Pat and Judy's Travels: Phillies Spring Training

We got an earlier start today and arrived at the ballpark when the gates opened at 10:30 am. We went first to the minor league training complex adjoining the main field. This is the center of all spring training for the Phillies organization and has at least three fields and training areas. There were lots of young players working out. None of them had numbers, just names on the back of their training jerseys. We saw a crowd at one of the fields, so went over to check it out. We saw the Phillies starting pitchers (Halliday, Lee, Hamels, and Blanton) taking batting practice. The other starting pitcher (Oswalt) was starting the game today and was was not batting. After they all were done batting, they all went out to the outfield with ball bags and picked up the balls they had hit.

We then went into the ballpark and walked around the field again and checked out the food concessions. It was much less crowded 2 hours before the game, but everything was open including the beer booths. We also saw two of the radio personalities from WIP in Philadelphia (Anthony Gargano and Glen Macnow) broadcasting live from a tent near a beer booth from Frenchy's, the beach restaurant where we had dinner our first night here. We had a leisurely early ballbark lunch - Hatfield hot dogs and lemonade, and watched the Pittsburgh Pirates take batting practice prior to the game.

The game was another sell-out with a new record crowd. The skies were sunny and it was hot (81 degrees). For most of the game, the scores were low. Roy Oswalt pitched well, allowing two unearned runs in 6 innings. The Phillies regular players' bats were quiet; they only scored one run before most of them were replaced in the 5th and 6th innings by rookies and other players trying to make the team. The game had an exciting finish as the Phillies scored two runs in the 9th inning to win, 3-2. The hero was a young catcher named Tuffy Gosswitch, who drove in both runs with a single after two men were out.

We came back to the hotel to work on the blog and left again at 4:00 pm to go sightseeing and eat dinner. We toured Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach, a busy and vibrant gathering place, mostly for young locals. Every afternoon and evening from 4:00 to 8:00 there is a sunset celebration on and around the pier while the sun sinks into the Gulf of Mexico in the west. Many vendors were set up, selling jewelry and other small items. There was also a fire juggler, a magician, a talking parrot with handler and several sidewalk artists doing caricatures.

We left the area at sunset and drove a few blocks north to Frenchy's on the beach for dinner. However, since it was Friday night at the height of spring break, the wait there was 1 1/2 hours. We tried another location of Frenchy's (just a few blocks further inland) and the wait there was 45 minutes. We walked down the street to shop for a beach bag and towels and decided to eat at a small Italian restaurant with no wait. Pat had linguini with clams (not as good as Angelino's in Sausalito) and I had penne arrabiata, which was great.

Phillies spring training complex