Another day, another game

Today we saw a split squad game in Clearwater. Bright House Field is a nice ballpark. Today was an all time record attendance of 10,700 or so, so it was kind of crowded. But like all of these little stadii, it has kind of pleasant, relaxed feel about it.

From a baseball perspective, the highlight for me was David Price pitching live, which I'd never seen before. Very impressive. Ultimately, though, the scene is more important than the game.

Our seats were in the shade and we got kind of chilly, so we walked out into the sunny area, first in right field and then continuing around toward left field. Once we reached the bullpen area in left-center, we sidled up near the rail into the midst of a bunch of people who appeared to be betting on whether or not the ball would get hit or thrown out of play. I asked them if that was they were doing and they said that they were. And the other thing that yielded some kind of payout was whether or not the ball actually reached the mound dirt when the umpire rolled the new ball out there at the beginning of each inning.

This game yielded a lot of passing of bills and trash talk, which was particularly amusing since there was clearly no skill involved whatsoever, but they were very friendly and amusing company and we stayed there until we wanted something to eat. I had a reasonable facsimile of a cheesesteak, and Molly had Hatfield turkey hot dogs.

After the game we hung out by the players' parking lot to try to get autographs. We just got a couple, and nobody who was likely to be in the major leagues in a couple of weeks, but it was still fun. When we got back I took a walk on the beach, which was very pleasant. Then I started chatting with a couple at the hotel bar and we hung out and watched the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico.

Dinner tonight was at Frenchy's, a Clearwater institution. Cheap beer, live music, fish sandwiches, how can you go wrong?

Tomorrow we're off to Ft. Myers, spring home of the Minnesota Twins, and then to Orlando, where we'll see the game on Monday before we head home.