Baseball Spring Training 2001
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Spring training 2001 began on March 17th with a "less than baseball" game, as we took in the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins featuring Mario Lemuix in his comeback at the Ice Palace. I was surprised to see the hometown boys actually took this one rather handily. Tampa traffic of course tried to make me late, but I was able to make it minutes before the start. The “Scrub” reunion included G-Scrub, Bobay, and of course myself. We were able to find some humor in the first nights festivities when Bobay miss heard my directions and took a wrong exit on the way home. Thanks to Graham’s cellphone Bobay was not lost forever, and for some reason he found no humor in the situation. |
Sunday served as a day of relaxation for Bobay, and job-hunting for poor Graham. It was also a workday for me. Monday we tried to head to a game here in Bradenton. After paying the $4 parking fee we found out the game had been rained out. We stayed and took a few pictures for the heck of it though and then went back home for more of the Sunday thing. Tuesday was a work day for me and as usual turned out to be quite uneventful. |
Finally, on Wednesday I was able to take in my first game of the young season. Grant Field in Dunedin Stadium was our first stop, and thanks to my expert abilities we were able to find free parking. This was a good thing because the cheapest seat in the house was $9. The home team Toronto Blue Jays took on the Houston Astros under gorgeous conditions. Our plans for the day included a double-dip, the second game being in Tampa to see the Yankees and Devil Rays. Our plans were foiled though due to the fact the game was sold out and we could find no parking anywhere because of all the traffic. |
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Scrub joined the festivities for a few days while down here with a friend from school. Thursday found us heading southward to the next port of call Port Charlotte where we arrived on time, but due to a rain-out the day before we only got to see a seven inning affair. The game pitting the Texas Rangers vs. the Philadelphia Phillies proved to be quite interesting especially for Scrub and the "What Up Geez?". Unlike last years reports, I was surprised to find no alligators were around the stadium. The next few days for me were full of work days, so I was unable to attend a few games that Graham had the opportunity to head off to. |
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After many a day of work our next trip was again southward, this time a little further to Ft. Myers to catch two games. In the first game we saw the Minnesota Twins host the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Lee County. Once again with the perfect conditions I thought it was a good day to don the infamous bucket hat. This staduim I thought was worth a second shot. For the night cap we headed down the road a piece to City of Palms Park to see the Red Sox of Boston take on the Rangers of Texas. Playing in one of the nicer spring training stadiums, Red Sox tickets were highly sought after so Graham decided to purchase these before hand. Minutes before the start of the game light rain forced the grounds crew to cover the infield, but the game proceeded pretty much on schedule. The comedic moment of this years spring training came with the “comedian” from New York who seemed to desperately want to get into a fight, even trying it with me. |
The next day we decided to try to get into a Yankees game in Tampa even though we new it was sold out. Legends Field was the setting for the battle between the Yankees and Red Sox. This was definatly one of the better stadiums visited this season fully equipped with plenty of photo ops, and markers for past Yankee greats. After a quick lunch break at the local Tampa Chili's we headed westward to Clearwater to see the Phillies and Blue Jays for the last spring training game of the season. We were fully unprepared for what was to come when the temperature dipped into the low 50's. Luckily I brought a beach towel to bundle up, but I still froze my ass off. |
The spring training 2001 festivities ended with two trips to Tropicana Field to see the Devil Rays and Blue Jays under the Dome. Disappointed by the parking price of $10 our frown quickly turned upside down when out of the blue we were offered free tickets to the game. Game one saw the Devil Rays go above .500 for the season thanks to a win. Unfortunatly game two was not a repeat, parking was still high and tickets were not free. Some boredom had set in with the home team down, but at least a fun time was had by heckling Ken "over the" Hill to a Rays loss. |
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This page was updated on 05/01/01.