Spring Training Final Day

Today was the final day of Spring Training. We went to the game with our neighbors, George and Lois. Their son is the head trainer for Pittsburgh, and the Pirates organization provided us front row seats behind the home team dugout.

This hasn't been the best Spring Training for the Pirates, who call McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida their home away from home. The weather this year has been unusually cold, and so have been the Pirate bats. We had low expectations, but today, the sun came out following overnight rain, and the temperature was pushing 70. Still, we took a windbreaker for whenever the sun retreated behind the clouds. Settled in with George & Lois (wearing all their proper black & gold logo gear), we peered over the dugout wall and waited to see who showed up. We were to become more, much more, than pleasantly surprised, as were most of the other 3,496 paid attendees.

The Pittsburgh bats were pushing 110 degrees, they were that hot. I'm not sure who those guys were in the Houston Astro uniforms, but their pitching served up 13 runs, including 4 (maybe 5 - there was a lot of noise while I was out buying nachos) homers. The home team scored in 6 of 8 innings - they didn't need a ninth, but with all the fireworks the game lasted long anyway.

The Astros managed one run on six hits and four errors - they couldn't even field straight, let alone score. Pirates did much better, with 13 runs on 15 hits and they were hitting everything. Pittsburgh had a ten run lead going into the fourth, and therefore we got to see many, many players. And, really, that's what Spring Training is supposed to be about - seeing not only the team of the present, but the players of the future.

Spring training includes veteran players, guys from single, double and triple A affiliate teams and
"invitees" - those are the guys without names on their uniforms. At the beginning of Spring Training, the player parking lot is full of cars, but each week it develops additional empty spaces. I learned that baseball players are paid on a weekly basis. Perform, and you'll have another paycheck next week - don't measure up, and your parking space opens up next.

We should have a similar pay situation for politicians, maybe their batting averages would improve.