While traveling with my best friends through the airports of the eastern seaboard and on the highways of Florida, there is bound to be some down time. Stuffed into the side pockets of our luggage were the most current issues of the Sporting News, Details, GQ, Golf Digest, and Esquire.
If you are familiar with the latter-most of those publications, you are aware that there is a recurring column entitled, "What I've Learned". Stealing a page from that magazine, I present, "What I Learned Following the Grapefruit League".
- Jarrod Saltalmacchia, the Braves young catching prospect is "raw power" personified. Friday, a 2-2 count, he hit a three run opposite field home-run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth. Prior to that, Salty hit screaming foul balls into each dugout area, sending uniformed participants flying in every direction. Once he learns which pitches to consistently lay off of and which ones to unleash his wrath upon...
- Up close, Peter Gammons looks a lot less like Andrew Jackson.
- While the Braves complex on the Disney campus in Orlando has a very corporate feel, the Indians spring training home in Winter Haven is the complete opposite, a very, lets just say, a place with a great deal of utilitarian charm. Brighthouse Networks Field on the other hand, is a very pleasant compromise between the two.
- Every car should have a sunroof.
- If there is bad food anywhere in the Orlando, Winter Haven, and Clearwater Grapefruit League posts, we didn't find it. Big thumbs up to the Italian sausage with peppers at Cracker Jack Stadium. Honorable mentions go to the onion rings at Land of Lakes Park and of course, the cheesesteaks [with Amorosa rolls flown in] at Brighthouse Networks Field.
- From the grapevine of the Grapefruit League, Gavin Floyd's handlers fear he is tipping his pitches.
- Ryan Howard and James Loney [Dodgers organization] may look more like tight ends, but they each display admirable athleticism and agility at first base.
- On his first at-bat on Sunday, Chris Roberson attempted to bunt his way on base, failing miserably. Later on in the game, he hit a home run to centerfield. Roberson should stick to swinging the bat.
- While at Land of Lakes Park, it is best to pay close attention to the play on the field. Several times, foul balls flew over the short netting behind home plate and would then carom off the underside of the roof covering much of the spectator areas. At times while returning to my seat with a beer in each hand, I felt like Sheldon in The In-Laws. "Serpentine! Serpentine!"
- The ups and downs of "pass the hat" do not always even out no matter how hard one concentrates.
- Charlie the Vendor at Cracker Jack Stadium barked, "Get your programs! You can't tell the players without a program!" I've got news, sometimes even with the program, it is hard to decipher the players. What with players removed from the rosters for the World Baseball Classic and it being early on in spring training, often times there isn't a single player on the field you have heard of -- not that that is necessarily a bad thing.
- After over a year on the job, Bill Dancy still can't figure out when to send a runner. When he sent Michael Bourne home on a very shallow fly to center in the bottom of the ninth with the game tied, the whole stadium knew he wasn't going to make it. When the Astros' centerfielder [sorry, I didn't have a program at the time] threw the ball, his momentum had carried him nearly to the infield dirt.
- During the week leading up to the trip, we all felt a tug of guilt, second-guessing ourselves into thinking maybe responsibilities of the real world should take priority. But as soon as you sit in the stands with a cold beer in the warm sun, watching the players take batting practice, you know you made the right decision.
-----------------
One thing I didn't figure out, if you use a cellphone and a disposable camera, can it still be considered a "photo journal"? [click photos to enlarge; hover your mouse over the photos for a caption]
Brighthouse Networks Field, Phillies Spring Training, 2006
