Day 2 - March 07, 2013 - Mets-Marlins @ Port St. Lucie
Much better day today at Mets camp. First up was the back fields for the morning warmup. There really wasn't much to see. They did their stretching before we were allowed in and all went inside apparently to change jerseys. The main group of players stayed inside the stadium and smaller groups of pitchers and minor leaguers in big league camp split up in the back fields. Some mornings I think the back fields can be a waste of time. At least when the full set of minor league players are in camp (not this early in the spring), there is more to watch because they're always broken into different games on the different fields. But this early, it's quiet back there.
Inside the stadium, the team was finishing up with batting practice when the fans were allowed inside, and of course, the Mets players ran away as soon as they saw us. Okay, not quite, but there wasn't much activity in the fan interaction area as one might hope. Greg Burke, a candidate for relief pitcher, did come over to sign for us. He's new to the club. He did pitch, giving up a 9th inning HR breaking the shutout. He'll do well with the Mets.
Matt Harvey pitched. Dominated may be a better word. Hitless and scoreless through 4 1/3 innings. The bullpen held the shutout until the 9th, and the offence gave Harvey a 1-0 lead when he left and 4-0 lead into the 9th, ending with a 4-1 win. den Dekker hit a HR. Put it in the books.
After the game kind of made up for the back fields being a dry barren place. I was given a tip on where to stand to catch one Keith Hernandez (no Seinfeld jokes, please) after the game to grab an autograph. And after the game, in that spot, he was very very cordial about signing for me and a couple other people. After hanging around on the plaza for a bit, just simply on my way out, I caught up to the crowd at the player's parking lot entrance where, what to me has been a very rare occurrence, players stopping to sign for a small crowd. Ike Davis for one, Matt Harvey, another, and Mike Baxter even out on the main parking lot road (well outside of their gate, but not actually on the street outside of the Mets complex). Nice pickup. Davis hasn't signed much inside the ballpark, Harvey really could be a star, and pitched like it today (and it was noted by someone in the crowd that this was well after the game ended, and he was the starting pitcher coming out not even mid way through, and he was even still at the Mets complex that late), and Baxter plays an important part in Mets history with the bone crushing catch helping to save the Mets No Hitter last June.
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