Spring Training 2024

Ten years ago, my daughter Eileen and I went to Spring Training to catch a couple Grapefruit League games in Florida.

This spring, Donna and I headed south to Sarasota to see the Orioles, who have returned to postseason relevance after a four-year rebuild that saw them lose 100 or more games for three straight years.

During the rebuild, under the direction of General Manager Mike Elias, they traded away their veteran players for prospects. In addition, those eye-poppingly bad seasons netted them high draft positions, and with a new focus on analytics and new approaches to drafting and player development, their farm system has been transformed into what is considered the best in all of baseball. Young players such as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, and Jordon Westburg already contributed to last season's remarkable 101-win season, and many more are on the cusp of joining, and hopefully impacting, the Major League team’s success. I wanted to see these young studs up close. But more than that, I wanted to share with Donna what I think is one of the great rites of spring.

What makes Spring Training so special? To be in shirt sleeves and shorts in February, for one thing. Stepping out of the airport after a 2-1/2-hour flight into a balmy Florida day, with a gentle breeze coming off the Gulf of Mexico and fronds of the scattered palm trees swishing, is a very good start. The people you meet – at the hotel, at the ballpark, in restaurants – all seem relaxed, friendly, and genuinely happy to be here. The pace is slower and less hectic, tensions and worries melt away, and a euphoria envelops you. War? Political polarization? Environmental doom? Not today, thank you – we’re at Spring Training!

Donna and I found our rental car and arrived at our hotel, about 15 minutes away, around noon. Our room wasn’t ready, so we stored our luggage and, on the desk manager’s recommendation, headed to Marina Jack for lunch.

The restaurant is at the edge of a swanky marina in Sarasota Bay. Our outside table gave us an unobstructed view of the bay and the multi-million-dollar yachts moored alongside. The food was good and the beer – a beer at lunch on a warm sunny day on the water is decadent and wonderful – was cold. We were off to a very good start, and our little vacation only got better.

After lunch we checked into our room at a hotel near the Ed Smith Stadium. The hotel and its rooms are in need of renovation, but it served our purposes and is in a good location. Coincidentally, it is situated at the edge of Pinecraft, a neighborhood of about 500 Mennonites. We saw many of them plying the sidewalks on tricycles or bicycles, substitutes for the horse-drawn carts used up north (they disavow driving and motorization, although we noted that their use of motorized cycles is common). You can read more about the Mennonites in Sarasota here.

We settled in, unpacked, and drove to Lido Beach, about 20 minutes from the hotel. The beach, somewhat secluded, is an easy walk from St. Armand’s Circle, an area of bars, restaurants, boutiques and other shops. We parked between the beach and the circle with hopes of watching the sunset, but late-day clouds prevented it. We stopped at an outdoor bar for a drink, then found Columbia Restaurant, where we had reservations, and enjoyed a wonderful Spanish dinner al fresco.

Note: As different as are Sarasota and Ireland, our home-away-from-home, they share two qualities: leisurely service in restaurants, and roundabouts, those chaotic intersections without traffic lights. At least in Florida we drive on the right and navigate the roundabouts in an intuitive, counter-clockwise direction.

The next day we had tickets for the Orioles game at 1:05 pm vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates. After breakfast and an hour of reading by the hotel pool, we put on our team colors, drove to the stadium (less than 10 minutes away), and walked in. The laid-back atmosphere was stunning. Contrary to warnings about strict limits for bag dimensions and other restrictions, there was almost no security. There were guys from a charity grilling hot dogs and burgers. There were numerous areas with picnic tables, and people were happy to share a table when there weren’t free ones. The stadium staff were almost all volunteers, and almost all retirees. They were happy to chat with you, give you tips for getting autographs, tell you about their life. And as I mentioned, everyone just seemed very happy to be there – even, I think, the players. The weather gods were with us, as we enjoyed a sunny, comfortably warm afternoon.

Our seats were seven rows behind home plate, so we could see the players at very close range. Most of them are just beasts – there’s not a lot of body fat, and they are big. When you are that close to home plate, you can get an appreciation for the batters’  ability to pick up a pitch type, determine its location, and put bat to ball – all in a fraction of a second. It’s impressive.

It was a special game because four number one overall draft picks were starting: Rutschman (2019), Pittsburgh’s Henry Davis (2021), Baltimore’s Jackson Holliday (2022), and Pittsburgh’s starting pitcher, Paul Skenes (2023). 2020’s second overall pick, Heston Kjerstad, also started for Baltimore.

Sure, Spring Training games are meaningless, but the Orioles came back from three runs down in the bottom of the ninth to win 9-8 in an exciting finish. We went back to St. Armand’s Circle for dinner, stopping first at a souvenir shop to buy cheap beach chairs that we threw into the trunk.

The next day we had nothing scheduled. We decided to try out Siesta Key Beach, a little south of Lido Beach. It’s a totally different vibe – a massive beach filled with thousands of sunbathers, acres of free parking, snack shops, beer trucks and beach gear rental stands in between the parking lot and the beach. It felt more like Rehoboth Beach in Delaware while Lido Beach was almost like a private beach. Again, the sun was out – never a certainty in temperamental Florida – and we stayed for more than three hours.

We were back at our room for Donna’s weekly family Zoom call, a tradition that dates back more than three years. Then we headed for Owen’s Fish Camp, a restaurant in a different part of town that is highly rated in restaurant review sites and by readers of my go-to Orioles blog, School of Roch (if you’re an Orioles fan, you really should read it). Unfortunately, we weren’t the only ones who had the idea; there was a two-hour wait. We moved on, with the thought of going back to Marina Jack. That place was a zoo too, so after originally deciding to go someplace other than St. Armand’s Circle, back we went, and after a bit of a wait, had a very good meal at Greek restaurant Blu Kouzina.

The next day we had tickets for the Orioles – Yankees game. Sensing that it would be a sellout (it was), we got there early. Our seats were in the second row along the first-base line, almost as far out as the right fielder – the best seats I was able to get back in December. It worked out well, however, as it was where several players, including Holliday and young phenom Gunnar Henderson, signed autographs. It also was where players walked onto the field, and adjacent to the Orioles’ bullpen. In the seats directly in front of us was the family of another highly rated prospect, Coby Mayo, a corner infielder. He came over and spoke to his mom and grandmother, who took selfies with him. Current O’s owner John Angelos, soon-to-be owner David Rubenstein, and GM Elias were at the game.

We split time between our seats and the area behind left field, where Eileen and I had standing-room only tickets a decade ago. It was a happy, playful atmosphere.

After the game, we again went to St. Armand’s Circle, and had a final, special dinner at Café L’Europe before our return home the next day. The next morning the skies darkened, and it was raining as we drove to the airport, a perfect ending to our wonderful Spring Training getaway.