MLB Spring Training 2024 Trip Report- East Coast Style

[bama_ed]

That area (Jupiter and Stuart and beyond that Fort Pierce and St. Lucie) has all grown so much since me and DW lived there in the 1980s.

I think it was Fort Pierce and St. Lucie that had little downtown areas close to the Brightline train tracks (actually the tracks belong to the Florida East Coast Railroad).

I'm glad you got out and saw some of the local territory.

Ed

PS-and a 2 for 1 drink special like that is a winner in my book.

 

[Teamubr]

Tuesday is in the books. Great weather. 80s, partly sunny, no rain. Great day for a ballgame.

We got to Roger Dean Stadium about an hour before game start. (1:05) and the place was already busy.



We had to hit the Official Team Store and pick up some Spring Training gear.

They did have this generic Grapefruit League hat. I didn't get it.



I intentionally picked seats in the upper tier (200 level) for this first game. Thursdays seats are row 6, section 102, down the 1st base line. I went online within 5 minutes of single game seats going on sale and the last row was the closest I could get behind home plate. Still pretty good seats.




We looked at the various food options. Not much variety. BBQ sandwich, chicken fingers, nachos and the "stadium dog". I elected for the stadium dog and nachos. Both were underwhelming. The nachos were a container of chips and separate cartons of cheese, salsa and peppers. You had to assemble it yourself. This was the "Stadium dog". I was expecting a little more with such a big name.



The Cards started off rough. First pitch from one of our senior starters was a home run to left field. After that he settled down and pitched 4 complete innings. 46 total pitches and no more earned runs. The Cards scored 1 in the first and 4 more in the 3rd and had a solid 5, 1 lead before the Jr leaguers came in. The game finish 5, 4. So it was a good win.



Ed, the dugout layout was similar to what you saw in AZ. Not enough room for all the players and coaches. The bullpen was along the 1st base line in right field. Manager and coaches behind a screen next to the dugout.



We had a nice surprise. As we got to our seats, some bearded old guy starts yelling at me that we were in the wrong section. Turns out it was old friends from Branson we haven't seen since their son got married over a year ago. They were 3 seats down. Neither of us knew the other was going.



The people in between us offer to switch seats and we ended up going out to dinner tonight to catch up

All in all, a great day.

j

 

[bama_ed]

Jim,

I listened to the last half of the game on KMOX via the MLB app. Glad your Cardinals got the win.

But dude, that hot dog is S.A.D.

Little piece of advice - I found the foot long tasty treats are usually in the the outfield corners or center field along the walkway around the stadium in Arizona. Consistently.

Hopefully you can scope out better food choices at your next game.



I actually feel sorry for that limp hot dog. That's like a late 1970's Alabama stadium dog. But that was nearly 50 years ago.

There has GOT to be something better out there.

Ed

PS - Jim, I saw a similar generic "Cactus League" hat with the logos of all 15 teams in Arizona. Didn't get it either-good man!

 

[Teamubr]

Ed,

I'm definitely going to look for better food options on Thursday. There isn't anything in the outfield at Roger Dean except the club houses. Marlins in left field, Cards in right. It's hard to tell, but there is a road between the fence and the building, but no public space.



Funny, in the 8th inning, I saw 2 food trucks driving between the fence at the Cards club house.

j

 

[Teamubr]

Today was a no baseball day. One of 2 off days for the Cardinals during spring training. Good thing since it rained off and on nearly all day. We did meet up with our friends from Branson and drove around checking out the area. Drove down A1A to Palm Beach. Drove past a certain country club/residence with lots of portable observation towers with a Secret Service logo on the side and uniformed "hosts" greeting everyone that tried to enter the property. Not sure what it was.



Lots and lots of money in this area. I'm a car guy (many of you know) and there have been quite a few interesting vehicles out in the wild. Ate at a raw bar in West Palm Beach that my friends remembered from their last trip to spring training 16 years ago. The neighborhood has apparently changed quite a bit since 2008, but food was good.

Weather is supposed to be good the rest of the week. We have a game at Roger Dean tomorrow at 1:05. Cards vs Astros. We'll probably go over early. It sounds like batting practive is at 10am.

j

 

[Teamubr]

Cards game 2, this week, is in the books. Today was supposed to be clear and nice. Woke up to overcast skies and sprinkles off and on. By 9:30 it was full on raining and by 10 it was a down pour. A little before 11 it looking like it was getting lighter and radar looked encouraging so we headed to the stadium. 1:05 start, so we had plenty of time to shop some more and look for better food options.
By the time we got to the park, rain had stopped and it was clearing up.

Shopping was a success. Picked up a Spring Traing hat I didn't see Tuesday.



And a few more shirts.



Even found a magnet for the refrigerator.



Weather held out for the game. We had different seats this game. I wanted to try a few different spots. These seats were at the far end of the 1st base line. Terrible for seeing home plate, but great for sitting a few feet from the bullpen and where the spare catchers and pitchers sat. It was also the only place to have direct access to the players.

Many came by before the game for autographs.





It was also nice to see the pitchers warming up.





Unfortunately you had to sit sideways and look around people to see the plate.



Continued on next. The sad food offerings and sadder sign on the Marlin's clubhouse.

j

 

[Teamubr]

I walked from end to end of the park looking for different food options. Other than the Dippin Dots stand and the liquor windows, every place to get food was the same except one.

This was the main menu.



Not much to offer and I showed the sad hot dog on Tuesday. The nachos were a joke and none of the rest sounded worth trying. The only other choice was the "Jumbo Dean Dog" (actually a Nathan's dog) or an Italian sausage. They were bigger than the stadium dog from Tuesday, but I passed. We did get a big pretzel that was decent. I was told the Nationals stadium (Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches) is MUCH better. I'll report on that tomorrow.



About half way though the game I noticed this banner on the Card's clubhouse that highlighted all 11 World Series wins the Cards have.



This was the sign on the Marlin's club house. It highlighted the sign company that probably made the banner on the Card's building. Kind of sad.



The game was a loser from the first inning. Our starter gave up 4 runs in the first inning. He started with a 13 ERA and finished 4 innings with a 15. Not a great outing. The Cards chipped away with a couple of home runs and a decent earned run, but lost 6/3. Most of the regular players walk past to the clubhouse at the end of the 4th.



After the game we met up with our friends for dinner in Jupiter near the light house. Dinner was great with a nice water front view.



Back at the camper now. No more rain since this morning. Tomorrow is a night game with the forecast of 80s and partly cloudy. We'll see. We are meeting one of Donna's coworkers and her husband for dinner. They live down the highway in Boca and recommended a place in Palm Beach for dinner.

We'll be leaving early Saturday, so tomorrow will be packing up before the game.

j

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Tuesday is in the books. Great weather. 80s, partly sunny, no rain. Great day for a ballgame.

We got to Roger Dean Stadium about an hour before game start. (1:05) and the place was already busy.

View attachment 839390View attachment 839391

We had to hit the Official Team Store and pick up some Spring Training gear.

They did have this generic Grapefruit League hat. I didn't get it.

View attachment 839394

I intentionally picked seats in the upper tier (200 level) for this first game. Thursdays seats are row 6, section 102, down the 1st base line. I went online within 5 minutes of single game seats going on sale and the last row was the closest I could get behind home plate. Still pretty good seats.

View attachment 839396
View attachment 839397

We looked at the various food options. Not much variety. BBQ sandwich, chicken fingers, nachos and the "stadium dog". I elected for the stadium dog and nachos. Both were underwhelming. The nachos were a container of chips and separate cartons of cheese, salsa and peppers. You had to assemble it yourself. This was the "Stadium dog". I was expecting a little more with such a big name.

View attachment 839400

The Cards started off rough. First pitch from one of our senior starters was a home run to left field. After that he settled down and pitched 4 complete innings. 46 total pitches and no more earned runs. The Cards scored 1 in the first and 4 more in the 3rd and had a solid 5, 1 lead before the Jr leaguers came in. The game finish 5, 4. So it was a good win.

View attachment 839402

Ed, the dugout layout was similar to what you saw in AZ. Not enough room for all the players and coaches. The bullpen was along the 1st base line in right field. Manager and coaches behind a screen next to the dugout.

View attachment 839403

We had a nice surprise. As we got to our seats, some bearded old guy starts yelling at me that we were in the wrong section. Turns out it was old friends from Branson we haven't seen since their son got married over a year ago. They were 3 seats down. Neither of us knew the other was going.

View attachment 839404

The people in between us offer to switch seats and we ended up going out to dinner tonight to catch up

All in all, a great day.

j

Not sure what looks worse
. . . hot dog with sorrowful bun
. . . shorts with sorrowful leg

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I walked from end to end of the park looking for different food options. Other than the Dippin Dots stand and the liquor windows, every place to get food was the same except one.

This was the main menu.

View attachment 840004

Not much to offer and I showed the sad hot dog on Tuesday. The nachos were a joke and none of the rest sounded worth trying. The only other choice was the "Jumbo Dean Dog" (actually a Nathan's dog) or an Italian sausage. They were bigger than the stadium dog from Tuesday, but I passed. We did get a big pretzel that was decent. I was told the Nationals stadium (Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches) is MUCH better. I'll report on that tomorrow.

View attachment 840006

About half way though the game I noticed this banner on the Card's clubhouse that highlighted all 11 World Series wins the Cards have.

View attachment 840007

This was the sign on the Marlin's club house. It highlighted the sign company that probably made the banner on the Card's building. Kind of sad.

View attachment 840011

The game was a loser from the first inning. Our starter gave up 4 runs in the first inning. He started with a 13 ERA and finished 4 innings with a 15. Not a great outing. The Cards chipped away with a couple of home runs and a decent earned run, but lost 6/3. Most of the regular players walk past to the clubhouse at the end of the 4th.

View attachment 840022

After the game we met up with our friends for dinner in Jupiter near the light house. Dinner was great with a nice water front view.

View attachment 840023View attachment 840024View attachment 840025

Back at the camper now. No more rain since this morning. Tomorrow is a night game with the forecast of 80s and partly cloudy. We'll see. We are meeting one of Donna's coworkers and her husband for dinner. They live down the highway in Boca and recommended a place in Palm Beach for dinner.

We'll be leaving early Saturday, so tomorrow will be packing up before the game.

j

Restaurant really looks interesting.
Name? Location? Menu?

 

[Teamubr]

Restaurant really looks interesting.
Name? Location? Menu?

Scupper,

The restaurant was Guanabana. Decent menu for seafood and land lovers. Great atmosphere.

j

 

[Teamubr]

Last day before heading home in the morning. Great weather (finally), although Donna said it was too hot and the humidity was bad. Humidity really has kicked up.

Busy day, fun day.

We just got back from the Cards game at Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches. I'll give more details tomorrow. I need to get to bed now, but I'll give two teasers from today.





I'm hoping to hit the road around 7 in the morning and have about 30 minutes of stuff to do before we can roll out (sat dish, cable, hook up car, pull in slides, blow up air bags, raise jack's and hopefully I remember to unplug the shore power)

Good night.

j

 

[cruising spud]

Jim,

Glad you got to do this trip. Safe travels.

 

[Teamubr]

Thanks Spud!

We made it to our HH stop for the night. Stockbridge Community Church and School. We stayed here on the way back from Key West, but I'm getting ahead of myself.



Yesterday we headed out mid morning and had our first breakfast out. Nothing exciting. Just IHOP. But from there we went back to the Jupiter lighthouse. Very nice grounds, museum and first nation village recreation. The lighthouse was built on a mound. It is 34 steps to the base of the lighthouse and another 104 to the top. Donna sat it out, but I headed up.








In the last pic, the cranes are in place replacing the US 1 bridge. The old draw bridge was 60 years old and apparently in pretty bad shape. The large museum is closed until bridge construction is done and the lens in the lighthouse had been wrapped in plastic until last week. Hammering pilings for the bridge was causing lots of vibration and there was concern the fresnel lens would be damaged. I was fortunate to get to see it up close without the wrap.

After the lighthouse we stopped for ice cream them back to the camper to start putting things away. We were meeting Donna's coworker for dinner in downtown West Palm before the game. Mexican place called El Camino. Happy hour went until 7 with a big bites and drinks menu. Great food for an even better price.

We headed straight to the ball park and arrived right as the national Anthem was being sang.



Game highlights and a special surprise on the next post.

j

 

[Teamubr]

Cacti Park of the Palm Beaches is a very nice park. Newer and nicer than Roger Dean. The park is huge.



We had great seats. 4th row just to the 3rd base side of home plate. Wonderful views of Angel Hernandez and his wonderfully wild strike zone. For non-baseball followers, Angel is an MLB umpire known for notoriously poor pitch calling. He also has a bit of a power issue. After a few innings of batters and pitchers asking why a pitch was a ball or strike, Angel tossed our pitcher. And then pitch our manager for colorfully questioning why the pitcher was ejected.





We ended up winning 7/6, but it was an ugly game. We racked up 3 in the 1st and added a few along the way, but kept giving back bad runs to keep it close.

Food options weren't very exciting. We had just had dinner, so I didn't try anything. Usual fare of burgers, chicken strip hotdogs and nachos.

Now for the surprise.

Our stop tonight is in Stockbridge, GA. It is about 30 minutes south of Atlanta. The same Atlanta where our very own @garneska lives. Bert, Kris and Whisky came by for a visit. And they brought pizza and salad. We had a great time catching up and meeting Whisky.



Thanks Kris and Bert for dinner. It was great seeing both of you again.

We will be up and out early in the morning. The DST change will make it a strange day as we drop back into CDT at home, essentially only springing forward for half a day.

580 miles, about 9 hours and a fuel stop and we'll be home.

Thanks everyone for following along.

j

 

[garneska]

It was great to see you guys. Traffic was flying back into atlanta. H tomorrow morning you should have no traffic so hopefully an easy breeze through atlanta.

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

Nice trip, Jim. Thanks for taking us along.

 

[bama_ed]

Cacti Park looks like many of the Arizona spring training parks (including Cleveland's Goodyear Park).

Those FL teams got to work on their menus, though.

I do recall going to a game a few years ago in Port St. Lucie at the New York Mets park that had some good burgers and foot longs down in the left field corner.

Maybe next year the Cards will play at the Mets.

That is, I assume you made a reservation for next year?

Glad you made it.

Ed

PS - and the DISMeet with Bert, Kris, and Whiskey was a bonus.

 

[Teamubr]

We are home. Made it the 580 miles right at the 9 hour mark. One stop for fuel in Cartersville, GA. We left about 750am EDT and pulled in the driveway at 350pm CDT.



Naturally we had a strong head or cross wind all the way home. The front that came through GA and FL yesterday had really strong winds from the NW all day today. Terrible fuel mileage. I don't know how I manage to do it, but on the way down last weekend, we had winds out of the SE the whole trip. One of these days, I'll get it right.

Ed, we did not make reservations for next year. We are planning on GSP in May/June and we have a Mediterranean cruise booked for September 2025. We had a great time, so I may try again in 2026.

j