Back from Spring Training - UPDATE

[Duffman100]

So back from Spring training. Won't bore you with crazy details but here are some of the highlights.

* Juan Rivera was killing the ball in BP but sucked in the game. He was visibly frustrated.
* Snider looks slimmed down. Has a new batting stance which is much more upright. He looked great.
* Bautista is still a beast. Nothing more to say.
* E5 is also looking slimmed down and was making some pretty decent plays at 1B.
* Brett Lawrie looks like the real deal. He blew a couple of plays at 3rd but looks uber confident at the plate. A few of the locals were RAVING about him.
* Drabek looked good but got hit hard.
* Romero looked terrible, couldn't locate his curveball at all. Just a bad game.
* Podsenik looked fast and healthy, but was scheduled for the game against the Pirates and was a late scratch.
* Rauch is a massive individual.
* Jo Jo Reyes had a fantastic outing against the Pirates.
* Andrew Mccutchen is terrifying. Such a good player.
* My brother got some autographs: Snider, Gose, Lawrie, Jerolman, Litsch, Zipschinski.
* Snider was the nicest guy by far. 30 minutes each day signing autographs, making sure everyone got one.
* Ryan Goins who played 2B in the Yankee game looked surprisingly good. Young, but looked promising. So did Jonathan Diaz.

First game, we were 2nd row behind 1st base. Second game was 8 rows up behind the plate. Both were great places to see the game.

Dunedin is a nice place. Yuppy downtown surrounded by poorish neighbourhoods. The ballpark is super intimate without a bad seat. The atmosphere is great. A lot of people who are relaxed but are super hardcore about baseball. After the game, we had imprompto drinks with with a Rays fan, two Pirates fans and a St. Louis fan. Baseball brings everything together.

Really suggest the trip to people if they can make it. We only got to see 2 games. WHEN we go back, we'd stretch it to a week instead of the weekend. See at least 6-7 games.

Here are some photos. Sorry, my iPhone camera is screwed up so I had to use the inner camera. I didn't take many, mostly because I don't care.

[hyper316]

awesome, wish i could do something like that. i dont have any advice to give, but plz post some tidbits or a picture of litsch the doughboy

have a good time!

[evilRyu]

That sounds like lots of fun. Watch them on their warmups and grab some autographs..

[WpgPage]

yeah go early to watch warm ups, spring training is great players are relaxed easy to get autographs lots of baseball people there talk with. I went with my Dad a few years ago showed up a few hours early got some autographs and even got to chat with one of the Blue Jays scouts who was there to watch the game.

[Graham's Cracker]

Have fun. It's a great experience to be that close to the action.

You should have an opportunity before the game and after the game to get some autographs. I haven't been since Shawn Green was a rookie, got his autograph then.

There is a place right across the street with Diner food.

[khin_s]

I've never been, but I'd like to go eventually. Any interesting tidbits you come across would be appreciated!

Post pics!

[Duffman100]

Thanks guys! I'll post pictures when I get back...might just be a few iphone pics.

[Duffman100]

bumped if anyone cares.

[LittleOzzy]

Thanks for posting this, really great stuff.

[J-Roc]

Cool. I totally picture Duff Man taking the party down to Dunedin.

What's the stadium atmosphere like? It is old school, a quiet ballpark, crack of the bat type of game?

[Duffman100]

Cool. I totally picture Duff Man taking the party down to Dunedin.

What's the stadium atmosphere like? It is old school, a quiet ballpark, crack of the bat type of game?

It's pretty much what you'd expect out of a minor league park. Having not been to any others, I can't compare. But it's smallish...probably seats 5500ish. They have 100s and 200 sections, but really it's just one big section. We upgraded our seats from a scalper on the first game...while it was cool to be THAT close to the action...really wasn't necessary. Players could hear everything everyone was yelling. That was an awesome part it.

But yeah, you can hear a lot of stuff. When we were behind the plate, we could hear the Pirates third base coach yelling stuff....

[Relentless88]

Wow that's really cool. Thanks for sharing.

[mikero]

Wow that's really cool. Thanks for sharing.

+1

I'd really like to make that trip sometime.

[Strav]

nice trip and great recap. Baseball's the bomb - can't wait for the season.

[Duffman100]

Oh, also forgot to mention that when we sat behind the plate, there were tons of scouts to our left. One was Jim Fregosi who was scouting for the Braves.

[kelso]

Thanks for this. I'm jealous- I've always wanted to do this...hopefully I'll get around to it one of these years.

[evilRyu]

that sounds like an awesome experience.. lol @ Fregosi..

This is something I'd like to do sometime.

[Chevy Chase]

Great post. Just next time recount it while speaking in the third person like "DuffMan" would.