Florida Spring Training Trip 2016 - Day 35

The Phillies played the Toronto Blue Jays today.  Toronto has a very good team with a lot of excellent hitters.  They also had one of their best pitchers pitching today, R.A. Dickey, a 41-year old knuckle ball pitcher who is hard to hit when his control is good. He pitched pretty well today but the Phillies pitchers also did well and held on to beat the favored Blue Jays 8-5.

The game today was the seventh straight game the Phillies have won this spring training and, at the moment, have the best record of any National League team.  Of course, this is only spring training, and wins and losses don't really mean anything when the season starts. Winning in spring training is still important however, and can help set the tone and attitude of the players going into the regular season.  Last year the team seemed "dead" and somewhat listless.  When we left spring training last year, we had the feeling it wasn't going to be a good year for them.  Alas, that's the way the season turned out - they ended up with the worst record in baseball.  This year seems a little different.  There are a lot of young players doing pretty well so far and there seems to be more energy and enthusiasm throughout.  We'll see how it all turns out as the season progresses, but right now cautious optimism is beginning to stir as the team rebuilding process begins.

After the game we returned to the RV, grilled steaks for dinner and prepared for moving the clocks up and losing a hour's night sleep tonight. 

With all the current controversy about the merits of daylight savings time, maybe the answer is just to keep moving the clocks back an hour each fall.  That way, we all get a little younger each year and maybe live a little longer.

We have a 4-day break in our baseball schedule and will now do some more sightseeing and visiting places we have previously visited and want to see again as well other places we have not yet visited.  Weather remains good - temperatures in the low 80's, mostly sunny and no rain last week.

Day 35 Pictures