Take me Out to the Ballgame

Fred at the newly renovated George Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Florida

Living in the Northeast Winters are long and dark. When March comes along residents are looking for signs of Spring and venturing outside in hopes of finding some despite still chilly temperatures.
One of my favorite indicators was the twang of metal bats hitting baseballs on the RPI playing field that was next to our parking lot at work.
That sound still makes me smile whenever I hear it, it has good memories associated with it.
Baseball.
I used to make Fred watch baseball movies with me in the Winter.
Somehow Field of Dreams, Bull Durham and Major League brought a smile to my face and made me feel warm on the coldest day.
Even now, spending our Winters in warmer places I still enjoy the game and the rituals of baseball.
One of the nice things about spending the early Spring in Florida is that pitchers and catchers report by mid-February and the rest of the team soon follows.

The Yankees played the Phillies in their Spring Training opener.
We were lucky enough to score tickets in the reserved level seating behind home plate. It was a great vantage point to watch the game and to see the players. Partway through the game we realized that we were hearing familiar voices. Fred turned around and looked into the press box to discover that we were positioned right in front of Michael Kaye and Ken Singleton.

Fred saying Hi to Michael Kay and Ken Singleton.

The Yankees won their game 9-4 and we got to see some young talent trying to make the big team.
Aaron Judge looked great at bat, bouncing a monster home run off the left field scoreboard.

Steinbrenner Field has had a renovation. You could still smell the paint on the day we visited. The stadium looks great with new seating and luxury boxes. The colors are still Yankee blue and grey and the familiar Yankee Stadium facade is still proudly displayed.

Of course we sang YMCA. (and Take me Out to The Ballgame and New York New York)

A few days later the Yankees visited Fort Myers to play in Jet Blue Stadium, Spring Training home to the Boston Red Sox.

Fenway South has a Green Monster too.

Like Steinbrenner Field Jet Blue Stadium is built with traditions in mind. From the outside the Stadium is a modern white and concrete structure that fits into it's South Florida environment.
Once you pass through the gates and get out to the field it is apparent that you have arrived at Fenway South. The Florida stadium has a green monster complete with manual scoreboard. The numbers can only be changed from the outside so between plays we were amused to watch scorekeepers run out a small door with numbers in hand one carrying a ladder for top of the inning changes. The monster has shaded seating at the top. There is also a small lawn for seating in front of the bleachers. Families with small children seemed to enjoy that open space.

Lawn seats at Jet Blue Stadium

The Yankees vrs Red Sox game was interesting in that the Yankees were playing a split squad that day. Joe Girardi brought part of the team to Fort Myers. The rest of the team stayed in Tampa to play the Detroit Tigers.
Greg Bird showed off his batting skills with two home runs.
I am happy to report that both squads won.

Spring Training Baseball 2015

On Thursday, March 5, 2015 I got to do one of my favorite things. I went with Bonnie to a Major League Spring Training Baseball Game. It was a game between the New York Mets vs. Washington Nationals at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, FL.


Space Coast Stadium

Bonnie and I got to the stadium about a hour before the game to buy tickets. We went to the ticket window to buy our tickets to find that they just opened-up seats in the first row right behind home plate. So we got two seats in Section: Batter, Row: 1, Seats 40 & 41.


Fred the official scorekeeper

To me Spring Training Baseball is the official start of the spring time season.
Space Coast Stadium in Viera, FL is the spring home of the Washington Nationals. The Nat's are the current N.L. East Division Champions of the past 2014 Baseball Season.



Washington Nationals

The New York Mets play in the same division as the Nationals and are in a "Rebuilding Phase" with lot's of younger players mixed in with some seasoned veteran players.


New York Mets

It was a lovely afternoon/evening for a ball game. The official start time was 5:05 PM and the sun was shining and the temp. was about 84 degrees.
Here is a photo of the two teams starting lineups for this game.

The Nationals starting pitcher was #31 Max Scherzer a free agent who signed with Washington from the Detroit Tigers this past winter. Scherzer was the past 2013 Cy Young winner and he is also a All-Star pitcher.

Max Scherzer

The Mets started #40 Bartolo Colon a seasoned veteran pitcher of many fine baseball teams and seasons.
Both pitchers started the game off well. No hits or walks and they both had 1-2-3 outs in the 1st inning. But in the top of the 2nd inning with one out #44 John Mayberry Jr. of the Mets hit a homerun to deep left field off of Max Scherzer for a 1-0 Mets lead.

John Mayberry Jr.

In the 3rd inning the Mets added to their lead by scoring three more runs. With a two run homerun by #29 Eric Campbell and a run scoring single by catcher #20 Anthony Recker. All of the runs came off of Nat's pitcher #57 Tanner Roark. So the Mets had built a 4-0 lead going to the bottom of the 3rd inning.
But the Nat's came right back into the game by scoring two runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning with a "Hit-By-Pitch", a RBI double by #12 Tyler Moore, and a RBI single by #19 Kevin Frandsen. So after just three inning the score was Mets 4 - Nationals 2.
The Nat's scored again in the bottom of the 4th inning on a two out RBI single by center fielder # 17 Eric Robinson. So now it was Mets 4 - Nationals 3.

The score stayed the same till the bottom of the 7th inning. With a run on 1st base and no outs, first baseman #18 Kila Ka'aihue of the Nat's hit a go ahead two run homerun to deep right field off of Mets pitcher #47 Cory Mazzoni to take the lead for the first time in the game. Score now 5-4 Nationals.

The Mets had just one more chance to tie the game in the top of the 8th inning with a run on 2nd base and two outs, pinch hitter # 2 Daniel Herrera lined out hard to pitcher #62 Eric Fornataro to end the inning.
Nat's pitcher # 64 Blake Treinen came in the game for the top of the 9th inning and he got the three out save to end the game.

So the final score was the home team Washington Nationals winning 5-4 over the visiting New York Mets.
Winning pitch for Nat's was # 30 Aaron Barrett with # 64 Blake Treinen getting the save.
 Losing pitcher for the Mets was # 47 Cory Mazzoni.
Time of the game was 3hrs and 10 min. long and both teams used seven pitchers and nine spare/sub players in this game. Attendance total was 5436 people.

So in the end Bonnie and I had a great evening. We got to see a lot of good young ball players from both teams in this game. We had a great time enjoying a great game called "Baseball"

Casey at the bat

Posted by Fred