It is St. Patrick's Day - a big deal here. The Phillies traditionally play the Toronto Blue Jays at home each year with lots of fanfare. The Phillies wear green jerseys and the Blue Jays wear green hats with their blue and gray road uniforms. Most of the fans wear at least one piece of green team garb and some are in elaborate outfits ranging from St. Patrick to leprechauns and everything in between. It is also usually the largest crowd in spring training and today was no exception as the attendance was 11,300, the largest in spring training since the new field opened in 2004.
The United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) stationed at nearby McDill AFB also traditionally has their command parachute team present the American Flag prior to the St. Patrick's Day game. Today, three USSOCOM team members parachuted into the stadium, landing just behind second base to a round of applause and cheers from the crowd. There was also another Little League "buddy" team that was on the field for the national anthems of both Canada and the United States. The USSOCOM color guard also presented the colors for the national anthem.
Alas, the Phillies lost to the Blue Jays 7-5 but everyone seemed to have a good time. My guess is that the stadium may also have set a record in beer sales despite the weather being relatively cool at 73 degrees with a slight breeze.
After the game, we drove over to Dunedin for their annual St. Patrick's Day street party sponsored by the local Irish bar, Flannigan's Irish Pub. The street party is centered at the city park conveniently located adjacent to Flannigans. There is continuous Irish themed entertainment in progress throughout the day and evening as well as food vendors featuring Irish style food, beer trucks, booths selling various things and shops and restaurants in the area along the street open for business. The area is fenced off and alcohol is only allowed within the venue area.
We walked around awhile and listened to and watched the entertainment going on. At that point in the late afternoon the crowd was mostly family oriented with lots of children and young people (and lots of old people) .We saw a group of young step dancing girls and listened to a singer singing Irish folk songs and ballads. After awhile, we had dinner at one of our favorite Dunedin restaurants outside the street party venue area. As we walked back through the street party area after dinner about 7:30 pm the evening crowd of mostly young adults was gathering. It looked it was going to be a lively evening with perhaps a headache or two for some in the morning. However, as wizened senior citizens. we took a more sensible approach to celebrating St. Patrick's day and drove back to the RV park.
More baseball tomorrow.
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