Hope Springs Eternal
I recently returned from my annual baseball spring training trip. My team is the Minnesota Twins, and they train in Fort Myers, Florida. This is the fifth year I’ve made such a trip with friends from high school and my hometown. (see picture below of our group at the Blue Jays facility - TD Park in Dunedin)
What’s great about it
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Everyone is in a great mood.
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The weather is almost always beautiful.
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It’s the start of baseball and has a feeling of renewal.
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While you would like to see your team do well. It’s not super critical.
It’s not heaven, it’s just Florida
There are some current realities that do keep your feet firmly on the ground:
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The tickets are getting expensive.
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The food and beverage prices are the usual outrageous prices. But then again, the vendors are in a great mood and it and makes the whole exchange worthwhile.
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This is the first year I’ve noticed an increasing awareness of the dangers of the sun. There’s definitely respect for being in the sun.
The stadium experience
I’ve had the opportunity to see six of the 15 different minor league parks in the Grapefruit League. I don’t think I’m saying this just because I’m a homer, but the Twins complex in Fort Myers still ranks among the best of those I have seen. The twins did a nice job when they bought lots of land in Fort Myers in the early 90s. At least two of the parks I have seen (Toronto and Pittsburgh) are in neighborhoods and while it feels “quaint”, those teams feel “land-locked” that seems limiting for today’s Major League teams. That thought has me thinking it might be worth a post just on that idea.
