My trip to Spring Training

I have returned from my trip to Fort Myers, Florida with some excitement for the upcoming baseball season, amateur and professional. It was my first visit to watch Spring Training games and it was a very nice baseball atmosphere. To me, it seemed liked most people were getting a new toy because they were happy to be around baseball again.

I flew in Monday night on March 10th and got checked into my hotel at about 9:00. I stayed at the Econo Lodge mostly because it was about 3 miles from the park and I didn’t plan on spending much time at the beach. I did like the decision to stay there. It wasn’t much, but I was only in town for two days anyway. If I would have been in Fort Myers for more time, a beach hotel might have been another option.

I wanted to go to Shoeless Joe’s Sports Cafe the first night, so I hopped in the rental vehicle, a Jeep Liberty, and headed out. It was about a 4 mile drive and pretty easy to find. I sat down at the bar and immediately started chatting with a Boston Red Sox fan. I ordered a Samuel Adams White Ale. It was the first time I tried the White Ale and I thought it was great. The Red Sox fan and I talked about sports in Boston and Minnesota for about an hour and a half. A couple more Red Sox fans sat down and joined in the conversation. It was nice that I had been to Boston because I was able to share my memories of going to Fenway Park and all of the other things we were able to accomplish in the two days we were there. I didn’t have any other plans for Monday night so I just headed back to the hotel to get some sleep.

It was overcast on Tuesday morning, and I decided to go rollerblading before the Twins game. They had a nice trail along Daniels Parkway, but there were many intersections and a lot of traffic so I had to wait at traffic lights for up to 3-4 minutes to cross the street. I went about 10 miles round-trip. After I got back, I got a bite to eat, put on my Twins T-shirt and hat and headed to Hammond Stadium. Parking was reasonable at $5. I ended up walking into the park at about 11:45 for a 1:05 game time. The Tampa Bay Rays were just finishing up taking infield.

From that point I just sat in my seat and watch everyone and everything around me. The sun would come out from behind the clouds every so often and you could feel the heat. Otherwise, it was very comfortable. There were three annoying kids that sat next to me and didn’t shut up the whole time they were there. Lucky for me they left about the sixth inning. The game didn’t go too well for the Twins and they lost 7-1. I hung out at the park for a while after the game to get some photos.

I decided to check out the beach and left the park at 4:00. The traffic was crazy. It’s bad near the beach because the main road to the beach is a one way in both directions on the bridge. It took about an hour to get from the ball park to the beach. Not good considering it was about an 8-10 mile trip. The beach was not busy because it had been cloudy most of the day and when I got there it had started cooling down a bit. I hung out at the beach and surrounding areas for about 4 hours and met and talked to a few Minnesotans along the way. I headed back to the hotel and was in bed early because I wanted to get to the ball park early for the Red Sox/Twins game.

I checked out of the hotel and headed to the park. At 9:30 it was already buzzing with fans from both sides. I went over to one of the side fields where some of the Twins players were taking infield. TK (Tom Kelly) was hitting ground balls with the fungo. It was good to see TK out there, because he’s kind of behind the scenes now.

Manager Ron Gardenhire had set up a machine to throw up pop flies and one went over the fence and a guy went to get it and he went on to asked Gardy, “Ron, do want the ball back?” Gardy replies, “No, but Mr. Pohlad does.” He was joking, of course, and people laughed. I was out there for probably an hour and then went inside Hammond Stadium. I was right next to the Twins dugout by the field and Michael Cuddyer came over and signed some autographs. I got a ball signed, but I’m actually not big on autographs so I think I’ll save it and give it to my nephew when he’s old enough to understand. I also got Scott Baker to sign his photo in the program. It’s pretty cool to see the young kids so excited to get an autograph.

There were a ton of Red Sox fans and the stadium was packed. The shirt I had worn drew a lot of attention from fans at the stadium, “Jeter drinks wine coolers”. I would say at least 15 people said something and a couple of people actually ran after me and told me they loved the shirt.

Another exciting aspect of the game was Francisco Liriano was starting the game for the Twins. He is coming off of Tommy John surgery and the Twins are still not sure of what to expect from him. There were mixed reviews of his performance and he gave up a home run and a couple hard hit balls, but for me I was glad to see him pitching again. There was a lot of scoring in the game and five home runs, but unfortunately the Twins pitching couldn’t hold down Boston and the Red Sox won 12-7. This is where I sat for both games. Notice Liriano is pitching to David Ortiz.

I had to bring my rental vehicle back by 7:00pm, so I had about 3 hours to kill before heading back to the airport and my 8:50pm flight back to Minnesota. I hung around the park and tried to check out some things that I hadn’t seen before. I ran into Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse and we chatted for about 2 minutes about the Twins and Liriano. His article in the paper today had a lot of what we talked about, kind of cool.

I had to fill the jeep up with gas before I got to the airport and I knew I wanted to eat something, so I stopped at the Dairy Queen, because I really wanted some ice cream after sitting in the heat. Nothing better than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup blizzard.

Nothing too exciting happened from that point on, but I did get to the house at 1:30am and finally asleep around 2:30 and back to work five hours later.

My overall opinion of the trip was good. I think I have decided after going on the last 6 trips with friends, that I really don’t like traveling alone. The traffic lights in Fort Myers are unbelievable, in other words, they sucked. Traffic going to the beach was also brutal because the lack of access to the island. I will definitely have a much better idea of what I want to do the next time I go there. Hammond Stadium was also very sweet. I also added my favorite shirt from the trip.