Spring Training

I went to Tampa for spring training. Guess who was on my flight from Newark? The Yankee radio broadcasters, John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman, sitting in first class. Nobody recognized them except after I mentioned it. I was looking forward to catching them at baggage claim to say hello, but luck would have it I was one of the last off the plane and the monorail I was on from the gate to baggage got stuck for about 5-10 minutes. By the time I got down to baggage claim the bags were out and they were gone. For those of you not familiar with the Tampa airport, the bags get loaded quickly from the airplane and often beat you to baggage claim. Not like Newark.

I attended two games while I was in Tampa. The home opener against the Rays and the second home game against the Twins. During the game against the Rays half of the stadium was filled with Rays fans. Bernie Williams threw out the first pitch and all of the guest instructors were introduced before the game started. When A-Rod came up to hit he got booed by the Rays fans, but received an ovation from the Yankee fans. Mark Teixeira seemed to have already won over a bunch of Yankee fans, he would constantly be cheered through out the games.

Some highlights from the games were great defense by Teixeira on a few plays, it was good to see Posada hit a homer after coming back from his injury, and it was great to see fan favorite Shelley Duncan crush a 3-run homer way over the left field fence.

My highlight of the trip was arriving early to the Twins game to watch batting practice. The treat wasn't batting practice, but the superstar who stayed after practice to sign autographs. Reggie Jackson was on hand as an instructor and he graciously stayed for about a half hour to sign for a mob of fans. I managed to make my way through the mob, being crushed in the process, to receive his autograph.Other fans have said he has done this before and is very good with the fans. I remember last year during the last few games at Yankee Stadium he would sit in different parts of the ballpark and sign autographs for fans.