Baseball

People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball.
I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.

                                                                                                 Rogers Hornsby

Wednesday saw Cece and I up early, and headed up the street to “Thrifty” to rent a car for the day.  Our goal was to make a spring training baseball game.  The Washington Nationals were playing the Miami Marlins in Jupiter Florida.   And, the game was "only" 150 miles away.

 

 

Cece had found tickets online, seats three rows back behind the Nationals dugout.  These were probably the best seats for a major league game we would ever see.  For $21 a piece we were going to sit in spitting distance from Brice Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, Michael Taylor, and the rest of the Nationals $142 million payroll.  A three hour drive got us to Roger Dean Stadium an hour before game time.  This, in plenty of time to watch batting practice.  Game time temperatures were in the high 70s, with an abundance of sunshine and a light breeze blowing out to right field.  At 1:05, right on schedule, Wei-Yin Chin threw the first pitch to Ben Revere (the Nationals left fielder) to start the game.  It was a strike.  The 2016 Baseball season had begun for Cece and I.

 

The first two innings flew by as both Wei-Yin Chin for the Marlins and Blake Treinen for the Nationals threw strikes and found there outs.  It wasn’t till the top of the third before the Nationals offense opened up the game with four runs.  Trea Turner scored the first run behind a Ben Revere single.  On the next at bat, Michael Taylor homered to right center field to score three more runs.  This was all the offense the Nationals would need to win.  In the sixth inning, the Marlins scored two against Nick Masset, a Nationals pitcher Cece and I had never heard of.  Final Score WSH 4 MIA 2.

 

Baseball is back for 2016, and hope for a World Series Championship is alive, at least for a little while.