First spring training game

If you're reading down, take a look at the previous post first to give you an idea of where we started.

I dragged myself out of bed at 10:30, swung by the supermarket and then dragged my daughter out of bed at 11. We got out as quickly as we could, but hit a lot of traffic and got to the game 15 minutes late. We parked in what seems to be a repair yard for carnival rides, though my companion was pretty sured there were bodies stowed somewhere as well.

The Orioles play in Sarasota, and I remember going to a game here back in the 1970's, but it's a new park, called Ed Smith Stadium. I don't know who Ed Smith is or was or even if there really ever was an Ed Smith, but if there is I like that the stadium is named Ed rather than Edward.

It's a pleasant little park, with no particular architectural flair. The most interesting design element was the Oriole orange plastic screens in the urinals. The people who work at the park are all very pleasant and they all had name tags that had the name of a church or charity on them.

Our seats were on the right field line, and more than one ball came whistling down our way. The concessionaires seemed very jumpy about turning their backs on the play to vend a beer or hot dog. Nobody seemed to mind waiting. In keeping with the Baltimore connection, they serve a small but tasty crabcake at the concession stand and it made a fine lunch. Just like the Orioles home park in Baltimore, the right field seats face left field, not home plate, so one watches a game with their head turned, which is not terribly comfortable.

The game itself was very entertaining, mostly because there was a 30 mile per hour wind blowing out to left center field. This caused every ball hit that way to soar, either over the fence or even better, just beyond someone's outstretched glove. There were 3 misplays of this sort during the game where someone clearly should have caught the ball only to have it elude them at the last moment. Ryan Howard hit a home run that would have been a home run anywhere, but in this case flew over the fence and well into an adjoining baseball field, which was fortunately uninhabited at that moment.

Because there are a lot of players along for spring training games (especially those requiring bus rides) who are not regular major leaguers, they include a photocopied long list of players and their numbers, but by the 6th inning, the first baseman for the Phillies was a guy wearing #98 with no name on his shirt and no listing even on the inserted sheet.

Downtown Sarasota looked very nice, but we headed straight back after the game, given what had happened yesterday.