Hello all!
After a long, hard 5 months or so without baseball I started counting down the days until camp started, and I had a little internal celebration when pitchers and catchers reported, even though it's glorified pitch and catch, hey, it means baseball is coming again. So, you can imagine that I was pretty excited when Spring Training started. I've been to Roger Dean Stadium more times than I can count, (I wrote up one trip here) so I wanted to branch out. So, I went to a Marlins vs. Nationals game at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, FL. (As an aside on that link, I can't decide if "fear the sea cow" is the best or worst team slogan I've ever heard. I'm leaning towards worst.)
If you've never heard of Viera, FL, don't worry, no one else has either. It's a small planned community just north of Melbourne and south of Cape Canaveral. It was about a 2 hour drive for me, which is part of the reason that the Cactus League in Arizona is flourishing and the Grapefruit League is withering. The Nationals may move out of here soon, because of drive time due to the fact that this is one of the few Spring Training sites still going here on the east coast of Florida. So, all the better to catch it before it's gone.
The stadium is easy to get to, looks really nice, and the experience is everything you could ask for from Spring Training, from the ushers, to the seats, to the people. (The food is your average stuff, I tried the hot dog when I probably should have gone for the bacon cheeseburger.)
I had quite a nice moment during the anthem, this girl who couldn't have been any older than like 8 or 9 went up and totally belted it out. I stood there thinking, as you could feel the electricity build...yeah, this is what it's all about. This is why I love baseball, because there's always another chance. Had a bad year last year? That's ok, in the Spring you start 0-0, and you get another chance. I thought to myself, this is what's good in the world, right here, and I think I wasn't the only one, judging by the thunderous applause that erupted at the end of the song.
"If you woke up breathing, Congratulations! You have another chance."
— Andrea Boydston
— Andrea Boydston
