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We left for Florida this morning shortly after 7am. The trip was uneventful. We arrived in Sarasota a little sooner than planned, and after a stop at Chili’s, we headed on over to Ed Smith Stadium for the Reds/Phillies game.

This stadium is one of my favorites. First, the stadium staff is courteous. Not all stadiums have courteous staff. I won’t say which team consistently has rude staff, but you may have an idea after I blog about our adventures at the Phillies’ park.

Second, player access at Ed Smith stadium is great. The Reds have to walk down the first base line to exit the field, and many of them will sign autographs or talk with you. Our experience is that the Reds are generally a very fan-friendly team (excluding current and former players whose last name rhymes with Griffey). The visitors can get to their clubhouse through the dugout, so autograph hunting of visiting teams at Ed Smith Stadium isn’t all that great.

Third, foul balls. We get to the games in time to watch batting practice, and we usually do pretty well getting batting practice balls at the Reds games. Tonight we got 3.  If you’re keeping score at home, it was Dad 2, Ron 1.

We sat on the first row on the first base side, about 20 yards behind first base. The view was amazing. Watching a MLB up close like that is something you don’t get to do often. Out of all the years we’ve been to Spring Training, I think this was only the 3rd time we managed to get front row seats.

The game was good. The Phillies beat up on Reds pitching pretty badly. Even the outs seemed to be hit really hard. There was a total of 4 shattered bats, which I think is about 3 more than I’ve ever seen in a game.

After the game I took a turn driving, and we found our hotel in Clearwater with almost no effort.  Oh yeah, we accidentally went to a strip club.  That was interesting.  Now that we’ve settled in the room for the night, we’re planning out tomorrow’s breakfast (Perkin’s), and we’ll be deep in sleep very soon.

Tomorrows games are Braves vs. Phillies here in Clearwater at 1:00, and then Nationals vs. Indians in Winter Haven at 7:00.  Then we’ll be staying in Lakeland, where we’ll see our beloved Yankees on Saturday.

Ok.  I’m going to bed now.  Pictures from today are here if you want to see them.