If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have noticed that I took a nice vacation in beautiful Fort Myers, Florida. It was an amazing trip, and I had a great time.
I was lucky enough to attend three Twins Spring Training games -- against the Yankee, the Blue Jays, and the Pirates.
And here's the lame part. I don't really have a scouting report for you. I didn't keep a scorebook. I'm not sure who pitched. I didn't even manage to get to the ballpark as early as I wanted to. I only accomplished to take a few crappy pictures with my phone.
But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy the baseball -- everything except that 10-run first inning by the Pirates on Thursday. I really enjoyed sitting in the Florida sun and visiting with other fans -- especially the retirees because they're all so happy.
The phrase of the games was "give me the book." As soon as the lineup started turning over to the rookies, I'd dig out Seth Stohs's MN Twins Prospect Handbook and look up the replacement guys. The fans around me wanted to borrow it and pretty soon, it was being passed around faster than a church basket.
Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took.
Sunday:
Hammond Stadium is beautiful on the outside.
The Twins take the field to face the Yankees. I think it's Nick Blackburn pitching, but I don't really remember.
The bullpen. I'm not really sure why the banner behind it is advertising MLB '11 The Show. MLB '12 The Show has been out for a couple of weeks now. Besides, the Twins should know that 2011 baseball season never really existed.*
*Delusional Twins fan talking.
A win over the Yankees! Whee!
Tuesday:
Nice seats for the Blue Jays game.
This is the "Richard Simmons Burger": a cheeseburger topped with a bratwurst, a chicken breast, and bacon. Probably could have fed the whole row. $10.50
TC being TC.
Francisco Liriano pitching.
Joe Mauer batting.
Thursday:
Tony O working with Danny Valencia in the cage.
It's hard to tell, but this is Alexi Casilla taking liners from the pitching machine.
A gaggle of pitchers waiting their turns to do their pitchers' fielding practice drills.
I don't think Gardy liked what he saw.
The kids couldn't get any Twins' autographs, but they did get Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates.
And with that, I didn't take any pictures of the game on Thursday. It's just as well; it wasn't really worth the pixels.
The baseball was fun, but I have to admit that I enjoyed this just as much:
I miss it already.
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