Spring Training 2008

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Of course our main reason for this trip was to take in some ball games. And that we did. Friday, the day after going to the Strawberry Festival, we went to a Cleveland Indians vs. NY Mets game at Chain of Lakes Stadium

in Winter Haven. We had had some trouble getting tickets as most of the games were already sold out. The best we could do was along the left field sidelines about 1/2 way between 3rd base and the fence. They were not very good seats. To make matters worse, the scoreboard was "broken" and only displayed the score. In addition, we could not hear the PA. (We later found out, this is the last year for the Indians in Winter Haven. Next year they are moving to a new training facility in Arizona being built for them by a developer who sees this as a way to make some money. What about it Winter Haven? You are still acting like the Indians are part of your community. But they will not be back. Sure having a new CSX facility will help the economy, but at what cost? Think about it.) Still, we had a good time, and really enjoyed having to put sun block on.

Then on Tuesday, all 3 of us went to see the Detroit Tigers versus the Cincinnati Reds at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland. This was more like it. "Joker Marchant" is more like modern ball parks with a good PA, active scoreboard and all the promotional "whistles" one sees these days at games.

In addition, we had good seats along the 3rd base line. (the moral of this is, if you want to go to Spring Training next year, get your tickets as early as possible, these I got in February).

Over all, we had a good time at both games. We saw a lot of players. Some are established stars. Others were obvious "try-outs." Plus, we saw some good plays (Unlike one game a few years ago where the Tigers made 6 errors in a game). We even saw a perfectly executed "Hit and Run" play by the Mets! Pretty impressive for the 2nd week of training (when we saw it).