Jupiter (Marlins)

On An Adequate Transaction 

Roger Dean Stadium, 2015

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Washington Nationals vs. Miami Marlins
Roger Dean Stadium
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Jupiter, FL
1:05 PM


Outside the Game:

So, I woke up a little earlier than I wanted to, but I was in otherwise good spirits. I gathered up my belongings and headed out into the morning to find that my hotel office was closed, with a helpful note to go across the street to another hotel. Up for whatever, I did so, and the other hotel was run by the same family. I checked out of my actual hotel and headed out into the foggy, foggy morning.
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Did I mention it was foggy? Because it was. It was to the point that I couldn't get the windows on my car clear until I turned off absolutely everything except the defoggers and had the defroster on full heat blasting. Several minutes of this finally yielded a drivable car, which was good news, because by that time I was nearly to the turnpike.

The drive continued to be quite foggy for most of the trip. It went from a low-lying fog to an all-encompassing fog, but it wasn't quite impeding travel at all. About forty minutes from my destination, the atmosphere cleared up into the regular unending sunlight of Florida, and I was on my way the rest of the drive to the stadium.

This being my third trip to this ballpark, I had it all down pretty much. I went to the prepaid lot and found a spot right by the exit, did a quick walk-around to get more photos, and then headed inside the wrong way, as we'll see.

The way out was uninteresting. I was back to my parents' condo in quite under an hour. Another emergency load of laundry quickly followed, as well as an emergency organization of the papers and nick-knacks that had acquired over the last week or so, as well as a serious shower to get the layers of sweat and sunscreen off.

Clothes and person cleaned, I took a quick trip to Walmart--god help me--to pick up another SD card for my camera (as it appeared that needing a fourth might be in order), and I grabbed some gas before dinner with my parents. The rest of the night was spent working out the logistics of the next few days and doing some serious writing. And by "writing," I mean "sitting in the clubhouse looking at funny cat pictures." I also booked a hotel for the next night in Fort Myers.


The Stadium & Fans: 

Home plate to center field, Roger Dean Stadium

Roger Dean Stadium didn't change much from my previous visits, except that as this was a Marlins home game, the crowd was mostly focused on the left side of the field, as the Marlins held sway on the third-base side.

I say that, but visiting Nationals fans easily outnumbered the Marlins faithful in the seats. It wasn't nearly as bad as when they were playing their stadium-mates, the Cardinals, but again the red jerseys were outnumbering the white and blue by any count. Even though Marlins fans have the shortest Spring Training commute in the Grapefruit League, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of fans that come to them, and even though the Marlins won the meaningless game, there were precious few rooters who gave a damn in the seats.

The lack of shade in the park really does hurt the experience, especially for afternoon games where the middle Florida sun just bakes you to a crisp well-done in a matter of hours.


At the Game with Oogie: 

Hot dog and soda

So Roger Dean Stadium has a couple of buy-in options with their tickets. You can pre-purchase parking in their special lot, you can buy a ticket to let you into batting practice early, and you go the whole ten yards and buy a pass that lets you go on the field for batting practice (for the low, low price of essentially another ticket). Because I was doing the reviews for these stadiums, and because it seemed like a nifty enough idea, I grabbed the option for my last game at the park.

Given it was the Marlins, I wasn't too enthusiastic about the opportunities, but that was before I found out that they had acquired Ichiro Suzuki in the off-season. I would definitely like to see him take BP, and I wouldn't say no to an autograph from him, either.

Which is why I was getting up so early on this day to drive to the stadium by 10 AM. The BP event is not supposed to open until 10:30 AM, but I figured that I'd need outside photos as well. Either way, I got to the stadium just before 10 AM, and it turned out they opened up for batting practice just after 10 that day. There was a little tent by the entrance, but it didn't have a sign or anything, so I just went in. I walked around for a little bit, and I saw people on the track behind home plate. When Ichiro came in and signed autographs, I asked an usher, and he said that I needed to sign in at the tent to get my credentials and lanyard. 

A legend, up close and personal

And so I went back out, and I got said things from the nice lady who apologized for the lack of sign. I was led to the area behind home plate, and I did get to watch Ichiro from there, but after his group was done, they went straight back to the practice fields and did not stop over. In fact, with the exception of Jeff Conine, there weren't any more signatures to be had. Eventually, we were all just baking on the track while the Nats took batting practice, and I asked to be escorted back to the stands so I could do my regular thing.

I got my hot dog, which turned out to be the same as the one they sell for the Cardinals (and, by the way, if I see a hot dog after this trip, I'm just going to scream), and I got the sausage and pancake on a stick (sausages on a stick dipped in pancake batter and served with maple syrup), as well as a pulled pork sandwich. 

Pancake on a stick

I loaded up on water, and I made a trip out to the Cool Zone, which was open to the public for this game after they held a staff had a meeting. To be fair, the zone was quite cool, and since I was sweating it out in the sun again today, I decided to spend most of the pre-game time up to Ass-In-Seat to be cool in this zone.

I was situated right past first base in the last row on the lower deck. And I had some interesting seat companions. To my right were a father and some from Atlanta, and to my left was a group of displayed Phillies fans. And yet, no one was murdered. The father and son were an agreeable sort, and we talked about baseball for a while before they asked me to take a photo of them, and they departed around the seventh inning.

The Phillies fan to my left was a former baseball coach who retired down here. He had never made the three-hour drive over to Clearwater to see the Phillies, but he attends the games in the several stadiums in the south-east. We talked a lot during the game about disparate topics, and we thoroughly enjoyed the game as it played out in front of us. He was not a bad sort of person for being subhuman scum that should be eradicated from the face of the planet in a righteous cleansing.

And again, I won the program autograph game. I found a signature in my book and went out to the fan relations booth to get my prize. It turns out my prize hadn't been called yet. They were just announcing random names and ads without page numbers, so I just flipped through the entire program until I saw the autograph and went to claim my prize. I got a goodie basket of things branded with a local community college and had my picture taken for my trouble. My seat-mates were similarly underwhelmed with my haul. 

Winnings, such as they were

I did not win the 50/50 again.


The Game: 

First pitch, Nationals vs. Marlins

This meaningless Grapefruit League contest pitted two NL East rivals, the Washington Nationals and the Miami Marlins. In something that would not be repeated many times in the real season, the Marlins managed to hang on for a pointless late-inning win.

The game started slowly, with Washington going in order. The Marlins, for their part, only got a two-out double in their half. The Nationals again went in order in the second, but Miami got on the board with a leadoff E5 that was subsequently driven in by two more singles, giving them the 1-0 lead. Washington again went in order in the third, while the Marlins again brought in a run with a leadoff double that went to third on a fly out and then was driven in with a single, doubling the lead to 2-0.

The Nationals finally got going in the top of the fourth, tying it up with two runs on a leadoff single, a ground-rule double, a stolen base, and a ground-out. It was Miami's turn to go in order in the bottom of the fourth. Washington struck again in the top of the fifth with a leadoff homer to right to grab a 3-2 lead, while the Marlins wasted a one-out triple in the bottom of the frame. The Nationals only had a walk in the top of the sixth, while Miami tied it up at three again with a leadoff homer to right in the bottom of the frame.

Washington went in order in the seventh after the swap-out, and the Marlins stranded a walk and a single. The Nationals only had a single in the top of the eighth, but Miami went on a run. They scored two runs on five ground balls, four of which went on for hits, leading to two runs and leapfrogging them to a 5-3 lead. The game was not yet over, as in the top of the ninth, Washington started the top of the inning with a homer to dead center to close the game to one run, and with two outs, a two-base error by the replacement centerfielder put the tying run on second and the winning run at bat, but another fly ball to center was successfully caught to seal the meaningless 5-4 Marlins win.


The Scorecard: 

Nationals vs. Marlins, 03/18/15. Marlins "win," 5-4.

The scorecard was part of the $5 full-color magazine program. It was in the centerfold, taking up nearly the entire two pages of the spread, except for a small strip of header text. The paper was semi-gloss magazine paper, but it wasn't awful to write on with pencil. It was definitely an above-average scorecard with a lot of space to score. Each batting line had a space for a replacement and a summary line at the end of the batting row, and there was an inning statistic at the bottom of each column. The scoring squares were blank with no back printing. The pitching lines were under the batting lines, with plenty of space for pitchers. Catching lines were next to each pitching line. Those catching lines had two columns next to them, and only one was labeled for passed balls, so I assumed the other should be wild pitches. There was a box area at the bottom of the batting totals for game totals.

There were only a couple of weird plays. In the bottom of the second, there were runners on first and second, there was a strike-em-out-throw-em-out DP 2-5-4. In the bottom of the eighth, with runners on first and second, there was a bunt attempt that lead to a 1-5 putout.

As with most Spring Training games, there was the great switch out, with both teams starting the sixth inning and mostly finishing in the seventh for their entire lineups. Both teams swapped out every single player. Of personal note, Ichiro pinch-hit a triple on the bottom of the fifth. Although the Marlins stranded him, it was good for the soul to see.


The Accommodations: 

I was spending the night at Chez Hide-A-Bed again with my parents. Knowing the extremely early morning the next day, I endeavored to hit the hay at an hour that my parents would approve of, if they would ever get out of the living room of the condo.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League

Jupiter (Cardinals)

On a Pleasantly Short Sunday Sojourn 

Roger Dean Stadium, 2015

Sunday, March 8, 2015

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


Outside the Game:

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

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

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

Spring training autographs

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

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

The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Roger Dean Stadium

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

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

At the Game with Oogie:

Sun scoring

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

Hot dog and souvenir soda

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


The Game:

First pitch, Marlins vs. Cardinals

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

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

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

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


The Scorecard:

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

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

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

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

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


The Accommodations:

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

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League

Jupiter

On Omens

A lack of plane

Friday, March 21, 2014

Boynton Beach, FL


Outside The Game:
And so it goes. Another Spring is here, another desperate escape from a stressed workplace is executed, and another trip to Florida is had.

The song remains the same, but, as always, the verses change. The Spring this year seems to be an actual Spring, instead of a snow-filled mistake, although the weather report for the next week certainly was foreboding in the solid particulates department. The cause of the work-related ennui was also certainly unique, in that a client was making our lives hellish by being rather uniquely unavailable when decisions needed to be made and things--such as contracts--needed to be signed.

And even the trip to Spring Training was switched up a little this year. While I was still seeing the Metropolitans before they can crush my spirits for the regular season, thanks to some scheduling irregularities, I would see them not in their "home" of Digital Domain Traditional Field (or whatever they are calling it this year), but rather as a visiting team at the Marlins facility in Jupiter, which they share with the St. Louis Cardinals. And while an away game, Jupiter is actually closer to my parents' snowbird condo community in Florida than the home facility. So I had that going for me.

After a late-ish night at the office to shore up the works for my one-day absence, I was disturbed to discover how early I had booked my flight for Friday morning. It wasn't crack of dawn or anything of that ilk, but I still a had to get up earlier than normal, which is an awful way to start a weekend away. Pity me.

Despite these crushing impediments, I managed to get myself up about a half hour earlier than normal and make myself presentable for my car service waiting for me outside. In the shower, I had heard ominous reports of entire swaths of road being shut down by apocalyptic accidents, but the trip to the airport was ridiculously uneventful, and even the dreaded Pulaski Skyway was completely clear of traffic. That was an omen of such import that I am still trying to work out what it means. One does not just find the Pulaski Skyway bereft of traffic. I feared I may die on this trip, or be named King of England. It could go either way.

I got checked in at the airport and paid the usual sucker tax for early boarding. Security was without incident, as was procuring breakfast and boarding the plane. And outside of some mildly rambunctious kids in the row behind me, the flight itself went alright as well.

I was landing this time out at Ft. Lauderdale instead of West Palm Beach, as for some reason, tickets to the later were something around $200 more expensive. For the extra fifteen-minute drive, I wasn't willing to spend an extra two Benjamins, so Ft. Lauderdale it was. I eventually got into cell contact with my father, made it to the passenger pick-up area, and drove off into the blinding Florida day. The sheer brightness and flatness of Florida never ceases to amaze me. Natural wonder or natural blight remains to be debated by minds greater than my own.

We eventually met up with my mother, who was out helping to pick wedding dresses with one of my relation's fiancee. Because of the engagement party for said wedding the next evening, we would be going out Friday evening with just my parents instead of the usual Saturday, and the now-traditional pizza party at my parents' condo Friday evening was off for this year. And so it was that we were dropping off the tickets for tomorrow's game to various relations, instead of dishing them out later that evening as per normal.

Tickets so delivered, we left the lady-folk to their gowns and such, and my father and I finally got some lunch at a NY-style deli in a nearby mall. I had not eaten since before my flight, and I was now well and truly starving. After eating until sated, my father and I went back to their condo at the community for the aged in Boynton Beach. As with every other year, they had a different condo in the same complex by the Intracoastal. This one was further back from the water than the ones previous, but it was newly renovated and a full two bedroom affair, so it was the nicest and largest unit they had been in as of yet.

I had my own bedroom area with my own TV, which I quickly utilized to unpack and nap while "watching" some TV. By the time I had awakened, my mother had returned, and while she and my father got ready from dinner, I schlubbed it out the complex's clubhouse to get some sweet, sweet Internet on my iPad. When I returned to the condo, my father was screaming into my cell phone at someone. I had left my phone in my bedroom when I went to the clubhouse, and now my father had somehow 1) answered my phone, 2) turned on speakerphone (which even I didn't know how to do on the thing), and 3) commenced screaming at whoever had called me. I had nightmares about this being a call from my boss at work, who now had a crazy old man hollering at him.

As it turned out, it was just a realtor I was working with back at home. While at the clubhouse, I had opted out of his property listing emails, as he had rather lazily set them up to automatically mail me as soon as an individual property came on the market, and my inbox was thereby being flooded with emails. He must have gotten the notice about it after I did it, and in the time it took me to walk back to my parents' condo, he had called my cell and gotten screamed at by my father. That behind me, I chastised my father to not answer my phone, and we went off to dinner.

My immediate family alone can often be a contentious thing, but perhaps the earlier embarrassment of the phone incident took an edge off the evening, and we managed to get through dinner without any major disturbances. There was a woman providing vocal accompaniment to the diners. I always feel bad for performers in situations such as this. Her audience had little to no interest in what she's doing, but you have to continue to sing on to an unresponsive and uninterested crowd and wonder where you career has gone that you were doing such a thing. I tossed a bill or two in her tip jar on the way out.

The rest of the evening was just the drive back to the condo and a walk out to the clubhouse before bed.


The Accommodations:
As mentioned, I was at my parents' condo in the over-55 community in Boynton Beach. This was a much larger and much recently renovated unit than they had the previous years. I had my own bedroom and bathroom to myself, while my parents had a large master suite.

Apparently, the place was not without controversy. The renovated unit was sold to a new owner, but it was done so with the stipulation that she had to honor any previous rental agreements, of which my parents were the only ones. So the new owner rather passive-aggressively left the unit for the period of my parents' rental. In the silence of night, I could feel her glaring at us from whatever distance separated.

On Witnessing an Old, Fat Man Running 90 Feet

Roger Dean Stadium, 2014

Saturday, March 22, 2014
New York Metropolitans vs. Miami Marlins
Roger Dean Stadium
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Jupiter, FL
1:05 PM


Outside the Game:
And so my first day began in Florida. Since the stadium was only a half hour or so from the condo, it wasn't as early a day as some others on these trips have been. My dad and I made breakfast and headed to pick up our one passenger going with us to the game.

After some wrong turn wanderings by my father, we reached our rendezvous point and were on our way for the short drive to the stadium. I had pre-purchased parking, as it was cheaper that way, so we drove straight up to the parking deck and were out and about.

I parted ways with my companions to do my regular stadium looksie. While I was tramping around outside, some unseasonable rain hit this part of Florida. It started off and on, but by the time I had gotten done inside, it was a steady downpour that had the good graces to stop about a half hour before gametime.

Our way out was as seamless as our way in. It was a short drive to drop off my cousin's kid at home, and then my father and I headed back to the condo for some serious napping. Another cousin's offspring was having an engagement party that evening, so we eventually had to shower and get dressed for that.

As family gatherings went, it was largely uneventful. I got to see some relations I had not seen in decades, for better or worse. The evening passed, and it was back to the condo for another night's slumber.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Roger Dean Stadium

Roger Dean Stadium is an odd sort of beast. Named for a car dealership owner (never a good start), it is a facility that is split between the Marlins and the Cardinals (after the original cohabitants, the Expos, left once they became the Nationals). On paper, one can hardly argue the split isn't fair. The Marlins get facilities on the left-field side of the outer rim of the park, and the Cardinals get identical digs on the right-field side of the park. The only reference to the Expos is on a plaque dedicated to season-ticket holders in the exterior walkway. The park even has three nearly identical gates, one on each side of the park, as well as a central entrance near a brick fan walk.

Once inside, it is a fairly standard low-minor level park. A single seating bowl extends from right to left field, horseshoeing around home plate. A row of luxury boxes, party decks, and press boxes extends above the lower seats from about first to third base. A second row of seats extends up to those decks for about the same distance. A lone set of bleachers sits detached and perched out in left. In right field, the "Cassidy Cool Zone," an air-conditioned party area, is located above a picnic hill berm up against the outfield wall. The office complexes for both residents sit in left (Marlins) and right (Cardinals).

The seating bowl is raised above the exterior walkways that run from outfield to outfield around the park. A small golf pitch shot tent sits in right in a nod to the PGA course down the street from the park. Outfield concessions sit in plazas at the terminus of each wide walkway, and the covered area behind the infield has further concessions and merchandise stores. They even have food-ordering kiosks around the park that let you place an order for pick-up, or even delivery if you're in the expensive seats.

And speaking of which, this place is expensive for Spring Training. The tickets are at a premium, and all the concessions and beer were at major-league prices. None of the cost was justified by the experience, which was nice, but still decidedly single-A.

And the crowd didn't do the Marlins proud. Mets fans outnumbered fans of the Fish easily two to one. Heck, there may have been more Cardinals fans than there were Marlins fans, and Miami is considerably closer than St. Louis. The real dagger to the heart was the fact that the Cardinals had more fans waiting for autographs on their side of the facility on a day the team wasn't even playing than the Marlins managed when they were at home.


At the Game with Oogie:

Super Dean Dog, for science

As with all of these trips, I was with my family for this game. Roger Dean has precious little in the way of cover, so I managed to secure tickets in the back three rows behind home plate, which was just on the edge of the minor overhang that passes for shelter in the park. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting to need shelter from rain, but there you go. Our seats in the third row from the back were just on the edge of the sheltered area, except for the fact that there was a hole in the rain gutter that was dripping water directly down onto two of our seats. Luckily, the seats to the right of us were open, so one of my cousins (the last to show up) would not have to sit in the dripping with his date.


The Game:

First pitch, Metropolitans vs. Marlins

Where Spring Training games are concerned, you can only care so much. A split-squad contest between the Mets and Marlins in Spring Training lowers that bar even more. You can try and immerse yourself in the minutia of the prospects and how far players how progressed, or you can just sit back and wait for some absurdity to present itself. I went for the latter.

The Mets' first epitomized the "I Dare You To Care" way these games are played. David Wright got hold of a two-out double, and the next batter singled to right. Wright was waived home even though he had no shot, and he was nailed about a half mile up the line from the plate to end the inning. Bartolo Colon, the "ageless" AL pitching giant, was starting for the Mets this afternoon. He set the feckless Marlins down in order, but his time was yet to come.

In the top of the second, a leadoff walk was brought home by a two-out homer to center, making it 2-0, Mets. Colon came up for his first at bat after this. His bat did not leave his shoulder. He waited patiently for the Marlins' pitcher to throw three strikes so he could go back to the dugout. The crowd went wild on him. Undaunted, he only gave up a leadoff single in the bottom of the second. The Mets got another leadoff walk and nothing else in the top of the third, and the Marlins only managed a two-out single in their half of the frame.

The fourth inning dawned, and a leadoff double by the Mets was followed by a walk and then a three-run homer to center, making it 5-0, Mets. Again with two outs, Colon again came to the plate. Stung, it seemed, by the crowd's reaction to his first at bat, he lamely swung at the first pitch he saw, accidentally laying down a perfect bunt to third. Anyone walking normal speed to first would have beat the throw. Colon, lurching like a wounded elephant down the line, was out by five feet. To be fair, this gave me a little hope in my life. If Colon, only a few months younger than me and woefully out of shape, could hit big-league pitching, perhaps my dreams of playing in the MLB aren't all yet dashed.

Majestic

Perhaps winded from the exertion, Colon gave up a leadoff double and then a homer to left in the bottom of the fourth. A one out single got erased on a double-play to end the inning 5-2, Mets. Both sides went in order in the fifth, but the Mets went right back to scoring in the sixth. A leadoff single moved to second on a balk, and then came home on another one-out single. With two outs, Bartolo Colon waded up to the plate again. Clearly limbered up by his first two efforts, he laced a single to left that scored the run from first. As the relay came in, he was in real danger of getting thrown out at first base if the throw didn't go to home. The next batter bounced one over the wall in center, thus ensuring that not only wouldn't Colon be thrown out at second, but he would also be required to go all the way to third. Sadly, a pop-out to right ended his magical adventure around the bases, with the Mets up, 7-2. The Marlins managed a base-runner on a two-out error before ending their half with a fly out of their own.

The Mets weren't done scoring. Next inning, a one-out hit batsman was followed by a double to make it second and third, and a passed ball scored a run and moved everyone up, before Ike Davis cleared the bases with a two-run home run. Another single went for naught, and the half ended at 10-2, Mets. The Marlins went in order in the bottom of the seventh (and Colon made his exit from the game), and the Mets went quietly in the eighth. The Marlins got a walk in the bottom of the inning, the Mets got a solitary single in the top of the ninth, and then the Marlins mercifully went in order to end the game at 10-2, Metropolitans.


The Scorecard:

Metropolitans vs. Marlins, 03/22/14. Metropolitans win, 10-2.

The Spring Training program with scorecard for the Marlins was an outrageous $6. This is more expensive than many pro teams regular-season programs, and while this was a nice full-color, magazine quality program, it topped out at just over 30 pages.

The scorecard itself was a nice enough centerfold, with an adequate space to score and built-in room for replacements. The slick magazine paper made scoring with pencil harder than it needed to be, however. It had lots of slots for data and made proving out on the easy side.

Scoring-wise, there wasn't much of particular interest. Most of the runs came on long-balls, with the exception of some Mets singles in the sixth, including Colon's improbable ribeye. There was also a Japanese-level spate of pinch runners in the sixth and seventh innings to make way for late-inning replacements. Speaking of which, I managed to keep all of them in order, including a double-switch for the Marlins' pitcher in the eighth, which is very hard to do without some scoreboard support not found in Spring Training.

I had hoped for an instant replay call to see how I would score it (as an appeal play, I figured), but I had to settle for an out-of-shape pitcher trundling around the bases.


The Accommodations:
I was once again at my parents' condo. Nothing of note on this front.

On Unremarkable Returns

Ft. Lauderdale

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Hoboken, NJ


Outside the Game:
Perhaps too quickly, or perhaps not quickly enough, it was time to head back north. I had a leisurely morning of wallowing in bed, tending my virtual zoo, and watching TV before getting motivated enough to take a shower and pack. Before going to the airport, we headed out to the country club where my father had a seasonal membership to get some brunch.

It was a respectable enough spread, and we had our fill of the buffet and each had our own excellent omelets created for us by the omelet chef. After our relaxed grazing, we headed back out to Ft. Lauderdale airport to put me on my giant metal tube back to Jersey.

I arrived with a decent amount of time before my flight. I got my boarding pass, went through the expedited security line, and spent a little time to see what limited fruits the small airport had to offer. Soon enough, it was time to board the flight. Early on, they began the announcements that the flight was overbooked and that not everyone would be able to use the overhead compartments. They then followed that up with an announcement that people shouldn't line up early. I'm not sure if they even understood how at cross-purposes they were to themselves, but there was a veritable stampede to get into the group lines as soon as the arriving plane was egressed.

As I had bumped myself up to group 2, I wasn't too worried about my bag, but since I was there already, I lined up early. We eventually had an orderly boarding onto what appeared to be a brand-spanking new 737. It seemed to have just had all the shipping plastic stripped off the thing. It had new styled overhead bins, new seats, and what appeared to be all LCD lighting. Not to mention electric outlets in every row. We live in a brave, new time.

Boarding finished up, and one or two standby passengers even managed to sneak on. The flight began without an issues, and we even got two drink services. We zipped off the plane a little early, and a short taxi ride had me back at my apartment doing laundry in no time.


The Accommodations:
Home, Sweet, Hoboken

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2014 Stand-Alone Trip