Tradition Field

[Benjamin Grimm]

I have tickets to Wednesday's game against the Indians in Port St. Lucie.

Question for anyone who's been there:

What's there to do at the park if we show up before the game? Are there fun activities for the kids? Decent selection of ballpark food? Are you able to watch the players work out? Mingle?

Or is it best to just show up a half hour before the game and go straight to our seats?

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

I like to go early.

Take a stroll around to the back fields. There will be scads of minor-leaguers you won't recognize, but you never know who's going to be in camp working with them. I did that once with the Cardinals a couple years ago and Dennis Eckersly was working with the kids and throwing BP.

The food selection is .... adequate. Better than it was, but nothing amazing, though I devoured one of the grilled pretzels because you can't get something like that in Michigan and it brought back memories of street vendors in Manhattan.

Spring training is a blast because you just never know who you are going to bump into. I had a nice conversation with Jay Hook before one game, and was with Grand Roberts' father one year. It was neat, I was looking over at the Japanese media crowded around that year's import -- one of the pitchers, don't remember which one -- and this guy was leaning on the rail next to me. We were chatting about the Japanese player, and he said "That's my baby over there." I said, "The guy standing near Grant Roberts?" And he said, "No, Grant Roberts." We talked for a while. Nice guy.

When the thing with the infamous bong photo broke, I thought about the father, how proud he was that day, and how hurt he must have then felt.

Anyway, if you get there right before game time, it's so crowded that you miss the opportunities for such encounters.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Cool! Thanks, Michigan. We'll try to get there a few hours early.

Do you need to be a ticket holder to do that hanging out that you described? (I'm wondering if we could check out the grounds, go elsewhere to eat, and then return.)

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Cool! Thanks, Michigan. We'll try to get there a few hours early. Do you need to be a ticket holder to do that hanging out that you described? (I'm wondering if we could check out the grounds, go elsewhere to eat, and then return.)

I'm pretty sure walking around the back fields is free. But they might charge you twice to park if you leave to go eat something. Then again, paying twice for parking might still be cheaper than eating in the stadium.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That was a cool story about Grant Roberts Dad. I met Howard Johnson's dad unexpectedly at a spring training game once, same way you did buy talking to a neighboring fan at a game.

edit -- I also met Mike LaValliere's Mom at spring training.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

Pretty cool, JC! Sometimes I forget that these guys are real people with real families.

This talk reminded me of another fun St. Lucie spring experience. I was sitting in the stands in my Bobby Bonilla road jersey (purchased earlier on clearance at the Manny's Baseball Land outlet, which used to be in nearby Hobe Sound) and a guy sitting behind me started getting on my case. He was loud and obnoxious.

When he left to get another beer, one of the other guys leaned over and said, "Can you believe they wasted a No. 1 pick on that guy?" I asked who it was, and he told me it was Shawn Abner.

This was when Abner had bounced around a while and was trying to make an aborted comeback of sorts with the Mets. The other guy's name was Tripp, and he played in St. Lucie the year before and was hoping to get to AA. The third guy was Hispanic and didn't seem to speak English too well.

This was before the spring games were hot tickets, and Tripp told me the minor league players were allowed to come in and grab a seat and watch the big club if it was a night game.

To be fair, once Abner came back he was a lot nicer. I think he was getting on me about the jersey because he just wanted to show off a little and talk to somebody.

We all talked through the rest of the game. Tripp told me about an elderly woman named Pat who was sitting in the first row next to the Mets dugout. She is a die-hard who came to every St. Lucie game, and he pointed out that some of the afternoon games in July and August are just brutally humid, and that there are so few fans there like that. The players all knew her by name and would say "Hi," and that she would bake them cookies.
Look for her when you go. The seats were on the base side of the dugout, near where the tarp and the photo bin are.

My parents live about a half hour south of St. Lucie, and until my son went to kindergarten I'd plan a trip each March. Mom would have fun watching the baby and I'd see a different game each day -- some days even two!

If you get a chance, swing up to Vero and see Dodgertown. There's nothing like it.

[DocTee]

As of today, Dodgertown is dead.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think I know this Tripp you speak of. He topped out at AA, later became a scout, and is now head coach of a college program in Delaware.

http://athletics.wesley.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff.tkeister

Ironically, Mike LaValliere's mother woulda gave you shit for wearing a Bonilla jersey as well. Well thats not true. As she explained it, Bonilla had a lot of hangers-on pressuring him to act a certain way, which he did. Bonds was the one who was no good as a person.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I think I know this Tripp you speak of. He topped out at AA, later became a scout, and is now head coach of a college program in Delaware. http://athletics.wesley.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff.tkeister Ironically, Mike LaValliere's mother woulda gave you shit for wearing a Bonilla jersey as well. Well thats not true. As she explained it, Bonilla had a lot of hangers-on pressuring him to act a certain way, which he did. Bonds was the one who was no good as a person.

That's him! Cool! Thanks for looking that up.

Can't say I'm surprised by what LaValliere's mom said. Parents must watch these games in a whole different way, knowing all sorts of things that we'll never know. I bet she was fun to sit with.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I did an article about Keister one time that I posted here... um, here 'tis. From a magazine, published in spring 2004:

http://archive.out-and-about.com/article.php?articleID=472

[Guest AG/DC]

Can't find any stats out there on this Greg Condon fellow.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

He's a 92 percenter.