2016 SPRING TRAINING IN FORT MYERS, FL WITH TWINS AND RED SOX (WEEK 2)
Week 2 started off fast where I attended my first baseball games of the year. My gem of the week (probably all season) my first ever game used bat. Twins and Red Sox have home games opposite of each other. When the MLB team is on the road I will attend that teams practices. There is some needed maintenance for the RV before we hit the road. I played around with my cameras and editing software to practice my skills and made an YouTube videos.
RED SOX
I attended my first official baseball games of the 2016 season. It was a double header exhibition with Red Sox taking on Boston College and then Northeastern University. With the games not being an official game I had no idea what Red Sox players was going to play so I did not even bring my baseball cards to try and get autographed. I put my energy into getting baseballs. During BP I was in the outfield lawn seat area and I got four baseball thrown to me. The games were pretty lopsided as the Red Sox won both games that only went 7 inning each. The college players had a disadvantage and had to use wooden bat for this game while they use aluminum bats all year in college games.
With the MLB team on the road I attended one minor league and major leaguers who were left behind practices. It turned out to be a wast of time. Only the major league pitchers had infield practice and walked past the 50 or so fans without signing for anyone. To make things even worse, there was no minor league practice this day.
TWINS
Last practice before the Twins start their spring training schedule was live batting BP. Lot of the pitchers holding live BP while the star position players took BP in the cage. Most of the pitchers today I had baseball cards of them so I was waiting for them to finish their workout.
No matter where you are when a bat brakes, when you hear that sound you have to turn your head and take a look. The barrel of the bat was fling down the first base line and the knob was still in Alex Swim hand. Alex, a minor league catcher who is in camp to help the pitching staff, broke his bat during live BP. I asked for his bat and he said after practice. I had to wait over an hour, but worth it to add my first game used autographed bat to my collection. The bat is sticky with pin tar caked up and down the bat. Because the bat broke in two, I was able to stick it in a 12 pack soda can box to keep the pin tar off everything else. I guess I can put the bat in a trash bag when I put it away when driving. I had to look Alex up when I got home. He's starting his four year in pro ball, never been pass advance A ball, no power numbers, but hits for average with a .307 lifetime batting average. Who knows what his career will become.
With the MLB team on the road I attended 2 minor league and major leaguers who were left behind practices. I got 4 baseballs 2 2016 FL Spring Training, 2 MLB ball and gave one away. I found the player development field and walk around to see if I could find any balls just laying around. One was floating in the pond behind the field, I grabbed it and brought it home to dry out in the sun. I would have given this one away too, if it was not the 2016 FL Spring Training balls. I had the ball sitting in the sun for 3 days before it dried out. I was able to get 9 autographs. Twin alumni Rod Carew was at one of the practices. I was able to get a picture but sadly, he was not signing.
SOUTH FLORIDA
Had some issues with the RV that I had to look into. First, I lost the lights on the display panel and noticed that the house battery is dead. I have to replace not just the house battery, but the auxiliary battery too. From what I have read and heard from others is that I will need to replace both batteries at the same time, so that both batteries are working together and one is not working harder than the other. Second, the right headlight is burned out. The headlight is mounted to the frame with no screws from the outside. I probably could do the replacements myself, but get it done right the first time. I'll ask if I can watch so I can do it myself the next time it happens. Made an appointment with Camping World to get the work done before we take off.
With so many beaches in the Fort Myers area we went to one to view the sunset. Next time we will bring our lawn chairs, we had sand everywhere when we got back home.
I tried to do timelapse photography with my GoPro, I was off to the side, but with the wide shots I picked up everyone walking. I took over 900 pictures but had to delete 150 or so with the people blocking the shot. After I finished my editing and zoom in, I ended up with 742 pictures to make a 24 second video. How does it look? VIDEO HERE Personally, I think the picture above turned out better than the timelapse. I wanted to shoot until the black of night, but the battery in the GoPro died. We have a few more weeks in Florida so I'm sure we'll find our way back out to the beach for another sunset.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Fort Myers, FL spring training week 3.
RED SOX
I attended my first official baseball games of the 2016 season. It was a double header exhibition with Red Sox taking on Boston College and then Northeastern University. With the games not being an official game I had no idea what Red Sox players was going to play so I did not even bring my baseball cards to try and get autographed. I put my energy into getting baseballs. During BP I was in the outfield lawn seat area and I got four baseball thrown to me. The games were pretty lopsided as the Red Sox won both games that only went 7 inning each. The college players had a disadvantage and had to use wooden bat for this game while they use aluminum bats all year in college games.
With the MLB team on the road I attended one minor league and major leaguers who were left behind practices. It turned out to be a wast of time. Only the major league pitchers had infield practice and walked past the 50 or so fans without signing for anyone. To make things even worse, there was no minor league practice this day.
TWINS
Last practice before the Twins start their spring training schedule was live batting BP. Lot of the pitchers holding live BP while the star position players took BP in the cage. Most of the pitchers today I had baseball cards of them so I was waiting for them to finish their workout.
No matter where you are when a bat brakes, when you hear that sound you have to turn your head and take a look. The barrel of the bat was fling down the first base line and the knob was still in Alex Swim hand. Alex, a minor league catcher who is in camp to help the pitching staff, broke his bat during live BP. I asked for his bat and he said after practice. I had to wait over an hour, but worth it to add my first game used autographed bat to my collection. The bat is sticky with pin tar caked up and down the bat. Because the bat broke in two, I was able to stick it in a 12 pack soda can box to keep the pin tar off everything else. I guess I can put the bat in a trash bag when I put it away when driving. I had to look Alex up when I got home. He's starting his four year in pro ball, never been pass advance A ball, no power numbers, but hits for average with a .307 lifetime batting average. Who knows what his career will become.
With the MLB team on the road I attended 2 minor league and major leaguers who were left behind practices. I got 4 baseballs 2 2016 FL Spring Training, 2 MLB ball and gave one away. I found the player development field and walk around to see if I could find any balls just laying around. One was floating in the pond behind the field, I grabbed it and brought it home to dry out in the sun. I would have given this one away too, if it was not the 2016 FL Spring Training balls. I had the ball sitting in the sun for 3 days before it dried out. I was able to get 9 autographs. Twin alumni Rod Carew was at one of the practices. I was able to get a picture but sadly, he was not signing.
Rod Carew
Twins balls and autographs
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Week total: 2 Games, 16 Autographs 8 Balls (1 give-a-way) 1 Bat
Spring training total: 2 Games, 40 Autographs 13 Balls (2 give-a-way) 1 Bat
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SOUTH FLORIDA
Had some issues with the RV that I had to look into. First, I lost the lights on the display panel and noticed that the house battery is dead. I have to replace not just the house battery, but the auxiliary battery too. From what I have read and heard from others is that I will need to replace both batteries at the same time, so that both batteries are working together and one is not working harder than the other. Second, the right headlight is burned out. The headlight is mounted to the frame with no screws from the outside. I probably could do the replacements myself, but get it done right the first time. I'll ask if I can watch so I can do it myself the next time it happens. Made an appointment with Camping World to get the work done before we take off.
With so many beaches in the Fort Myers area we went to one to view the sunset. Next time we will bring our lawn chairs, we had sand everywhere when we got back home.
I tried to do timelapse photography with my GoPro, I was off to the side, but with the wide shots I picked up everyone walking. I took over 900 pictures but had to delete 150 or so with the people blocking the shot. After I finished my editing and zoom in, I ended up with 742 pictures to make a 24 second video. How does it look? VIDEO HERE Personally, I think the picture above turned out better than the timelapse. I wanted to shoot until the black of night, but the battery in the GoPro died. We have a few more weeks in Florida so I'm sure we'll find our way back out to the beach for another sunset.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Fort Myers, FL spring training week 3.
