Red Sox Spring Training, February 28, 2011

Part of Florida trip 2011

Regular readers of these essays will have noticed that we are baseball fans. Wherever we go, whatever the level, if there's professional baseball to be had, we make an effort to go see it. Neither of us had ever been to a Spring Training game before, so when we looked at the Red Sox schedule and saw that they would be at home in Fort Myers on February 28, we jumped at the chance, reworking our schedule to make it possible. Normally, I don't bring my camera to the ballpark, but since it was the Red Sox, and we had excellent seats—much better than $26 buys in Fenway Park, let me tell you!—and I'd never seen a Spring Training game before, I decided to make an exception. (Unfortunately, I hadn't managed to copy off my flash even six days into the trip, so I ran out of memory and had to delete some game photos to leave room.) It was a cross-town Spring Training rivalry, as the Minnesota Twins also make their pre-season home in Fort Myers.

The starting pitcher was Daisuke Matsuzaka, being caught by Jason Varitek. Matsuzaka was relieved by Tim Wakefield (who, at 44, is still only the second-oldest active pitcher in Major League Baseball). It was Carl Crawford's first appearance in a Red Sox uniform, and most of the Sox' anticipated opening-day starters appeared in this game—not so for the Twins. Even so, the Sox trailed the entire game before finally scoring the tying and winning runs in the seventh inning. The Sox won 7-6.

We found out at the game that the Sox are looking to leave City of Palms Park in favor of a new stadium near their training facility.