Going to spring training!

[Guest 41Forever]

Super-excited!!!!!


We're heading down during the first week in March. My Dad is snagging tickets today for a game against the Marlins in Jupiter, and we'll probably head to St. Lucie for the full-squad game against Detroit. Might see a split squad game against the Astros, who play in a new complex shared with the Nationals in West Palm Beach.

Let me know if anyone else is headed down there. Would love to meet folks.

[Fman99]

Have fun!

We went last year, my first trip to PSL in 43+ years of Mets fandom. I was mostly struck at what a dump the stadium is -- I am well versed with minor league baseball, as we have AAA ball here and a much bigger park with better amenities.

[Ceetar]

been before? Make sure you hit workouts on the back fields. Best part.

[Guest 41Forever]

I last went in 2009. But I've been to a St. Lucie Mets game since then.

As bad as Tradition Field is, I think it's better now than it used to be. I went about 20 years ago and it seemed like nothing but poured concrete. Pretty nasty They've made improvements.

My all-time favorite spring training place was Dodgertown, which was incredible and we'll never see anything like that again.

The Cardinals and Marlins have a nice setup in Jupiter. I've been to the Braves park in Orlando (Saw the Mets with Roberto Alomar there) and visited Lakeland. Winter Haven, where the Indians used to play, was a wonderful old-school park. Fort Lauderdale was nothing special, but I got to see Michael Jordan play there once, and had a nice conversation with Omar at another game.

The Marlins and later Nationals had an OK place in Melbourne, but I'm guessing that's been abandoned now that the Nats are sharing a place with the Astros in West Palm (where the Braves and Expos used to share a nice old park.)

I haven't don't much on the other side of the state, just stopping into the Sarasota park to take some photos.

I've been to a Cardinals workout -- watched Dennis Eckerlsly throwing BP -- but have never made it up to see the Mets doing that.

[Edgy MD]

A bunch of munny for facility improvements has been promised by St. Lucie, but it's not been without the typical controversy that you get when it comes to public financing of ballparks.

http://archive.tcpalm.com/news/shaping-our-future/growth/analysis-st-lucies-60-million-stadium-deal-with-the-new-york-mets-a-very-smart-move-328246e2-1f17-67-379450751.html

http://archive.tcpalm.com/opinion/editorials/st-lucie-county-needs-to-step-up-to-plate-and-justify-tradition-field-deal-331075ed-e7c5-1a23-e053-0-380155871.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-announce-55m-tradition-field-renovations-article-1.2874057

[Frayed Knot]

Not to speak to the good-ness or dumpy-ness of the field at PSL in particular, but what you need to remember about these ST sites is that they spend most of their time as home stadiums for A-level Fla St Lg teams and sometimes the even lower level Gulf Coast Lg squads, so it shouldn't be surprising if/when they're not up to size and amenity standards of AAA parks. Each league has minimums for both the park size as well as the population base of the area so neither the buildings nor the towns you might visit in the Grapefruit circuit would have a shot of qualifying as host for a higher league in most cases.
In the entire state of Florida only the northern cities of Jacksonville and Pensacola -- well removed from the rest of the ST sites -- have an upper level (AA) minor league team.