FLORIDA WEEK 4: 23 HOUR DAY & TWINS SPRING TRAINING GAME

We advanced the clocks one hour to conform with daylight savings time. The wife woke up around 7:00 and the sun has not risen yet. I felt I would be in for a long day, but the time went by fast as we went to the Twins vs Pirates spring training game. We arrive at the gate around 11:00 am. We ate our lunch while watching the last 30 minutes of minor league practice. With about 1 1/2 hours before first pitch we then, entered Hammond Stadium to see that the Pirates were holding BP and fielding drills. We had lawn seats, so it was first come, first serve for a good spot. We got down to the wall about middle lawn. We were close to the field and nobody in our viewing area. We laid down and stretched our legs, better than regular seat were we would be confined to our small space. Myself, along with some other fans was calling Andrew McCutchen name to try and get an autograph, but he never came over. 

My first game of the new season and I finally felt peace after a long winter. The smell of fresh cut grass, the sounds of the ball coming off the bat or hitting the glove, a base runner going first to third, the artistic of pitcher and batter playing a game of cat and mouse... who will win?

I usually root for the home team, unless the home team is playing the Indians. However, in this case, I had to root for the visitors. The Twins are without their two super stars who are playing in the World Baseball Classic Joe Mauer (USA) ant Justin Morneau (Canada) while the Pirates had a split squid. I still felt the Bucs had a better chance of winning. Andrew McCuthen had a no doubter two run Home Run in the third over the left field wall. That HR put the Bucs up, but the lead did not last long . In the fifth with one run already in a bases loaded strike out pass ball that scored a runner from third tied the score. In the seventh, with most of the starters out of the game the bench players came in and picked up were the starters left off by scoring three runs and securing the win for the Bucs.  I tried to find ever little detail in the game .... baseball is back. I LOVE THIS GAME!

                                             What a view, walking to the stadium from our car.

Waterfall in front of stadium

Our view of the game from the lawn seat

Pirates BP

Andrew McCutchen pregame workout... 
This is when we call his name for an autograph

Between innings lying down soaking in the sunshine