North Port

Okay. Let's talk a little, shall we? Things got weird. Things got really, really weird. I went to see Spring Training games the first week of March, and then the world exploded. Like, a lot. Since that weekend, I have spent every weekend since then in my apartment, and that's a lot of weekends.

I haven't even really been able to force myself to look at the materials from this trip until the resolution of the labor dispute, Summer "Spring Training," and the promise of the shorterned season opening. With the way the covid epidemic is running in the country currently, we'll see how long it lasts, with many of southern teams located in states that are seeing murderously high new infections.

I hope anyone reading this is safe and healthy. We're all in this together, even if we don't want to be. Wear your damn mask outside, stupid. If you're too sick to wear a mask, you're too sick to be outside in a pandemic. If you're too selfish to wear a mask, you're too selfish to live in polite society.

On Ducking the Weather and Transit Problems

Terminal C, Newark Liberty 'Merica Eagle Airport

Thursday, March 5, 2020

Boyton Beach, FL

 

Outside the Game:

Work was stressful and annoying, and I was unfortunately getting nowhere looking for a new job, so I was in an unpleasant mood to begin with. But I managed to get all my work for that day done before having to leave, and I was out in the world at 5:30 PM for a quick subway ride up to Penn Station.

As luck would have it, I just missed a train to Newark Airport, so I called my parents, and as I was watching the big board, all the trains after the one I just missed changed to "DELAYED," as I would find that there was a train stuck in the tunnel out of the city. Fan-tastic.

I managed to scrum my way on the next train out and make a passive-aggressive Karen move so I could get the empty center seat in a packed car, and I was even able to take a short nap on the way to the airport. Except when we got to the airport, the monorail was out of service, because of course it was. After more delays, I got to the terminal, and actually had a quick run through security for once to balance out some of my karma. 

With a little time, I had a quick dinner at the diner and then rushed off to board my flight. I got in first with my group and was able to secure an overhead space and slump into my window seat. I spent most of the flight reading and doing Duolingo and watching pieces of movies, including Rise of Skywalker, which was even more awful than I imagined it being.

As we were approaching our destination, we had to detour around a large thunderstorm for a half-hour, putting us in late at West Palm Beach. People in general don't know how to exit a plane, but they were especially annoying this time, with multiple human blockages causing multiple-minute backlogs in the aisles before I was able to escape and meet my father for the short drive back to the condo.

I was about done for the day at this point, so I set up all my stuff for the game the next day, downed my pills, and went to sleep in the guest room in my parents' condo.

The Accommodations: 

I was the sole resident of the guest room in my parents' condo again. It hadn't changed.

On Satan's Nice New Home

CoolToday Park, 2020

Friday, March 6, 2020

Boston Red Sox vs. Atlanta Braves

CoolToday Park

Grapefruit League (Spring Training)

North Port, FL

1:05 PM 

 

Outside the Game: 

I had another crappy night's sleep. To be honest, I don't really remember why; it could just have easily been travel stress, and work stress, or just general stress. Either way, my alarm clock nearly gave me a heart attack when it woke me up, and my beleaguered ass took way too long to get moving, with me not heading out on the road in my mom's car until 7:15 AM or so.

The first challenge for my sleep-deprived self was that the address for the new stadium didn't show up in my GPS, probably as the stadium was brand-new on brand-new roads in a brand-new development. At any rate, I found a golf course near the stadium location, put that in the magic talky box, and I was on my way.

Outside of some traffic heading to Alligator Alley, there was not many people as all as I crossed through the abandoned heartland of this misbegotten state. It seemed as though I was on 75 forever, though in a small mercy I found a commercial-free block of music on some classic rock radio station that carried me through most of the ordeal, accompanied by a sad little light rain for most of the transgress.

As we got nearer, I started looking for signs for the stadium, which were nowhere to be found. In my earlier research, I saw that the park was right next to a local college. Seeing signs for the college, I decided to follow them and hope for the best, and I was finally able to stumble upon the well-hidden stadium.

I had just enough time to park up, take pictures outside, and get into the game at the opening of the gates. 

On the way out, I took it slow. I was in no rush to get anywhere, and arriving at the hotel early did not afford me any great opportunities in the area, so why bother? Especially since there was a jam-packed parking lot that wasn't moving anyway. I visited the little boy's room, called my parents to tell them my plans, and by then, most of the traffic jam was gone.

I had an uneventful drive to my hotel where I checked in and dropped off all my crap. I drove around the area a little bit looking for dinner, eventually settling on a Five Guys. I stopped for gas for the car on the way back (as my mom's car had a busted gas gauge, and you can't be too careful) and headed back to the hotel.

The room sort of fought me the rest of the evening. Well, with some help from me. I tried to make some tea, and then forgot about it, as I always do. I warmed it briefly in the microwave, which must have been some Bruce Banner-related contraption, because in under 10 seconds, it took that tea to nuclear hot. I then had to jury rig the bath tub to be able to take a proper bath to soak out the travel troubles.

But I soak I did, and caught up with some TV on my tablet, and then had a relatively early evening.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, CoolToday Park

CoolToday Park, except for the awful, awful name was--like many parks in the Braves' organization--well-thought out, appreciative of its past, modern but not obnoxious, and an all-around wonderful facility, which made me hate it even more. They seem to be trying down here to pull the same magic they did with the new commercial zone around their park in Atlanta, rising "North Port" out of the ashes of suburban Venice Beach. Their success in that endeavor was much more muted than their triumph in Atlanta, with just an unfinished mini-mall and a bunch of empty condos to show for their efforts so far, but I wouldn't count them out just yet. Stupid, sexy Braves.

The outside of the park is well-designed, with the centerpiece being a hall of fame plaza before the home plate entrance that has sculptures of all the braves' retired numbers, right next to a giant green area where there are cornhole games and the like. The park has three numbered entrances, as well as VIP and press entrances, with Braves' players lining the rises around the park. In the under-construction parking lots (currently a damp, dirt field), there is the entrance to the league-standard training area, with its scout tower around all the practice and skills fields.

Once you get in, you go up stairs respectfully decorated with Braves' luminaries and are dumped out on the main promenade that circles the park, all the while being serenaded by a guy in a Braves' uniform playing the accordion. You read all of that correctly. And it was somehow fun and not cringeworthy. I seriously hate the Braves. The single seating bowl descends from the promenade all around the park. There is the standard minor-league second level that runs from third base to first base around home plate that hosts the press boxes, luxury boxes, and a second deck of seating.

Seriously, how is this charming?

The outfield is littered with special areas. The left field corner is anchored by the Tomahawk Tiki Bar, which is next to a picnic berm that extends out to center field. Just in left-center is the main digital scoreboard, above the "Budweiser Bench" for some reason, and the batter's eye in dead center. A raised area of seats called the Truist Pavilion hangs over the home bullpens in right-center, next to the Centraui Insurance Super Suite built into the right field corner wall. All the ads on the outfield wall are in white on green, and it all looks out to a backdrop of blue sky and palm trees.

Regular and specialty concessions ring the park, along with more player tributes and a now de rigueur POW seat. Baseball quotes are scrawled across the buildings in the park, and they even found a way of making the area behind the batter's eye useful, turning it into a huge bank of bathrooms. The team store is also airy and well-organized. Christ, do I hate the Braves.

It being an early Spring Friday game in a new park with the Red Sox visiting, the place was packed, and the crowd was into the meaningless contest. Ambiguously fuzzy mascot Blooper ran the on-field entertainments. Mostly he spent his time wandering the stands and interacting with fans. The on-field between-inning stuff was kept to a minimum, with giveaways and contest and the like.

The only real criticism that I can wield against the place is that their scoreboard operators were awful. Now granted, it is hard to keep up with all the late-inning changes in a Spring Training game, but at one point, they had two people playing first base and the same guy at two positions. That, my friends, is just slop.

At the Game with Oogie:

Fingers du Pollo

I got in with the first wave of the gates opening, bought my program and did my usual walk-around and pictures. My food stops were for a chicken basket and the world's tiniest brat. The brat guy was from Union City and saw my hat and we talked a bit. Jersey is everywhere, baby. A number of people thought I was press, and I increasingly think that is because only press people walk around with real cameras anymore now that smart phones are a thing.

Spring scoring

My seats were just to the right of home plate, and it was a packed house that day. There was an adorable old couple next to me and an two old guys on the other side, with a big family taking up the row in front. Nothing really to mention with them, although there were a lot of Red Sox fans in the house as well, although my section was pretty solidly Braves' fans. There was a gap in the protective netting where two nets overlapped that let them throw things safely out to the crowd from the field, which was another nice feature that I hated the Braves for having.

The Game: 

First pitch, Red Sox vs. Braves

The Red Sox faced the Braves in this "let's just hope the entire stadium burns down" meaningless Spring Training contest. Despite all the strikeouts, this wasn't a pitcher's game, with the home team eeking out a bit of a slugfest.

The game started quickly enough, with the Sox going in order in the first. Atlanta was quicker out of the gate, with a walk and a single turning into an early 1-0 lead. Boston stranded a leadoff walk in the top of the second, while the Braves had the same result after a single and an error. The Red Sox got going in the top of the third, with a leadoff single going to third on a one-out single and then scoring an odd double steal (see below), while a fielder's choice scored the trailing runner and gave the Sox a 2-0 lead. Altanta went in order in their half.

Settling in, Boston went in order in the top of the fourth, but in the bottom of the frame, the Braves tied it up with a home run to left, knotting it at 2-2. The Sox only had a double to show for the top of the fifth, while Atlanta left a double and a walk on the basepaths for their half. Boston erased a leadoff single with a double play in the sixth, while the Braves stranded a couple of walks for their part.

The Red Sox left a two-out walk on the bases in the seventh, while Atlanta manufactured a run with a leadoff single that stole second and a single to follow, edging them out to a 3-2 lead. The wheels came off the bus in the eighth. In the top, three singles and two walks quickly added up two runs, giving Boston a 4-3 lead. In the bottom of the eighth, the Braves did them one better, where a bunt single started a rally of a single, a walk, and a triple, bringing in four and giving the Braves back a 7-4 lead. 

The Sox did not going quietly in the ninth. A leadoff walk was followed by a single. Another single brought the run in, and another one-out single and E4 left it first and third. A walk loaded the bases, but a grounder to third led to the run being cut down in a force at home. A strikeout ended the game with the winning run on the bases, preserving a meaningless 7-4 Atlanta win.

The Scorecard:

Red Sox vs. Braves, 03/06/20. Braves win, 7-5

The Braves scorecard was a one-page cardstock insert in the $5 Spring Training program. In keeping with the parent club, the scorecard is just one page, cramming everything in somewhat efficiently. There is some whitespace around the card itself, allowing for notes.

The teams are stacked on top of each other, with player lines split in two for replacements, bracketed by player number and position. Eleven innings of scoring boxes are presented, with by-inning run/hit breakdowns at the bottom of each column. Each row ends in totals for at bats, runs, hits, and RBI. Pitching lines are underneath for five pitchers (pretty stingy for Spring Training), along with cumulative lines for pitching stats in each row. There is a totals box next to the pitching lines for errors, doubles, triples, home runs, stolen bases, and time of game.

There were a number of plays of literal note in the game. In the bottom of the first, a Braves' "single" was the ball falling between two fielders. The top of the third also had two odd plays. With one out and a runner on first and third, the runner on first stole second. The throw to second was late, and the runner on third broke for home. The catcher botched the throw home, scoring a run and moving the runner on second to third on an E2. The next batter hit the ball to third. He tried to make an unsuccessful play on the runner from third going home, but the catcher got the slow runner going to first in a routine 5-2-3 put out. The bottom of the second featured an RBI single getting gunned down going for two on the throw home in a blase' CS 8-2-6.

The Braves six pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts. Beside that, nothing else noteworthy.

The Accommodations:

Days Inn, Bonita Springs

I ended my day at the Days Inn & Suites in Bonita Springs. The area was a weird mix of tourist and golf resorts and nothing, and for the money, it was an okay situation, my inability to make tea correctly notwithstanding.

The entrance to the room had the smallish bathroom right off the entrance on the left. It had the big backlit vanity mirror, a wall-length sink, toilet, and the requisite shower and tub, which I would make good use of.

The bedroom area had two double beds split by dressers on one side, and a desk, small dresser, TV, and luggage rack on the other. It wasn't quite fancy, but it got the job done, especially as sleep-deprived as I was.

On Using Loneliness to My Advantage

I can fly, bitches.

Saturday, March 7, 2020

Naples, FL

 

Outside the Game:

I finally had a good night's sleep under me, so I was up early this morning. I went down full of hope for breakfast, but it turned out to be a sad little buffet with no hot food. I ate and returned to my room for a nap, disappointed by the whole experience and my stomach a little worse for wear from the experience.

I woke up again and puttered around the room until about 9 AM. I finished packing up, checked out, and then took the short drive to the zoo--which I made a little longer by missing the exit twice going in both directions, before successfully making a right turn like a normal person.

Managing to park with much less trouble, I was in the midst of a giant swarm of people, as I would find out today was free admission for county residents at the zoo. Realizing that time was not going to be my friend today, I made a bee-line for the monkey island boat tour as soon as I got in. The boat tour was the only real line in the zoo for a flat-bottomed boat ride around the various islands housing the various monkey species in the zoo. It was the only way to see the popular monkeys.

By the time I got there, the line was already pretty beefy, but it was moving, as they had three or four boats going at once because they were correctly expecting big crowds. My wait was even further abbreviated by being by myself. With such big crowds, they were looking fill every seat on every boat, so when they piped up for people by themselves, an older Asian lady and I were able to sheepishly cut half the line to get some pretty nice seats at the front.

We all took our nice ride around the monkey islands and then were set free to wander the zoo. I smugly noted the line for the boats had gotten quite epic in our short absence. I wandered around taking pictures, until it was time for the animal show in the arena by the entrance, where again I was able to slide in at the last minute by occupying an empty single seat.

After that, it was a leisurely wander around the zoo taking pictures before getting some cash and eating at the only option in the zoo, a sad little Win Dixie kiosk serving quick-stop food. I eventually made my way around the rest of the zoo before stopping in the gift shop on my way out. There was no WIFI in the zoo, and I was trying to get directions to another museum in town. Thankfully, when I got back to my mom's car, the GPS had the museum in its system, so I took the short drive downtown to see it.

The Naples Depot was a free museum--as you might guess--in the old train station in Naples. It is one of these places that I would never even think of visiting under normal circumstances, but that these trips give me the opportunity to discover. I found out some interesting history about the train lines that opened up central Florida, and even a little bit about dune buggy culture. So, you know, check mark for Saturday.

The museum also had two train cars open for visitors in the back on the remains of the tracks. One of them had a nice old man named Dan working inside. As can happen, Dan and I got to talking, and I found out that he had sponsored the restoration of the Lincoln hearse in the museum near his hometown in Illinois (he was a snowbird like my parents). He also had a son living in China at the time, and we had a long discussion about the stories we were hearing and how bad it was over there. His son was largely restricted to his hotel and was otherwise fine and looking to come back home where it was safe. (If only he knew what we know now. He'd probably be safer in China at this point.)

Seriously, I learned things.

I eventually took my leave and drove back to my parent's condo. It was a lazy afternoon of getting organized for the game the next day and a nap. Since the extended family couldn't get its act together on the traditional pizza party we have when I come down, it was just going to be my parents and I going out to dinner this night. As we headed out to dinner, we found that the car had died sometime in the afternoon. (It would turn out to be an alternator problem.) With this added stress, we took another car to dinner at a local Italian place. It was notable because the service was very slow, and I surmised (correctly, as it would turn out) that it was because a lot of staff had called in sick. If only we could have seen the signs ahead of time...

We eventually got back to the condo, changed all the clocks that needed changing, and I went to sleep as early as possible for the next day.

The Accommodations: 

I was back at the condo again, and really, really annoyed by the clap light that evening for some reason I can't remember.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2020 Spring Training Trip

Fort Meyers (Red Sox)

On Spring Harvey Day

jet Blue Park, 2015

Monday, March 16, 2015

New York Metropolitans vs Boston Red Sox
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
jetBlue Park
Fort Myers, FL
1:05 PM

Outside the Game: 

I had to be up super-early for another cross-state drive to Fort Meyers for a 1:05 PM start. And given we were back to the regular week instead of the weekend, I wanted to give myself some extra time for traffic just in case.

I needn't have worried about being up early, as my father again woke me up several times as he was heading out to golf way before I needed to be up that day. I blearily re-woke up, showered, and got out on the road, giving myself three hours for the 2.5 hour trip. Thankfully, I hit no traffic and was super early--but just not early enough to catch the last pre-game tour of the stadium. I did all my outside photography, which was a lot in this extensive park, and then get ready to enter.

A tsunami of people exited the park with me after the game, and it took a while to get out of the parking lot and onto the road to the Tampa environs. I managed to make good time to my friends' house again and had a relatively quiet evening before hitting the hay for the night.

The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, jetBlue Park

jetBlue Park, in addition to being another stadium that eschews normal capitalization rules, is one of the new “palatial” uber-parks in the Grapefruit League, built in recent years to sometimes even mock the major-league homes of franchises. In a move away from the more historic parks that dominate the Grapefruit League--and to return fire against the Cactus League, whose newer “event” parks were seen as luring teams away--teams such as the Red Sox have built destination parks of their own in Florida, clumped closer together to spare some of the long travel that punctuated the Grapefruit League in the past.

Training areas

So jetBlue Park is really a comprehensive “campus,” including the main park itself, as well as a bunch of on-site activities and the training and development facilities. Outside the park are several things both expected and unexpected. There is a plane tail sculpture of the stadium namesake, in addition to statues of the team mascot and legend Ted Williams. But there is also a garden with statues of all the team’s retired numbers, a giant outdoor picnic area for events, and the training facility itself. The fan-friendly area is a central scout tower surrounded by practice fields named for Red Sox luminaries, as well as having food and souvenir facilities for the fans watching the big leaguers going through their paces and trying to snag a John Hancock or two. Several entrances circle the outside of the park (with special access for the handicapped and suite-dwellers), along with the dedication plaque and the ticket booths.

Once inside, there is a broad outer walkway that goes around the park, and a walkway through the stands that does the same circuit. The outer walkway holds most of the concessions and shops in the park, opening out into large pavilions in the first and third base areas and the outfield corners, as well as “Yawkey Way South” outside the third base-side grandstand, a giant tented walkway filled with specialty vendor stands and a bandstand. The outer promenade is also plastered with plaques of “Red Sox History,” a POW/MIA seat, and a Red Seat south, which finds itself far out on the outfield walkway given the smaller dimensions of the Grapefruit League park.

The seating bowl runs all the way from outfield to outfield, with field-adjacent boxes seats separated from the upper seating area by the interior grandstand walkway. A row of “waving” sun shades circle the park for the same distance, with an upper level running from dugout to dugout around home plate, housing the press box and the luxury boxes, as well as hosting the championship pennants for the team and an enclosed party deck at the top of the third-base stands. Of course, there is a fake Green Monster in left field, with a manual scoreboard at field level and a covered seating area on top that runs from the outfield corner out to the batter’s eye in center field. There’s a picnic hill in center field underneath a set of traditional bleachers, which is itself underneath the main digital board. “The Pitcher’s Patio” in right field has a shaded patio and a second-story seating deck that has the team’s retired numbers on its face. Nothing but blue sky backs the outfield wall.

Spring Wally

Wally the Green Monster does make the trip down for Spring Training, working the crowd before and during the game. Say what you will about the Red Sox, but even this relatively huge Grapefruit League park was packed for this--and apparently every-- game. No doubt a lot of Beantowners make the trip down to get the hell out of Boston for some of the winter. The crowd this day was also helped by the fact that they were playing the Metropolitans, and a great number of my compatriots were also present in the stands. And also say what you will, these folks were here for the baseball, even if it was a meaningless Spring Training contest.

At the Game With Oogie: 

Hot dog and souvenir soda

I arrived at the park just too late to get the last pre-game tour, so I just went inside and did my photography of the extensive grounds. It was another hot one, but not having any breakfast in me, I quickly grubbed up with a hot dog and souvenir soda.

Hungry as I was, I would grab a platter of chicken tenders and fries before the start of the game, in addition to several drinks to get me through the Florida afternoon.

As well as being a Red Sox game, it was also a Metropolitan game, with a split-squad team taking the field in a meaningless sort of rematch of the 1986 series. Or something. The attendant Metropolitans fans had gathered in the center field berm to watch the visiting team warm up, and word quickly spread through the assembled masses that it was going to be a Spring Harvey Day. For at least a handful of innings, we would have something to pay actual attention to in the game.

The best I was able to do for this well-attended game was a seat in the lower deck in right field, but it actually still had a decent look at the field. I was, however, completely closed in by Red Sox fans. The nearest blue and orange was several rows over. The family right next to me was talking, and the father said how they were extremely glad to be down here. There had been another snow storm on top of the already copious winter that Boston had been experiencing, and apparently they were on the only plane that made it out of Logan the previous day. So, I guess he enjoyed being slowly baked to death more than the rest of us.

The Game: 

First pitch, Red Sox vs. Metropolitans

This meaningless Spring Training game pitted the New York Metropolitans against the Boston Red Sox. In addition to being a rematch of the 1986 World Series, it was Harvey Day in Spring Training, with Harvey making his first start of the Spring, and the news spread among the Metropolitan fans like wildfire.

The Haveyest of Days

The game didn't start too fast, with New York going in order in the top of the first and the Red Sox going in order in the bottom of the first, thanks to a double-play that erased a single. The Metropolitans got on the board first in the top of the second with a leadoff double, a single, and another double, driving in two runs to make it 2-0. Boston had a one-out double, but left him on the base paths. New York kept scoring in the top of the third with three straight singles bringing in another run to make it 3-0. The Red Sox got a two-out double in their half, and left the runner stranded again.

Both sides went in order in the fourth, and Harvey's day was done, with 4 innings pitched, 3 hits, no runs, and three Ks. The fifth was more of the same as both sides went in order. The top of the sixth saw the Metropolitans with a leadoff single and nothing else, while Boston followed up a leadoff homer to center with a triple to center that came in on a passed ball, cutting the lead to 3-2.

New York had a hit and walk in the top of the seventh, while the Red Sox managed only a single in the bottom of the frame. The Metropolitans went in order in the top of the eighth, but Boston finally got the equalizer as a leadoff double was followed by a ground-rule double, and we were all tied up at three. New York only had a single to show for the top of the ninth, but the Metropolitan bullpen would give up this game, as they would many in the future. The Red Sox had a one-out single moved over to third on another ground-rule double, and then a passed ball brought the winning run in from third for a walk-off and a 4-3 meaningless Spring Training win.

The Scorecard: 

Metropolitans vs. Red Sox, 03/16/15. Red Sox "win," 4-3.

The scorecard was part of the $5 full-color magazine program. The scorecard was the centerfold spread, taking up the entirety, but with a great deal of white space above and below. The unglossed paper was fine for writing with regular and colored pencil, but the printing on the card was raised, which mean it smudged and erased easily, making it a bit of a mess, especially at the margins.

Each batting line came with space for a replacement. Batting totals were at the end of each row, and inning totals were at the bottom of each column. There were printed spaces for twelve innings, and the scoring boxes were empty, white, and of good size, so scoring was comfortable. The pitching lines were under the batting lines, with plenty of space for replacements. Game totals for each team were located to the right of the pitching lines.

There were a couple of anomalies in this game. For one, there were two scoring plays on passed balls: in the bottom of the sixth and the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. There was a DP-3U-3-4t in the bottom of the first, and there was a 5-2 bases-loaded putout in the top of the third. There were also 6 doubles in the game, with two ground-rules doubles. I'm not sure if that says anything about the stadium design or not. The traditional swap out of nearly all players occurred between the fifth and seventh innings.


The Accommodations: 

I was having one last brief stay with my friends' family again in their lovely guest room without parents leaving for golf at the ass-end of the morning.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League

Sarasota

An Introduction:

After spending the last few years bouncing around and getting to all the places I could "comfortably" drive from my home and slowly trying to conquer the north-east while never quite being able to plan or commit to a trip to Australia, I decided to use my backed-up, soon-to-time-out vacation days from the previous year. The few options available involved Spring Training. I decided to start in the closer environs of Florida with the Grapefruit League, which had the added benefit of not having to worry about hotel rooms so much since I could spend a lot of the trip at my parents' winter condo. A lot of this reasoning, however, would get called into question during the course of the trip.

The thing to know about the Grapefruit League is that it is not nearly as buttoned up location-wise as its sister league out in Arizona. The Cactus League was centrally planned and controlled and managed to consolidate all its teams within an hour's drive of each other by this time, which makes things a bunch easier. The more historic Grapefruit League was... less so.

There were pockets of teams huddled around each other in the corners of the state (not counting the panhandle, which no one really does, anyway). There are a group of teams in the south-east, a group of teams in the southwest, a group of teams in the north-east, and a group of teams in the north-west. Now, those groupings are all well and good, but the fact remains that some of these groups are four hours away from each other. Proper planning is important to keep travel to a minimum, and I failed at that pretty hard. I screwed up my Orioles booking and had to swap them to first on my list to fix the problem, and that led to a lot more driving than there should have been from the very start.

This was also going to be the first time I would be going to a game a day for two weeks straight. I'm as big a baseball fan as I know, but even I was worried that a game a day, plus all that travel was going to break me. But, as it turned out, I even snuck in a double-header while I was down there.

As far as what I learned, there were a number of things:

- There are generally three types of Grapefruit League Parks:
  - Historic parks that had suburbs spring up around them in the intervening years
  - Somewhat newer parks that aren't old but aren't the newest anymore, but still have full, "modern" Spring training facilities
  - The newest Spring Training palaces built in recent years, with cutting-edge everything and an existence as much as an entertainment center as they are a ballpark
 - Nearly all the parks have a reservoir or lake of some kind. All of them have warning signs about alligators. Some even have resident gators that care so little about people that they hang out in full view.
- If there is anything hotter than watching a Grapefruit League afternoon game with no shade, I don't want to know it.
- It is interesting to try and dissect what portion of the crowds at each game are fans who made a special trip to come down to visit, fans that have permanently moved down to be near the Spring Training facility, and locals that are boosters of the team by proximity.
- The between-inning and pitch clocks started this year, so it was impossible to know if the relative dearth of between-inning entertainment as opposed to MLB or minor league games was because that is how it always was in Spring Training, or if it was because of the new rules they imposed.
- There is a lot of nothing in Florida. I mean, a lot of nothing. Especially in the middle. You really don't get that until you drive through it and across it a lot over a short period of time, coincidentally, just like I did.
- I knew that Spring Training worked under different rules, but I was witness to some of the most ungodly communist perversions of the sport that I ever saw.

With that in mind, let's get started, shall we?

On Getting Gone

Newark Liberty Bald-Eagle Apple Pie Baseball America International Airport

Friday, March 6, 2015

Punta Gorda, FL


Outside the Game:
As I once again teetered on the precipice of quitting my job, my vacation loomed large in my future. I had stayed the night previously at work until very late to get as much done as possible, but on Friday, frankly, I was halfway out the door most of the day.

My day began packing and returning the portable heater to my landlord (an unfortunate pipe-warming necessity from several weeks ago), and then dragging my luggage to work with me, sadly missing another "mandatory" training session that would have eaten up half of my last morning on the job before vacation.

I was mostly in back-to-back meetings all day, and I was sleep-walking through most of it. My entire day pivoted around 4:30 PM and leaving for the airport. So most of the day glided by amicably until that point, and eventually, off I went.

To say that there was stress about traveling that week would have been the greatest of understatements. Forecasts oscillated fiercely between a snow shower or two and another round of the Snowpocalpyse that had been plaguing the Northeast all winter. It eventually decided on a round of mild snow on Tuesday, rain and ice on Wednesday, and then six inches of packed winter goodness on Thursday.

But the snow stopped on schedule at 7 PM on Thursday, giving me a glimmer of hope for my 7:30 PM flight on Friday. I managed to get my boarding pass with no problem, and Friday went on without an urgent email informing me of a delay, although there was a point when the wireless connection at work died. When my iPad reconnected, I waited in terror for four or five flight updates that never quite did come pouring through.

So off to Penn Station I went, arriving just before a train to Newark Airport left at 5:03 PM. A concerned-looking French couple were on the tiny elevator down to the NJ Transit train tracks with me. They wanted to know if they were going to the right train, which I assured them they were. They were trying to catch a 6:30 PM flight, and I also assured them they were probably okay. And then I thought to ask if it was International or not, and they said it was, and then I tried to give them as much false hope as I could muster and tell them again that they would probably be "okay."

A half hour later, we were disgorged onto the monorail station, and a packed-car trip later had us in the terminal. As I arrived, they decided that peak of rush hour was a great time to close one of the three security stations at the airport, somehow doubling the lines at both the other checkpoints. As I had premier access, I got in the shorter one and waited as the central Asian businessman behind me spent the entire line wait bitching to someone on his cell phone about how New York was a "second-rate city" because his flight was cancelled yesterday, and New York can't "deal with snow." I can only wonder what his opinion would be if he was on the LaGuardia flight that went off the runway recently trying to fly in similar weather. "Here is a first-rate city willing to risk people's lives for travel itineraries." Jagoff.

Those who know me are aware that my personal phone technology is, grudgingly, at an early aughts level of flip phone. I am required to have something that makes and receives calls. Unfortunately, my current flip phone is aged, and it has a bunch of undocumented features. Sometimes I will accidentally turn on speaker phone, but there is literally no named command on the phone that will let you do that, just a series of arcane button presses in a specific order while vocalizing dark incantations. In a similar manner, I managed to unearth the command that just allows audio to come through the earphone jack. The phone worked perfectly, but it just won't play audio through the regular earpiece. Work keeping me occupied most of the day, I was not successful in tracking down a solution to the issue in the limited time I had, and I did not have time to go buy an earbud.

Having that time at the airport, I went to the gadget store and was next in line to a befuddled Britt who was considering buying an iPad on the spur of the moment, you know, just to have for the flight. He asked and had answered about five separate times of the availability of stock, and then kept disbelieving the sales staff, asking if this display box or that display box had a unit in it and being less politely told each time that they were, in fact, display boxes. After about ten minutes, he literally wandered off mid-sentence, which makes me wonder about people rich enough to by iPads on a whim at the airport.

The guy behind the counter was clearly eager to talk to anyone besides that guy, so when I confronted him with my technology problem from 2003, he was quite eager to comply. He went to his tiny storeroom and found a compatible headset, apologizing for not having an earbud, and then gave me a 50% discount on it. I walked away with a ridiculous-looking headset, but the ability to use my phone, so it was a win-win all around, more or less.

It was eventually time for boarding, and it went uneventfully. There were many moments of concern for me during the boarding, but thankfully nothing panned out. I was in front of a row of kids, but they were all well-behaved. I was next to some vapid sorority chicks, but they immediately went to sleep for the entire flight. The guy in front of me immediately reclined back into my knees, but quickly apologized and put the seat most of the way up. My yang was getting yinged all over the place.

My only real complaint is that I couldn't stay awake until takeoff and so was awakened as we left the ground and remained awake for most of the flight. I was so bored that I even bought on-board Internet and spend most of the trip skimming Reddit.

We touched down about ten minutes late, and the off-loading went without incident. I got to the rental counter just as they were shutting down and was directed to take the shuttle to the "main station." I caught the shuttle just before it left, spent a productive ten minutes getting my car set-up at the rental station, and then went out to retrieve a car. In this case, it was one of three remaining Chevy Sparks, which was a tiny thing that I can only imagine they named that particular way to try and trick people into thinking it was a hybrid or something. It was just a little box with wheels, and I threw my gear in the trunk and set off.

Spring steed

The car came with a navigation system, which was unexpected. So used to that being an extra charge, I had brought my GPS unit from home as I normally do. I was planning to head from the airport across Florida and stay at a hotel somewhere so I would not have a 3.5 hour drive before the game the next day. Central Florida is at best barren, and at worst filled with alligators and perhaps swamp people. One important feature on the car's GPS that I would learn the next day was "use freeways," because the "objectively" quickest away across central Florida is apparently the biggest stretch of backroad, state road nightmares you ever did see.

A clever feature of said roads is that they quickly go from 65 MPH speed limit to 35 MPH speed limit when you get into towns along the way. As I was seeing this for the first time, I was trying to pull around a car so I could see where the speed limit sign was when flashing lights illuminated behind me. I pulled over and was greeted by a deputy who said he had me at 65 passing cars. I explained I couldn't have been going that fast because I was already slowing down to look for the signs, and I was passing the guy to see where the sign was. The officer clearly wasn't expecting to see a middle-aged white guy and asked me a bunch of questions about what I was doing. I told him I had just gotten the rental car within the hour and was trying to get to Sarasota. After taking my license for a walk back to his car (where he no doubt found out my completely clean driving record), he let me go with a warning and told me to watch out for the city speed limits along these kinds of roads. I thanked him for his time and went off again into the night.

The never-ending night. After two hours of driving, I was looking for someplace to pull over, but I was definitely not finding any on these stretch of murder roads. After another half hour, the car's GPS finally put me a major interstate, and I dove off about forty minutes south of my destination the next day into a clutch of hotels. I had a free pass for La Quinta, so I went there first and was told that every hotel in the area was sold out except for an expensive place ten minutes away. It being after 2 AM in the morning, I wasn't interested in price anymore and headed out with due haste.

I arrived at the aforementioned place while the teenaged counter boy was on the phone with another suitor for the room. He hung up, and I told him I wanted a room, and he shrugged and checked me in. I blearily signed papers, parked, and dragged my bags up.

After a cursory set-up for the next day, I fell onto the bed for, at best, six or so hours of sleep.


The Accommodations:

PG Waterfront Hotel

My incredible overpriced--especially considering how briefly I would be in it--room for that night was at the PG Waterfront Hotel in Punta Gorda. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have liked the hotel, but seeing as I overpaid by double for a room I'd be using for 6-7 hours at most, I was a little less than impressed.

It was a nice enough room. The large bathroom was just off the entrance to the right, with a small vanity and toilet and tub. A short hallway led to the bedroom, with a giant king-sized bed with ornamental headboard flanked by end tables and a reading chair and table on one side of the room and a wooden desk and dresser with TV on the other side. There was a sliding door to the balcony that overlooked the nice pool that I would never use.

Not that much would have stopped me at that point, but it was a quiet enough room that lasted me for whatever little sleep I got.

On Getting Started in Here

Ed Smith Stadium, 2015

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Boston Red Sox vs Baltimore Orioles
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Ed Smith Stadium
Sarasota, FL
1:05 PM


Outside the Game:
I woke up far too early the next day, but in time to grab the weekend breakfast. Groggy and bitter, I started contemplating how many of my fellow breakfast-goers I'd be willing to kill for some more sleep as I half-heartedly shoveled food into my mouth.

I had until around 9:30 AM to leave to make it to the stadium to get outside photos before the gates opened, so I went back to my room, showered, packed up, and then set the alarm for 9:30 AM and lay back down to try and get some more sleep. I'm unsure if I succeeded, but I passed in and out of luciudity enough to count for a little more rest. I gathered my stuff, checked out, and bundled into the car.

I put in the Orioles' stadium into my GPS, and playing around with the controls some, I discovered the option to "keep to main roads" as a preference, which I checked on with great satisfaction, and then followed it up 75 to the stadium.

I got to the park and paid for my parking, and did my pre-game photography business under cloudy skies before lining up in a short line to get into the stadium as the gates opened.

After the game, I got back into the car, pulled myself together as much as possible, and then set off on the three-hour drive to my parents' condo in the old-age complex on the other side of the state, cursing my inability to properly schedule things all the way there. Even though I managed to drive through rush hour, most of it was spent on 70 crossing the state in the middle of nowhere, so I was able to complete the drive in just over three hours, with just a touch of backup upon reaching Boynton Beach proper.

I was greeted by my parents as I showed up, but I just needed to take a nap. I went into my parents' bedroom and passed out until dinner. Then I spent some time unpacking and finishing up my scorecard. My trip the next day was a no-brainer drive, so I at least didn't have to worry about that.

I watched some TV, and eventually kicked my parents' out of the living room so I could go to sleep on the pullout couch, and I was dead to the world until morning.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Ed Smith Stadium

Ed Smith Stadium was my first stop on the Grapefruit League trip this year, but not my first Spring Training complex, having visited the Metropolitans in Port St. Lucie and the Marlins in Jupiter in previous years. Ed Smith Stadium is named for the local baseball luminary who helped get the park built when it was the home of the White Sox way back when, though it underwent extensive renovations in 2011. It was decked in Spanish Colonial, like many of the buildings and other Spring Training parks in Florida, with tile roofs, arched porticoes, extensive windows and turrets, and white walls ending in geometric gates and arches. The park was surrounded with sidewalks, with the minor league and training fields just beyond center field. The main entrance and facade was behind home plate, with smaller entrances in left and right fields near the parking lots.

The entrances all emptied out into an outer walkway that wrapped around the park from outfield to outfield. This walkway held most of the stores, concessions, and other stands in the park. At regular intervals, there were ramps into the main seating area from the outer walkway. There was a smaller walkway that ran in between the seating area, splitting the two rows of seats into the lower box seats and the upper seats. The grandstands, all with sun covers extending over most of the upper seats, ran from short outfield to short outfield, ending at the home and away bullpens in left and right field. The area behind home plate had the press box, along with some luxury boxes, and were the only areas of seats without a cover. A smaller walkway extended from the end of the seat walkway to circle the outfield. There was also a walkway at the top of the seating area that ran its length, with standing room tables and chairs along the top, the suite entrances behind the center building, and a lounge area overlooking the field at the top of third base.

The only seating in the outfield was a special deck in left field with chairs and small tables that ran into center field. In the base of the tower behind home plate were most of the amenities, including Fan Assistance, special concession Cafe 54, and the team store. There was a patio on the first base side with concessions and a picnic area in right field. The digital scoreboard sat in right-center, above a digital ball-and-strikes board and right next to the batter's eye, with mostly blue sky and palm trees providing the backdrop to the outfield. The new pitch-clocks for this season were installed on the TV tower.

The Orioles did the place up right. The main entrance had a pennant mobile for the big club, as well as being decorated with quotes from great Orioles. Retired numbers adorned the press box, and in addition to the stadium dedication plaques, the press box was dedicated to Red Ermish. The entrances to the suites had posters of great moments in Orioles history, and all the porticoes around the stadium were dedicated to evolution of Orioles' logos over the year, including Spring Training, the mascot, and the team logo. And the requisite sign-post to all the other Orioles' affiliates was to be found, as well.

The Bird is the word

The Oriole Bird made the trip down for the Spring, and he brought a crap-ton of fans with him. The place was packed for this afternoon game, and while some Boston fans did show up, they were grotesquely outnumbered by Bird-backers, who were quite into the game. There was not a lot of between-inning entertainment, but the staff did provide some levity. One beer guy went around the entire game in a day-glo orange wig, for example. There was also the usual crush for autographs before and after the game, which is one of the main appeals of Spring Training for most fans.


At the Game With Oogie:

Sunny Spring Scoring

I got in as the gates opened, and did my regular tour of the park, along with my picture parade, hitting the shops, and scoping out the food options. Still groggy from my lack of sleep, I grabbed an early hot dog and souvenir soda while I was still walking around, and later grabbed a brat before settling into the game.

Hot dog and souvenir soda

As I had ordered early and screwed everything up, I still managed to get a seat on the first-base side several rows up from the dugout in the crowded house.

Alternate scoring

There was nothing particularly interesting in the stands except for one older lady a row or so ahead of me on the aisle. She was keeping score, but without a scorecard. She seemed to be keeping it long form in a notebook. After each play, she wrote out a sentence or two about it, and then watched the game some more. It was the most interesting scoring method I think I ever saw. The place was a madhouse right after the last out, so I didn't get a chance to talk to her about it, but I would have liked to. Besides, I had a long drive ahead of me, too.


The Game:

First pitch, Red Sox vs. Orioles

My first completely meaningless Spring Training game pitted AL East rivals Boston Red Sox versus the home Baltimore Orioles, and a last-ditch rally fell short for the birds, giving the Sox their pointless victory.

The Red Sox jumped out early, getting four runs in the top of the first on a single, triple, walk, and homer to right, staking them to a 4-0 margin. Baltimore got one back in their half, with a leadoff two-base error by the third-baseman getting driven in with a subsequent single, cutting the early lead to 4-1. Both sides went in order in the second and third, the Red Sox doing so in the third despite a leadoff single thanks to a double-play that erased the runner.

Boston struck again in the top of the fourth with a one-out homer to center to increase the lead to 5-1, while the Orioles went in order. The Sox only had a walk to show for the top of the fifth, while Baltimore sat down in order again. The top of sixth saw Boston waste a single and a walk, while the Orioles finally got some more scoring together, with two runs based on a hit batsman and a walk, a double steal, a ground out, and a sacrifice fly to right, cutting the lead to 5-3.

The Red Sox got those runs back in the top of the seventh with a walk, double, and single, increasing their lead back to 7-3. Baltimore just had two walks in the bottom of the seventh to show for it. Boston went in order in the top of the eighth, while the Orioles stranded a single and walk in the bottom of the frame. The Red Sox again went in order in the ninth, but Baltimore staged their improbable last-licks almost comeback. A one-out walk was followed by a double, and a homer to left brought all three runs in. A walk and a single put the winning run on-base with two outs, but a new pitcher got a fly-out to right, ending the rally and securing Boston's unimportant 7-6 victory.


The Scorecard:

Red Sox vs. Orioles, 03/07/15. Red Sox "win," 7-6.

The scorecard was a separate $1 item from the program, a bi-fold cardstock number with the scorecard on the right side of inside spread, with the rosters on the left side, and the back taken up by an advertisement. Although on only one page, the scorecard took up the entirety of that page, and was a good enough size to be comfortable. Game stats were at the top of the card, and then visitors and home team on top of one another. Each batter line had space for a replacement (undesignated), each batting line ended with summary stats, and each inning column ended with inning stats. The pitching lines were under the batting lines for both teams, and to the left of the pitching lines were the team totals. The scoring boxes were plain white, but a little small, but it was okay to score. The background of the scorecard was a light gray, so there were still legible for notes. Overall, it was quite nice, except that the printing sometimes smudged with erasures or friction.

It was a pretty conventional game. The first batter in the bottom of the first originally was scored a double, but it was changed to a two-base E5 on review, which got a note. Otherwise, both teams swapped out most of their players between the seventh and eighth innings. Only the DH for the Orioles and the DH and the first baseman for the Red Sox played the entire game.


The Accommodations:
I was staying at my parents' condo in the over 50 community that they rented for the winter. It was only a one-bedroom, but the large living room had a pull-out couch, and that was where I was going to be resting my head for a good part of the trip.

The pull-out couch wasn't exactly comfortable, but I don't imagine any of them are particularly designed to be such. The real problem that I would find is that my father was as quiet as a drunk elephant in the morning when he left to go golfing, and inevitably woke me up super-early every day. Not surprisingly, this would begin to wear after a while...

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League