Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Play ball!

 Wife and I made a quick trip to Florida over the weekend (and Monday) to go to some spring training baseball games. 

I've been to spring training several times now, and it's always a lot of fun. We stayed in Tampa, arriving Friday night. Saturday we drove to North Point, where the Atlanta Braves have their own spring training venue at Cool Today Park. 


After the game, we drove to a beach near Sarasota and watched the sunset.


On Sunday, we only had to drive a few miles to George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa to see the Yankees play the Braves. 


We closed it out Monday with a visit to Bradenton to see the Pirates play the Phillies at the classic LECOM Park, which is 100 years old. While definitely showing its age (the seats were not exactly what one would call comfortable!), it is a splendid little ballpark. 



We were back home last night with memories of a fun three days. 



6 comments:

Jeff said...

I have never done Spring Training, but I'm envious that you got to Bradenton and saw the Pirates!

Ed said...

The last full baseball game I have watched was nearly 40 years ago! Since then, I'm not sure I've seen a full games worth of minutes (3 hours?) combined. Speaking of which, what are your thoughts on the new time limit rules that have been all over the news? Perhaps if they can get the length of a baseball game down to an hour, I might have the attention span to start watching it again.

Bob said...

Ed -- at the end of the Braves' home game (first game we saw), bottom of the 9th, game tied after Braves had been down by 3 runs, bases loaded, two outs -- the batter, who didn't get in the box within the new 8-second time limit, was called out. Because it was a spring training game, they let it end in a tie. Not just because my preferred team lost, I don't like it. People who don't prefer baseball don't prefer baseball. No amount of fooling around with the time is going to bring those folks around. And that's fine. As my late father would say, "That's why they make Fords and Chevrolets."

Ed said...

I'm not up on my teams as you might be aware, but that very incident sounds exactly like the one highlighted on the news piece I saw. Judging from your crowd picture, you weren't in the frame of reference behind the player when they did a closeup of his incredulous look at being called out.

Kelly said...

I'm glad y'all had a fun long weekend! You could have stopped in to see Quid! She and I still text occasionally.

Debby said...

I love that line: That's why they make Fords and Chevrolets. I'm stealing it. Sounds like a great trip....did you slide into home when it was over?