, I found it to be closed. Apparently, there was a golf tournament for the brass, and the road through was closed for the duration. This presented a pretty big problem for me, as my GPS kept desperately trying to go through the base road.

I picked a cardinal direction ultimately heading towards my destination and drove on local roads in that direction until the GPS finally gave up trying to take me through Fort Bragg and picked a new route. It was somewhat longer, but I had some time to work with. I eventually checked into my hotel a little west of where I was going, as it was in a slightly larger city and was close to the road I needed the next day. I checked in, dropped off my stuff, grabbed my game bag, and was out on the road to the game.

And I ran into more problems. Following the address for the stadium got me to a Baptist church in the middle of nowhere. I calmly followed my way back the way I came and tried following directions for the college that the stadium was at and drove on the road for a long time without seeing the park. I turned around and drove back and gave up and went into a gas station for directions. They told me I was on a wrong parallel road and showed me the way to go. After driving down that road, I was almost to the end of the college again when I finally saw the back of the stadium. With about forty minutes to go before the game, I parked, bought a ticket, and headed into the game.

The way back was much easier, and I was back at the hotel in under a half hour. I got my stuff together, packed up, got my directions for the next day worked out, and then went to sleep grateful to not be lost in my car anymore.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Jim Perry Stadium

Jim Perry Stadium is a collegiate baseball stadium primarily for Campbell College, named for MLB alumnus Jim Perry who went to the school. And also, until a new stadium is built downtown, it is the home of the newly relocated Carolina League squad, the Buies Creek Astros (which, as you might guess, is a farm team for the Astros).

It is quite nice and new for a college park, but a bit tiny for a minor league park. The Astros will only be playing there one or two years until they move to the city and change their name, so I grabbed some merch that will be rare, if not valuable. The park had a nice brick facade around it, with the BB&T Bank Gateway serving as the main entrance to the park, right across from the small parking lot. The one ticket booth is just under the iron arch at the entrance. A small fan services stand just through the entrance gives out free programs.

Seats run from third base to first base around home plate, with one row of seating rising up from entry ways at regular intervals along the outside promenade. At the top of the third base seats is the Perry Pavilion, with an inside party area and special seating. Netting rings the entire seating area, so no hope there. The Fighting Camels Press Box sits at the top of the home plate seating area, and a small digital scoreboard sits in right-center field, as a part of the tree-line that covers the outfield wall, only broken up by a college building near dead center.

One small concession stand with super-cheap prices serves the stadium behind first base. A large plaza sits behind home plate for congregations and catch, and there is a standing room area next to right field that seems to be the prime place to grab autographs.

There was no mascot to speak of, at least this night, and the small crowd filled the small stadium. The locals that attended seemed to be into the game, or at least paying attention, which was good, because there was next to no activity or the regular games and contests between innings, which at least had the game moving along at a good clip.


At the Game with Oogie:

Hayseed scoring

Even arriving late as I did, there wasn't a lot to this college park, so I was able to get all my preliminaries done without much ado. At the one super-cheap concessions stand, I got a souvenir soda, a red hot, and a cheeseburger for under $10. So, I was a cheap date that night.

Cheap eats

I had a seat right behind home plate in the middle of the aisle. All the seats, even the nice ones behind home plate, were molded plastic, so it was pretty uncomfortable. There was a decent crowd of locals at the game, and no one that I saw rooting for the visiting Mudcats.

An old dude came in a little late wearing his MAGA hat, and loudly demanding if anyone had a problem with his hat to anyone that would listen or even looked his way. A couple of people cheered him, and most said nothing one way or another. I was a visitor, so I kept my peace, but Jesus Christ, it did not make feel warm and fuzzy about this area of the country.


The Game:

First pitch, Mudcats vs. Astros

The newly minted Astros were facing off against their league rival Mudcats in this early season matchup that did not end up being a pitchers’ duel. The longball played a big part of the game and would factor heavily in its conclusion.

The game started slowly, however, with both teams going in order in the first. The Mudcats started off the second, however, with a double, who made it to third on a ground-out and was driven in with a sacrifice fly to center to stake them to an early 1-0 lead. Buies Creek came back in the bottom of the second with quite a two-out rally. Back-to-back doubles were followed by a homer to left, moving the home team in front, 3-1. The first Carolina batter in the third was hit by a pitch, and then progressed around the bases on a passed ball and two wild pitches to score and close the lead to 3-2. The Astros also worked a base runner around, with a one-out walk stealing second, getting to third on a ground-out, and then coming home on a two-out single to re-extend the lead to two runs, 4-2.

The Mudcats ran the table in the fourth. A leadoff single was followed by back-to-back, one-out doubles and then a triple and a sacrifice fly, leapfrogging out to a 6-4 lead. Unbowed, Buies Creek evened the score with a one-out walk and a homer to center, tying it up at 6-6. Both teams needed a break and went in order in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, Carolina hit a two-out homer to center to make it 7-6, while the Astros went in order.

Not to spoil anything, but Buies Creek went in order for the rest of the game. In the top of the seventh, Carolina turned a leadoff walk, steal, ground-out, and booted grounder to first into another run, went in order in the eighth, and hit a solo homer to left-center in the ninth to secure a 9-6 victory.


The Scorecard:

Mudcasts vs. Astros, 08/04/17. Mudcats win, 9-6.

The scorecard was part of a magazine-paper mini-tabloid free program given out by the gate. The scorecard was part of the center spread, and it was pretty awful. To begin with, it was on glossy paper, which made it very difficult to write on with pencil and decreased its legibility. Further, although it had substitution lines for all the players, each player line had two rows of mini-diamonds, further reducing legibility. Another sin was the fact that scorecard was crammed into about 80% of the space on the page, with 20% taken up a Buies Creek logo, for no good reason. Also, the background of the scorecard was all dark blue, which left no areas for marginal notations at all. Just a bad scorecard, really.

Thankfully, there weren't many interesting scoring plays, because it would be nearly impossible to read or record them on this scorecard. There was a 3-6-1 DP in the bottom of the seventh, and the hit/run/RBI line for Buies Creek was 6/6/6, but that was about how out of the ordinary it got. Also, there was a disproportionate number of homers in the tiny college park (4).


The Accommodations: 

Hampton Inn

I stayed at a hotel in Sanford, about a half-hour from the stadium. There were a lot more hotels in the larger town, it was closer to where I wanted to go the next day, and it was more convenient to the roads I needed for the long drive the next day.

It was a Hampton Inn, so it was pretty much exactly what I expected: slightly, but not really, upscale. A large king bed dominated one side of the room, with a small pull-out leatherette couch along the same wall. Opposite was the dresser, desk, and TV. A decent-sized bathroom, with wall-length vanity was off the entrance to the right.

I didn't spend much time there at all, but it got me a good night's sleep before a long drive, so it was all I needed of it.

Click here to see all the pictures for this trip.

2017 The Carolinas II & Tennessee

West Palm Beach (Astros)

On Revisiting on the Travel Day

The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, 2017

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

New York Metropolitans vs. Houston Astros
The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
West Palm Beach, FL
1:05 PM


Outside the Game: 
As I was optimistically heading out on the road today, I commenced to packing up for the next couple of days and then headed out for the short drive the park. Since the Nationals and Astros shared a stadium, I had to hit the Palm Beaches ballpark twice to see both home teams.

I had a couple of extra days in case of rainouts, but after a bit of a shower with yesterday's game, it looked like I was clear sailing to head out for other Florida fun after the Tuesday game. As I usually pack these trips to a game a day, it was almost unique to have a couple of days off to do something besides baseball. I hadn't been to the Kennedy Space Center since I was a kid, so that was my first choice for a stop-in if I had the opportunity, so I was planning to head up to Cape Canaveral after the game and stay at a hotel in the area. Instead of rocket launches, the Cape is mostly used these days as a departure point for cruise ships, so the area is lined with hotels to service them, so it was pretty easy to find a hotel for the night.

It was a quick drive up to the park before the game, and parking wasn't a problem given that this weekday afternoon game had much more anemic attendance than the first weekend game I saw there. Getting out was similarly quick, and I was on my way north after the short game.

Hitting the road

It was only about a two-hour drive up 95 after the game. It being mid-afternoon, there wasn't much traffic at all, and I zoomed straight up the coast with no issues except a stuck gas gauge on my mother's car that had me worried about exactly how much gas I had left until it shook itself free about halfway up. Once I got to the area, it became wall-to-wall tourist signs that got a little confusing, but I able to take the right bridge to Port Canaveral and down the main road to my hotel, which was at the north end of things.

I parked and checked in with no problems. It was early evening by the time I ventured out again. I stopped into the arcade at the hotel to get my game on, and then I went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. There must have been a NASA conference going on somewhere as well, because the restaurant was full of people with NASA stickers everywhere, and I saw a sign or two about a convention. What wasn't rocket science was the service at the restaurant. I was able to order and get my food relatively okay, if a bit slow, but then literally all the wait staff disappeared for about a half hour. Those that came out literally ran to where they were going and ran back to the kitchen. I made two attempts to call for their attention, which were ignored, and that was when I tried to remember how much my food cost, left that much on the table, and left. There was no one to stop me, and it was the first time I ever had to resort to such tactics. It was bizarre. No one came after me. I wonder how long until they noticed.

Being a sucker for mini golf, I walked down the street to check out a course that I saw, but upon closer examination, the mini golf course was decrepit and part of a tourist-trap store selling merchandise of questionable usefulness and taste, so I demurred. Back at the hotel, I went online and bought my ticket for the Space Center the next day, and started doing some research for my next proposed stop: Disney.

Rogue One was the Star Wars movie I had been waiting 30 years for, so I was back in the Mouse's good graces. I decided to try for Disney Hollywood Studios to see all the new attractions and merch from the movie as a reward, so I did some research and picked a hotel for the next night that was affordable but still close to the park. All the on-property hotels were sold out already at this late date, so I made due and hoped.

Not knowing how the next two days were going to go, I dropped off to sleep.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, The Ballpark at the Palm Beaches

The Ballpark at the Palm Beaches hadn't changed much in two days, although it was much emptier. For a brand-new park to sell this poorly was not a good indicator of its long-term success, but who knows if the Astros' success will bring it a boost.

The suicide sun stroke carts were not out in the outfield for this game, thank god, and there were some new specialty kiosks by the main home plate concessions for this game. I don't know if the Astros and Nationals have different concessions contracts, or it was just a weekend vs. day game situation. Either way, there weren't any attendants passing out from being cooked in metal boxes, so that was a plus.

In taking in more of the stadium, it was easy to see a lot more incomplete parts of the park, like landscaping and most of the finishing touches of polish that were nowhere to be found. Once they finish the place up in the off season, it will probably be much nicer.

Orbit, damnit.

As mentioned, the place was barely half full at best, and the visiting Metropolitans fan (whose team was located less than an hour to the north) were perhaps half of those fans. Orbit, however, made an appearance, and the poor soul in the big furry costume was out and about for the entire afternoon game in the sun. Regular between-innings contests pervaded as well.


At the Game with Oogie:

Shade scoring

I got to the park early and was one of the first people in the parking lot. I did a full walk-around of the park, noting the incomplete construction around the park and the pre-game MLB network show setting up on the grass outside, and then ended up in the Astros training area before the gates opened. I hung around and watched some drills along with a bleacher full of minor leaguers who were watching the top team take their grounders. When the gates opened, I headed inside, taking another look at the incomplete park.

"Stix"

At least the pressure cooker kiosks weren't in the outfield for this game, and I got a burger and fries from one of the concessions by home plate, along with a "Stix" (fancy name for shish kabob) and fires from another specialty kiosk in the area.

I got my seat for this game on the visiting Metropolitans third-base dugout side several rows back. There was a group of snowbirds to my right and a Hispanic family in front of me. The father kept telling his son and daughter what was going on in the game in a very appropriate, fatherly way.

There wasn't a lot more than that and watching the speedy afternoon game take its course.


The Game:

First pitch, Metropolitans vs. Astros

This pre-season matchup of the Who-Knew-It-Was-Going-To-End-Like-That Astros and the visiting New York Metropolitans was a brisk affair of a rare pitching duel in a pre-season game.

deAwsome is what his name should be

New York got back-to-back singles in the first, but stranded them in a fashion familiar to all Metropolitans fans, while the Astros' side struck out around a walk and a hit. Both sides went quietly in the second, but, in the process of striking out for the inning in the top of the third, the Metropolitans snuck in a leadoff single and a home run to left to jump to a 2-0 lead. Houston only snuck in a single in their half of the inning. New York got a single and a walk in the fourth, while the Astros snuck in a one-out homer to right of their own, closing the lead to 2-1.

And that was about it for the rest of the game. The Metropolitans came close in the top of the fifth with a single and a double not quite far enough to score the lead runner, while Houston went in order. Both sides went in order in the sixth except for a sole Astros' single, and both sides had a lone single in the seventh as well. New York had a single erased on a  double play in the top of the eighth, while Houston stranded a two-out walk. The ninth saw a lonely walk for the Metropolitans and a single erased on another double-play for the Astros, leaving New York with the pointless 2-1 win established half a game ago.


The Scorecard:

Metropolitans vs. Astros, 03/14/17. Metropolitans "win," 2-1.

So, the programs for the Nationals and Astros aren't just cosmetic changes on the cover. For example, the scorecard in the Astros program is completely different, a more traditional one-page design on cardstock that includes pitching lines and stats blocks. One mark against it, though, was the solid-color background which left little space for notes. There was also a $1 separate scorecard of nearly identical design, but I used the program version.

There weren't that many plays of scoring note. Besides an out to the overshift and a couple of gem catches on both sides, there was only one controversy to make it to the card. In the top of the fifth, there was a grounder to the third baseman that was clearly a butcher job by the ironically named Moran. For some inexplicable home-cooking reason, they changed it to a hit. I left the official record on the scorecard but noted the play and gave the player a parenthetical error in the tally area. That will show him.


The Accommodations:

Radisson Resort by the Port

For this evening, I was at the rhythmically named Radisson Resort at the Port. It was obviously mostly a stop-over hotel for people going off on cruises from the Cape and less about visitors to the space center, although there were clearly some people there for a NASA conference.

My room was right off the main pool, so I worried about noise, but the rooms were pleasantly sound-shielded, so there were no problems on that front. I had an overstuffed king bed with end tables and an easy chair on one side of the room, across from a desk and dresser with TV. At the end of the room was the vanity and sink, right next to the bathroom that housed the toilet and tub.

I was only there for a night, but it was a pleasant-enough stay.

On Spaaaaaaaaaace

Kennedy Space Center

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Brevard County, FL


Outside the Game:
I woke up in some place not my parents' condo for the first time this trip and dragged myself out of bed to shower, dress, pack up, and check out. One of the problems of being on an Air Force base is that Kennedy Space Center doesn't have an actual address, which prevents easy GPS directions. The helpful folks at the front desk reached back into the 16th century and gave me paper directions to the visitors' center, and thus dubiously armed, I set out into the day.

It was only one or two tricky turns and I was off to the visitors’ center with no problems. I parked up and headed to the entrance just before the gates opened. As I had pre-bought my ticket, I skipped straight ahead to the gates, and I was one of the first few dozen people in the park that day.

I made a fateful and prescient decision to go straight to the back when it opened. I managed to make a bee-line straight to the Atlantis exhibit. I was in the very first showing of the video they show every five minutes or so to control the crowds in the main exhibit area. It was just me and a handful of other people. The video finished, and the back of the screen opened up to reveal the shuttle Atlantis hanging from the roof of the giant building.

A shuttle into space

Walking by later, there was a line out the door, so getting there at the very start of the day turned out to be a great decision. I was able to wander the exhibit at my own pace without any sort of crowd. It was here that I really started to get into the experience. Not having been here in over 30 years, and the relative doldrums of the space program in the interim made me wonder how I was going to react to the place. But as I was wondering around the exhibits, I was very much that kid again staring up at a real space shuttle and other exhibits.

There were moments of levity (as the simulators that had MS Windows errors) and being told that I couldn't go through the model space station and space slides because I was apparently "an adult," but there were other more somber moments, such as the Challenger memorial, which even had wreckage of the shuttle that blew up on launch so many years ago.

After getting my fill of that building, I did a short backtrack to grab a bus over to the Apollo Center further out on the Cape. Again, I had some pretty good timing, as I walked through seemingly miles of switchback gates that would probably be filled later in the day to have a relatively short wait to get on a bus out to Apollo.

Mercury Mission Control

And that was a good thing, because being outside for my first extended period of time, I was struck by the fact that it was cold in northern Florida this day. Well, cold by Florida standards for March, not actually cold. We're talking in the high 40s. But, it being Florida and I being on vacation, and certainly not expecting anything like this, I had on pants, a t-shirt, and my over shirt, and outside of buttoning up my outer shirt, there was nothing else I could do except keep my hands in my pockets and think warm thoughts.

Thankfully, except for a small wait outside after our bus got to the Apollo center, I was back inside again at Apollo mission control and the rest of the building. Everything from Failure Is Not An Option came flooding back to me in the actual control room. This provoked a deeper child-like awe in me, from the last time we had a real-real space program with giant rockets and actual goals. Large rockets lined the long main expanse of the building, along with a wall of newspapers from the first moon landing, and a weirdly anachronistic multi-media display about the moon landing. There was also a more somber Apollo 1 memorial area.

Challenger memorial

The future of space was perhaps on display, as one of the launch pads on the Cape was primed with a Space X launch that was scheduled for the next day. After seeing all there was to see and grabbing some overpriced lunch, I lined up to get a bus back to the main visitors’ center. I was right behind a Canadian couple who informed me that many of the visitors were people such as themselves who had a day layover on their cruises to the Caribbean. Some decided to take the short trip to the Kennedy Space Center, while others opted for the longer hour plus trip both ways out to the Disney parks. They were kind of space nerds, so they chose the space center, for obvious reasons.

After the bus ride back to the main area, I spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the rest of the buildings, including the Heroes and Legends hall, the rocket garden, and the hall of future developments in space craft. NASA apparently is officially ceding low-Earth orbit launches to the private sector and are now concentrating on long-haul flights in the solar system with a modular rocket design to get us to Mars and beyond. Yeah, it probably is all high-level propaganda, but after a day that tapped deeply into my youthful enthusiasm, I wanted to believe. I also apparently wanted to spend a lot of money in the gift shop. But what can you do?

As evening fell, and it got even colder, I retreated to my car and made the slightly longer than an hour drive over to Kissimmee and my hotel at the Quality Inn. After checking in, I went straight to the little booth that every hotel in the area has for tickets to the amusement parks in the area, and I bought a ticket for Hollywood Studios for the next day. I went up to my room and unpacked, and registered everything for my ticket online.

I then walked down the road for a bit and grabbed dinner at some place or other. I considered going to a mini-golf place, but there was a long line, it was cold, and I was tired. I went back to my room, did a little more research for Disney the next day, reserved a Fast Pass or two, and then hit the hay.


The Accommodations:

Quality Inn & Suites

For the night before Disney, I was at the Quality Inn & Suites at Kissimmee by the Lake, which fit in as many whistle words for "Disney-adjacent" without getting into trouble with the Mouse lawyers. The hotel itself looked a little run-down, and I'm always inherently suspicious about "Quality" Inns, but the room turned out to be quite nice. There was a king bed and desk on one wall, across from a small sitting chair, refrigerator, TV, and dresser.

The vanity and sink was at the end of the room, outside of bathroom with toilet and tub. While it was heavily populated by budget-conscious holiday makers, it had no noticeable Spring Break contingent, so I was able to have a peaceful night's rest before heading out the next morning to the Maus Haus.

On the Crowdiest Place on Earth

Me and some close friends

Thursday, March 16, 2017
Lake Buena Vista, FL


Outside the Game:
And so I found myself going back to Disney for the first time in a decade-ish, more or less.

I really can't overstate how important Rogue One was in dragging me back to Star Wars fandom, mostly against my wishes. But it was the best experience I had in a movie theater since Jedi (Return of the, not Last), and I wanted to see what Disney was doing with it.

So I got up early, packed up, cleaned up, checked out, and drove to Disney about a half hour before the gates opened. With my band around my wrist, I went through the first surging crowd and found they were letting people into the park, but not into the rides a little early. It was still cool for Florida, but not nearly as chilly as the day before, and I waiting in the first line of people held back by a bank line barrier until the moment the park opened.

I feel like I could crush him.

This free-for-all is, among Disney insiders, the biggest push of the day. It is pretty much the only time you will be able to get on super-popular rides without a Fast Pass, and you have about two rides before the lines back up to the regular wait times. I went straight into Star Tours, which was right by where I was, and was on the first car of the tour. It had been sadly updated for the prequels, but not Rogue One. I then made a beeline over the Tower of Terror, and although I had a half hour wait by the time I was out of Star Tours, it was well under the normal 2.5 hour wait you get without a Fast Pass.

After Tower of Terror, the park was already filled. It was a Spring Break Week, and the park was filled to capacity. I made my way to a Fast Pass station on my way to the Muppets theater, and I was already blocked out of getting Rocking Roller Coaster Fast Passes for the rest of the day. (I would later find out that you can do your Fast Passes days in advance now, which wasn't the case the last time I went. Technology passed me by.)

It's time to get things started

I went to the Muppets 3D Theater nevertheless, as its high capacity is one of the few rides that you can go in at-will for most of the day. I headed in and waiting in a short line. Outside of updating the waiting area of the theater with some memorabilia of the now-thankfully-cancelled The Muppets, the attraction hadn't changed much at all. It was the same (what would now be called) 4D experience that I enjoyed again. Sadly, the Muppet store, although still the same on the outside, was only half of the store inside. The Muppet half was basically trying to sell off remaining The Muppets merchandise, although retaining some of the old decorations of the backstage of the original Muppet Theater, but the other half of the store was mostly a generic Disney merchandise store now.

The new Star Wars area was under construction, right next to the Muppets theater. This was part of the new immersive Star Wars park that was going to premiere sometime before the turn of the decade and include stuff on the misbegotten sequels as well as the original trilogy and prequels.

Cassian's convertible blaster 

The park was pretty much wall-to-wall by  this time of the day, and only more crowded when the stormtroopers march through the park happened, which just compressed the crowd more. I went over to the other Star Wars area of the park, which was filled with Rogue One props in addition to other smaller exhibits and short films on the movies. I then spent way too much money in the gift shop, where I may or may not have purchased a build-your-own droid toy.

I was able to grab a Fast Pass for the Great Movie Ride. I would find out later that it was being torn down to make space for more of Star Wars land, and I know a lot of people hate the ride as hokey and not worth the wait, but I always liked it. It was goofy fun, and you're in Disney for Christ's sake.

I tried to get a reservation for the Sci Fi Drive In, but by this time, they only had standbys for the last seating of the night, so I passed. I walked around to all the other areas of the park to see what I could see, and after witnessing the food lines, I decided to take a walk outside the park and head to the nearby Boardwalk, Disney's old-timey, turn-of-the-century boardwalk area, with old-timey shops and luxury resorts that started at $200 a night. I grabbed lunch on the pleasantly deserted Boardwalk before hopping on a ferry back to the entrance of Hollywood Studios.

It almost looks peaceful from a distance...

I used the Fast Pass I had for the final showing of the Stunt Show, another somewhat-hokey but enjoyable-to-me program at the park. I wandered in and out of shops for a while, spending my money on all the new Rogue One and Rebels merch I found, before heading to a food stand for dinner. I got some overpriced chicken tenders and fries, and already all the tables were full up. I made the best of it and sat down on a curb to eat my food and contemplate whether I would stay for the next hour or so to see the fireworks display or not. As I was finishing my fries, a kid came through and stepped directly in them and ran off. I figured that had made my decision for me.

Carting all my ill-considered loot out to the parking lot, I tossed all my gear in the trunk and headed out to my destination for the night in Melbourne, FL. I didn't want to drive all the way back to my parents' condo that night (I didn't know how late I would be at Disney), and there was a zoo in Melbourne, and the Dodgertown complex was nearby.

After clearing the park traffic, it was a fairly relaxed hour and a half drive to my hotel. I overshot the exit due to some construction, and it took a bit to get turned around, but I eventually got sorted out, checked in, soaked in the tub, and hit the hay, exhausted from my Disney extravaganza.


The Accommodations:

Extended Stay America

For reasons that seemed pretty good the night before, I had booked myself in the Extended Stay America by the Melbourne regional airport. I had absolutely no need for an efficiency apartment, but here we were.

The room had a short entrance way off of the bathroom to the right. The main room of the apartment had a full kitchen on one side, opposite a work desk. It was separated from the bed area by a kitchen table, and beyond that was the king-sized bed across from the dresser and an easy chair.

I only really made use of the tub and the bed, but it was quiet, and therefore I had a good stay there.

On Decaying History

Nature reclaims

Friday, March 17, 2017

Vero Beach, FL


Outside the Game:
I slept in good and late this Friday, getting a solid night's sleep after soaking in the tub and feeling quite good about the world upon waking. I felt so good, I had a second nap after I got up the first time just to be sure.

The rare turtle not having sex in front of me

Solidly sure how much I'd rested, I got up, packed, showered, and checked out of the hotel. It was a short drive to the Brevard Zoo, a zoological park I'd never heard of but ended up quite impressed with. The park was quite extensive, and it had a lot of activity areas, such as kayaks, paddleboats, and rope courses. It was certainly more extensive than I was expecting.

The chosen one

I had a pleasant late morning and early afternoon wandering around. I grabbed lunch at one of the concession stands and just sat around enjoying a not too hot/not too cold Florida Spring afternoon. After lunch, I grabbed the mini-train for a ride around the park while enjoying the breeze.

Once I'd seen everything, I headed out for my next destination. Instead of going all the way back to my parents' condo, I decided to stop off after an hour at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, which was right on the way back. Dodgertown and Holman Stadium were the first real "modern" post-war Spring Training facility in the MLB. The stadium was built in the mid-50s, and the Dodgers were the first team to build up a whole Spring Training complex, where all the affiliates of the team would practice in one location, with housing and training facilities for all the players, and even the idea of a "Spring Training complex" was developed. After sixty years, the Dodgers finally did the unthinkable and pulled up stakes to go out to Arizona in the great Cactus League migration, leaving Vero Beach high and dry, and taking the Gulf Coast Dodgers minor league team with them.

Home plate to center field, Holman Stadium

There was a lot of hand-wringing about what to do with the facility. It had a great deal of historic value in a state that had no real use for history. Plans for other teams to buy the complex quickly evaporated with the costs it would take to "modernize" the facility, and it still, to a point, sits in limbo, getting some sporadic use while still slowly falling to disrepair.

On the day I visited, there was some manner of baseball tournament being held on the grounds. The gift shop was still open, but only the very front of the stands were being used for the small crowd. And for good reason. The rows of colored seats were in various stages of being reclaimed by nature in the other areas of the seating bowl. Even the press box and area behind home plate was slowly falling apart. Plaques dedicating the facility and honoring all the trans-Pacific games played between the Dodgers and teams from Korea and Japan were slowly fading to nothing.

Disrepair

The concession area behind home plate was still nominally open and running, but the first and third base cafes were slowly rotting where they stood. The once proud Hall of Fame Walk was nothing but two arched gateways, and the wall poster of the Hall of Famers was even started to get washed out. The "love seat" that was a magnet for picture-takers for decades was still in good repair, however, and all the newer training fields and facilities that the Dodgers put in the years before they left were still being used.

There was something bittersweet about the wrought-iron gates with "LA Dodgers" on one side and "VB Dodgers" on the other that were slowly falling to rust. Hopefully, someone will be found who can keep this place alive and back in sporting shape. There are enough Brooklyn Dodgers fans living in the state now who could be moved to action, one would hope.

After my visit there, I made the last of the hour and half drive back to my parents’ condos in the fading of the afternoon. I had a shower and a nap back at the condo, and then I ordered in some Chinese food with my dad, as my mother was off visiting relatives for a night out that evening.

I lazed around the guest bedroom for the rest of night before hitting the sack early again. Something about Florida, man.


The Accommodations:
I was back in the guest room at the condo, again. Fighting to clap hard enough to turn the lights on and off as necessary.

On Another Zoo & Family

Demure

Saturday, March 18, 2017
Boynton Beach, FL


Outside the Game: 
I woke up early again, which was not much of a surprise given how early I went to sleep. It was my last day in Florida, and I hadn't had a ton planned out, but the day before, I discovered there was another zoo I hadn't been to that was literally fifteen minutes from my parents' condo, so that seemed as good a plan as any.

Lazy kangaroo

I breakfasted up and head out to get to the zoo as it opened. Even though I was there early, a lot of animals were sleeping in the hot Florida Spring. It was a nice little zoo, and I got in my time with animal photography and watching, along with grabbing some lunch and seeing Martin the Albino alligator. I went into the animal stage show after I had been around the park and watched trained animals do their thing before heading out to the car for the short drive back to the condo.

Back at the condo, I did laundry and took a nap, and then packed up for the trip home the next day. This evening was the yearly pizza party with my extended family at the condo. Pizza was had, awkward conversations were survived, and desert was intook. By the time everyone cleared out, I was quite ready for bed, and I hit the sack early again, as is custom in these parts.


The Accommodations:
I was in the condo guest room again. All relevant details have already been covered.

On Heading Home, Again

Sunday, March 19, 2017
Jersey City, NJ


Outside the Game:
Sunday had me again up early, to shower and finish packing up. My father drove me out to the airport, and we said our goodbyes, and I went off to check in to my flight and deal with an inordinately long wait through security.

I grabbed some breakfast and waited to board. It turned out it was a full flight, with Spring Breakers and families visiting Florida for childrens' Spring Breaks all looking to go home. I managed to board early and got an overhead slot for my rucksack, and then I settled into my seat for the flight.

A late-arriving special person was making noise even before she got onto the plane. She was huffing and puffing about how it was insane that she had to wait to board the plane, and that she was something or other. To be honest, nearly everyone had tuned her out, except for her no-doubt long-suffering husband, who was just nodding along. She kept on being outraged about things, so you can imagine her surprise when her full-sized suitcase didn't have anywhere to go in the overheads. The cabin crew, clearly sick of her already, told her she had to check her bag. She refused. Not having any of that, the lead steward told her she could either check her bag or be removed from the plane, and suddenly she was more willing to listen to reason, although she bitched about it loudly while she sat down.

I just grinned and put in my earphones and slept the way back home. She was still being offended by things as we landed and deplaned. I threw her husband a sympathetic look as he went past. I was off with my rucksack and in a cab home pretty quickly.

Back in the apartment, I did some laundry, cleaned up, and tried to mentally prepare myself for going back to work the next day.


The Accommodations:
Sweet home, Jersey City

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2017 Spring Training