(Originally written March, 2021)
Almost exactly a year ago, I was driving to the Orlando airport on a Sunday afternoon with some time to kill. I spent the weekend in Cape Canaveral to tour the Kennedy Space Center and to witness a Space-X Falcon 9 launch. All that was over and I had a decision to make: move my flight up in the day and get home, or find a spring training game to go watch. I opted to fly home, thinking I would catch a game later in the season.
Less than a week later, the world shut down and the prospects of a regular baseball season had vanished. I made a huge mistake — I did not get the chance to attend an in-person sporting event at all in 2020.
I ended up spending most of the pandemic working from an apartment in South Florida. When I found out fans were going to be able to attend Spring Training in 2021, I booked tickets for the Atlanta Braves vs. Boston Red Sox game on March 10th at Fenway South (a.k.a. JetBlue Park).
For folks that don’t know, Fenway South “has exactly the same dimensions as Fenway Park and some of the unique features as the Boston ballpark as well. The most notable is a replica of the Green Monster in left field. However, unlike the one in Boston, the Green Monster in Fort Myers has seating within the wall [due to hurricane building codes]. There are three rows of seats carved into the middle portion of the wall. Separating the seats inside the wall from the field is a net so that balls cannot go inside the seated area.” (Wikipedia). I had the good fortune of watching the ballgame from inside the Green Monster, just 315 feet from the plate.
Driving out to Fort Meyers took a few hours, so I listened to an Audiobook of The Greatest Baseball Stories Every Told. The book could be worse and it did the trick of hyping me up for the big day. (I’ll admit I was somewhat annoyed that it started with “Who’s on First,” instead of some on-the-field miracle I’d never heard of, but by the end of the bit I couldn’t suppress a few laughs.) Pulling up to the park, I was amped for the big day.
I know this is going to sound corny for a Spring Training Game, but when I walked in that ballpark you’d of thunk I had never been to a Majors Game. I was esctatic.
There were all the sounds and images you’d expect: vendors hawking their goods left and right, an announcer coming on the loudspeaker to advertise some kind of a lottery, fans trying to get a glimpse of their favorite players as everyone navigates the preseason facilities.
I worked my away around to the replica Green Monster and found my seat. Max Fried was warming up in the outfield, Brand Snitker had just made his way to the dugout, the sun was shining and I was already soaking in the good vibes of the diamond.
Sure, we were all wearing masks and keeping distance. And the crowds were small and spread thinly (not to mention mostly Red Sox fans). But we were at the ballpark. Besides, this feels like the right crowd size for a spring training game pre-pandemic. Reportedly, 1904 fans sat with me in anticipation of the first pitch (though probably fewer — everyone has to buy tickets in ‘pods’ of fixed size, I was forced to buy two tickets just for myself). You could sense that behind our 2000 masks were 2000 smiles, grateful to have baseball back.
When all was said and done, the Braves lost 5–3 . Fried pitched okay, other than giving up an RBI double to Rafael Devers; whereas Victor Arano pitched a grand slam to Bobby Dalbec. Ah, I can’t pretend I’m all that upset. the ball landed on top of my seating area and was handed to a couple of very young Sox fans seated in the next “pod” to my right. It’s a only spring training game, and I was just happy to be there. Good for Dalbec, good for the kids, good for baseball. Sorry, Arano. This pandemic has me all twisted up.
Honestly though, my trip to the game moved me more than it should have — more than I was expecting. Maybe it was the warm air, or the sound of fastballs hitting catchers’ mitts echoing through the stadium. Or perhaps more simply, it was just the first time I’d seen 2000 people in one place in a while. Like this was a sign that it’s the beginning of the end, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I know I’ve eaten a lot of my written words in the last year — like everyone else — but after this game I’m choosing to hope. To hope that as 2021 wears on and folks get vaccinated, life can slowly return to normal. Today about 2000 fans sit spread throughout a spring training ball park hoping with me that the season will gradually bring more fans to parks, more fans to baseball, and exciting playoffs this fall.
