Take Me Out To the Ballgame

(Wauchula, FL) Hi 88 Low 60 -- Today's blog is for the baseball fans out there. Dee had a down day today, and except for a walk around the park she mostly hung around the rig and watched the Eagle Cam on her laptop. She did get to say farewell to some neighbors who are leaving tomorrow. I had a ticket to a spring training baseball game between my beloved St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers, so around 11am I started out on the 1-hour trip to Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland. I turned on the GPS on my Droid and Dee watched my progress on her laptop. Kind of "big brother"-ish to me, but she enjoys it. I guess she likes keeping an eye on me to make sure I don't make any suspicious stops. :)

I got to the ballpark a little after 12 noon and got parked ($7.00 to park). The minor league ballparks here in Florida are really nice complexes, usually made up of the main stadium and several surrounding practice fields. Joker Marchant is no exception; it's very attractive with architecture that would be at home in the southwest.

The spring training (Grapefruit League) season every March is very popular in Florida, especially among retirees. It's a chance to see the major league teams up close. I had a general admission seat ($16.00) and I was only about 20 rows up from the field on the third base side. Great seats that would be very expensive during the regular season in a major league ballpark.

The only drawback to spring training games is sometimes you don't get to see the stars play, or they play for only an inning or two. I was fortunate today in that the Cardinals played their starting lineup for the first five innings, including Albert Pujols, who many consider the best player in baseball. Here he is (#5) during pre-game warmups.

And would you believe it, he came up in the 4th inning with two outs and the bases loaded and hit a grand slam homer! What a thrill, even if it was only spring training.

The tickets may be cheaper for spring training games (although $16.00 for the cheapest seat still seems pricey to me), but the food prices are no bargain. I got a hot dog (ya gotta get a hot dog at a baseball game), nachos and a medium diet coke for $13.00.  Yikes!

Around the 7th inning, after all the stars had hit the showers and the rookies took over the game, some folks started to leave. So I wandered down to the lower level to see what the REALLY good seats are like. I found an empty seat right behind the Cards dugout for a really close view of the action.

That's the roof of the dugout at the bottom of the shot. Not bad seats, eh? The Cards won 9-4... or was it 9-5. Who cares... it was a perfect day and I had a great time.

When I got home my wonderful wife prepared a delicious dinner for me and then we settled in for our normal evening of TV watching. I'm starting to like this retirement thing! :)

Florida Trivia: Florida was the 27th state to be admitted to the Union, on March 3, 1845.

Only 20 days left till we head north.