My Spring Break

For my spring break, i went to Fort Myers, Florida to see the Boston Red Sox at their Spring Training facility. This was my second time going to spring training, so i knew what to expect and where to go to meet the players.

I went to two games, however, for this post i will focus on the first game i went to on March 14th. We got there at 9:30 am for the 1:05 start time because they let all the fans in early to meet the players. It is usually a hit or miss depending on how the players are feeling that specific day.

The first player to come out and sign was starting pitcher Clay Buchholz. He was called up last season and threw a no hitter against the Baltimore Orioles on September 1st, 2007. (Ironically the Sox were facing the Orioles for this game) Buchholz started signing down the 3^rd base line and as he approached my girlfriend and I, he backtracked for a few minutes. He obviously forgot where he left off, so while trying to return to signing autographs he ended up skipping over us. Unfortunately we did not get him that day but i will have more to report on him later.

Immediately after Buchholz skipped us, rookie centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury came over and signed three autographs before running into the dugout. Luckily we received two of the three autographs. So that made up for being skipped over by Buchholz.

While everyone was distracted by Ellsbury and Buchholz, centerfielder Coco Crisp came over and threw a ball into the stands. I positioned myself to catch it and it's a good thing i did too because the guy next to me wasn't paying attention so it would have hit him in the head. The nice thing about these warm up balls are that they have been used in previous MLB games, however MLB baseballs are only used for a maximum of seven pitches in order to keep the ball fresh, so they are thrown in the warm-up bucket and then usually they wind up in the hands of the fans.

Shortly after this, Crisp came back out to sign autographs, so I had him sign the ball he threw to me. I wound up getting a great autograph on a game used MLB baseball by the guy who gave it to me.

The Red Sox went on to win this rain shortened game 5-3. It truly was a great day all around. Below is a quick video i made using my Flip Video Ultra. It was great to have on the trip to capture the greatness that is Spring Training. (The song used is "Shipping Out To Boston" by The Dropkick Murphys.)