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Sunday, March 20, 2016

2016 SPRING TRAINING IN FORT MYERS, FL WITH TWINS AND RED SOX (WEEK 4)

2016 SPRING TRAINING IN FORT MYERS, FL WITH TWINS AND RED SOX (WEEK 4)

Our last week in Fort Myers and full of thing still to do. Finish our itinerary for our trip North. We have to hit the beach at least one more time to try and get a better timelapse of the sunset. Replace our house batteries in the RV. Squeeze in a few more minor league baseball games and practices.

RED SOX

The major league Red Sox had home games all week, so I'd only attended Twins practices this week. 

TWINS

With the MLB team on the road I attended 4 minor league and major leaguers who were left behind practices. I got 17 baseballs 5 2016 FL Spring Training, 4 MLB and 8 MiLB ball.  I was able to get 14 autographs and 5 bats.

Monday I was in baseball heaven, the Gulf Cost League Twins played Bethel University, While the Low A played A and AA played AAA on three field at once. I was like a dog chasing his tail, I was running back and forth between the three fields. After the games finished I took a trip around the development field and found 5 baseball in the pond along the field. After fishing them out, I laid them out in the sun to dry when I got back to the RV. After the balls dry out, I'll probably give them away at a practice. After getting home and logging the days totals in my database I have noticed that I reached a ballhawk milestone. The fifth ball I fished out of the pond was my career 150th baseball.  

Wednesday the AAA & AA team played the Orioles AAA & AA team. I got 4 ball during practice before they took a break for lunch. The two games started at noon. The Twins do not allow you to keep foul ball during these games. (Another reason why I like Goodyear, you can keep minor league games balls). I was watching both games and when a bat broke I would write down the players uniform number so I could try and chase them down after the game. I would have been satisfied to go home with the four baseballs and two autographs I got. But, adding three game used broken bats to the days total was icing on the cake.

Thursday it was the Low A and A team to stay home and play the games where they took on the Tampa Bay Rays Low A and A teams. Another good day, 4 more baseballs, superstar autographs of Joe Mauer and Paul Molitor along with a few minor and major leaguers. I counted three time a bat broke. When the games were over I saw the grounds crew asking the Twins players for their broken bats. So, I went to the Rays player and asked for his, where he handed it to me on the way to the team bus.

Friday and my last day of spring training (spending the last three days in Fort Myers with my wife... priorities). I got 4 baseball at practice (gave 2 a way) before the Red Sox AAA and AA drove over to play their games today. I  got 2 autographs after the game and one more broken bat.

All-in-all it was a solid spring, I give myself a grade of B+.With limited access to MLB players after spring training games started. The practice fields being blocked off to fan getting access to players, BP balls and can't keep minor league game foul balls. Having only a small number of minor league players baseball cards. I did get my first ever game used bat this spring (getting 6 bats this spring... mind blowing), But, all my other numbers are down from a year ago in Goodyear, AZ. Spring training in Fort Myers, FL was fun, but NO WHERE close to as much fun in Goodyear, AZ. 2017 spring training.... making my reservations at Leaf Verde in Buckeye, AZ. 


My 2016 Spring Training Total Haul

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Week total: 9 Games, 14 Autographs 17 Balls (2 give-a-way) 5 Bats 
Spring training total 13 Games, 66 Autographs 39 Balls (5 give-a-way) 6 Bats
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SOUTH FLORIDA

Tuesday was our maintenance day for the RV house batteries, with the appointment at 9:00 AM, Monday night we unhooked and put everything away so when we woke we just got dressed and left. We had to fight the city weekday traffic, but still made it to Camping World on time. A job that I think should have taken a max of an hour turned out to be over three hours. The control panel was still not working, but I remembered that I had to unhook our propane gas alarm because it would not stop going off when our house batteries died. When we returned to the RV park I hooked the alarm back up and the panel display was working. I was going to get my headlight fixed too, but that was an extra $145 just to look at it. I think it's just need to replace the bulb. Once I have the right tools to remove the headlight from the frame it should be only a few dollars to fix. Unless, I have to replace the whole light that will require me to order the part. Now with daylight saving I have an extra hour of daylight to drive, but when the sun starts to set I will be done driving for the day. I'll get the headlight fixed in OH, I think I know a few guys who could help me out?

We hit the beach one more time. We had our chairs, sat far away from others. I set the camera up on a sand bar in the middle of the bay.

Wouldn't you know once people saw me walking on water they too came out and stood right in front of my shots again. However, the view was still amazing.



We need to find a spot were no ones goes. Time for us to start do some wild camping!

With our last week in Fort Myers coming to a close only means one thing... winter is almost over and time for use to start heading North.

WHAT'S NEXT?
Florida's Big "O", State Capitol Buildings, State & National Parks and of course what's a trip without seeing a minor league baseball game (fingers crossed).

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