Port St. Lucie

On Needing and Getting

Tradition Field, 2015

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Washington Nationals vs. New York Metropolitans
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Tradition Field
Port St. Lucie, FL
1:10 PM


Outside the Game:

Back at my parents' condo, I was gratefully only awakened once by my father getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As he wasn't playing golf because he would be going to the game with me, I was spared the second awakening. I spent the morning looking at the rest of my trip and working out all the times I could justify staying in a hotel to avoid staying with my parents--while nursing my sore back from the fold-out couch. It was a relatively early start, and I was out the door by nine.

On the hour drive north, I ran into the largest speed trap that I'd even witnessed in person. It was almost comically large. It started with on cop on the side of the road just before the exits to Port St. Lucie, so it was clearly geared to nap New Yorkers who may be speeding up to the game. I thankfully saw the first cop early and slowed down, but in the course of the next two miles, there were at least six cop cars involved in tagging and running down supposed speed offenders on the way to the game. It was a big haul that clearly made the patrolled area richer... um, safer. Of course, I meant safer.

I eventually parked up on another lawn, guided by more people in reflective vests, though the elaborate rope cattle-channels that had been arranged at Tradition Field so far paled anything I'd previously encountered. I eventually found my personal slab of grass, called my father to warn him about the speed trap, put on my sunscreen, and head out into the mid-Florida morning.

Since the last visit, they had opened up the practice fields to fans, so that, of course, was my first stop. I ran into pitchers doing fielding drills and one of the practice squads taking some batting practice. It is then that the warning battery light ominously came on my camera. I carry a spare, of course, but something about the light struck an uncanny chord, perhaps realizing somewhere in my hind brain that I hadn't recharged that backup battery since last year.

Autograph fields

Regardless, I went about my business and got inside, and after two pictures, the battery faded to black. I put in my replacement and saw it was on the warning cycle as well. I took as many pictures as I could before it, too, went to black. So, the only field where I technically didn't need to take more pictures but desperately wanted to take more pictures found me without an operating camera. Hurrah.

Heading out after the game entailed a small amount of congestion to get out to the main road, and then smooth sailing back south. Desperately out of clothes, I threw in a load of laundry as soon as I got back, took a shower, and got dressed for the family pizza party that evening. My clothes got out of the drier minutes before the guests started to arrive, so I quietly folded in the back room and then came to join the festivities, such as they were.

The party was endured, barely, but went on far too long. Exhausted from the day's events, I had passed out in my parents' bedroom long before the last guest belatedly left. After midnight and facing under seven hour's sleep as it was, I yelled at my mother until she stopped cleaning up to prevent "ants" and went to bed in the living room.


Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Tradition Field

Tradition Field in lovely, downtown Port St. Lonely hadn’t really changed much since my last visit. The big new thing was that the practice fields behind the park had been opened up to fans, mirroring the trend around the Grapefruit League to give fans more access to the players and prospects. The slapdash nature of this opening was very much in effect, as there were a couple of non-committal signs pointing in the general direction of the entrance, at the back of one of the parking lots.

You then must tromp across a field and dried-up riverbed to get to the practice area set up in typical Spring-Training arrangement, with practice fields interspersed with skills areas for running, fielding, bunting and the like. In a nod to making it slightly fan-friendly, there are street signs naming the various paths in the facility after Met luminaries such as Gil Hodges and Tom Seaver, though the practice fields themselves are recipients of boring numbers as opposed to names of former greats as you find in other Spring Training parks. Still, some progress is still progress.

The rest of the park remained largely the same, with some vendors changing a tiny bit, and the sponsorships for some of the bars and party zones doing the inevitable cycling that happens year-over-year. The park had a pretty good turnout for the contest against the Nationals, and now with the reduced time between innings thanks to the new rules, there was even less going on for interstitial entertainment than before. Mr. Met, sadly, remained up north.


At the Game with Oogie:

Hot dog and souvenir soda

As I had my own car and had to do a review, I hit the beaches early, unfettered by parents and relations. Before their arrival, I got a hot dog and drink, as well as a batting helmet full of meatballs, because how can't you, really?

At the appointed time for everyone else's arrival, I went to a place that had a view of the ticket area to see if I could see them. They spotted me first, as they were right below me waiting to get in line for the elevator. I had thought my father was being particularly lazy, but it turned out that a family friend attending the game with us had just undergone surgery and was in a cast.

Thus united, we were off to our seats on the first-base side, under the merciful shade of the overhang. I had already grabbed food earlier in my ramblings, but everyone else grabbed food and drinks (many getting the meatballs in a batting helmet), and just before the game, the later contingent of my relations showed up to fill in the seats. The talk was limited to the play on field and the nice day we had in the shade.


The Game: 

This meaningless Spring Training matchup had the Washington Nationals facing off against the New York Metropolitans. As it happened, this pre-season match-up of NL East rivals was a walk away by the New York squad, signifying absolutely nothing about the season ahead.

The game started slowly, with Washington only getting a walk in the first, and the Metropolitans going in order. The Nationals managed to get a guy to third in the top of the second thanks to a one-out double and a ground out, but there he stayed. New York again went in order. Washington took their turn going in order in the top of the third, but the Metropolitans decided to score some runs, getting four of them in with a double, single, sacrifice fly, walk, and a David Wright three-run homer to dead center, leaving them with a 4-0 lead after three innings.

The Nats again went in order in the fourth, and New York joined them in the bottom of the inning. Washington finally got another base runner with a walk in the top of the fifth, while the Metropolitans had a solitary two-out double of their own. Despite a leadoff single, the Nationals managed to go in order in the top of the sixth thanks to a double play, while New York tacked on two more runs with a leadoff homer to left and a triple followed by a single to make it 6-0.

Washington finally got on the board in the seventh with a single, a double, and another single, driving in two runs to make it a more respectable 6-2. The Metropolitans promptly got those runs back with a double and a homer to left, extending the lead to 8-2. The Nats just had a single in the top of the eighth, while New York continued to feast on the Washington bullpen. Five more runs came in the bottom of the eighth thanks to three straight singles to start off the inning, then a walk, a double, and a two-base error on the shortstop, leaving them with a 13-2 lead. Washington went down swinging in the top of the ninth with a leadoff single and a homer to right, but three outs closed up the meaningless win at 13-4 New York.


The Scorecard:

Nationals vs. Metropolitans, 03/14/15. Metropolitans "win," 13-4.

The scorecard was part of the $5 full-color magazine program. It took over the centerfold spread of the program on semi-gloss paper that made it difficult to write in pencil and especially colored pencil. In addition, there was printing behind the scoring area, which smudged easily and made it difficult to erase.

Each batting line had a colored space for a replacement batter, batting totals were at the end of each line, and inning totals were at the bottom of each column. However, the batting lines at the end of each line were labelled "A," "B," "R," and "H," and assuming that was "At Bats," "RBIs," "Runs," and "Hits," it was, at best, an unconventional alignment and ordering. Also, there were no pitching lines, although I entered them in in some blank space at the bottom. The scorecard took up only about a half of the area, leaving some baseball art at the top and scoring rules and stadium rules at the bottom. The background was white, but there was no easy white space for notations. There was nothing in scoring boxes except for the background printing, so it was comfortable enough to score.

There were mercifully few plays of note. The two-base error in the bottom of the eighth by the Nationals shortstop lead to a run, and the ceremonial swapping out of the starters ran its course between the eighth and ninth inning for the Nationals and the fourth and eighth for the Metropolitans, with only one player on each team not getting a rest.


The Accommodations: 

I was back at my parent's condo again, wishing that I wasn't.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2015 Grapefruit League

Port St. Lucie

On a Curious Effect of the Season

Newark Liberty Bald Eagle God-Bless-America Airport

Friday, March 15, 2013

Boynton Beach, FL


Outside the Game:
It always seems that around this time of year, work is getting me down. This year was no different, but no doubt more intense, as thanks to client foot-dragging and several rather abrupt changes of direction, I had managed to work 180 hours in the previous three weeks, instead of the more traditional 120.

So I was more than ready to head down for Spring Training, especially as my work troubles were flying parallel to what seemed like an endless off-season without baseball. Taking my first vacation day since last July, I dragged myself out of bed and off to the airport. The trip did not begin under good signs, as even after 9 AM on a Friday, the Pulaski Skyway was still clogged up in both directions.

More surprisingly, this turned out to be the last hitch in my travels. I got through security with little trouble (partly due to the fact that I bought my tickets back before my Silver Elite status had lapsed), had a quick breakfast a terminal diner, and headed out to my gate, where a crew, a plane, and gate staff were already waiting.

I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop on this flight, but it never did. There were swarms of children and the elderly joining me down to West Palm Beach, but the boarding of the flight was orderly and relatively without incident. The children remained well-behaved for the entire flight, and I found myself playing Skee Ball on my iPad for the duration of the uneventful trip.

My father picked me up at the airport, and I was again thrust into the land of eternal brightness. My parents had a different unit in the old folks condo complex this year, which came with an additional bathroom and bedroom. I immediately made use of the later to take an extended nap, and enjoyed the nicest Friday I've had in quite a while.

As has become tradition, my family in Florida came over for a pizza party that evening. It was mostly tolerable, as most of the younger folks and myself adjourned to the patio to talk baseball and Archer for most of the night. One of my aunts is hosting a Caribbean student who is up to play baseball for a local high school. He was an interesting source of insight and discussion on different cultural practices in baseball.

Pizza was eaten, plans were made for getting to the game the next day, and eventually everyone went back to their domiciles of choice.


The Accommodations:
As mentioned, I was again staying in my parents' snowbird condo in Boynton Beach. This year, I had a room all to myself, which was a welcome change from sleeping on a pull-out couch in the living room, to be awakened by whatever parent dragged themselves through first the next morning, inevitably earlier than good taste would dictate.

Worthy of note was the truly bad taste the owners of this condo possessed. The place was filled to the brim with knickknacks from Boston and Martha's Vineyard, but because of one NY picture in the menagerie, my mother had decided they were from New York. Wherever their origin, the truly astounding amount of ceramic pigs and ugly nautical items pointed an accusing finger at whoever was responsible for their interior decorating.

On the Games Not Mattering

Tradition Field, 2013

Saturday, March 16, 2013
Miami Marlins vs. New York Metropolitans
Tradition Field
Grapefruit League (Spring Training)
Port St. Lucie, FL
1:10 PM


Outside the Game:
It was a relatively early start the next day. We had the children of cousins to pick up to take to the game with us, and I was officially writing up this stadium for my first gig with Stadium Journeys magazine, so I had to get there early. We got there with a minimum of fuss, parked early, and I parted ways with my compatriots to do my stadium write-up.

After the game, we got back to the car for a similarly unnoticeable drive back to the condo. My parents went to church, I went to sleep, and we went out for another contentious dinner of passive aggression, ingrained behavior patterns, and tiresome arguments.


The Stadium & Fans:

Home plate to center field, Tradition Field

For their 25th year as the Spring Training home of the Mets, they had to dust off the two year-old signs for Tradition Field, as the previous marketing arrangement with Digital Domain had expired last year. The old signs seemed to not be too far in storage and were out and shiny for the start of the game.

There weren't many updates of note since the remodeling last year that hooked up the picnic berm in the outfield with the rest of the park. They added a championship pennant wall near the outfield entrance, with all the victories of the parent club as well as the minor league affiliates that call the stadium home for the rest of the year.

As it was a weekend game late in spring against a local opponent, the stadium was more filled than in previous years, about 3/4ths full up. Most of the assembled were Mets fans, but given the proximity of the Marlins, there was a good deal of the opposition in attendance as well.


At the Game with Oogie:

Sliders

I  was once again with my family at this game, and sundry cousins and their children and their foreign exchange students were sitting with us in our block of seats over two rows. That most of them were Marlins fans eventually became a point of contention. All around us were big families of Mets fans clearly down for the season.


The Game:

First pitch, Marlins vs. Metropolitans

For the most part, this was an early pitcher's duel that turned into a game of musical chairs later.

The visiting Marlins managed to scare up a one-out double in the first and nothing else, while the Mets squandered a leadoff walk and single with a double-play and a ground out. The Marlins squeezed out one single in each of the next two innings, but the Mets went meekly down in order.

In the top of the fourth, a lead-off routine ground ball to third turned into something more, as Justin Turner caught his cleat on the lip of the grass and splayed himself out making the throw to first, leading to an E5 and his removal from the game. This seemed inevitably followed by a triple to right, bringing home a run and leaving a runner at third with no outs. A ground out to short brought the runner home, and was followed by a walk. But further damage was averted by two quick outs, leaving Miami up 2-0.

The Mets answered in the bottom of the inning with a one-out single followed by a ground-rule double to deep center. A ground-out to second brought the runner from third home, and a walk made it first and second with two outs. But a weak chop to short ended the inning 2-1 Marlins.

The Marlins went in order in the fifth and sixth, and the Mets only managed a lonely single in the fifth and leadoff walk in the sixth (erased on another double play). The seventh was another scoring frame, as the Marlins got a leadoff double to left that was moved over to third on a ground-out and brought home on a two-out single. The Mets also got a leadoff double to left that got moved home on two successive ground-outs, making the distance between the teams the same as last inning and the score 3-2 Marlins.

The Marlins tacked on an insurance run in the eighth with a one-out monster blast out of the park to left. A single and walk followed, but they got nothing more from it. The insurance run wasn't needed, and the Mets went in order for the rest of the game. One last slightly positive note for the Mets was getting out of trouble in the top of the ninth, with back-to-back walks that were erased on a caught stealing and a double play.

Nevertheless, the Marlins win this one, 4-2.


The Scorecard:

Marlins vs. Metropolitans, 03/16/13. Marlins win, 4-2.

I again delved into the madness of scoring a Spring Training game, and picked up the $6 program at the concession booth outside the stadium. It is a still a little cramped for the amount of switching going on in March games, lacks pitching lines, and has a curiously labeled "B" column that I can only assume is for RBIs.

The game was not of much interest from a scoring perspective. There were a few double plays and an injury to note down, but otherwise straightforward. Around the seventh inning, changes started coming fast and hard, and the announcers once again did a very poor job of keeping us abreast of them. Sometimes they announced batters as pinch hitters, sometime as the position they were taking over... If they just would keep the lineups on the scoreboard during the game, 90% of this would be resolved.

But we persevere.

One item of note was two at-bats in the ninth. I wasn't tracking balls and strikes, but the second Marlins batter in the ninth had a truly epic at bat. By the time I was really taking note of it, the at-bat was six or seven pitches in. On a three-two count, he fouled off at least ten pitches. He eventually won the battle and drew the walk. In the Mets half of the inning, there was another lengthy at-bat, but not nearly as long as the first. It probably went about ten to twelve pitches and ended in an out. Let's go Mets.


The Accommodations:
I was once again on the futon in the second bedroom of my parents' condo at the over 55 community. I added incrementally to the damage to my lower back.

On Small Pockets

West Palm Beach Airport

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Hoboken, NJ


Outside of the Game:
And so it goes. After sleeping in as long as possible on an awkward futon, I awoke and packed up to go. My mother claimed herself sick again, so it would just be my father and myself going out for breakfast this morning.

Foregoing a brunch for a diner breakfast being sans madre, we checked out a number of local places before settling on a diner slightly more out of the way, but on our route to the airport. We availed ourselves of some unhealthy consumables, and then went off to the airport.

The god of irony was looking down on me this day, as I had been complaining that the one thing I hated about the pants I wore that day was they had such small pockets. It is likely that at exactly that time, when I was trying to cram my cell phone in the same pocket with my wallet, that my cell phone actually squirted back out of my pocket and into my father's car. I did not notice this state of events until I got to the airport, and then I had no way of contacting my father to check, as said cell phone and the number for his cell phone were both in his car. (Or at least I supposed later. This turned out to be the case.)

I killed the requisite time at the airport, and one gate change later, it was time to board the flight home. The flight back was as quick as the flight down, landing so early that we needed to wait for a gate to open for us. I had to use all the change in my pocket to call my car service to confirm my arrival. Luckily, a follow-up was not needed, and I was whisked home for a glamorous evening of laundry and unpacking.


The Accommodations:
Sweet Home Hoboken

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2013 Stand-Alone Trip