Florida Finale (First Row Seats woohoo!)

SATURDAY, MARCH 6th

We had the memorial service on Friday (thus my lack of posting), and I'm flying out Sunday, but Saturday was my last visit to Spring Training.

Again, the Twins were at City of Palms Park in Ft. Myers, and while the Red Sox had a split squad with half their team on the road, the Twins brought many of their A-game players along, which I was happy to see.

We were much closer to the field this time... forget about standing room, I could almost touch the players!

I went with my Mom so we could have some bonding time away from the family (I don't get to see her much now that I live in New York). Even though we were in the first row though, she had a little bit of a hard time seeing the mound and the plate because the 1st base ump and the 1st base coach were kind of in the way, but it was still a great view!

Also that guy kept leaning forward all the way and obstructing our view. Grr.

It was fun experiencing both a night game and a day game while I was here. The sun was definitely beating down on us and we weren't shaded at all. The cold beer was much more effective today than in the chilly evening game.

My initial reactions beyond the box score:

1. Orlando Hudson. It was great to be able to see him play in a game for the first time. He didn't do much offensively that I saw (I'm used to that out of second base, but I think that will change with him down the line...), but he made an amazing pickup on a short-hop line drive that had the whole stadium "oooh" in amazement.

2. Jacque Jones is the smiliest man alive. They let him DH today, I wish I could have seen him in the field. His bat wasn't much to speak of although he did hit a nice line drive late in the game. He and Kubel took a lot of time during the game to sign for kids over on the lawn along the sideline, and if I hadn't been boxed in to my seats I would have tried to go over there and meet him (he was always one of my favorites, and my Mom loved his bat flip after the homeruns, she kept hoping he'd hit one today so she could see it live).

3. Liriano looked great. He appeared a little rusty for awhile, falling behind some hitters and beaning one. He also looked a little uncomfortable on the mound at first, pacing around, banging his cleats against the rubber either because he couldn't get good purchase or the clay was caking in his spikes. But he settled in and his slider was on point, and had everyone swinging at the dirt and coming up empty. He got a lot of chases on the pitch and made people look silly. I think once he shakes off a little more rust that he'll get his confidence back up and be ace-like.

4. Brendan Harris played with some more confidence today, he had a solid single on a sharply hit ball and he looked a lot more comfortable in the field. I think it's great he's had two of the starts so far -- not quite sure, maybe it's Punto's wrist problems that have been holding him out, but hopefully Harris takes advantage of these opportunities he's getting.

5. Delmon hit some deep drives that looked nice until they died at the warning track. In fact that was kind of a recurrent theme between he and Morneau and Kubel (and later Parmelee and Singleton joined in the fun). It kind of shows me that concern about how we don't want to live and die by the long ball necessarily. If our guys are only swinging for the fences that won't work, we need a balanced attack. But he sure looks thin!

6. Nathan, oh poor Nathan. He kind of fell apart and had to struggle his way through even Mike Cameron. I hope it's nothing to speak of, he didn't look particularly off, he just didn't look comfortable and kept missing the strike zone. He was followed by Perkins who didn't really do anything to either solidify his trade value or a place on the roster. He just looked completely overmatched out there. Manship also got knocked around a little. His first inning was solid but then he wiggled into a jam he brought upon himself and couldn't fight his way out before surrendering a bomb to Tug Hulett (of all people).

7. Wilson Ramos had a beautiful RBI double that of course showed up in the recaps I'm sure, but the at-bat before when he struck out he still managed to work the count and battle pretty well, fouling off some good pitches. He definitely looks like he can handle major league hitting, and he was fine behind the plate too although I wish I'd have been able to see his arm throwing out a runner.

8. Ben Revere is a stud. Despite not doing anything with the bat today he still showed off his glove in center. And I know I said I agreed with all the reports on his weak arm based on what I saw Thursday, but today he made a nice throw on a rope to home plate that was very close to gunning down a runner tagging up. I can't wait to see him get some more seasoning, he's special.

Revere is on the left, Jair Fernandez the catcher is on the right.

Just an FYI for people visiting City of Palms Park or spring training in general. You'll notice the players get pulled from the game early and then maybe do some sprints along the warning track during the game to wind down (or on the back fields at Hammond if I recall correctly from last year). If you're trying to get their autograph, leave the game and go wait for them there because most people don't, that's the best time to catch them! I remember last year being the only person watching Liriano doing some running exercises after pitching at Hammond and after he was done he came over and he signed a ball and took a picture with me with no one else around.

At City of Palms Park, the players leave the clubhouse by exiting a door in the concourse under the stands on the visitor side and walking along the concourse about 30 feet to a gate leading out to their parking area. They stop and sign autographs in that 30 foot jaunt for anyone aware enough that they're there! So if you're at City of Palms, look for the starters down in that area of the concourse right after they get taken out because they don't hang around until the end of the game, they'll just go hope in their care.

This is Toby Gardenhire peeking out that door in the concourse...

At Hammond the best place is along that little waist-high gate near the indoor batting cages because when they're done with the game they go walk past the hometeam bullpen over to the first practice field and tend to jog along there. Then they'll walk along that little waist-high black fence to get back to the clubhouse and shower off. They'll stop for you along there though before they go into the clubhouse.

That's about it, I'm back off to New York and I already miss it down here! Agggh, baseball! Here's a few more random pictures though that I couldn't work in today:

Kubel jogging out towards the warning track to do some running.

Mijares walking by during pre-game warmups.

Danny Valencia being awesome (and aiding and abetting me in a fun surprise for a friend...)

Florida, Day 6 (Standing Room Only)

THURSDAY, MARCH 4th

This morning was the visitation for my grandfather before the funeral tomorrow, so it wasn't really a baseball day -- even if I had time to make it up to Ft. Myers afterwards I don't think it was in me to make the trip.

Thankfully it was a night game to kick off the season for the Twins so I was able to relax most of the afternoon before we made the trip up Tamiami Trail to City of Palms Park. I felt this kind of nervous giddiness the whole way -- this wasn't just a baseball game, this was the first game of the season. True it was about as meaningless as you could imagine (unless you really really want the Mayor's Cup), but there's just something exciting about baseball season starting, and the fact that it was outdoor night baseball is just magical.

But it makes my pictures blurry.... I need a new camera

We had four standing room only tickets, and so I drove up with my brother and two of my cousins to stand around in the cold and watch baseball. Thankfully, I remembered to bring a jacket. Unfortunately this time I wore shorts and sandals. One of these days I'll put all the puzzle pieces together on the same day.

By now you all know that the Red Sox won 2-1. This obviously means absolutely nothing. Half our starting lineup didn't touch the field, and we held the lead when we subbed in all our AAA players while the Red Sox kept most of their starters on the field until they took the lead.

Jacoby Ellsbury got way too much applause. So did Pedroia.

I really don't have much animosity towards Red Sox fans. For the most part they're all pretty nice and they're too obsessed with hating the Yankees to really have any vitriole towards my team so they're OK.

So, if you want to know play-by-play I'm sure you'll check out the boxscore, and my pictures aren't going to much of anything because I've just got a silly little camera, so I'll just give you my impressions from what I saw:

1. Our first five innings were dominant. The pitchers who pitched our first five innings were Blackburn, Slowey, and Neshek. When things went downhill was the 6th inning when Mike Maroth entered. So the important thing to me here is that our pitchers vying for an actual spot on the roster all were in top form tonight.

2. Blackburn was solid. There's not much to speak about there, he went about his pitches effectively and efficiently. Slowey seemed to take his time a little bit. He let the hitter get ahead of him a few more times than I would have liked but this can easily be attributed to plain rust. He was fooling hitters and working the strike zone which was what I wanted to see.

3. Neshek was quick and effective. It was great seeing that funky delivery out on the mound again. He had good velocity and good movement on his pitches and he was able to keep the hitters off balance. While they did connect their hits were primarily weak pop-ups.

4. Brendan Harris was manning the hot corner to start off the game. Unfortunately the first ball that came his way made its way through his glove. Sure he had to do a diving slide for it but he could have come up with that ball. It was the first inning of the first game so I'll cut him some slack, but it looked a little slow and lazy. We got out of the inning so it didn't matter in the longrun, but for someone battling for that 3rd base job it was a knock.

That's Harris. My zoom sucks.

5. Casilla and Tolbert were both up the middle, and neither are guaranteed a spot on the roster. They both were fine in the field so I can't really speak much to my impressions of them. They had a pretty light day the few innings that they were in. The guy who made a couple nice plays was Jacque Jones. He really showed some wheels out in left and took great routes (something I haven't seen in left for a couple years...). I really like the guy and I'd love for him to make the roster, but hopefully at least he sticks around in Rochester and can be a September call-up for us or something.

6. Ben Revere is a stud. A pure stud. When he trotted out onto the field I was so excited to see him play. I was telling my cousins all about him and how much potential Revere has. Then the announcer said that "Zack Davis" was entering the game for the Twins and I stopped and for the life of me I felt like such a fool that here I was talking about Ben Revere and it was this guy named Zack Davis who I had never heard of! Two batters later the announcer corrected himself and I was justified. Revere can cover some ground. I can see what the worry is about his arm. The ball doesn't really zip from his hand the way it does from Cuddyer or Young, it seems to float a little bit longer. Not really going to speculate how that happens, maybe his wrist is a little loose when he throws? I know he's not a power hitter either, but he sure drove the ball to the warning track in what looked like a sure home run until he was robbed at the track.

Those are the main things that stick out to me from the game.

Oh and cotton candy.

One thing that really sticks out is how many people leave the game after the 5th or so when all the starters get pulled.

It's a veritable exodus.

The stadium was so packed there was no room to stand along the wall for our standing room only tickets, but by the 5th there were seats and tons of spots along the wall opened because everyone had streamed out. We were able to stand right behind home plate!

But we were still standing. And it was still cold.

Here's a couple other random pictures that I took which I couldn't work into this entry but also kind of came out non-blurry:

I'll hopefully have some better shots during Saturday's game. I'm going to be sitting in the first row along the Twins' side of the field so check back for that post. Friday is the funeral and reception and a family dinner at the Naples Yacht Club so it will be baseball-less. But stop by later to find out about Saturday's game (I believe Liriano is starting?!?!?!).

Random shot of me in my lucky Aguilera jersey, my new Facebook profile picture to get me through Spring:

Florida, Day 5 (I should have worn long sleeves)

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3rd

My brother tagged along with me today, and although he spent the majority of the time texting back and forth with his girlfriend (he's in high school), I think he had a blast. He'd been down to Spring Training several years ago with my Dad and Step-mom but he's gotten more into baseball and probably appreciated it a little more this time. That and the autographs from Baker, Kubel, Duensing, and Span that he now sports.

He also did the sensible thing and wore a jacket. I figured because it wasn't raining that I was set, but the breeze sure got chilly, especially because we spent the whole time outside wandering around. (Yes I realize I'm talking about chilly breeze in Florida and you are probably reading this in the utter cold of Minnesota, but still, I expect warmth down here.)

There was some more pitcher's fielding practice going on when we arrived. It's kind of interesting to watch for awhile but it can get old if that's all you see everyday. I like watching some of the other drills that they do like the relays and the baserunning, and I love watching pitcher warmups on the side-fields which I saw plenty of today.

Obligatory shot of Manship, Blackburn, and Delaney watching fielding practice. Notice they all are wearing jackets. I am not. Notice also the grey sky.

From there I wandered over to the back fields where I could get up close to the gate without many other people around me. People tend to congregate in two areas at Spring Training:

1. Close to Hammond Stadium and the first field over there

2. Wherever Joe Mauer is

Thus I was one of the few people down at these back fields today, even though Rod Carew was down there all day working with Nick Punto and Ben Revere.

Anyway, I got to spend a lot of time watching Alex Burnett warm up tossing to Danny Rams.

Burnett has some nasty. He's gonna be good.

There was a lady near me who kept asking who the catcher was, she had never heard of Danny Rams. I hope Seth is proud of me because thanks to his prospect info inundation I was able to tell her that he's a power-hitting prospect, needs to work on hitting for average and a better control of the strike zone and he played most of the year in A-ball at Beloit.

I don't think she understood half of what I said though.

Speaking of talking about prospects with people, I wandered over for awhile to the low-level prospect field and saw Max Kepler warming up again. He was swinging the bat around and doing some jogging but I didn't see him take any batting practice today. Neither did I see Sano hit unfortunately. My brother was particularly impressed with the fact that they're his age and are playing pro-ball.

Max Kepler-Roczyskiaihaoansi (or something)

I went back to the main field in time to see Delmon young taking some BP. It was hard to get a good photo through the grated fence and then the BP cage, but you can kind of see his stance here. I think that was the important thing. He seemed to be carrying his stance from the end of last year into his at-bats in spring training which I think is a good sign. His leg kick wasn't high either it was just a short step before he would connect with the ball. And those reports about his weight loss are dead-on. He really does look different.

He's so skinny it was hard to get a picture of him.

He was taking batting practice with Punto and it was kind of a stark difference.

Punto laments that Young can hit further...

Speaking of someone who can hit the ball far, Chris Parmelee took some swings in the cage and when he connects he can launch the ball.

It will be interesting to see him progress because if he can hit for average he will be a great addition to the club someday.

By this time Burnett had moved on and Slama was warming up in the bullpen with Stu Cliburn giving him some advice on gripping the ball a different way. I didn't hear what it was exactly but it sounded like they were both happy with the results and Danny Lehmann kept giving positive feedback to Slama too.

When he throws he is lanky. It's like watching a bunch of limbs unfurl and come hurtling at you. I watched him pitch in Rochester and he was getting knocked around a bit but I think he'll be able to start dominating at AAA this year like he has every step along the way, and I can't wait to see him in the bigs soon.

We worked our way back to the fields right next to Hammond Stadium and I caught my first glimpse of Jacque Jones. He was taking some BP off Anthony Swarzak and then he went around behind the cage and started chatting with Gardy, Bobby Cuellar, Joe Christensen and a few coaches and he had them all in stitches and wore that trademark grin on his face. It was great seeing him back on the team.

This is me doing beat-writer stalking... I freaked La Velle out too when I approached him later

We then began walking into the stadium but saw that Scott Baker and Brian Duensing were signing autographs to we went over so he could get his ball autographed.

Baker signing after throwing some BP.

Duensing signed right after Baker did.

I wandered over to the batting cages after that and saw a few people taking turns there. Most notably was Orlando Hudson who I'd been looking for all day. Unfortunately again, through all the mesh it's hard to get a good shot...

...but here's my best effort! It's fun to see him in a Twins uniform!

I then wandered back to the back fields again where it wasn't quite as crowded and I got there just in time to see Ben Revere step into the batting cage. True he doesn't put on a display like Delmon Young or Chris Parmelee driving the ball, but he is all smiles when he's out there and certainly still makes solid contact. It's just fun to watch such a good prospect who has such an amazing attitude.

Look at that sassy walk! I love it!

He was definitely the classiest, nicest guy I met last year when I was down here and he's probably my favorite guy to see again.

He even jumped in for a picture with me for our blog today! What's not to love?!

Anyway, after Revere was done people began to wrap up. We wandered back to the stadium and caught Kubel and Span making their way into the clubhouse. I also had a Wayne "Big Fella" Hattaway sighting.

That about did it for us. It was too cold to hang around much longer and wait for the players to leave the clubhouse -- and most of them like to sneak out casually anyway. So we drove back to Naples and I had an amazing caeser salad with seared yellowfin tuna and enough rum runners, electric lemonade, and pina coladas to keep me satisfied the rest of the day.

I'm not sure if I'll catch practices tomorrow morning as that's when the visitation is scheduled for and it might be a little much to go up to Ft. Myers afterwards, but I will definitely be attending the Red Sox/Twins clash that evening over at the Red Sox stadium, so expect a late post on my thoughts from the first game of the season!

Florida, Day 4 (Rain, Rain, Rain, Dog Track)

TUESDAY, MARCH 2nd

I was crossing my fingers that the weather report would be wrong, but I woke up to a sheet of rain outside the window and decided to avoid standing around outside at the complex today. Instead I indulged in some Macinac Island Fudge ice cream at a cute ice cream parlor in Estero, and then decided to make my way over to the Dog Track.

I hung out at the $1-2 No-Limit tables and muddled around for a few hours. The action wasn't what I'm used to in Atlantic City, and the people there stick around forever with garbage hands on horrible draws. I managed to make around $100 and then found myself staring at pocket Aces -- always a hand I'm not that thrilled to see. I raised it up enough to scare most people away, got someone to push back at me, came over the top and he called. The flop was a rag and I bet strong, he went all in, I called, and he turned over pocket queens. I had him dominated. Then he turned a queen.

I was still a chunk of change over my original buy-in and hung around until my big blind where I found myself looking at a 10-2. There wasn't much action, everybody either called or folded and it got around to me and I was able to just check my big blind. The flop came around as a 10-5-2 rainbow and I was sitting pretty. I let someone lead out, came over the top of him, and everybody else scooted out of the way. He called, and we played it kind of slow, nothing was really coming on the board. He had a 10-7 and rivered me with a 7.

Not the best day for me, but I still walked out up $20, enough to pay for my lunch. I spent a little bit more time than I wanted at the Dog Track and came out around 3PM so I went and caught a movie with my cousin. We saw The Crazies, it was pretty scary. Not bad. The thing I was happiest about was paying only $6 for a movie when I'm used to paying $12.50 in New York. Highway robbery.

We ended up having dinner at a Persian restaurant nearby and I had some amazing Spicy Apricot Chicken and a triple chocolate flourless cake with sour cherry compote. Heaven.

My brother and another cousin just flew into town tonight. I plan on going to some more spring training workouts with my brother tomorrow, the weather should be better and not as rainy. For some good baseball info, check out Seth's podcast from last night. I was one of his guests along with Mike McCardell, Chris Herrman, and Jack Steal it was a great show. He's really pulled out all the stops for his new show, including tailored intro music for his callers! If you haven't listened to it already, check it out. If you can't listen on the night of, you can always check out his archives, I listen every Wednesday morning over a cup of coffee it's the best way to start out your day listening to some great Twins conversation. Also, be sure to check out Jack's and my podcast on Wednesday night at 9PM CST, 10PM EST as I'll be joining and talking some more about spring training!

I e-mailed a little bit with the guys making the documentary following around Miguel Angel Sano. Check out their website, the movie is called Pelotero. It's still in production and they're still raising financing for more shooting and to get it through post, but there's already some clips up including a great one on Sano. I hope to have them on an interview for my website or on a podcast soon so I'll let you know how that turns out. In the meantime, they told me that I missed some great batting practice from Sano the other day, he apparently jacked 9 home runs when I wasn't there. He's something special.

Stop by tomorrow for some more photos and info from Twins camp!

Florida, Day 3 (Sano sighting & eating a Media Noche)

MONDAY, MARCH 1st

I woke up this morning ready to get out to Spring Training early. "Early" for me meaning 9AM, which on vacation is plenty early. I rolled my adorable little Kia Forte into my favorite spot on Kaat Place and disembarked with a few baseballs in my bag and my trusty new camera and as soon as I got up to the first practice field near the stadium and saw Scott Baker, Jon Rauch, and a bunch of other pitchers doing warmup drills of backing up the catcher on a throw to home from the outfield, I thought I'd snap some pictures.

But it wouldn't turn on. I think I left it on all night after downloading my last batch of pictures to the computer for yesterday's post. So, instead, I used my blackberry to take pictures today...

I wandered over to some of the back fields and watched a bunch of exercises in running down baserunners. Here was the set-up: Span is on first, Cuddyer on third. Manning the bases are Morneau, Hudson, Hardy, and Harris (is this hopefully a good sign that the four of them are practicing together and Punto's on another field??). Mauer and Wilson Ramos take turns behind the plate, and about a dozen pitchers take a turn on the mound every time they run the drill. Let's start with Slowey though. Slowey checks the runners, pauses, and Span breaks for 2nd and Mauer starts cawing, so Slowey steps off, checks Cuddyer at third, and then throws to Hardy covering 2nd. As Hardy chases down Span to keep him in a rundown, Cuddyer then breaks for home. Hardy tags Span and throws to Mauer in time to keep Cuddyer in the rundown between he and Harris. It was kind of a fun exercise watch and all the pitchers got a turn.

Slowey and Blackburn are hanging out watching their fellow pitchers run the drill.

Tom Kelly and Rick Anderson were running the drills and it was great hearing TK teasing all the players. During the exercises he looked from the large crowd of onlookers over to Mauer behind the plate and shrugged his shoulders saying "We only had like 3 or 4 people watching back here the other day..." My guess is that Mauer wasn't working out with them then. People would follow him around like he was a magnet. When he sat down to catch Jose Lugo's bullpen session he was only separated by a tiny yellow chain from a swarm of people begging for his autograph and he had to say "Guys, I'm sorry, I really can't sign right now". I can't believe he was able to concentrate on the bullpen session with everyone swarming around him like that...

I guess including me because I was taking his picture on my blackberry...

I remembered watching Shooter Hunt and Deolis Guerra throw bullpen sessions on the backfields last year and I remember how cool it was being that close to them. Before Mauer stepped into the pen it wasn't quite as crowded and I was able to get in close and listen Rick Anderson giving pointers to Anthony Swarzak in a session. Swarzak was talking about he just developed a cutter he's only been throwing for about three weeks (hope I'm not giving away any scouting info here...). Swarzak was throwing to Wilson Ramos.

Ramos is a stud. His batting practice session after this was in the same set as JJ Hardy and Orlando Hudson, and Ramos was just mashing the ball, I felt bad for JJ and O Dog being placed in the same set as him. Eventually Jose Lugo came to throw some live batting practice to JJ, O Dog, and Ramos, and it looked like Ramos fouled a ball hard off his leg and the trainer had to come out and look at him.

Earlier I watched JJ and Orlando on a different field taking reps up the middle with TK watching over them. Orlando had wandered over there with a coach and a bucket of balls and took a bunch of reps before JJ joined him. It was fun watching the two of them play together and see the early stages of our double-play tandem's chemistry on the field. Hudson was certainly showing some great range. He and Hardy botched a handoff and TK immediately said "Ugh, bad ball. Throw it in the trash that one's so bad. We need a good ball."

Later Hardy and Hudson left and were replaced by Morneau, Cuddyer, and Thome. Morneau and Cuddyer were taking hard grounders and first and then tossing them over to Thome who I guess was just out there to get some exercise. TK called to everybody watching and said "Hey, pay attention here, 'cause you guys aren't going to ever see this again" and he hit a hard chopper to Thome who fielded it cleanly out at 2nd and tossed it to Morneau. Morneau and Cuddyer were laughing and so was everyone else.

Eventually I noticed some people practicing on a field without many spectators around it. I figured they were minor leaguers, so I wandered over, and I was right. There were maybe a dozen or so low level minor leaguers working out, taking grounders and throwing them around the horn. One of the guys taking reps at third was none other than Miguel Angel Sano. His footwork looked great and he had a nice arm. It looked like the coordination with his glove was a little shaky on some plays, and he accidentally released a ball to 2nd when he was aiming for 1st which got him plenty of ribbing from the other guys on the diamond, but he definitely looks like a future big leaguer. For one thing, he's huge. I wish I had been able to see him taking some batting practice but he didn't step into the cage. He looked like he was having a lot of fun though, which was cool to see. I was even approached by a couple guys with a camera asking me if they could record my impressions of Sano, and after speaking with them for a bit I found out they've actually been following him around for over a year. They're making a documentary about several prospects from the D.R. and their paths to the majors and the obstacles and situations they encounter. I exchanged info with them and hope to find out some more about it because it sounds like a great project, so hopefully I'll have more for you on that soon.

I wandered back over to that field later and was able to watch Aaron Hicks and Max Kepler taking batting practice together. Kepler is also built really well like Sano, and he just looks so young. But he's got a very fluid swing and I can see why everyone was comparing it to Shawn Greene's. He and Hicks both just looked like naturals with the bat in their hand and the ball would fly off of it really easy.

Anyway, after a few hours at the complex I realized that I should have put on sunblock. When I got out of my car it wasn't really hot and the sun wasn't very direct (it's been surprisingly chilly in Florida the past few days), so I neglected to put on the 70+SPF I had with me -- I burn easily. So I high-tailed it out of the Lee County Sports Complex and back to Naples, picked up my cousin from the condo, and we went back to my favorite Cuban restaurant Fernandez the Bull.

Media noche (Cuban sandwich on sweeter bread), with yuca and sangria.

I slipped into a food coma and spent the rest of the day reading on the porch (in the shade) overlooking the ocean with a few cold Red Stripes. Then I went out with the family to Yabba's Island Grill in downtown Naples and some delicious grouper and a crab and corn chowder, both of which were excellent.

The weather forecast tomorrow is pretty gloomy but I'm still hoping to make it out to Spring Training, so stay tuned!

Florida, Day 2

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28th

I woke up this morning and went to church with my Mom. Afterwards, we made the short jaunt up to Ft. Myers along Tamiami Trail and spent some time at the Twins complex before I had to pick up my cousin from the airport. Didn't need to look at a map, it was ingrained in me after my trip to Spring Training last year. You can see the stadium lights almost as soon as you turn onto 6 Mile Cypress Parkway, the stadium looks kind of like Canterbury Park but with palm trees, and its surrounded by road construction and Home Depot, so it's hard to miss -- the only bright spot in miles.

I love the names of the parking lanes: Kelly, Hrbek, Grant, Kaat, etc. It's a paved jungle of baseball glory. My Mom had never been to Spring Training, she kind of lives vicariously in her appreciation of baseball through me and my younger brother, but she definitely enjoys it. I could tell she was even in awe of just how close you were to the players: you could reach through the batting practice wire and your fingers would almost brush JJ Hardy's jersey.

The first thing I noticed as we walked up to the stadium was a crowd of people outside the batting cages. I heard the name "Denard" and immediately I ran towards the crowd of people. Sure enough, Span was there politely talking to everyone and signing autographs. I pushed my way into the mass of Twins fandom around him and eventually reached him and told him how much I enjoyed his being on Seth Stohs' podcast. He kind of smiled and said "You heard that!? Cool!"

From there I walked along the batting cages and watched a blurry Joe Mauer take some practice swings -- he even practiced bunting, which I doubt he'll ever do in the regular season...

And then we spent some time watching JJ Hardy take instruction from Rod Carew and Joe Vavra on his swing, which was pretty fun to see first-hand.

From there we watched Tolbert and Harris field some grounders and worked our way into the empty Hammond Stadium. It was beautiful seeing an outdoor park, palm trees, feeling the sunshine. I wished I could just sit down and watch a game.

Eventually we made our way back out to where the players were practicing and we got there just in time to see a golf cart full of bullpen pitchers arrive on their way back from the weight room.

We had to kill a little time until my cousin arrived on her flight into Ft. Myers, so we hung around on a bench after the workouts were done and eventually Gardy meandered his way out of the stadium and stopped to sign some autographs.

In total we were only there about an hour or so. I hope to get back tomorrow morning and spend some more time walking around, but it was a nice start and I got to speak with Span and Gardy a little bit, which was fun.

The rest of the day was spent drinking mai thai's on the beach watching the US Olympic hockey team lose to Canada, and then fixing cocktails for a bunch of my grandparents' friends at a reception for my grandfather's funeral.

We'll see how hungover I am tomorrow because that will have an impact on when I show up to the Lee County Sports Complex...

Quick Florida Update

These entries will not be entirely baseball related. I'm just going to document my Florida trip, because other than my grandfather's funeral, a majority of it will be baseball related...

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27th

I was originally planning on going to Spring Training later in March. Sadly, my grandfather passed away this week, and as he lived with my grandmother in Naples, Florida, it just made sense to bump my trip up earlier and extend my stay around the funeral.

The one kink in my original plans is that I won't really be able to go to many actual games: I have to leave Sunday to return to New York, so the only the games I'll be here for are three against the Red Sox, two at the Red Sox facility and one at the Twins. The one at the Twins facility falls on the same day as the funeral. So, to sum up, all of my blogging about the Twins stadium will be in the next few days when I go to watch workouts, not any of the actual spring games. But I will be at the Red Sox facility on Thursday and Saturday and will be able to cover those games.

Today was my first real day down here. I flew out of New York on Friday night after work and was afraid I wouldn't make it out. For some reason we got around 2 feet of snow dumped on us and flights were being cancelled left and right -- I know 2 feet doesn't sound like much to Minnesotans, but New York tends to shut down with even a dusting. They're wimps. -- On the flight I got to watch some Olympic hockey because JetBlue is genius and has free DirectTV for every seat (not a paid promoter, I swear). I landed in Fort Myers around 11:30PM, got a zippy little burgundy Kia Forte rental car with only 600 miles on it, oh man does it feel good to drive again, even if it's a Kia. It has that new car smell and it's so pristine, I kind of want to kiss it whenever I see it.

Today was rather cold (cold for Florida) and rainy, so I'm glad I didn't head up to the Twins complex. Instead I spent the morning running errands, including going to Target and buying them out of major league baseballs in their protective cases so that I can get all the autographs I want (and the ones I've promised people).

I was put in charge of getting the alcohol together for a family and close friends reception Sunday night for the funeral. I'm not sure why I was put in charge of the alcohol, either they trust my taste enough or they are commenting on my liver functionality. Anyway, I tried going through my grandfather's liquor cabinet which is full of all sorts of random things (including Nut liquor, have you ever heard of that? It tasted disgusting.) The majority of the afternoon was dedicated to emptying down the drain all the $500 bottles of champagne that he had stored poorly and had since turned to vinegar. It was such a waste. Then I took my mom and my aunt to the liquor store to replenish everything.

Topped that off with the best restaurant I've ever been to in my life. If the Twins and my grandparents weren't down in Naples I would have made excuses to fly down just to eat at this place: Fernandez the Bull. Best Cuban food ever. Today I had the lime marinated roast pork with yuca, black beans and rice, plantains, and sangria. It was between that and their famous media noche sandwich (like a Cuban but with sweeter bread).

I need to pick my cousin up from the airport in Ft. Myers tomorrow afternoon so I think on my way out there I'll drop by the Twins facility and do my first walkabout of the trip. Hopefully I'll have some good baseball info for tomorrow!