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As a baseball fan, I have always been fascinated with the game’s status as an American social institution. As a native Floridian, I have always been interested in local history. As a journalist, I always enjoy a good story. As an alcoholic, I like to drink lots of beer. The following, along with the online virtual tour, travel blog and video documentary  represents a six month investigation into Florida’s baseball culture that culminated with an 18 day, 9 city, beer soaked journey along the Gulf Coast that incorporates all of these passions.
-Scott Butherus

Fungo Bats & Long Toss
Florida is a baseball state. Sure the Bucs, Lightning or Heat grab a headline and the inevitable Famous Florida bandwagon fans every few years, and High School games can occasionally take on the appearance of a scene from Friday Night Lights, but Florida is still a baseball state. It is a baseball state in the same vein as Indiana being a basketball state, or Texas being a football state or even Nevada being a blackjack state. No other sport shares the hearts of Floridians like the game of baseball; their people, their history and their culture are intertwined together. Florida has always had a rich history with the game. From Alexander Cartwright, the reputed inventor of baseball teaching soldiers how to play the game while serving as an officer at a Florida Naval Base during the Spanish-American War, to a World Series in Miami, Florida has more than its share of baseball stories.

The stories of spring training are the lore of Florida’s history. In 1903, New York Giants pitcher Rube Wadell was so heart broken over his unrequited love he had found with a young Florida woman that in a drunken state he attempted to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge into the St. John’s River only to be pulled from the waist-deep mud of a low-tide by his laughing teammates. It is said that the name of the Grapefruit League itself was the result of a prank played by catcher Casey Stengall on his manager Wilbert Robinson. That spring Wilbert boasted he could catch a baseball dropped from an airplane. Stengall accepted that bet, but failed to inform his coach that the baseball was to be replaced by a grapefruit. Upon the impact with Wilbert’s mitt, the grapefruit exploded, coating the manager with grapefruit juice and knocking him unconscious. Upon his returning to consciousness, Wilbert cried out that he was covered in blood and that the baseball had torn his chest open.

Although the practice of baseball clubs heading to warmer climates to allow players to workout and get themselves back into game-ready shape began in 1870 when the Cincinnati and Chicago ballclubs held organized exercise camps in New Orleans, it wasn’t until 1888 that professional teams discovered Florida as a baseball oasis. That year, the Washington Nationals held a four-day camp in Jacksonville before engaging in a barnstorming tour of exhibition games and train rides back home. Unlike the ballplayers of today, ballplayers around the turn of the century made little money and often spent the off-season working menial jobs in warehouses, factories and loading docks. For the hard-nosed and often harder carousing ballplayer, the workout sessions also served as a chance for players to sober up and dry out from what was often an alcohol-soaked winter.

By 1900, spring training had become a ritual of every professional team. Some owners had at first been reluctant to train far from their home facilities, but following the precedent set by the Cincinnati Red Stockings, owner Aaron Stern and manager Gus Schmelz, many other team owners realized the value of training in warmer climates. Under the Reds Stocking’s arrangement, the cost of training was split between owners and players, as were the profits from gate revenue created by the exhibition games that the teams played. Aside from the chance it gave players to shake off their winter rust, spring training was a chance for owners and the coaching staff to evaluate the players it brought to camp. Young players could be judged of their talent to play at the highest level and veteran players could be deemed expendable. The camps often attracted walk-ons, especially during the Depression, who hoped to make a roster or at least have a few good meals during camp.
 In the south, the game of baseball had spread quickly and the sight of a professional ballplayer was still a novelty; making exhibition games against local college and city league teams popular events. City Leagues and amateur teams funded by local factories or companies had already been commonplace, often rivalries between neighboring towns and cities became celebrated events that often included the hiring of ringers in order to gain victory. The Tampa Bay area, with its numerous semipro teams and large contingent of Cuban-born ballplayers working in Tampa’s nearly 200 cigar factories, was a particular hotbed of baseball and provided a steady contingent of exhibition opponents.

Baseball in Florida has become a social institution of itself and for Florida’s baseball fan there is no greater ritual than Spring Training. The reporting of Pitchers and Catchers around the 2nd week of February symbolizes the rebirth of hope for every fan whose team did not walk away from the previous season as winners; the proverbial fruition of waiting till next year.  Spring training is a time when fans stretch out across bleacher seats to sip overpriced beer and wax poetic of hope springing eternally. For players, it is a time of refining their skills, both on the playing field and on the golf course. Although today the evaluation and competition for positions is often already established prior to Spring Training commencing there is always the intrigue of rookie pitchers battling for the fifth slot in the rotation or the former All-Star trying to hang on for one more season in the sun as the fourth outfielder. For those who have secured their long term contracts, Spring Training is often a time of afternoons on the golf course, nights on the town and the trading of the player dorms for luxury beachside condos. While the institution of spring training has changed tremendously over the course of its century-long history, it has still managed to maintain a certain degree of its sacred charm. Today Spring Training games attract over 1.6 million fans and contribute nearly $500 million to Florida’s economy.

First Inning
Perhaps no other city in Florida has a richer history with the game of baseball than St. Petersburg. It was here in 1914 that major league clubs would come face-to-face for the first time to play each other in Spring Training. That year, the St. Louis Browns who were training in St. Petersburg faced off against the Chicago Cubs who arrived by steamboat from across the bay where they were training in Tampa. In honor of the first game between major league teams, the mayor of the city declared the day a holiday and schools and businesses around the city closed. Over 4,000 spectators filled the grandstand bleachers and concourses of Coffee Pot Park. Later that spring, the Grapefruit League and its formalized 4-week exhibition schedule was born. The park still exists along Coffee Pot Bayou although the grandstands and field have long been replaced by children’s swing sets and boat docks.

No man was more instrumental in bringing baseball to the Gulf Coast than Albert Lang. Sunshine Al Lang, who made his money in the laundry business, moved from Pennsylvania to the warm air of St. Petersburg in 1910 when his deteriorating lungs could no longer handle the harsh chilly winters. It was Lang who was responsible for putting on that first exhibition game after convincing the Browns to hold their training camp in St. Pete. It was Lang who convinced the Phillies to train there the following year and by 1925 he had also convinced the Braves and Yankees to call St. Pete home. In 1920, it was Lang who spearheaded the fundraising effort in order to build Waterfront Park and when it was remodeled in 1947 it would be named after him in his honor.

For those wishing to stroll through history, all a fan has to do is walk down the street. Literally. Spanning Central Ave between Tropicana Stadium and Progress Energy Park is a series of monuments representing each year that major league teams have trained in the area. The Jim Healy and Jack Lake Baseball Boulevard commemorates what baseball has meant to the city, such as the 1955 plaque that reads “How big is spring training? St. Petersburg’s population is 325,000 in the spring, 125,000 the rest of the year.” After this hike through history, fans should check out the newest addition to Tropicana Field to see the history firsthand at the Ted William’s Hitters Hall of Fame and Museum. This collection of memorabilia, previously held at a museum in Hernando, celebrates some of the greatest hitters of all time and will be housed in a new 10,000 sq ft. wing along the stadium’s outer concourse. If this still doesn’t satisfy the history buff in you, take a quick drive out to Crescent Lake Park and Huggins-Stengall Field. During this field’s history it has been called home by the Yankees, Mets, Cardinals, Orioles and Devil Rays. It is also home to one of spring training’s greatest legends. When the park opened in 1925, it, like most exhibition parks of the time, was constructed with no outfield fence; only the banks of Crescent Lakes marked the outfield boundary. The Legendary Babe Ruth was playing rightfield for the hometown Yankees when an alligator climbed out of the lake onto the rightfield shore (depending on whose version of the story you read, the alligator ranged between 9’ and 15’ in length). Ruth became so freaked out at seeing one so close up that he went running full steam into the dugout and refused to play the rest of the game.

Even though St Pete has an extensive history with the game of baseball, it wasn’t until 1998 that Major League Baseball granted the city its very own expansion team. After a long fought battle, the city of St. Pete finally got a team to call their own; the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Since 1992, Carter Gaddis has been covering spring training camps as a reporter for both the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune and from 2001 through 2005, Carter was the primary beat writer of the Devil Rays for the Tampa Tribune. Since probably nobody in Florida knows more about baseball in St. Pete than him, I decided to turn the pen on Carter to get his thoughts on baseball culture and what it is like to be a part of the media covering the sport.

“Baseball is why I became a sportswriter, it’s the game that I grew up playing, it’s the game my father taught me, and it’s the game I was enamored with growing up and am still enamored with to this day.” As I sat dodging batting practice foul balls in the left field bullpen with the former University of South Florida Graduate, it was clear that the writer with the wire frame glasses and energetic personality was passionate about the game. “I was able to incorporate my love for baseball. I grew up playing the game, following the game, reading about the game, absorbing everything I could about the game. I also had a love of writing. When I was able to combine those things it has been a real blessing.”

“It gets into you. It gets into your blood stream.”  Carter first attended a spring training game when he moved to Florida in 1982, and has been hooked since. “I really, really love spring training. It is my favorite time of the year. Spring training is so relaxed, so laid back. It is definitely a peaceful atmosphere,” he says to me as he watches a lazy flyball land about ten feet short of the warning track.” The only way to go into a 162 game season is to ease into it, and that’s what these guys do. For the most part these guys are relaxed, getting their work in, going to play golf, going fishing, go eat a nice meal and then waking up and do it all over again.”

Second Inning
The latest of the Spring Training megaplexes is Brighthouse Networks Field in Clearwater, which was unveiled in 2004. The stadium, built using over $18 million in county tax dollars for the long-time Clearwater resident Philadelphia Phillies, features an open-air concession concourse and state-of-the-art video scoreboard, as well as architectural features that combine both traditional Florida design and features of its regular season counterpart, Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia. Perhaps it’s most recognizably unique feature is the 60 barstool, 50 foot thatched-roof tiki bar called Frenchy’s which is located just beyond the outfield fence in leftfield. A full liquor bar in the middle of the cheap seats? This must be my field of dreams. The only thing missing is Kevin Costner playing catch with Shoeless Joe down in the bullpen.

Although Joe Jackson never showed up, several other ballplayers could be seen having a drink or two. Former Phillies Darren “Dutch” Daulton and Larry Anderson are frequent sights during the games and after the game several current Phillies like Ryan Howard and Chase Utley came to hang out, sign autographs and listen to the live music. It isn’t tough to see why Clearwater was named one of the top sport cities in America by Sports Illustrated magazine despite being home to only one spring training team and its minor league affiliate.

Ferris Bueller made the practice of skipping school to go to a baseball game stylish, but Sean Simon and his friends really do it with panache. Sean, a school teacher from Pennsylvania and a Phillies fan since birth, along with his friends Bob, Tom and Brian, have made a tradition of calling in sick to school to catch the first plane down to Florida to see opening day in Clearwater. For the last two years this band of phanatics has the distinction of having bought the first bucket of beer served from the tiki bar; a tradition they intend to carry on next year. “Spring training is all about relaxing, getting your buckets of beer, talking with the players like Michael Jack Schmidt, and good friends.” Sean says between sips of Coors light. “A favorite moment? I don’t know if I have just one. I love it all. Ask me again after the 8th bucket.”

Third Inning
Underneath a small tent in Pirate City I sit in the background as a throng of reporters with digital recorders stretched out with one hand and pens frantically scratching away at a notebook with the other, ask the soft-spoken man in the center of their circle about the progress of some prospect or how the roster is shaping up. With his laid back demeanor and quiet wit he goes around the circle answering each question, peppering in the occasional baseball cliché that sportswriters seem to love so much. The man in the center of the circle is Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Tracy and for him spring training is more than just morning workouts and roster decisions; it is a bit of a homecoming. “We lived in Sarasota for thirteen years. I have a lot of great memories of this area, especially the many great friendships that my family and I have made over the years. One of the best parts of being back in Florida is being able to see those people that we had built relationships with again.”

Long before becoming a big league skipper, Jim was just another baseball dad helping out with his kid’s little league team while offering batting tips to 11 year olds. “All three of my sons grew up here, for them this part of Florida will always be home.” A great deal of pride fills his voice as he talks about his kid’s baseball careers which all began on the little league fields of Sarasota; Brian is a currently a pitcher with UC-Santa Barbara, Chad was recently drafted by the Texas Rangers as a catcher after an All American career at Pepperdine, and the youngest Mark who is just beginning his Pepperdine career.

“They were all students of the game from a very early age, and I was fortunate to be able to pass onto them the love and respect I have for this game.”

As Jim points out, the Pirates have a rich history as a franchise and part of that history comes from its long relationship with McKechnie Field in Bradenton. McKechnie Field was originally built in 1923 as the centerpiece of Bradenton’s downtown district. Since 1969, the Pittsburgh Pirates have called McKechnie home and with its intimate design and old style bleachers it is still a favorite of many fans. The stadium is a true metropolitan stadium in that there is no on-site parking for the games and the grandstands nestle up to the main road leading through downtown; foul balls caroming off the hoods and windshields of passing traffic is a common occurrence. For those who enjoy ballpark food, McKechnie features some of the finest diamond delicacies of spring training. Beyond the standard stadium fare of hot dogs, popcorn and pretzels, this park also features polish sausage, turkey legs, subs, pizza, fruit smoothies and a beer counter serving some of Pennsylvania’s original brews like Yuengling, Rolling Rock, and Iron City Lager.

Although ballpark food might contribute to the obesity of today’s youth, it sure hasn’t hurt this state’s ability to churn out a considerable pool of talented of young players year after year. The state of Florida is responsible for superstars like Gary Scheffield, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek as well as future stars like Lastings Milledge, Casey Kotchman, and Boof Bonser. But why is Florida such a hotbed of young talent? To find out I sat down with Coach Tom Pluto, a baseball instructor with the nationally renowned IMG Baseball Academy in Bradenton. Tom has spent the past 41 years working in a variety of levels of youth baseball; from high school to college to a professional scout with the Indians and Athletics.

Great players come out of Florida for several reasons, “one obviously is the weather, you can get out pretty much any time of the year and train,” he says, “more importantly because this is a spring training state, you have so many professional baseball players, who ultimately after their careers are done come down here to live. As a result that experience filters down through the college and high schools all the way down through the youth leagues. Facilities are another aspect. It is very difficult to go anywhere in the state of Florida and not find really great baseball facilities.”

Places like the Baseball Academy might have something to do with it as well. Founded in 1973 by tennis guru Nick Bollittieri, the Baseball Academy is the baseball arm of a the 600-plus student program that incorporates academic studies with athletic training which has produced four first round draft picks in the past five years, most notably Pittsburg Pirate’s prospect John Van Benschoten. The Academy is also popular for major leaguers training in the off-season and boasts an all star list of players including: Jeter, Scheffield, Varitek, Vernon Wells, Nomar Garciaparra, Adam Dunn and Michael Cudyer.

Fourth Inning
“I grew up in baseball,” he begins as nostalgia already creeps into his voice, “I spent my youth coming to spring training, every February while it was cold rain and sleet in St. Louis, we would get in the car and go to spring training and spend the next six weeks in the Florida sunshine going to baseball games. That was my childhood. It was just a terrific way to grow up.” Although he now has grown children himself and grey hair has long since replaced the 12 year old’s crew cut, Dr. Rick Wilber still remembers what it was like to be a big leaguer’s kid. As the son of Del Wilber, the long-time coach and epitome of the journeyman catcher, Rick got to spend his adolescence the way most kids only dream about; shagging flyballs alongside Stan Musial and playing pepper with Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio. Although Rick’s own playing career was limited to college and adult city leagues, baseball still has played a central role in his career as a writer and journalist. As he explained, “baseball happens to be what I know and writers write about what they know so baseball tends to crop up a lot. Even though I write science fiction and fantasy, baseball tends to work its way into my stories pretty often.”

Having a ballplayer for a father wasn’t always easy for the current University of South Florida Journalism professor. His latest book My Fathers Game: Life, Death & Baseball, which is due out this summer, is a memoir that deals with the topic of what it is like to care for one’s father during his final days; especially one who had lived such a life of entitlement through the game of baseball. “I was dad’s caregiver the last year and a half of his life. I would see him every day and take him to the doctor and listen to those horrible phone calls. He was not a real happy guy that last year and a half.” A heavy sigh brings his voice a little deeper. “This book talks about what hard work it was to be his caregiver. He was struggling. He was slowly dying. His wife was slipping into Alzheimer’s. It was a really hard time for him and so it was for me. I sort of took the brunt of all his anger. But on the worst of days I would remind myself of the fabulous childhood we had growing up.”

Across town from the USF campus there is another sort of homage to the past. The construction of Legends Field in Tampa in 1996 marked the end of the traditional concrete block stadiums that exemplified Florida baseball to that point. Legends Field is characterized by its Yankee Stadium-like replication of arched facades along the upper bowl and its identical field dimensions to the House that Ruth Built in New York.  At over 10,000, it has the highest seating capacity of any Spring Training site in Florida and exhibition games frequently outdraw the regular season games of the homecrowd Devil Rays.

For any true baseball fan there are usually only two teams to root for; your team and whoever is playing the Yankees. The Yankees have garnered a reputation for ruining the sanctity of the game of baseball with their bloated payrolls brought on by free agent shopping sprees and their blatant disregard for the economics of the game. They are the team that everyone loves to hate and the only thing worse than the Yankees themselves are their fans. In an informal poll taken on each of the major league baseball’s official internet message boards, Yankee fans were rated as the worst fans in all of baseball (although it should be noted that the Red Sox and Mets weren’t far behind). This phenomenon needed to be observed further so I thought it would be fun to soil the hallowed grounds of the pinstriped by showing up in Boston Red Sox regalia just to see if New York fans really are as horrible as they have been labeled. I must be suicidal. I was wearing the uniform of the sworn enemy onto their turf.  It was like wearing Bloods colors straight into the Crypts hood.

Just as I expected, Yankee fans proved to be rude and obnoxious. From the moment I walked across the bridge connecting Legends Field with Raymond James Stadium, I was greeted with boos, evil glares and drunken middle fingers. Throughout the entire game I was barraged with sarcastic insults like “Hey buddy! The ladies bathroom is down the walkway” and my personal favorite was the profanity laced insult by a particularly chubby fan in a Yankee jersey “You think that’s funny? You think you’re funny? You’re a fucking asshole, dude.” Even the ushers here were jerks. One in particular asked to see my ticket stub every time I returned from the bathroom, even when my hands were filled with beer and hotdogs.

Fifth Inning
“Number 131, you’re up!” yelled a grizzled coach in a Tigers hat. It was my turn to try and achieve that childhood dream of being a big league ballplayer. Although the chances of that happening were approximately the same as a snowstorm blowing through the Sunshine State, I found myself on a pitcher’s mound in Lakeland at the Spring Tryouts for the Detroit Tigers. I wasn’t sure if it was a case of the butterflies or the Kobayashi impression I did at the Pirate’s game yesterday, but my stomach had the jitters. I guess that was why my first pitch sailed three feet over the catcher’s head, ricocheted off a pole and nearly drilled the handful of catchers waiting on the other end of the battery.  I’ll chalk that one up to being rusty and spending the last five years of my life in front of a computer screen.  After that the rest of my bullpen session in front of the coaches went well; I spotted my fastballs, my breaking balls were sharp, and thanks to a little extra wind my knuckleballs were dancing like a drunken mascot. I even got to shake hands with Todd Jones, current closer for the American League Champion Tigers, who had come over from the adjacent field to watch. At age 26, I wasn’t the oldest among the over 200 players trying out that day but I certainly was old by baseball standards.

The day started off with a drive out to Lakeland to one of Florida’s most historic stadiums, Joker Marchant, along with fellow UCF alumni, Phil Risi. After signing in, we were all greeted by Detroit’s Head of Player Development for a quick pep talk about how the odds were against anyone being signed after today and then were split into groups based on our positions. The players trying out ranged in age from 18 to 45 and came from numerous backgrounds. Most of them were sporting uniforms from obscure Division II or Junior Colleges who wanted to prove they could play at the next level. A few were players who had previous professional experience but due to injury or circumstance had to forego their previous career as a ball player. The last group consisted of foreign players from Latin America and Asia who never had a chance to play college in the United States. One Japanese player flew all the way from Tokyo just to try out. For all the players trying out today, the chance of getting a call back is slim. As one of the coaches told me afterward, “Last year we brought in three players from the tryouts… none of which broke camp with the organization at the end of Spring Training.”

No major league team has had a longer history with its spring training community than the Detroit Tigers and the city of Lakeland. With the exception of the years during the war, the Tigers have spent every spring since 1934 in this small agricultural town. First at Hendry Park and then Joker Marchant Stadium, named for the popular City Parks & Recreation Director, which was built in 1966. Marchant Stadium was the first of any Spring Training facility to offer berm seating, where fans could bring their own blankets to view a game from the graded lawn.

Sixth Inning
Baseball is a business. Sometimes that fact is easy to ignore here in Florida as we sit lazily in the stands sipping our beer and munching on peanuts but every now and then the darker side of baseball rears its head up over the advertising-covered outfield walls. The biggest story of the spring in Sarasota should have been ex-prospect and fallen idol Josh Hamilton. The former number one draft pick of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays is making a final push to fulfill his promising career which was tragically derailed by poor decisions and copious amounts of drugs. Instead the biggest story in Sarasota revolves around the drama taking place off the field, which, ironically revolves around a baseball field. The Cincinnati Reds Organization’s lease with the city of Sarasota and Ed Smith Stadium is set to expire after next year and after the team threatened to move their camp to Arizona, the Sarasota city commission agreed to build a new $54 million facility to keep the Reds and their minor league affiliate in Sarasota. This project is now in serious jeopardy because the city of Sarasota, in its haste to secure a $15 million grant from the state of Florida for tourist development, pushed the project though without a developer in place. Since last summer, the city and the team has looked desperately for a contractor to handle the construction, which would take place on what is now the Sarasota Fairgrounds and Robart’s Arena, that would be willing to take on the final $10 million dollar tab for the project. Unless a private developer steps forward in the next 45 days the entire project risks falling apart.
If the plans for a new stadium fall through and the Reds do decide to leave after next spring, it would be a tragic loss for the community.

 It was here in Sarasota where I grew up and made some of my fondest baseball memories. It was here that my father and I refined the art of playing catch in the backyard, it was on the nearby little league fields that I had my first taste of baseball glory, it was at Payne Park that I got to see my first major league baseball game. I still have vivid memories of that game, from the metallic clang of a Carlton Fisk homer as it bounced off the roof of a mobile home in the trailer park just beyond the outfield fence to the acrobatic diving stop by third baseman George Brett that fascinated me so much that I remain a Kansas City Royal fan to this day. Payne Park was a shining example of the downtown ballparks from baseball’s golden era. Built in 1924 and sandwiched between the old municipal buildings and adjacent to the county courthouse, Payne Park had been called home by the New York Giants, the Boston Red Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago White Sox. As I walked through the practice fields behind Ed Smith, the current spring training site in Sarasota, I found that I wasn’t the only one with these kinds of fond memories.

Joe Ayrault and Ryan Jackson have deep roots in the Sarasota area and it is only fitting that their baseball careers have brought them full circle back to their hometown of Sarasota as the manager and coach, respectively, for Cincinnati’s minor league affiliate the Sarasota Reds. Both Joe and Ryan explained that they were “little baseball rats” growing up in Sarasota before going on to professional careers. “It was awesome. I remember the days when I was a kid having all the baseball cards, getting autographs, hanging out, looking for broken bats,” says Ayrault, a former catcher from Sarasota High, “ I got to mix in as a batboy every once it a while. It was a blast.” Jackson, a Cardinal Mooney graduate who had stints in the big leagues with the Marlins, Mariners and Tigers, is thrilled that he now gets to share his experiences with younger players. “Its exciting to get the opportunity to send these young players over to the big league side,” he says with a grin, “I remember what it was like to rub shoulders with the big leaguers and its great to see them get to do that for their first time.” As Joe put it,” I love the game and now that we’re done playing, getting the chance to coach here in our hometown, I’m really looking forward to it.”

Seventh Inning  
The teams of spring training often form deep and intimate bonds with the communities that play host. The sleepy little beach community of Dunedin is a perfect example.  Just three miles north of Clearwater, this tiny town and its ballpark have a distinctly Canadian flavor. Knology Park, formerly Grant Field, was originally built in 1930 and named after the Mayor who championed its construction. In 1977, the expansion Toronto Blue Jays first arrived in Dunedin and would leave their mark on both the city and the stadium. The Canadian Anthem is sung before each game, concession stands feature Labatt Blue on tap and only recently did the stadium vendors stop accepting Canadian currency. The discussion among the fans in the bleachers can often be heard drifting away from baseball and onto the subject of hockey. I guess this is only natural since Dunedin has the highest ratio of Canadian-born residents than any other city in Florida.

Baseball has a way of keeping people young and it can even save your life; just ask 92 year old Virginia Bagnall. Virginia was the special guest on that day at Dunedin’s Knology Park and had the honor of throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the hometown Toronto Blue Jays. Afterward I had the pleasure of sitting down with her as she told me her story of how baseball once saved her life. While stationed in Iceland during World War II, Virginia became the victim of a German spy who had assumed her identity in order to infiltrate American forces. The spy looked like Virginia, talked like Virginia and even knew all about Virginia’s background and personal life. The imposter knew the answers to every question posed by American Intelligence agents until they asked both women about their favorite sport. Only Virginia, who had grown up as a “rabid Boston Red Sox fan,” knew the real answers. As resident of Dunedin for the past 48 years she continues to be a rabid baseball fan after all these years and during the summers she has been known to watch four or five games a day.

Those who want to discover a little bit of local flavor after the game should make the trip a few blocks down from the stadium to visit the Dunedin Brewery. “We go well with baseball because beer and baseball just go naturally together,” declares the brewery’s manager Travis Kruger. The brewery is one of only a handful of microbreweries in Florida and features eight different specialty beers that are produced year round with another five being brewed on a seasonal basis. The adjacent pub has become a favorite meeting spot for fans after the game with live music, beer cheese and pints of their delicious Beach Tail Brown Ale.

Eighth Inning
If Fenway Park is the capital of the Red Sox Nation, then Fort Myers has definitely become one of its commonwealth territories; think Puerto Rico, only it is populated with old people and baseball diamonds. “I bet you’ve never seen one of these before,” says Kristen Handy in her thick Massachusetts accent as she holds out her hand to show me the gold ring with the sapphire “B” on top. It was a 2004 World Series ring; one of only 45 that were made available to the public. “$3,500 and it was worth every penny.” That ring represents the Holy Grail for the Boston Red Sox fans, most of which had been waiting their entire lives just to see it. Kristen is one of a group of Massachusetts natives that were gathered around in the parking lot of City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. Every year this group of the Fenway faithful make the pilgrimage from Boston down to Florida to see their beloved Sox, some of them as long as 26 years. When asked about the appeal of spring training, Kristen, who is in her thirteenth year of spring training trips, told me “meeting the people and the seats are a lot closer to the ball field so you come closer to the ballplayers.”

If Grapefruit League games really are meaningless, you sure couldn’t tell here in Fort Myers. It may not have had the same atmosphere of playoff time at Fenway but tonight’s game between the hometown Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees definitely had the air of a game that mattered. The preseason games here are usually sold out the day they go on sale and what few tickets are released on game day are quickly scooped up by scalpers to be sold at up to ten times their face value.  Even though it was just for show, the police were waiting outside in their armored swat vehicle. Luckily, I was able to get into the game without paying 200 bucks when a nice family had a spare ticket and was willing to part with it for face value and a flaming 1979 Bucky Dent card.

Once inside I got to check out a view from the rightfield deck, affectionately known as the “white monster” because of the large number of retirees that can be found sitting along the rails during afternoon games. The deck is the latest addition to the park and with its bar stools and drink counters, it is designed to imitate the seating on top of the Green Monster in Boston. The rest of the stadium is packed, with rows of the Red Sox faithful spilling out into the “Standing Room Only” section of the concourse. As the sign inside the tunnel leading out from under the stands proclaimed, I was in the middle of the “Red Sox Nation.”

Ninth Inning
Across town at the Minnesota Twins complex, I was able to return to what spring training is all about: blue skies, a laid back crowd, and $5 drafts of premium beer. Out of all the stadiums that I have been to so far, no stadium has managed to capture the essence of spring training with its intimate setting, incredible access to the players and traditional amenities like Hammond Park. Before the game, fans can get up close and personal with the players as they walk among the fans while going between the practice fields that are located behind the main stadium. As one young signature seeker told me, “you can get all kinds of autographs back here,” as he brandishes his prized bounty of a Joe Mauer autograph, “its not like the Red Sox where maybe just a few of the players sign after batting practice.”

The intimate setting carries over into to the park as well. By the 2nd inning the beer ladies knew me by name and the ushers had started calling me “Cheap Seats.” The bullpens were set off the field with the concourses overlooking them. The sound of the catcher’s mitts just ten feet below me had the familiar smack of leather clad gunshots. The minimal foul territory enables fans to be right up close to the action. In fact they are almost too close as the bright yellow signs warning spectators to be aware of live bats and balls flying into the stands prove to be prophetic, as two different people had to be helped out by paramedics after being drilled by foul balls. I don’t mean to laugh but it is humorous when someone takes a shot to the face because they didn’t want to drop their beer.

“I’ve lived here my whole life so Florida is pretty much all I know. I plan on staying here the rest of my life.” Florida roots are hard to give up even if it means spending his summers in Minnesota. Jason Miller is the latest in a long legacy of left-handed pitchers to graduate from the perennial baseball powerhouse of Sarasota High; a legacy that most recently includes Bobby Seay, Doug Million and Matt Drews. When I asked about the tradition he is carrying on, he responded “its great seeing how many good players have come out of Sarasota one after the other. You think it’s gonna stop at some time but they just keep pumping out great players.” Jason is now in his second major league camp as a pitcher with the Minnesota Twins but if you were to ask him 10 years ago if he thought he would be in this position he probably would have doubted it. “I remember in little league all I could do was hit. I couldn’t pitch. I could throw, but I couldn’t throw strikes. I used to hit people all the time and I never knew where the ball was going. I never wanted to be a pitcher, all I wanted to do was hit. Now look at me, I can’t hit and all I can do is pitch. It has been quite a reversal.”

Although he is likely to start the season in AAA, Jason has enjoyed his time spent with the big league club. “Its unbelievable how fun it is out here and how good these guys treat you and how good you are treated up in here in the major leagues. Compared to the minor leagues it is night and day.” He’s optimistic that his time will come soon. “Just keep pulling for me and praying for me. I’ve been doing this the last seven years so just stay patient with me. I think this year will be a big year for me. I just got to keep doing what I’ve been doing and think I’ll get called up this year. Hopefully everything works out.” He knows there is a grand tradition to carry on and with its long history of baseball, all of Florida is on his side.

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