'lotta sports

If one is a baseball fan, there is no greater fun than attending Major League Baseball’s Spring Training.  In order to avoid the Spring Break chaos, the trip to Florida was made at the beginning of March.  We left on a Friday morning and battled driving rainstorms which started about three hours into the almost eight hours scheduled drive of the first day.    We were spared of speeders on I95 since we couldn’t see much past the car in front of us.   Because of the slow going, a reroute by the GPS to an adjacent highway and a construction diversion in Jacksonville, we arrived at the hotel in Gainesville a little after 8:30PM. 

Finding a place to eat on a Friday night in a college town proved to challenging.  We drove around for about twenty minutes and found waitlists to be no less than an hour.  We ended up at Cracker Barrel!  I was happy.  They have the best green beans in the world!   Our waiter – I think his name was Grayson -was a cute, curly-headed college student who carded us!  I thought he was joking about checking the ID, but apparently it’s a Florida law according to the signs posted everywhere they served beverages the rest of the week!   

It was a short night as we still had a scheduled four-hour drive to Ft Myers and tickets to a 1PM game at Jet Blue Park between the Red Sox and the Washington Nationals.  As in every game we planned to attend, I had my reasons for this match-up.  I wanted to “scout” my fantasy team which has several Red Sox players and I also wanted to talk to Nationals bullpen coach Henry Blanco who managed the Cardenales team my friend Michele Vassalotti had pitched for in Venezuelan winter ball. 

Our seats were between home plate and the on-deck circle for Washington.  When we got there, the Nationals were already stretching on the field. In the bullpen, the starting pitcher and catcher were warming up with Blanco observing.  I sprung up from my seat and briskly walked toward their bullpen off the right field corner.  The fans could observe the bullpen from about 12 feet above it.  I squeezed in the one opening left between two fans and patiently waited as Blanco loaded balls in a dispenser which hurled balls to the catcher.  There was a break when the balls had to be replenished in the canister and I jumped on it!  “Hey Coach Blanco!  Go Cardenales!!”  As expected, he immediately looked up in amazement!  “You should have brought Vassalotti with you!” I yelled.  He grinned.  Michele had gotten the only win for their team in the Venezuelan championship tournament.  Sadly, a player came up to Blanco and he had to get back to work so I started the trek to my seat. 

Spring Training isn’t just about baseball. It’s discovering the area restaurants and when visiting in Florida, it’s all about fresh seafood for me.  For the first night there, I found a restaurant within a few miles of our hotel and the ballpark.  Conner’s Steak & Seafood proved to be a great find with a very diverse menu appealing to both my health-conscious self and my “meat and starch” husband.  The evening served as our delayed anniversary celebration and since I had noted that in our reservation, placed on our table was a nice Congratulations card signed by our waiter Nash and some of the staff.  The Baked Parmesan Encrusted Alaskan Halibut was amazing.   And as predicted, Rick had the Ribeye and a Baked Potato.  The excellent meal was finalized with a complimentary Strawberry Shortcake to split.   To be continued…