Tigers - Road Game – Day 17

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Detroit Tigers Game - Saturday – March 17^th



Happy St Patrick’s Day! Most people were dressed in green today and we were wearing Cardinal St Pat shirts from earlier years. But today there was more green than red.



Today started with another delicious breakfast. Actually it started with an accident where Janet spilled a cup of hot water on her hand, but she recovered and then we had breakfast. The water problem was resolved last night, so they turned on the juice machine again, so we hade the full repertoire of the menu. But we had to get to eating promptly since the bus was scheduled to leave at 9:00.



A couple of people were late showing up, and one person had to run back to get his ticket from his room, but we hit the road only about 10 minutes late. The ride was about 3 hours, going to Lakeland Florida to the Tiger’s Spring Training complex (Joker Marchant Stadium). One of the members of our group has maintained a list of all the travelers for many years, and answered our question about how many times we’ve been here previously (2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007) – that was when we were on the every-other-year plan.



David (and a couple of others) brought along Florida maps today to keep track of where we were and whether it seemed like the bus was still going to the right destination (reference the side trip to the Twins stadium 2 days ago). They played a movie (called The Benchwarmers) on the overhead screen. It was entertaining and helped pass the time. We arrived at the stadium just a little past 12:00, for a 1:05 game – so everything was fine.



We traversed all the way to Fort Meyers (on the gulf coast) Thursday (past Lake Okeechobee and through parts of the Everglades). Today we traveled to within about 30 miles of Tampa. So we have crossed the interior of Florida several times lately. Actually there seem to be limited numbers of roads crossing the state east-west. Today we traveled through agricultural areas where there were large orange groves and other areas where there were extensive cattle pastures. All through these areas, there were a few small towns but not a whole lot of development. We did drive past an orange juice processing plant today and outside there were dozens of 40-foot trailers loaded to the top with oranges to be processed. But the interior of the state is a lot different than the coasts.



We were told that this is the first year for this stadium, and it looked nice and new. However, we also were told that today was the largest crowd they had had so far this Spring, and it was kind of crowded. Their concession stands and restrooms are on a fairly small concourse, so it was challenging to find our way through the crowds and get our food and find our seats. We were seated under an overhang, so we were in the shade again today. But we were pretty high up the rows of seats, in row T.



For lunch we had strolled past a BBQ stand, so we each got pull pork bar-b-que sandwiches. There were 3 kinds of sauce and it was very tasty. Then later someone came around selling strawberry shortcake desserts (Janet’s favorite), so that was good too. However their aisles inside the stadium seem narrower than many places, which may be why there were so few vendors going around selling food and drink.



The players were also into the St. Patrick day spirit and both teams wore green shirts and caps with the Cardinals wearing gray pants and the Tigers white. The ball boys were dressed as leprechauns and the field was decorated with shamrocks. Even the ground crew got into the act with green wigs and danced to the YMCA song as they fixed the fields during the game.



The Cardinals got off to a good start and had a 3-0 lead, but the pitching got tired and the relief help wasn’t very helpful, so we ended up losing 10-3. Now we personally have a 2-2 Spring Training record. Today was sad, but it was nice to see another stadium. But the loss made the bus ride back to the hotel seem longer, even though they played another movie (The Natural).



During the game we received an adorable picture text from Elizabeth of Melody reading. We gather that Aunt Elizabeth was babysitting today. Melody looked a great deal like her mother at the same age. All the people around us agreed she was darling!



We got back to the hotel in time for the last few minutes of the Manager’s Reception, so we got a couple of glasses of wine and then walked over to a nearby restaurant for dinner (French Dip sandwiches for each of us).



Now it is back in the room and resting up for another day tomorrow. Janet put lotion on her hand several times during the day, and it is a little tender, but not too bad. Hopefully tomorrow it will be fine.

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Photos

Janet
In front of stadium

Ball Boy
with umpires before the game

Players
both teams wore green (St Pat) uniforms

Ground Crew
Dropped their rakes and did YMCA dance

Janet
climbing to her seat

Strawberry Shortcake
delivery vendor