Before the 2011 minor league season started, my friend and I decided we would go to a Charlotte Stone Crabs game since she is a big Rays fan. I wanted to go to another minor league park so even though I do not like the Rays I wanted to go to see their park. Today finally arrived and we headed down to Port Charlotte to watch the Stonecrabs of Charlotte take on the Miracle of Ft. Myers. We left super early and got to Port Charlotte in a little under 2 hours, along with a bazillion lovebugs stuck to the windshield and all over the front of the car. We hit up the Publix for lunch and made our way to the park to buy our tickets. The lady at the box office apparently didn't understand that I just wanted the cheapest ticket because she kept trying to sell me the most expensive ones. Crazy. Once we had our tickets, we settled in near the back of the parking lot and watched an episode of The Simpsons "Money Bart" the funniest baseball related episode of that show ever. Sitting on the ground I ended up getting ant bites all over, as I am writing this I am itching. We had quite a bit of time before the game started so we decided to take a pre-game nap. About an hour before the start of the game we took a stroll around the park and made our way through the practice fields and into the minor league complex. Their minor league complex might be nicer than the Yankees one but its newer so I would expect that.
Walking up to the pavillion overlooking all 4 fields
The pavillion
Me and my new boyfriend.
Boyfriend stealer!
About 45 minutes to game time we made our way to the front gate to wait for the gates to open. There we met a woman who worked for McDonalds who asked if we could keep an eye on a box of cookies for her so she could park, when she came back we helped her with the other boxes she brought up and had we not bought tickets already we would have been golden since we just walked right into the park with her.
We decided to go back out because we wanted to sign up to win free hats and because I needed my binder to keep score. It was freaking hot outside the park. I am thinking of emailing them and recommending that they put up maybe a covered picnic area or something for people who get there early, there was absolutely no shade at all. I am surprised I didn't get a sunburn.
So we got into the park and found our seats, the seats were probably the worst I have ever sat in at a baseball game. The chairs were small and the rows were so close together, I have long legs(thanks mom) so my knees kept hitting the chair in front of me. Luckily no one sat it our row until later in the game so I was able to take some pre-game pictures and fill out my scorecard. I kept an eye out for Joe Mauer's brother and then I saw him. If I didn't have such good eyes I would totally think I was looking at Joe walking across the field instead of who it really was which is his brother Jake who manages the Miracle(they are the Twins class-a advanced team)
Jake Mauer, manager of the Fort Myers Miracle
The game itself was pretty uneventful to begin with. The Miracle scored the first runs of the game in the 3rd inning when they scored 3. The Stonecrabs scored a run in the 6th and the Miracle scored another in the 7th and that was it offensively until the bottom of the 9th. The guy on the mound for the Miracle was throwing meatballs and before he could record a second out, the Stonecrabs had their very own walk-off win, just like their big league counterpart. A wild pitch even factored into them both. I really felt bad for the starting pitcher for the Miracle because he honestly pitched a great game. 7 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 run only for his bullpen to blow it in the 9th. I was actually happy that they walked off in the 9th because I really didn't want a tie game.
During the game I swear, the group of people in front of us probably stood up and left and came back probably 15 times, because there weren't many people in our row everyone used our row to go in and out. So annoying. They had post game fireworks but we didn't stay for them since we wanted to beat the traffic out, we actually were able to watch them at the gas station down the road where we had stopped to scrub lovebugs off the windshield.
How did they know I didn't want anyone in my row?
In about an hour and 15 minutes later we had arrived home(our neighborhood Publix of course) All told, it was a great trip. If I were to go again, I would not leave as early, we kind of didn't realize that there is absolutely nothing to do in Port Charlotte so we wasted a lot of time just sitting around sweating. They did have an environmental park, hiking and stuff in the back of the parking lot that we probably could have explored if it wasn't so hot. We actually parked in employee parking because we got there so early, not sure if they charge for parking but we didn't pay anything since we had been there so long we had a great spot and no ticket or tow so I guess no one realized we didn't belong there. Their ticket prices were a bit much. We picked the cheapest non-berm seats and they were 9 dollars each, the seats were good but I think the price was a little steep being that all the other FSL parks I have been to only charge an average of $6. Not sure if I will go back because its so far away and the seating was not comfortable, I also don't care for the Rays so that helps make my decision. It was a good way to spend a summer day though.
Home sweet Home
The Tampa Yankees have been losing but I haven't lost faith in them. They play in Clearwater for the next 2 days so I am going on Monday and then they are back home on Tuesday. I am hoping to get a cheesesteak at Clearwater because I heard they have good ones there and since I wont have to pay for admission, I can use the money I saved on a cheesesteak.
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