Dunedin 2010

Greetings from beautiful craptacular Clearwater, Florida. It's pretty cold here. I have once again trekked down to catch some baseball and sunshine... poverty edition.

My buddy and I took in the Jays opener vs the Tigers in Dunedin, plus the Phillies opener vs FSU in an enjoyable night game. Jordan Bastian sums up the game better than I, apparently not through beer goggles. What he didn't tell you is that Chad The Beer Guy lead the crowd with "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" for the seventh inning stretch.

Brian Dopirak takes a wave:



Bright House Field at night:



Dr. Phil:

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.

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?