DanMargarita.com

Anybody who saw a newspaper or a TV a few months back may recall that Florida was devastated by a number of hurricanes. While it may no longer be hurricane season, Florida weather hasn't exactly been tropical lately. Still, rain is better than snow and as my sister Jean reminded me, you don?t have to shovel it.

Regular readers of this space know that every year I spend a week in March in the Sunshine State (This is where I add a sarcastic smirk) with my baseball-loving friends, Jim and Rick, psyching ourselves up for another summer of hardball.

Mon.--- I took my flight from Manchester Airport (Shhhh. Don't tell anyone, but it's WAY better than Logan!) to Philadelphia where I waited for my flight to Orlando. And waited. And waited some more.

My plane is late arriving and thus late departing and naturally, late arriving in Orlando. Rick meets me at the airport and we head to our first destination (Well, mine since Rick got there earlier but attended a game that wound up being rained out) Tampa, where the New York Yankees are scheduled to take on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Alas, we hit a tremendous stretch of traffic and when we finally get to the Yankee's Legend's Field, people are streaming out and the sound of Frank Sinatra singing "New York, New York" can be heard over the loudspeakers. As always, this means the game is over and the Yankees have won. Still, the sight of green grass and even a grounds crew working on an infield is a delight to someone who has just left a foot of snow.

After some souvenir store browsing (for Yankee fan friends, of course), we grab a bite to eat at the Tampa Ale House, a Florida chain that has become a spring training trip must. Our belly's full, we look for lodging, which in usually plentiful in such a touristy area. At 12:30 a.m. though, options are more limited, especially at reasonable prices. Assuming that the further we go from the heart of town we'll find better rates, we stop at a Howard Johnson's and settle for a room, though it?s more than we had hoped or expected to pay. Especially for one located next to "Severino's Bail Bonds."

Tue.--- Off to Lakeland to see the Tigers play the Blue Jays. By the time we get there, the only seats left are down the right field line. Not great seats and it's overcast and cool, but 56 degrees is STILL better that what it is in Boston.

The night game we choose is in Kissimmee where the Houston Astros play. It's pronounced "Ki-SIM-ee," but most northerners like to pronounce it "KISS-i-MEE" so that the team can be referred to as the "KISS-i-MEE Astros."

It's a great little ballpark and the top 5 or 6 rows are covered, which is a plus since it begins to rain and most people watch from under cover.

Wed. --- The day game we're shooting for is the Dodgers-Orioles game at my favorite venue, Dodgertown in Vero Beach. Since 1948 the Dodgers have trained here, the longest association of any major league team. The team has played at tiny Holman Stadium since 1953 and it's everything that spring training once was and should be.

The only problem with Vero Beach is that's it's on the East Coast, a bit of a drive from most other facilities. If you don't mind the drive, getting to Dodgertown is a pleasant ride, past orange groves, through small towns. That's not what most people experience when making the trip to Disney World. Those that only know the Orlando area might think that Florida is just a warmer version of Route 1.

The stands at Holman Stadium are 17 rows high and with capacity at about 6,500 (though it seems smaller), there's not a bad seat in the place. In a nod to a by-gone era, the dugouts are open-air and it feels like you're watching a local high school game.

Many of the game's legend performed here. It's where Jackie Robinson trained, Duke Snyder trained and Tommy Lasorda ate.

There are signs of a modern spring training mentality beginning to creep in even here, though. The path to the team's old clubhouse, which left players and coaches to pass through fans to get to, now has a dividing rope to separate the two from mingling. A new facility has been built behind right-field that keeps the players away from the fans as well.

We?ve managed to get great seats, a few rows from the field just past the first base dugout and it's the first sunny day we've had. I know I should put on sun screen, but I've waited too damn long for warm enough weather to get a sunburn.

Speaking of Orlando, that's where we're headed for the night game. The Braves play in a fairly new facility, Cracker Jack Stadium (I'm not kidding), located at Disney World, and if Dodgertown is everything that spring training once was, the Braves facility is everything that spring training has become.

It is a large, double-decked stadium that seats about 10,000 people and you can find yourself sitting quite a ways from the field.

We get there just in time for the 7:00 game, but heavy rain has delayed the start of the game. One good thing about the facility is that it does provide plenty of cover from rain and has a wide variety of food choices. However, like all things Disney, you pay extensively for just about everything. Plenty of fans avail themselves of ponchos from the souvenir store. Some are clear and some are yellow all have Mickey Mouse on the back.

The rain stops at 8:00 and the tarp is removed from the field by the grounds crew who proceed to work on the diamond. At 8:30 the game starts. At 8:35, so does the rain once again. It comes down pretty hard, but the players and fans brave through it (sorry for the pun).

When in Orlando, do as the Orlandoans do...eat at the Orlando Ale House, and so we do.

Thurs.--- Jim arrives on the red-eye from L.A. and we head to Dunedin, home of the Toronto Blue Jays who will face the Cleveland Indians. As we arrive, people are streaming from the ballpark. We ask one of them why, though we have a pretty good idea. Though it is not raining hard, the game has been cancelled. The nearest option is Clearwater to watch the Phillies-Devil Rays game. We arrive late there, but manage to get good seats right behind home plate. It's drizzling, but not that much and we pay about $20 for tickets that would cost $85 at Fenway.

The only nearby night game is in Tampa, but as we arrive we see that the stadium lights are off and the electronic board outside says that the game has been rained-out. The next stop is once again the Tampa Ale house. It's St. Patrick's Day and the place is loaded and so are many of the patrons, dressed in green.

A fairly intoxicated young man approaches me and comments on my Red Sox sweat shirt (which I had planned to remove before going into the Yankees ballpark). He's from the Boston area, or his mother is, it was a little tough to tell. He also mentions that he doesn't know who his family is in one breath and then says that his grandfather is in the Witness Protection Program.

Somehow it comes up that he spent six months in Qatar in the military, spending twelve hours at a stretch crouched behind a machine gun. The only action he saw was when he was mistakenly shot at by a colleague.

I begin to tell him that I'm happy that he was out of harm's way, but he explains that he was disappointed that he wasn?'t "where the action was" and is eager to start his tour of duty soon in Iraq.

Over and over he says that "Muslims are the best (expletive) people anywhere. If they offer you something, you have to take it or they'll be offended."

He makes the distinction clear. Muslims are good people, but he wants to go to Iraq to kill insurgents. While his tolerance of another culture is admirable, somehow his bloodlust is a little disconcerting. Anyway, the last thing I want to do is argue politics with a 21-year-old drunk kid whose expressed desire is to kill people.

The motel situation seems settled as a call to an 800 number assures us that a room with a rollaway bed for the three of us at a Howard Johnson's. We arrive at the HoJo's just as karaoke night is ending and some of the cast of "Hee Haw" is roaming the parking lot with open beer bottles

The night clerks tells us that despite what we were assured, they have no rollaway beds which means one of us has to sleep on the floor. Jim has had little sleep from his red-eye flight, it?s Rick?s birthday as of midnight so I volunteer to take the floor, although Rick has offered.

To be continued.