Spring Training

Our family lost interest in baseball as a result of the labor strike in the 90's.  The boys stowed away their trading cards and moved on to other interests.  Being the obedient parents that we were, we moved right along with them.  And so it should come as no surprise that in spite of living in south Florida for sixteen years we had never attended a spring training game.  That ended in a big way this past week.







We took ourselves "out to the ballgame" three times in five days.  We watched from the stands with the Pirate's bus driver, the parents of a Minnesota Twins pitcher and some Red Sox fans who paid far too high a price for their bleacher seats.  We learned that during spring training visiting teams limit the number of starters that make the trip; that up and coming players rarely get a day off; and that we never want to watch another game from the bleachers in the Red Sox's new Jet Blue stadium.  Never, ever, again.  No matter how cheap the tickets.  Not even if the Red Sox are playing the Yankees.  Yes, those seats were that bad.






Our beloved Pirates lost, the pitcher son of the proud parents from Tennessee was cut from the Twins two days later and Red Sox/Yankees game ended in a tie.  The Red Sox inaugural gear for the new stadium was all Kelly green (go figure), the TC on the Twins caps is the team's original logo, and hot dogs always taste better at the ball park.







I am pleased to report that major league baseball has won us over once more.  Spring training is all it's cracked up to be. The Twins' Hammond Stadium doesn't have a bad seat in the house and the new Jet Blue Stadium is buzzing with electricity.  We're already planning our outings for next year.



But you can be assured of one thing, we won't be watching from the bleacher seats.