Baseball Doubleheader

I hate it when I write a masterpiece entry for the blog and then, when posting, I get a disconnect message. Horse feathers!
Baseball. I took West Point boy to the airport to end his spring break and my foray into mandatory public transportation. I motored on to St. Petersburg to visit my college roommate of X0+ years ago. We slipped down to Al Lang Field, spring home of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, to see them beat the Phillies. We walked up 45 minutes before the game, asked for the 2 best seats they had and, voila, we were sitting in the box seats, 2nd row, right behind home plate. Now spring training is known for being a little relaxed, which explains why the coaches like to sit in white plastic lawn chairs outside the dugout behind home plate. That's so they can watch the pitchers more closey. So B. and I were sitting there fully able to chat with Don Zimmer and Lou Piniella right in front of us. With the Rays doing so well, we had little to criticize. It was a good game and good day. We consumed the requisite beer, hot dog, peanuts and ice cream. The only drawback was the sun was too far to our right and my tan was uneven.
Sunday we ventured up to Dunedin, one of the top 5 spring training sites in baseball, according to The Sporting News, to watch the Reds and Blue Jays. We concur. Very intimate stadium right in the middle of a slow sleepy (by current standards) Florida coast town. We washed down perfectly grilled bratwursts with Labatt's Blue while being entertained by the sining beer vendor who repeatedly led an "Eh!" cheer over on first base (it must be a Canadian thing!). The Jays beat the Reds in short order while the sun evened up my tan.
Running. Oh yeah. I slipped in a 5.5 mile run on Sunday morning after a late night of playing Strat-o-Matic Baseball with the original and vintage player cards for the 1975 Cincinnati Reds and 1975 Boston Red Sox (Hey! I'm a collector with an old habit.). We hadn't played in 30 years.
The run was special. I ran around the golf course of the historic Vinoy Hotel in downtown St. Pete. I ran slowly but not as slowly as I expected. I usually go at a 10 minute pace on long runs but this day was at 9:30. I credit it to all the Vitamin D and the new Saucony's. It's amazing what new tires will do for you. Just ask Dale Earnhart Jr.
Well, I'm exhausted from the stressful weekend. Time to hit the hay. Night y'all.