The 2011 Tampa Spring Training trip is finally here! I write this post from my hotel room in Tampa, within walking distance from the Yankees Spring Training Complex. The sunburn is already starting to set in and I've already had a few awesome experiences.
The morning began very early (5am) with a bittersweet trip to the airport. Philly airport is pretty laughable. I think it took about 90 seconds for me to get from the sidewalk, through security, and to the gate. The guy in line in front of me getting a bagel this morning left his wallet on the counter and I tracked him down to tell him to go back and get it - hopefully a sign that karma will be on my side this trip!
Flight was great - exit row seats have their perks. Seems odd to me though...we took off 30 minutes late but still somehow landed about 10 minutes early. Grabbed a quick shuttle from the airport to the hotel (weird that I remembered the shuttle driver from last year? weirder that he remembered me too?). Checked in at the hotel and the shuttle guy, Mike, offered to drop me off at the complex...sweet.
Immediately went over to the side field just in time to see Jeter and Cano run by, soon to be followed by Arod, Tex, and many others. Batting/fielding practice was underway. I took the time to get to know the people around me - newly engaged couple to the left (I made sure to have them promise me if they got the baseball they were holding signed they would use a ball point pen and not a sharpie); grandma, mom, and kids to my right (the grandma was a Red Sox fan...but surprisingly not an obnoxious one!). We spend the afternoon yelling to the players as they walked by and talking about random stuff - the Yankees, the weather, restaurants around here, etc.
Yogi Berra was at camp today, too. Always good to see him getting shuttled around from field to field in a golf cart. Pretty incredible that he won 10 (10!!) World Series.
One thing I enjoyed about today was seeing some of the younger less well known guys. Soon after Jeter and Cano took the field, Jorge Posada came running on with another guy in uniform running next to him. Amidst the yells for Jorge (hip hip Jorge!), I made sure to get in a 'There we go Brandon Laird!' to which he turned right to me, gave me a thumbs up, and milked it for everything it was worth.
On the autograph front, nobody was really signing today...which was unexpected. Managed to get Brad Suttle (A Ball 3B prospect) on a card and that was about it. Went into Steinbrenner Field for a little after the side fields had ended and watched some of the younger kids practice bunting. As this was happening 'the line' formed. Anyone who has ever been down here to Steinbrenner Field knows about 'the line'. It's pretty much a line of people that begins right next to the Yankees dugout, goes up the stairs to the walkway and starts snaking around the stadium. Last year, I was there on a day when Reggie Jackson was at the end of the line signing autographs. Today I had no idea what the line would be for though. Needless to say, if you see a big line forming, you get in it. The guy behind even asked me what the line was for to which I told him I have no idea - but I told him my Reggie story. Turns out nobody was signing and the line was for nothing....sweet.
Started the walk back to the hotel and figured I'd stop at the Yankees lot exit and watch some of the players leave (I wasn't the only person there - don't think I'm crazy for doing this). Nick Swisher drives a nasty tricked out Camaro, Brett Gardner has a huuuuge SUV, Jeter has his red Corvette, Posada has a reddish (borderline pink?) Jeep type truck looking thing. The color really threw me off though. Finally, Curtis Granderson has a black SUV. How do I know this? Because he stopped his car while leaving the lot and signed some autographs for the few people who still remained there. Managed to get a ball signed and get a picture with him - he actually got out of his car and took pictures with us. Real chill dude and a class act. In reality, it only took about 2 minutes of his time, but it was very cool.
That about wraps up Day 1. No success getting the Mariano authentic jersey signed...hopefully tomorrow.
Weather for the next week in Tampa.
Getcha popcorn ready.
If you love baseball, I mean really love baseball, you need to go to spring training at some point. You may have heard this before, you may think "yeah, that might be cool", but I'm telling you right now - you need to.
I'll be leaving for Tampa on Wednesday morning for what I consider my 'yearly pilgrimage' to Yankees Spring Training. While this will only be my third time there and second in a row, this trip is something I can hopefully do until my hair is gray.
Imagine going to a high school baseball game. Imagine sitting on the grass watching the game, sitting in sun soaked bleachers, going for a better look and standing up against the fence 15 feet behind home plate. Now imagine the batter on the other side of that fence is Derek Jeter, the guy stopping grounders at third is Alex Rodriguez, and the player throwing warm up tosses along the 1st base foul line is Mariano Rivera. That is what spring training is like. At no other time during the year can you be so close to icons that you can usually only see on tv, or from far away if you're lucky enough to get to a game in person.
A fond memory is of last year, walking into Steinbrenner Stadium where the Yankees hold their spring training for the first time and walking right down to above the Yankees dugout on the first base line. Batting practice and fielding drills were going on. Jeter was at short taking grounders and throwing them across the diamond to who? Tino Martinez. Perched at second base observing everything was who? Yogi Berra, with Yankee skipper Joe Girardi next to him. Next to the batting cage giving a quick hitting lesson to some Yankees of the future was who? Mr. October, Reggie Jackson. The list goes on from there - Ron Guidry, Goose Gossage, David Wells, Graig Nettles, Mickey Rivers, and more. To a casual fan, this was a cool experience. To a huge fan of the current team and the team's history, this was a slice of heaven.
Looking around the spring training complex you don't just see other fans, you see friends. Like minded people who have the bug, just like you do. People crazy enough to stand around watching people throw a ball back and forth. People who have taken time off from work and planned a vacation solely around standing there watching guys throw a ball back and forth. There doesn't even need to be a spring training game going on - actually I think I prefer laid back nature of the practices even more than games. In the air is the smell of freshly cut grass and hope for a new season.
No matter what team you are a fan of, spring training is a time to celebrate. Your team is in first place. Enjoy it.
The Daytona 500 ended up being a great race. Jeff Gordon crashed out early and went on to finish 26th. Found myself rooting for Dale Jr. at the end (I used to hate him before he joined Hendrick), but he crashed out near the end too. The win went to 20 year old Trevor Bayne, which is pretty cool. Kind of crazy thinking about winning a race like that at 20 years old.
NBA All Star game is on right now. If anything, it's entertaining. These guys take it seriously for the first half or so then it just turns into a dunk contest at the end. Wonder what the total over/under was for the game. I feel like the scores of these things is always 152-144. In other news, AC Milan won today - they're pretty much dominating Serie A. Gattuso had an assist, which is rare because he's usually too busy beating dudes up to worry about scoring/passing. Also it was a pretty bad weekend for UConn. New goal is to finish 8th or better so they can at least get a first round bye in the Big East Tourney.
Watched Twelve tonight. Didn't really know what to expect. Knew it was released at 2010 Sundance, but not much more. Turned out to be a letdown, to say the least. After the first minute of the movie it was set up to have potential - drugs, sex, rich kids, violence, drama...been done before, but still capable of being decent. After watching the movie though, it's safe to say the best part of this flick was that it was narrated by Kiefer Sutherland....which makes me guess that probably 10% at least of the film's 5 mil budget went to him. Also 50 cent was in it playing, you guessed it, the drug dealer. Almost as bad type casting as when I was Doody in Grease. Anyway, I give the movie a 1.5/5...they're lucky they had Jack Bauer on their side.
Two days until Tampa for Yankees spring training. Will be posting a lot from down there with updates and pictures of me hanging out with all the players...ha.
Photo: Twelve movie poster; Credit: Gaumont, Radar Pictures
In what is turning out to be a NASCAR filled weekend, I wanted to write a post about Dale Earnhardt. I never liked Dale Earnhardt. Watching him growing up it seemed like he was a jerk and he was a bully. Hearing about him 10 years later, he was exactly that...but I've come to the realization that wasn't a bad thing.
For those of you who don't know, yesterday marked the 10 year anniversary of Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Earnhardt was in 3rd place trailing only behind his son in 2nd and his teammate in 1st. Rather than being aggressive on the track (as he always was) and trying to beat his son and his teammate, Earnhardt spent the last 10 laps of the race blocking everyone else from his position in 3rd to give them an opportunity to go for the win. Winning the race wasn't important to him, but being a part of the success of his teammates was, which should be commended.
I don't really have too many of those 'I remember where I was when ____ happened' moments. September 11th, 2001 is one - Mrs. Cohen's 2nd period English class. February 18, 2001, the day Earnhardt died, surprisingly is another one. I was with my family in the airport heading down to Florida for February vacation. I had watched the beginning of the race at home then we left to drive to JFK or LaGuardia for our flight. Upon arriving at the gate, the first thing I needed to do was find a tv to get the results (Gordon crashed and finished 30th). It's kind of weird that I remember that much detail about the day and the event.
In the years following Earnhardt's death NASCAR made drastic improvements to track and driver safety (evidenced by this crash in 2009 in which nobody was hurt).
You can say Earnhardt was a jerk and a bully, but that's just who he was on the track. If you're not trying to be the best at what you do, then you shouldn't be doing it at all. Earnhardt was the epitome of that. He was a competitor and losing wasn't an option, except if it was to his teammate and his son.
EDIT: You definitely need to watch that youtube video I linked above. After the crash you'll see that the driver of that Aflac car gets out of his vehicle (which is in flames) and runs down the front straightaway across the finish line so he can finish the Daytona 500. Pretty cool.
NASCAR is a very under-appreciated sport. People ask me why I watch NASCAR and I tell them it's like a shot of adrenaline for 3+ hours. Pretty intense. There's something about this type of competition, too. All the cars are pretty much the same. It's not like one driver can have more horsepower in his machine than another....they're all pretty much identical with the exception of engines and manufacturers. Because of that, it's me vs. you - let's see who can go faster. How can you not like that?
Anyway, today are the Gatorade Duels. These duels are used to determine starting positions for the Daytona 500 which is on Sunday. Jeff Gordon is already locked into the 2nd spot in the 500, though, because of his qualifying time. Hopefully he can put on a good show in this duel, though.
Finally, JG dropped DuPont for his new sponsor, the AARP. Seriously? I'm just waiting for him to add Just for Men on his quarter panel...
7:27pm - Just wanted to see if I could edit a post....and I can. JG finished 12th. Had some trouble on the re-starts and a caution with 5 to go didn't help. At least he avoided a wreck. Sunday should be fun.
Things are pretty good right now.
UConn beat Georgetown tonight, which is awesome. It'll be tough, but I think being one of the top 4 seeds in the Big East tournament is a pretty realistic expectation for the Huskies. Tough matchup this Friday @ Louisville - hopefully they can avenge their 1 point loss at home from earlier in the season. If Kemba, Jeremy Lamb, and Oriakhi fire on all cylinders during the NCAAs (which they're going to this year!), they could make some noise....just sayin.
Finished Love and Other Drugs tonight. Pretty good movie. Tale of two halves (much like a UConn game)....first half was funny and kind of like a porno. Second half was much more serious and possibly a little tear jerking. All around a good movie though with a pretty good message. I'll give it a 3.5/5.
Turned that movie off and had the great surprise to find The Shawshank Redemption on AMC. Apparently they're playing it over and over all week or something....makes me wonder how many times I'll watch it. Over/under is set at 2.5. It goes without saying, but this movie is absolutely a 5/5 and likely my favorite movie of all time. Best quote: "Get busy living, or get busy dying." Good advice, Red.
In closing, just want to give a shout out to Gennaro Gattuso - the most badass soccer player in history. Sucks that he's getting old. He already is done playing for the national team and I feel like he's got at most 2 more years with AC. Check the video out if you haven't seen it yet. The last time Gattuso got this much press was for taking off his shorts after Italy's World Cup win. Way to go, Rino.
T-6 day until Tampa.
So this is it. This is the blog.
I've been thinking about doing this for a while. Not really sure why. I think it's more for me than it is for 'you' (if there is a 'you').
What will I write about in this blog? A lot of stuff? Seems like so many times during the day I see something and I think to myself, "blog-worthy". Most of it's probably dumb stuff that just makes me laugh....but at least I'll have a place to put all that so I can come back and laugh whenever I want!
Other things I'll talk about will be two 'passions' (I guess you could say they're passions?) of mine....sports and movies.
Don't be too impressed by the title of this blog too ;) It kind of just came to me.
On your marc, get set, goooooo
Started the walk back to the hotel and figured I'd stop at the Yankees lot exit and watch some of the players leave (I wasn't the only person there - don't think I'm crazy for doing this). Nick Swisher drives a nasty tricked out Camaro, Brett Gardner has a huuuuge SUV, Jeter has his red Corvette, Posada has a reddish (borderline pink?) Jeep type truck looking thing. The color really threw me off though. Finally, Curtis Granderson has a black SUV. How do I know this? Because he stopped his car while leaving the lot and signed some autographs for the few people who still remained there. Managed to get a ball signed and get a picture with him - he actually got out of his car and took pictures with us. Real chill dude and a class act. In reality, it only took about 2 minutes of his time, but it was very cool.
