A New Spring

It's Spring Training again. I keep thinking that I will write here a lot this season, again. Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
But I can't let the start of Spring Training pass without my annual post (or re-post or just sharing an old link). The sounds of Spring Training.

I always listen to some sound bytes of Bob Murphy opening up WFAN's first Spring Training broadcast in 1998, a recording I made playing around with a Walkman, wires and my computer. Then I listen to a 6 1/2 minute clip of Bob Murphy and Gary Cohen calling another game from that spring. And then there's a clip of them throwing it to a commercial (which now makes me nostalgic for the WFAN Mets Radio Network).

raw audio from Spring Training 1998 (WFAN Radio):
WFAN's first broadcast of the spring with Bob Murphy at the mic


Bob Murphy leading into a commercial


6 1/2 minutes of play-by-play and conversation between Bob Murphy and Gary Cohen

Recently, I found some cassette tapes that I made around the same time as those sound bytes, taken from both TV and radio. So I have some brand new Mets audio clips:

Another game opening on WFAN in Spring Training 1998, with Gary Cohen as the lead and Bob Murphy as the #2 announcer.


WWOR TV's "Fresh From Florida" opening (unfortunately, it's only the audio) with Gary Thorne and Tim McCarver opening "Mets Baseball '98".


A short highlight from Tim McCarver and Gary Thorne on WWOR TV. Pitcher Paul Wilson with a basehit.


Another short highlight from Tim McCarver calling a homerun. I always loved how small and intimate the crowd sounds here.




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30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 6

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 6

Spring Training Annual

I just completed my 14th annual visit to Mets Spring Training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. I like to go down there for a long vacation, at least 1 week, and usually longer. I like to walk around the ballpark taking pictures from different vantage points. I’m always trying to grab a foul ball (or a home run ball). I like to go see other Spring Training ballparks. I like to buy a t-shirt from every team/stadium that I visit. I like to get autographs from players when I’m there. Spring Training is billed as a time when you can get closer to the players. At least in the Mets case, I like to spend the morning on the practice fields watching the players conduct different baseball drills.

Sometimes I’ll talk with people. I’ve met and become friends with a lot of fans over the years that vacation in Port St. Lucie similar to me, live down there for part of the year, or live down there permanently. I’m not the only person who makes this an annual trip. Some Mets fans have retired or relocated to Post St. Lucie because of the Mets. Several years ago, I joined the local booster club (which mostly supports the minor league St. Lucie Mets). After most home games, the group (or at least parts of it) will go out to dinner somewhere. I know some of the ushers and security guards at the stadium complex, mostly by face. I have my routines and my favorite spots there.

I spend every morning, except when there’s long travel necessary, at the "back" (practice) fields of the Mets complex. They stretch and throw together and conduct different baseball drills each day. If there’s a home game, everyone is there. If there’s a road game, only the players left behind are involved. The fans are usually allowed to stay back there until the workout is complete, which can be a couple of hours that we’re out there. Some players will sign autographs after their workout is finished. Sometimes the fans can stay to see the minor league teams working out or maybe playing in a game. Every day is different.

Inside the stadium, I’ll usually talk with people and then grab lunch and some shade until the players come out. Then it might be autograph time, time to get pictures from the bullpen, or time to get in position for a specific photograph. I like taking pictures of broad scenery and the Mets ballpark in Port St. Lucie certainly offers that. A high sky, sometimes clouds, bright sunshine, and many distinct features along with a baseball field filled with Mets jerseys is very photogenic. The left field terrace and right field berm both offer big blue and white shade covers. Left field has the scoreboard with the practice fields behind it and home plate has a big concrete covering. Even when I can’t get to the highest point, the inner concourse/walkway in the stadium works out well for most pictures. My favorite spot over the past few years is right behind the CF wall next to the batter’s eye. The wall is taller than I can see, but I can put my camera on top and get some great pictures.

I don’t chase down autographs as much as I used to. It used to be that I had to get at least one autograph at every game (Mets or not) and the game was a personal failure if I didn’t. With the exception of one stadium where it was forbidden to ask for autographs, I had one at every game for about 5 or 6 years. That’s what’s great about Spring Training, it was always possible just to go in and get an autograph. My first Spring Training autograph was actually Tommy Lasorda when he was sitting in the stands at my first game in 2004. Over the years, as I got older, I stopped finding the appeal of camping out at a spot by the dugout or down the foul line (and it didn’t necessarily matter which team it was) to wait for the players to come out, and/or to get crowded into an small area of seats and an aisle fighting people (adults and children alike) to try to get an autograph from a player who might come by that location to sign and might not. The waiting, pushing and shoving lost its appeal. I still like getting autographs. I keep it simple, usually having players sign the scorecard page in the program. I’m not one to try to get baseballs or baseball cards signed. These autographs are usually just for me. I still try to get autographs on the practice fields at Mets camp when I don’t have to run around the place to get it. I still wait after the game (when I don’t have some place to be) at the players’ parking lot gates to get autographs as the players leave (with some success). There’s still something about the chase for an autograph that makes me feel like a kid (even when these players are all now younger than me).

I also like to get around Florida to see other Spring Training sites. After this vacation, I can once again say that I’ve seen all of the stadiums currently in use – 13 active ballparks housing 15 MLB teams (2 stadiums are each shared by 2 teams) and 7 defunct ones. Those numbers have changed over my 14 years as teams have moved around Florida, built new ballparks, or moved to Arizona. Other teams have upgraded their ballparks making a case to come back and see the improvements. Those numbers will change again when the next team moves (rumored to be Atlanta) and then again when I can get out to their new location. Some of these ballparks are a short drive – less than an hour – from Mets camp in Port St. Lucie. Others are farther away and visiting them becomes a side trip (where I go see non-Mets games for a few days and stay in another part of Florida). I don’t go on side trips every year, but once every 3 or 4 years to see something new is okay. Exceptions are made if a Mets game can be seen in another part of Florida. I’m very biased towards seeing games in Port St. Lucie, but my favorite place to watch a game was at old Dodgertown in Vero Beach. This is the 9th Spring Training without major league Spring Training there and it’s still some place I try to get to every couple years.

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 5

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 5

My first visit Spring Training

For those of you that know me, or have been following for a long time, you know that every March, I make the trip down to Port St. Lucie, Florida, to see Mets Spring Training. It’s something that I’ve been doing every year since 2004. But the first time I set foot at the ballpark in Port St. Lucie (then known as Thomas J. White Stadium) was in March of 1995.

Yes, THAT 1995. The one with the infamous replacement players.

1995 was the first year in which I had a break from school in March, and my dad decided it would be a good opportunity for the two of us to go to Florida to visit his parents (outside Ft. Lauderdale). I think he convinced me to go by promising me we could go see a couple baseball games. One was a Yankees-Red Sox game at old Ft. Lauderdale Stadium. This was during a time when Yankees-Red Sox games weren’t always must-see. It was also the last season for the Yankees in Ft. Lauderdale after almost 35 years. And the other game, with my 80-something year old grandparents in tow, was 90 minutes north in Port St. Lucie to see the Mets.

Getting there was one of those adventures from hell. Without thinking of the back fields or batting practice (like I do every day that I’m there now), I wanted to get there early because I just wanted to get there, like the little kid who just wanted to be at the ballpark just because it was there. But we got off to a slow start to the morning. And it was a long ride to get there. And I misread the map and had my dad move to Route 1 because that’s where the dot for “Port St. Lucie” was located. In case you don’t know the geography of the area, Route 1 is a road with traffic lights and is located about 8 miles away from the ballpark, while I-95 is an expressway and located in the ballpark’s shadow that also goes down to Ft. Lauderdale. So that little detour to Route 1 in Port St. Lucie added about 45 minutes to the ride to the ballpark. Then everybody walked slowly through the parking field/lot to the ticket office. It was torture.

But inside, it was pure joy. Here’s this ballpark which I’ve watched on TV every March since the Mets moved there in 1988, as the spring home of the Mets and the portal into the baseball season, right in front of me in living color. I have no memories of the game. That part doesn’t matter. It was an exhibition game between teams made up of scabs. Somewhere, I have the program and ticket stub, because I always have a program and ticket stub. And I have a few pictures. It was the only time I got to see old Thomas J. White Stadium before the first round of upgrades (which launched in 2004).

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 4

30 Years As a Mets Fan – Part 4

The start of Spring Training

“People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” – Rogers Hornsby, Baseball Hall of Famer and original Mets coach

And then one day each year, spring would slowly but surely arrive at my window. It would start with the first live local news reports from Port St. Lucie, seen on channel 4 or on channel 2. Nowadays, SNY is there 5 nights a week. But this is just practice. It’s a mirage. And then one day you turn on your radio and “Meet the Mets” is playing at the top of a broadcast. And you know that meant Bob Murphy’s voice would soon follow.

“Well hi everybody. This is Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen. Baseball has been asleep for a while. Welcome, the game is coming back.” – Bob Murphy, Mets Hall of Fame broadcaster, introducing the first Spring Training game in 1998

The way I remember it as a kid, it was always the first Friday in March that the Mets would take the field for the first time in the new season, and that WFAN would usually be there to cover it. I would set the clock radio in my bedroom to turn on at 1pm, even though I was in school. I didn’t want to waste any time, or even simply forget when I got home from school, even though the game might be in the 7th or 8th inning. I longed to hear the voices. And that was just in case I didn’t have my Walkman to listen to the game while I was walking home from school.

The years have blended together. I have one generic memory of this day which was probably the same every year growing up. I lost it a few years years when I was away at school. WFAN in the daytime didn’t have reception in New England and the Internet hadn’t been invented yet. In college, and as an adult, it became a bit harder because things like classes and work got in the way of that first spring game. But even if it’s for only 5 minutes, I make sure to listen to that first broadcast, now anchored by Howie Rose on WOR radio, and usually played through my computer. It’s not enough for me to join that broadcast in progress or catch it archived later in the day. I need the feeling of hearing Meet the Mets and Howie Rose live.

Same thing for the first spring TV broadcast. Seeing the Mets for the first time might have to wait until Saturday or Sunday, depending on the WWOR (or later, MSG/FSNY) schedule. I couldn’t wait until it was time when I could hear Ralph Kiner’s voice or that “Fresh from Florida” intro that Channel 9 had at one point. Now, it’s Gary Cohen on SNY and PIX11, but it’s the same idea.

There is a different sound to a Spring Training broadcast. It sounds a bit more relaxed in those smaller ballparks. There isn’t as much crowd noise. I swear at times I could hear a conversation from the stands. The games don’t mean anything, and the players and fans seem to know it. So do the broadcasters. Even they sound more relaxed. It’s just a warm up, forgotten at the end of the day. But it’s the sounds of summer while the calendar is technically still on winter.

I managed to grab the 3 audio files in this story from my Walkman during Spring Training 1998. The second one is just a few minutes of Bob Murphy and Gary Cohen calling most of a half inning from a game against the Cardinals in Jupiter. The third is just more Bob Murphy, this time throwing it to a commercial break.

Baseball has been asleep for a while, welcome, the game is coming back

NOTE: this is my annual first-spring-training-game post.

Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.

On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you two treats.

First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...


Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inaugural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.


I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.


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World Baseball Classic

The World Baseball Classic is upon us. And I don't like it.

At least I don't like it in it's current form.

I like the concept. International competition among the top professional athletes in sports where the talent pools is diverse are the highest level competitions imaginable. Soccer has the World cup, a month-long tournament played every 4 years (separately Men's and Women's; they also have the Olympics, which is sometimes used as a second-tier tournament). Basketball has had International Championships and the Olympics, but I don't know what they have now because I became so disinterested in it. Hockey has their own World Cup (which has no real schedule), and before that, Canada's Cup and the Summit Series (with the old Soviet Union), as well the Olympics every 4 years. Those are some of the greatest competitions on ice, topping even the most dramatic Stanley Cup Finals.

It makes sense that the now-defunct Olympic baseball tournament and the World Baseball Classic are supposed to fall in line with Soccer, Basketball, and Hockey. But there's something missing. First, the Olympics dropped Baseball from the 2016 Rio Games. The Summer Olympics were always held during the MLB season, so it was never the top MLB players playing. Olympic Baseball never caught on as the type of competition that Olympic Basketball and Olympic Ice Hockey are.

So MLB invented the World Baseball Classic, supposed to have started play in 2005 and then every 4 years after that (there was some issue that delayed the first tournament until 2006, but keeping the math based on 2005, so 2009, 2013, and 2017, etc. for the subsequent tournaments). Okay, so why is it a joke? Oh yes, because it takes place during MLB's Spring Training season. It takes place not during the middle of the season when interest is high, or during the offseason when players are all available, but during MLB team's training camp.

It takes place at a time when players are supposed to be getting ready for the season, building up their strength (legs, hitting, and/or pitching), they are taken out of exhibition games getting ready for the job for which they are paid and moved into a high-level tournament. Pitchers are the biggest concern because they are commonly on pitch and inning counts during Spring Training and these days, they are also commonly coming off of injuries and/or surgery in the offseason and are really just getting their feet wet at this point in the MLB season when they are being asked to leave their jobs to play in this higher-level tournament. Or, the more common case, players are asked by their teams NOT to go play for their country and leave camp to play in the WBC, or sometimes, the player decides on their own that they can't play in the WBC. Past tournaments (and I don't know about this year) have had pitch counts for MLB pitchers (I don't know about the wealth of pitchers from other leagues, such as Japan).

I don't think a serious International tournament can have something such as pitch counts and players that are just warming up after an off-season slumber (offseason workouts are more likely the case than offseason slumber these days). So many players missing, and so many not in their top form.

Of course, there probably isn't a good time in which to hold the WBC. Especially if you want to rule out stopping or diluting the MLB's regular season in order to play this thing (I don't know the timing with respect to other leagues, such as in Japan). Offseason? I don't know. Pitchers are tired. Players are tired. Yes, there is a break for most of them in October and early November when they don't go to the post season. But there's surgery for pitchers in the offseason (I consider it more like an oil change and wheel alignment than rebuilding the transmission in most cases). Finishing right before Spring Training starts? Then you need a couple weeks of a training camp probably in January in order to build the pitchers up enough to play, and for the teams going out quickly, it's a stop and start scenario for them, which may not be real good. Video game only? It would be good in a video game to be able to build your own tournament format and play it, but if it's only in a video game, that doesn't help at all. But maybe this is all only a problem we have here in America with MLB players, and that's part of the reason why Japan and Korea have been a lot more successful than Team USA.

But it's baseball. Enjoy it.


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Live Televised Baseball

It's not about who's playing. It's not so much about how they do. Baseball is back, at least in the form of Spring Training. It's about waking up from the long winter slumber. It's about seeing this great game, either on television or in person. It's the sights and sounds. You might be up north somewhere where there is snow on the ground and rain falling, watching this game taking place what might be 1,000 miles away in the hot sunshine of March (or in this case, late February). The grass is green, the uniforms are colorful. If you're watching your favorite team, it's about hearing the voices behind the microphone again. The voices of summer.

The crowd is different. The sounds are a bit quieter during Spring Training. It's smaller, of course, and not to say they're silent, but it lends to a different, quieter atmosphere, while we're all still waking up to the game.

And it's a lot of fun to be there in Spring Training in person. Closer to the field. The warmer weather, and maybe a vacation for you. Closer to the players.

Baseball is back. And it's on my television.


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Mets Baseball 2013

This is my annual Spring Training sound byte post.

Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.

On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you three treats.

First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...


Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inagural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.


and finally is Bob Murphy leading into a commercial


I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.


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Dynamic Spring Training

I think it's interesting that I've been reading a book about the history of Spring Training and how a lot of teams found their way to their current location. It's called Under the March Sun: The Story of Spring Training, and as much as it tells stories about figures like Al Lang, it also talks about the economics and politics around towns, counties, and states trying to secure (or walk away from) hosting Spring Training. It's interesting that I'm reading it because the current situation playing out on Florida's east coast could be a new chapter for this book, except that it's not quite done being written.

If you've noticed in the Mets Spring Training schedule, or heard the different broadcasters mention, there are only 4 teams currently playing Spring Training baseball on the Atlantic coast, and the other 3 regular Spring opponents of the Mets are between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 hours away. That's a lot of time on the bus. If you've ever been down there to follow the Mets around (like what I've been doing for the past 9 Marches), you know that the Marlins and Cardinals are about 40 minutes south of Port St. Lucie in Jupiter (just north of West Palm Beach), the Nationals are about an hour north in Viera (just south of Cocoa Beach), the Astros are about 1 1/2 hours away up Florida's Turnpike in eastern Kissimmee, the Braves train at Disney's Wide World of Sports, which is a good 2 hour drive away, and the Tigers, a new regular opponent, are 2 1/2 hours away in Lakeland, about half way between Disney World and Tampa. Outside of the trip to Jupiter, that's a lot of driving. The Mets used to have the Orioles 90 minutes south in Fort Lauderdale (they moved to Sarasota a couple years ago), and the Dodgers were 30 minutes north in Vero Beach going back to the days of Jackie Robinson until 2008 when they moved to Arizona.

Teams move around. The current talk is that the Nationals are looking to move out of their facility in Viera (originally built for the Marlins for Spring Training 1993, the Expos traded spots in Jupiter with the Marlins when Jeffrey Loria sold the Expos to Major League Baseball and bought the Marlins in 2002) and are rumored to be looking in both Fort Myers (very far away from Port St. Lucie) and even in Arizona. The writing is on the wall that the Mets are going to lose another local Spring Training opponent. And the Houston Astros are also looking to move out of their facility in Kissimmee, and their new owner Jim Crane has business interests just south of Port St. Lucie in the name of a golf course in Palm City in Martin County (the next county south of Port St. Lucie). While the Astros have been rumored to be looking at every available baseball field in both Arizona and Florida, I have a strong feeling that the Astros will end up sharing the Mets complex in Port St. Lucie. Jim Crane (as well as the Astros GM) were seen touring the Mets facility in Port St. Lucie on Saturday, reportedly their 3rd visit there this year (based on the information that a local told me). It's also been reported that the Mets are interested in having the Astros as co-tennants so that they can cut down on the travel (even if it's just a little bit) and possibly not have to leave Port St. Lucie entirely.

That last point goes back to the travel. Let's say that a Spring Training season is 30 games - 15 at home and 15 on the road. Let's assume that it's 15 home-and-home series, so that it's balanced and fair. In those 15 road games, 6 will be in Jupiter (3 each against the Marlins and Cardinals), the shortest bus ride away at about 40 minutes. If the Nationals and Astros both move, they're out of the equation. The next shortest trip is 2 hours to Disney, which they may do twice. That's still only half of the road games, and there's just nothing else even remotely close by. The defection of teams from the east coast has been a cause for concern that basically has the Mets, Cardinals, and Marlins each considering at what point do they say that they can't stay there any more, pick up and move, and the whole I-95 baseball corridor comes crumbling down. The Mets are committed to Port St. Lucie (there were some off-season improvements in the stadium) and them welcoming the Astros into town shows that they don't want to be the ones to make the whole thing crumble.

So what the Mets want, really need, is for the Astros (or at least another team, and better the Astros soon to be of the American League, than the Nationals, of the Mets own division) to move to Port St. Lucie. Right away, it brings in probably 3 road games with absolutely zero travel (bringing the total up to 9 games on the I-95 corridor and 2 up at Disney, with 4 more long road trips left to schedule).

The Astros coming to Port St. Lucie would help the travel situation. But I don't think we're really out of the woods until the east coast can secure a 5th team, whether it's someone putting up the money to build for the Nationals (or another team, though no other team is known to be looking), maybe a bit further south, closer to St. Lucie and Jupiter. My idea is to have a new 2 team complex in Martin County along I-95 (there's already hotels at exit 101, and it looks like plenty of space there), but I've been told that Martin County wouldn't allow any new construction, so that idea may not fly. Again, this location would be about half way between Jupiter and Port St. Lucie, so a short bus ride for those 2 teams to each location.

One thing to consider is that in my possible schedule for the Mets, they visit the Tigers and Braves twice, so each of those teams comes to Port St. Lucie twice. If the Astros join the Mets in Port St. Lucie, will the Tigers make that 2 1/2 hour trip down there 4 times now, or the Braves making that 2 hour trip 4 times instead of twice? Somehow, I doubt that. There's still a lot of holes in the schedule without a 5th team on the east coast. I think the Tigers would rather play the Phillies and Blue Jays more (under an hour of travel) to make up for the lost games in Kissimmee than they would coming down to Port St. Lucie more often.

Jim Crane's visit to Port St. Lucie is a telling sign. My fear is that it may not be enough to save Spring Training on the east coast of Florida.


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Spring

I wrote this essay in my senior year in High School, sometime in the winter or early spring of 1996. Happy Baseball Season!

Last week, the weather got warm for the first time since November. Even though it was still only January, it felt like it was the beginning of March. Rain, not snow or ice for once, was falling from the sky, melting the snow away for good. I didn’t need a hat or a pair of gloves for the first time since Thanksgiving. It was the first of only three "just really nice" days this month.

The coldness of winter melting away outside made me think of a re-warmth inside. The peaceful sounds of baseballs flying in March’s warm, Florida air is the best vision of spring that I can think of. I have been a die-hard baseball fan for most of my life and Spring Training in March is the one time I look forward to all year. The new hope for the new season will be looking upon me as I breathe the fresh, New Jersey air for the first time since the October playoffs. It’s been nearly six months since most of the teams’ hope from last season died out, including that of my favorite team, the New York Mets.

I could just hear the warm, but rusty sounds of the announcers’ voices coming over the radio. "Welcome to another season of New York Mets Baseball," one of them would say. There would be a calmness in their voices as they were getting ready for another year of work. You could feel the light wind blowing from the ocean through the trees and keeping the air at a comfortable 75 degrees.

In the first game I’ll watch on TV, I’ll see the green Florida grass with bright palm trees, and it will bring to mind the peaceful setting of what’s ahead for the coming months: green grass, green leaves on the trees, and kids playing baseball on the sandlot every afternoon after school. Though Florida is warm all year round, there’s no better time in Florida than Spring Training every March when the warmness is felt around the country, thanks to the voices that call the games to cold places like Boston, Minnesota, and Seattle.

Baseball isn’t just about playing in the peaceful settings in March. March is the time when Baseball is at its best. When the teams aren’t really competing against each other for standings in a league, but against themselves to become the best they can be, that’s the best type of baseball there is. This is when everybody really works hard but seems relaxed. You can see Major League superstars working with twenty year old rookie outfielders who are playing their best trying to field their way on the team. That’s what Baseball, as well as all sports, is all about.

These are the best days of the year because everyone in training camp is working: the players, the announcers, and the front office people. The players are trying to show off to their coaches. The announcers are bringing the warm, Florida air to much colder places like New York through their voices as all the snow there starts to melt and the air starts to get warmer. The front office people are trying to make the right trades to make this team of players and this season for the fans the best in team history.

When the regular season begins in early April, there is not much for them to do. Everyone who made the team is on the team and everyone who didn’t is playing in the minors. The announcers are calling games mostly in Northern cities where it is not as warm as Florida, so there is nothing good for them to show in the way they talk. The front office has to wait and see what the changes they made will look like.

But these days of March are care-free because there is no pressure on the players. These games don’t count; they are just warm ups. Most of the players, coaches, and front office people are only in Florida for that one month each year and they try to savor every minute of it. I say, "Enjoy the best time of year while you can." I know what it’s like.

March is not just about who’s out there. You have a $2 million bench warmer, and a rookie catcher who’s only making $500 thousand a year, but they aren’t important. They won’t be with the team forever. You put your heart into a whole team, whether if it’s full of washed up "has-been’s" and talentless "never-will-be’s," or if it’s a team made up of the best baseball players of all time. It could be the World Champion Atlanta Braves playing the 1995 Replacement New York Mets. The enjoyment is in what they do there. They play baseball and supposedly have fun doing it.

Last year was the first time I had a vacation in March, and I went to go see what the peaceful settings I had so commonly witnessed on TV and heard about on radio looked like. I had to see for myself that Florida in March is just as soothing as the announcers’ voices imply that it is. When I was there, the Baseball players were on strike and it was the only time that you could ever see replacement players playing for the fans. I saw the two games I planned to see anyway because the game is not about who’s there on the field, but what they do. It’s March, the best time of year, it’s Baseball, during the best time of year, and players playing their hardest, which is the best mix.

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Mets Baseball is on the air

NOTE: This is my now-annual Spring Training sound byte post.

Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.

On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you three treats.

First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...


Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inagural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.


and finally is Bob Murphy leading into a commercial



I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.



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Baseball has been asleep for a while, welcome, the game is coming back

NOTE: this is what I'll call a "classic" post from 2 years ago.

Back when I was a bit younger (we'll call it the late '80s and early-mid '90s, a time when I wasn't quite a teenager), I remember running home from school on the day that Spring Training games finally began, or at least the day of the first broadcast on WFAN (for some reason, I had no, or chose not to use, a walkman). I would look forward to hearing the voices that I knew meant baseball for the first time after the long offseason.

On the eve of the fist Spring Training game, I bring you two treats.

First up is a 1 minute audio clip from the Mets first broadcast on WFAN from Spring Training 1998. I won't say any more, other than the voice is forver the voice of the Mets...


Second is about 6 1/2 minutes in length, coming from another 1998 Spring Training game. This one is most of half of an inning from a road game against St. Louis in Jupiter's inaugural season. The play-by-play voice again belongs to Bob Murphy with Gary Cohen along side.


I invite any readers to submit or link to their own Spring Training audio and video from the 1980s and 1990s.


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Spring Training Starts on the First?

Waitress:

Spring Training starts on the first. How do you think the Indians will do this year?

Customer 1:

It doesn't look too good.

Worker 1:

These guys don't look too fucking good.

Groundscrew 1 (subtitle):

They're shitty

Burn on big river. Burn on...

Quotes from the movie Major League. It's funny. You should own the DVD. Pitchers and Catchers report on Tuesday. Maybe we'll get that Willie Mays Hayes. And since when does Spring Training start on the "first"? Do they mean games or pitchers and catchers?


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Bob Feller

Bob Feller passed away yesterday. He was the senior (living) member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in a way, a face of the Cleveland Indians. So that brings me to my "Bob Feller" story. The end of the story is that I also caught a foul ball for the first time since playing in little league that day.

It was Spring Training, and I think it was 2005. The Indians were called Winter Haven, Florida, home at the time (they've since returned to Arizona, but Winter Haven is a whole other story), and I was making the rounds on my second annual Spring Training trip, trying to see all of the ballparks. It happened to work out where I could see the Mets on some long road trips, including against the Indians. But that's not the story.

For many years, Bob Feller was present at Indians Spring Training games (at least home games), in uniform, signing autographs over in the picnic area of the ballpark. So after watching BP and getting my usual pre-game player autograph(s), I decided to get on line to get the autograph of a Hall of Famer.

It's about 20 minutes before first pitch, and Mr. Feller has to stop what he was doing to head onto the field to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, which was a custom at Indians Spring Training home games. And we all kept in line knowing that he would come back.

Somewhat typical of Florida, a freak little rain storm moved over central Florida about 15 minutes before game time. I'm next on line for Mr. Feller, and we all have to scramble for cover. The infield upper-level seating at that park is covered with room to set up a table behind the seating that's still under cover, and that's where the ballpark staff took him, and all of us. Those of us in line even tried to stay in line, while starting to get wet.

They try to set up, and the first few of us in line are also trying to help, including running to the concessions and bathrooms for paper towels to dry off the table for him. We eventually get that settled during what is now a poorly managed rain delay, and I get my autograph. I think it was $5 for an autographed poster with the money going to his museum (which I'll consider a good cause), and I also had a baseball on me for some reason and go that autographed as well (the poster was a present for my father, who I assume had seen him play more than I had).

And I got my autograph. My first Hall of Famer (I've added a couple others since then). The game got rained out. I've tried two other times to see a game in Winter Haven, also against the Mets, and only one time did the weather allow the 9th inning to happen.  I headed off to another game that night in Lakeland (longtime home of the Tigers) and caught a foul ball.  The picture of Mr. Feller was taken before the game in 2006 against the Mets entering the Indians team store.

And that's my Bob Feller story.


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Leaving Port St. Lucie

The combination of exhaustion after 13 games in 11 days and a pre-flight insomnia has me up at 3:18am, just hours before I am scheduled to leave Port St. Lucie, Florida, ending my 7th annual Spring Training vacation. Putting aside what the Mets have done for me on the field (2 wins, 5 losses, and 1 rainout that wasn't their doing), and the 3 day break that I took from the Mets, I had a great time in Florida.

I got a good in-person look at players that we'll see on the Opening Day roster, players we wish we'd see on the Opening Day roster, and players we hope to see on the roster 6 months from now when the season comes to a close.

I had a great time traveling the Grapefruit League to familiar towns like Jupiter (Marlins and Cardinals), Viera (Nationals), and Disney (Braves - yes, I know "Disney" isn't the name of the town, and now it's not even the name of the complex, but it's easiest to describe where I was) and to towns that don't appear on my schedule very often like Kissimmee (Astros) and Lakeland (Tigers). I enjoyed spending a few days in Vero Beach, my 4th year staying there in 7 that I've been doing this, after a year's hiatus, and seeing the old Dodgertown complex on what might have been one of the last days that it beared that name. And I enjoyed my few days on what I call the "Disney Strip", named for the Vegas Strip because of all of the lights and signs for hotels, restrauants, tickets, mini golf and gift shops on Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway/US 192 outside of Disney World.

But there's no place like (Spring Training) home - Port St. Lucie, St. Lucie West, and Tradition Field. Last year's very short 3 night trip was the first time I had stayed in PSL since my first year in 2004, and I realized how much I had missed staying in town, in what is probably the only place in the country that is a Mets town without also being a Yankees town. Despite the record that the Mets put up on the field, and how good or not good the players have been at handling the fans' (and my) desire for autographs, I absolutely love coming here, driving or walking to what I'll keep calling "Tradition Field" out of habit, being at the ballpark, seeing the Mets, and seeing and talking to a ton of Mets fans - the latter two both for home and road games.

I love that the stadium, at least for Spring Training, has touches of our New York baseball experience like Lazy Mary in the 7th Inning Stretch, seeing Kevin, Gary, Keith, and/or Ron, and a beautiful mural of Mets history along the press box facade. I hope it isn't changed too much when they replace the last reference to the "Tradition Field" name.

Port St. Lucie is one of the very best places to watch a Spring Training game, at least in the Grapefruit League, where I've seen games in 12 of the 14 active stadiums and 4 of the inactive stadiums (some year I'll get to Clearwater again to see a game and I'll get down to Port Charlotte). That wouldn't be possible without the hard work of (in no particular order) the folks running the Mets Florida operations and the ballpark itself as well as the NY and St. Lucie Mets Booster club, who have a presence at every Mets Spring Training home game (as well as the St. Lucie Mets season). The Mets Booster Club does great things with the local community, troops overseas, and players. If you're a regular at Spring Training, you should check them out and consider joining. For everyone there in Port St. Lucie, thank you for a wonderful time.

To play off both the name of another Mets fan blog, and a reference from a semi-recent baseball movie...
To my Spring Family, I'll see you next year!


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Tradition Field naming rights

We saw it coming. Several blogs and bloggers posted this earlier today. I first heard it myself at the end of today's game at Tradition Field when they invited fans to return tomorrow at "Digital Domain Park". A new naming rights deal has been inked replacing the old one with Core Communities for the name "Tradition". Core Communities defaulted on their agreements, and the naming rights were terminated. Before this came out, I never even realized that there were naming rights at the former Tradition Field.

Here is the article from the local paper, TCPalm.com. The naming rights deal was signed on Tuesday. This company is bringing jobs and development to Port St. Lucie. One piece that I will quote from the article is interesting:

The new deal could enhance the experience for visitors to the stadium. [Digital Domain Holdings Chairman John] Textor said the company plans to do visual effects in both Port St. Lucie and at Citi Field, the Mets' stadium in New York.

Signage should be completely changed over by the middle of the St. Lucie Mets season. I'll report on this over the weekend if I see any changes this soon. We saw the logo on the scoreboard during the announcement for tomorrow's game (not completly realizing what it was).


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Spring Training Trip 2010 - Day 3

Read on to see why I have a picture of Jerry Seinfeld

We start this adventure with a stopover in Port St. Luice at Tradition Field to see a bit of the open workouts (for those players not attending the game in Jupiter) before heading down to Jupiter myself. What I saw was a lot of fans with the look of expression when pondering this question and answer:

Fan 1: What time do they open the gates for open workouts?
Fan 2: They open at 9:30am.
Fan 1: But it's 9:48am and the gates aren't open yet.
Fan 2: Ya, I know.

After 30 minutes of that, I gave up and went to the team store to do my shopping, and came back to find the crowd had moved from one locked gate in the parking lot to the next locked gate outside the fields. Goodbye Port St. Lucie, I'll see ya on Tuesday.

Game 4 - Mets vs Cardinals @ Jupiter
On to Jupiter and the Sea of Red. Those Cardinals fans are plentiful in Florida this time of year. And all wearing their universal colors - red and white. In Jupiter, they let you in during the visiting team's BP session. There, we go to see that the Mets left their biggest names at home and went with a bit of a scrubs lineup. But the kids are sometimes better at signing autographs for the fans. The two that did did so from inside their dugout and the fans all crushed along that wall trying to get what they could get. I tried to get in but I just refuse to push my way around or contort my body to get into a good position (I almost blew out my knees, ankle, and back doing that Thursday night).

BP ends, players go away to their hiding place to get ready for the game, and fans start coming into their seats, which pushes autograph seekers (kids, dealers and collectors, and the innocent fans) out. On a good day, we're not left with any assholes and it's not so bad. Today, the only asshole was the usher clearing the entire front row for a family of 6. We stayed and swarmed around the family. They didn't mind. Thursday night, some people had said, the Mets players were "forced" to all come over, for as many that did (about 8 in total) and sign. Today, it was nothing like that. Only those that wanted to come and sign did so. Nick Evans is a good kid for that. Razor Shines is not, because he said what we were all thinking - if he signed for the 2 kids, he'd have to sign on the entire wall, so he wouldn't sign for the 2 kids. I think he did end up signing for them and maybe 2 or 3 others.

In Jupiter, it's easy to get autographs from either the Marlins or the Cardinals opponents from the LF bullpen. It's also crowded when a big name team like the Mets or Cardinals is in town. Today there was both. Of course, who in the bullpen do you want to get an autograph from? Relief pitchers and extra catchers, especially for the Mets on the road, are not at the top of my autograph list. But catching candidate Chris Coste was nice enough to sign in between innings after his playing day was done. I could have had more if I chose to, but I didn't choose to.

For the game, John Maine started and went 4 innings. There was no radar gun display on the scoreboard, so I couldn't see exactly how the speed was (unlike watching Stephen Strasburg in Viera last night). But at times, it didn't look like he had his fastball. He got hit up a bit early in the game, but it wasn't a terrible outing. I think he has a lot of work to do, and maybe an extended Spring Training would do him well after all of the time NOT pitching in the past 2 seasons. I had heard something earlier in the Spring about his lack of innings since 2007 being a bit of a rust issue now.

Later in the game, Florida opened up their lead, the Mets scrubs mounted a 9th inning comeback, topped off by a shot to Left Centerfield by Ike Davis to tie the game with 2 out after the Mets manufactured 2 runs earlier in the inning. Kiko Calero comes in to pitch the bottom of the 9th and gives up a HR right back, and the Cardinals win.

Backing up to batting practice, we had a real celebrity in the house today. Jerry Seinfeld had his family at the ballpark. They arrived down the third baseline via golf cart, stopping off right in front of where the autograph crowd was standing. They got off, went over by home plate to watch BP, and when the Mets were done, they got a security escort up to probably a private suite to watch the game. He politely declined a few autograph requests.

But I got this picture as he was walking back.

And in honor of TheRopolitans.com, I give you today's Manuel's Musing.

As soon as the game ended, all of the beat writers hoped onto the field from the standing room area by the Mets bullpen in LF. They were there to intercept Jerry Manuel on his way back to the Mets clubhouse in LF. This is where the Jerry Manuel quotes in Spring Training come from some days.


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Spring Training Report - March 14

From Kevin watching Sunday's game in Jupiter

1. Johan looked good. He had his changeup working, which is important. Nice pickoff at second base too. It's good to see they work on this stuff in spring training.

2. Maine was awful. He was all over the place, and got lit up. Not much more to say other than he doesn't look ready to be a started right now.

3. Calero's first outing was rocky at best. He loaded the bases and got out of it, but it was not smooth at all.

4. Igarashi did well in an inning, a few days after being smacked around by Boston.

5. The Mets are doing what they always do. Get a runner to second with no out, or to third with less than 2 outs, and don't score him. They are, and have been the last few years, terrible in fundamental baseball.

Thanks again Kevin.


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Spring Training Report - March 13

Here is Saturday's report from RememberingShea's correspondent down in Port St. Lucie, Kevin Goodman, for the Mets vs. Detroit at Port St. Lucie. Some of my thoughts are at the bottom.

Perez looked good, but the detroit lineup only had 2 regulars. Even so, he mowed down the first 9, and was on his way to 4 perfect innings, when he got flustered over a weak hitter fouling off a few pitches and walked him, and the next batter. He then got out of it.

Takahashi looks good. He doesn't throw hard, but he misses bats and gets guys out. HIs motion seems effortless, so I doubt he would have trouble going deep into games. I think he would do ok as a 5th starter. I feel he would be wasted in long relief as he wouldn't pitch that much.

The homers in the 7th were all wind aided. Matthews shot was nice, but it would not have been out without the wind. Even Castillo got into the action with an RBI single. Note that the Mets had Wright, Bay, Murphy, and Francouer batting in succession. I ma not sure the Mets have even had 4 white guys batting in a row under Omar. And of course to start the 7th, it was homer, hbp, single, homer. Only the Canadian didn't get a hit, but rather got hit. Haha....the point was ruined when he homered 15 minutes later.

Mejia is wild but throws really hard. Nobody really looked comfortable, but they were able to know when he was going to throw fastballs and locked in on them. His off speed stuff, if his fastball is working, looks to be unhittable, kinda like Benitez when he was locked in.

One funny note: Omar was sitting behind home plate, about 5 rows back. In the second inning, a foul ball came right to him, he reached for it with both hands, and dropped it. I think if anyone know it was him, there would have been some boos.

Thanks Kevin. This sounds like the "good Ollie" that we all hope for, except that, as usual, something flusters him and he usually becomes unravelled. Credit the catcher for settling him down. What we can all hope for is that in 5-6 days when he pitches again, he pitches solid, gets flustered, and the catcher can talk him off the ledge again, so that maybe we have a working formula. Personally, I don't need a headcase like that on my team though. For a Mets team that struggled hitting HRs last year, I'll take a wind aided HR or even one misplayed by the LF. In the box score, it's still a HR, and 4 in the inning, and can get a team out of a funk in the regular season.


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Spring Training Report - March 11, 2010

RememberingShea has a correspondent down in Port St. Lucie following the Mets for about a week. Kevin Goodman is his name, and this is the report he sent me for Thursday, March 11, 2010, for the Mets vs. Boston at Port St. Lucie. Some of my thoughts are at the bottom.

here are my thoughts from the game against the Red Sox yesterday.

Hard to tell how the fans felt. It was rainy and there were a lot of red sox fans there. Certainly since the the cost of the game was double what it normally was, they expected it to be packed. It was pretty full, but not packed.. Maybe that had to do with the rain.

Anyway, it was nice to see all of the same stuff, from food to concessions to activities. The PA system is brutally bad. It all sounds like mumbling. They need to replace this. It was nice seeing John Franco roaming around though.

On the field, they looked bad. A lot of swings and misses before the rain delay. Pagan had a chance to set himself correctly on Cameron's sac fly, but instead he caught it flat footed and had no chance to challenge Pedroia at the plate. That bothers me. I don't think Matthews makes the same mistake. They gave up 3 runs in the first, and nobody was surprised. In fact, no fans were even yelling or heckling. This was new for me. FYI, I was sitting 3 rows back from the Mets bulllpen.

They are lifeless at the plate. Castillo could put you to sleep, and they look like they have no plan up there. Just as hard to watch as September of last year. With Reyes out for possibly two months, the only reason to watch a game is Wright.

Pelfrey was catching way too much of the plate with his pitches and was getting hit hard. I thought he was going to get out of the first after he loaded the bases and struck out Big Papi. I really thought he was going to get a DP from Drew, but no such luck.

Feliciano looked bad. Way too many pitches to get hitters out. Maybe he doesn't trust his stuff yet.

Igarashi was brutal. I watched him warm up in the bullpen, and I kept wondering why he was throwing only fastballs. Well, it's b/c that is all he throws. He got into the game, threw only fastballs to the backups after the rain delay, and got spanked. Even the outs were hard outs.

There is a guy named Cervanek. He looks like a player. He had good numbers at AAA last year. But they are Murphy-ing him. He is in infielder, but they put him in LF and he is lost.

I am not going to Ft. Myers today, but I will see them again tomorrow. More to come.

Thanks Kevin. I was at a Mets-Red Sox game in PSL a few years ago, and Red Sox nation was traveling in full force that night (part of another road trip with Vero Beach and Dice-K the next afternoon). It's a shame for the teams on the Treasure Coast that Boston visits that some games have been rained out (today's Sox game in Jupiter was washed out and the game I was at in Vero Beach was also a washout). It was funny that you mentioned the PA system because I could hear it on TV. They've also had Shea's/Citi's Alex Anthony in the past but not this year.

Kevin, I hope the team plays better for you on Saturday (where those of us up north can watch on WPIX) than they did on Thursday. Saturday should also bit a bit more normal with the Tigers coming to town and not the traveling Red Sox nation.


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