Opening Day, and Bratinée Games

Yup, that's my Bulletin Board of Happiness. I'm going to the games on the 6th and 9th. Because I work mostly evenings and weekends, Opening Night is probably the only weekday night game I'll be going to.

Here's something obscure and trivial that rotation candidates Scott Richmond and Ricky Romero may end up having in common: it could be that they will have both seen their ML debuts on Annoying Kiddy Afternoon Games.

If Romero is the number four guy, he'd be throwing on Thursday April 9th. That's an afternoon Bratinée, complete with Teletoon school thingies being handed out to the little crotch products. Scott Richmond, likewise, saw his debut on camp brat day, July 30 '08. I was at that game, after lying like a rug tactically removing myself from work that day.

I was in luck - the kids around me were older teens from a martial arts camp who were genuinely into the game. Overall, the kids were a good, loud crowd. I'll at least give them credit for that. And at least there was no line up for beer. As long as I can blast the Fan 590 into my ears, I'm a happy camper. (Ha - see what I did there?)

Reds Successfully Accomplish Time Travel To Score Additional Run Vs Jays

A Few Amusing Mugshots

Last month, The Sports Hernia blog did a funny post about bad mug shots coming from spring training. The photos are gone now, unfortunately. Note to self: don't hot link Getty Images.

The Jays were a pretty spiffy bunch on photo day this year. There's not too much to laugh at, but in the spring training program, they used some slighty crappier shots in place of the ones that are currently being used on MLB.com. There are a couple I can't pass up.

Apparently, this is Jesse Carlson, though it's hard to tell without his standard goofy grin.



Remember how on school photo day when you were a kid, your mom would get you all prettied up in your best clothes, and wipe your face with a Kleenex and her saliva? Everyone looked nice, but there was always that one dumpy kid who looked especially dumpy on picture day and ruined the class photo? That kid was probably once Joe Inglett.



Don't shave 'er nothin'.

Travis Snider, despite being such a good looking kid, is one of those unfortunate individuals who just can't seem to take a good posed photo to save his life. It's a slight improvement over last year, but he still looks like he's going to jail.



This picture inexplicably made its way into our plane of reality from a parallel universe in which Aaron Hill did not recover from last year's concussion, and remains in a persistent vegetative state:



...and the hands-down winner of the funniest mugshot award? Adam Lind.

I can't even come up with a witty comment for this one.

A Haiku For Joe Inglett

Oh, Joe. You're so hosed.
Better grab your voodoo dolls.
Pack for Sin City.

Hmm...

I'm not sure why the little ginger kid on the left reminds me of Jesse Litsch... OH WAIT. I remember.

The Bubblegum Buckets

...as carried by the bat boy.

Word Verification Fail

This Blog Is About To Get A Whole Lot Worse.

It's bad enough that they just opened a Shoeless Joe's right next to my nearby grocery store. Now, I'm reading an ad announcing that they have free WiFi. Coincidentally, I just bought a teensy-weensy Acer Aspire One.

Out

Awesome photo by Steve Nesius/Reuters.

I L U 3.

Rogers Centre, Mar 7 '09



The third guy had a Richmond jersey, too, but the Femmullet got in my way.

How I Did Spring Training Super Cheap

Inspired by a comment left for Ian. I am a cheap B-word. I figured I'd make a post about how I got to spring training and back super-cheap.

• Check out the spring training schedule as soon as it comes out. Assuming you just want to go for four nights, pick out three games that sound do-able. The Jays do three-game spring training flex packs. I highly recommend the best seats, because you'll never get to sit right behind the plate at the Rogers Centre for twenty bucks. I got seats five rows behind the plate, and they would have been better if I didn't want an aisle seat. (Damn girl bladder.) Don't order them until you find a good flight/hotel package for those dates.
  
  
• I'd recommend going for weekdays, since kids are still in school. Weekends are probably more crowded.
  
  
• Go to travel.yahoo.com - not .ca. I laboured away on a crapload of the usual travel websites, and I found yahoo to have the best deals by far. YMMV.
  
  
• Air Canada had $99 seats direct out of Toronto to and from Tampa, and that's what I went for.
  
  
• Use Google Maps with street view to see what's close to your hotel.
  
  
• Be willing to stay somewhere a little farther away from the ballpark. You'll pay out the nose if you insist on staying in Dunedin. I was in the less-attractive part of Clearwater along US 19, but it was clean and safe. I would not hesitate to stay there again. There are a ton of hotels along that strip and I'd bet most of them are a safe bet. Bonus: consider catching the Jays at Bright House Field against the Phillies. That's what I'd like to do next time. Walking distance.
  
  
• My ridiculously-cheap hotel had free breakfast, a fridge and microwave in the room; plus a 24-hour Walmart and Wendy's very close by. So I saved quite a few bucks on meals.
  
  
• I don't drive, so I had no choice, but consider getting a city bus pass and the SuperShuttle to and from the airport instead of renting a car. The PSTA ain't exactly the TTC, but it was adequate. You can get $4 day passes or $20 for a whole week. Supershuttle fare is about $50 round trip.
  
  
• Travel light and take the TTC to the airport. There's an express bus to and from Pearson out of the Kipling station about every 20 minutes.
  

Short, Sweet and To-The-Point: My Recent Trip To Spring Training in 12 Random Factoids.

• The area really DOES consist primarily of old people.
  
• Average attendance for the three games I was at was around 2200.
  
• I was five rows above the plate. It was mind-blowing to be that close.
  
• You could hear a pin drop in the stadium sometimes.
  
• The netting was screwing up my pictures because the camera was auto-focusing on it, making everything on the other side blurry. I snuck down to the front to take a few pictures with the lens poking through the netting. A fave:
  
  
  When I get a break from work, I'll open a new photobucket account and upload the rest.
  
• American Diet Pepsi is gross.
  
• The sunshine was nice, but the cold winds in the evening sucked, especially on sunburned skin.
  
• I got a few autographs, and I managed to not be a dorkwad. Uh, except the incident in which a baby Jay I later discovered to be Scott Campbell had to hand me the sharpie I dropped on the other side of the fence, but I didn't recognize him. *facepalm* I thought it would have been dorkier to have to ask him who he was, so I kept my mouth shut.
  
• The beer at Dunedin Brewery is to die for.
  
• Trying to use the 5-digit phone numbers for Facebook and Twitter was a complete pile of fail.
  
• I loved Clearwater and could totally live there ...for one month of the year.
  
• The cheeseburgers barbecued at the stadium are the best I've had in ages. Nom.

-.-

JESUS

WEPT.

WBC, Part I

This is seriously one of the best ball games I've ever been to. A crowd of 42,000; and everyone was into it. Canada lost 6-5, but damn, The Hosers put on a good show. I can't wait for Monday night.

The crowd:

I'm not sure who these little rugrats belong to, but the little guy with his hands on the railing kept yelling, "Dad. Daaaaaaaad. DAAAAAAAAAAAD. DAAAAAAAD! Everyone was cracking up.

OHSHIT.

Who am I cheering for?