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Collecting autographs and watching baseball’s young stars at MLB Spring Training
It is the second week of March and I am off to Tampa, Fla. for some much-needed warm weather and plenty of baseball, a trip I look forward to every year.
Here are some of my observations from a few days roaming around Spring Training in the Tampa Bay area.
The first stop is in Bradenton to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates host the Atlanta Braves. The buses with the visiting team arrives almost an hour late. The flu bug has been going thru the Braves camp in North Port, so today’s line-up is a little short with regular starters.
Catcher Sean Murphy and outfielder Jared Kelenic are the only everyday players to make the trip up I-75. The rest of the lineup is loaded with mostly veteran players fighting to win a bench job. A lot of guys with high numbers, and even some with no names on their jerseys, are on hand this day. The Braves have even dispensed with batting practice, which is somewhat disappointing.
Some 30 minutes before the start of the game, manager Brian Snitker and bench coach Walt Weiss sit quietly by themselves in the dugout, going over their roster and piecing together a starting line-up and who they will be substituting as the game moves along. Hard-throwing right-hander Reynaldo Lopez, obtained in the offseason from the Chicago White Sox and battling for a spot in the rotation, is starting the game. It is to be an important outing for him.
The Pirates lineup, on the other hand, is loaded with most of their regular starters. It is 1-1 after five innings and Lopez has pitched well, giving up only a solo home run to the young Pirates star shortstop Oneil Cruz. At that point, most of the starters are swapped out for both teams, and Pittsburgh pulls away for a 5-1 win.
Players mingled with fans before and after the game, signing autographs and having their pictures made. Two young brothers, down on spring break from Pennsylvania and dressed in Pirates gear, are waiting by the fence to get bats signed by Cruz. They have ordered them straight from Louisville Slugger and they are still in their shipping boxes, especially for this occasion. It is the reason they are here, they tell me.
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Fans stop and bid on signed bats, balls and jerseys from the MLB Players Alumni Association in an auction in the stadium foyer.
By the way, for the record, the temperature at the start of the game hit 90 degrees. While many swelter, it feels great to me!
JOEY AND THE SNOWBIRDS
My next stop the next day is Dunedin, the spring home of the Toronto Blue Jays. A lot of fans with Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette jerseys roam around the park, and I even spot some fans sporting Montreal Expo jerseys as well. “Who else are we gonna pull for?” a Canadian fan tells me.
While in town, big news breaks. The Blue Jays have reached an agreement with free-agent outfielder Joey Votto to come to camp. Votto has spent his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds, where he has been one of baseball’s biggest stars and best hitters. Having just turned 40, he no longer fit into the Reds’ plans and was given his release at the end of last season. The beauty of the signing is that Votto is Canadian, grew up in the Toronto area, and still resides there. It is where he hopes to end his career, and so his journey to play his way onto their roster at some point in the season begins.
The Blue Jays hope he can provide veteran leadership to their group of talented young stars as they battle in the tough American League East. To say Canadian fans are excited is an understatement. They flock to Florida in February and March to escape the cold weather and see their team train.
Votto is not spotted at the stadium on this day, and I am told he is working out on the back fields, trying to get ready to play. By the following Monday, he makes his debut with the team and hits a home run in his first at-bat, a fairy tale start for him and the fans for sure.
A BASEBALL HOTBED
The hometown Tampa Bay Rays make news that week as well as they reveal an artist rendering of their new 30,000-seat covered stadium to be built in downtown St. Petersburg in the same vicinity of Tropicana Field (better known to fans as The Trop). Much wrangling has gone into which side of Tampa Bay to build the new stadium on, and St. Pete has won out. It should be a win for a fast-growing, young and vibrant community that needs a new ballpark.
Back across the bay in the Cuban neighborhood of Ybor City, I make a trip to the Tampa Bay Baseball Museum. It is in the boyhood home of Tampa baseball legend Al Lopez. He was the first major league player from the area, playing as a catcher from 1928-47. He then went on to manage three years in the minors and 15 seasons in the majors, and never had a team with a losing record. He won American League pennants with the 1954 Cleveland Indians and the 1959 Chicago White Sox, the only two years in the remarkable stretch from 1949-1964 that the New York Yankees were denied the flag. His teams lost both World Series, first to the New York Giants and then to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had the ninth-highest winning percentage for a manager in baseball history. In 1977, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Tampa has long been a hotbed for baseball, with its first professional team organized in 1878, and it continues to this day with the Rays and Tarpons, a Yankees minor league team. The Hall of Fame has a display with autographed baseballs from the 89 players from Tampa who have made it to the majors. Tony LaRussa, Fred McGriff, Lou Pinella, Steve Garvey, Doc Gooden, Gary Sheffield, Tino Martinez, Wade Boggs, Luis Gonzalez, and Howard Johnson are just some of the names of great players and managers that stood out.
On display are several vintage uniforms going back through the years. Of course, the Ybor City neighborhood is famously known for its cigar-making heritage. On display is a set of cards from the 1946 Tampa Smokers of the Class B Florida International League. The cards were made in Cuba and inserted into boxes of cigars sold in that area. Nineteen cards in total are shown.
Later that day, I had lunch at Hattricks, a great sports bar in downtown Tampa, just around the corner from Amalie Arena, where the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning play. They had a game that night with the New York Rangers and fans of both teams were already milling about in their respective team jerseys. The walls were covered with lots of memorabilia for the Rays, Bucs and Lightning. The food was great as well, and I was able to catch up on what was happening in the world of college basketball on the large-screen televisions.
SPRING BREAKOUT
The first of MLB’s Spring Breakout games featuring most of the top draft picks and prospects (71 of the top 100 on the MLB Pipeline) from the last two seasons kicked off that night in Bradenton, featuring the Pirates and Orioles. It is a new addition to Spring Training in Florida and Arizona, with 16 games being played over a four-day period.
The Pirates’ Paul Skenes faced off in the first inning against the Orioles’ Jackson Holliday, a match-up of the top picks in the MLB Draft the last two seasons. This time Skenes prevailed, striking out Holliday with three pitches topping over 100 mph, and a foul ball that broke his bat. There was an area set up for fans to obtain autographs from the young players as the evening went on and they came out of the game.
PLAY BALL!
On my final day, I am in Lakeland, home of the Detroit Tigers, to see them face off against the Braves. Early on, I run into former Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who is set to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame this summer. He gladly signs a ball for me and adds the “HOF ’24” inscription.
Things must be back to normal in the Braves camp as their lineup for this one feature several starters, including Ozzie Albies, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II. Harris is a big hit with fans as he spends a considerable amount of time posing for photos and signing autographs for just about anyone that wants one before the game.
This game features two of the top up-and-coming young pitchers in Atlanta’s AJ Smith-Shawver and Detroit’s Matt Manning. On this day Manning gets the edge as Smith-Shawver struggles and the Braves lose. He is now set to start the season at Triple-A, but that was not really an unexpected move.
After the game, the time has unfortunately come to head back to Tennessee. I hope to see you at a game somewhere this season. Major leagues, minor leagues, college wooden bat leagues, get out and watch them play.
Play ball!
— Barry Blair is an author/writer who makes his home in Jonesborough, Tenn. You can reach out to him at barryblair54@gmail.com or check out his website www.rightfieldpress.com.
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