Welcome to Kissimmee, Florida. Some may think of it as Disney's motel-infested backyard, the armpit of Orlando. But to me it's Osceola County Stadium, spring home of the Houston Astros, a world where success is a perfect pitch, a sliding steal, a flat-on-your-face in the grass catch. And I am here with my trusty Canon there to catch it all for you, my faithful readers. I arrived in Orlando Tuesday morning, got in my rental car, and went to my home for the week, an apartment place about a mile from the stadium, where for 80-some bucks a night, I got a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath unit, with kitchen, living room, and washing machines. Not fancy, but clean and super-convenient for anyone whose main purpose in being here is access to the ball park. My traveling partner for the week, my youngest sister Elizabeth, wouldn't be arriving until late afternoon from Denver, so my cousin Jon came over from Tampa to see the 1 PM game against the Redsox.
I have to say that the seats that were made available in the Spring Training pre-sale this year were not so good. (Who in the Astros franchise should I complain to about that?) Although I went online to get my tickets the moment the pre-sale started, the "Best Available" for this game (a higher-cost "premium" one) was either all the way down the line in the lower level, or up against the press boxes in the upper level, right behind home plate. I opted for the latter. The view of the field was great (same as the broadcasters'), but it's a pain to take pictures when you're under the protective netting - at least half the time my camera's automatic setting opted to focus on the net, not the players.Yes, of course, I could just manually focus, but it's annoying and anti-social. So I decided to limit my picture-taking for this game, and just enjoy watching the game and visiting with my cuz. I'll have a lot better pictures from the other games this week, when I'll be sitting down near the field, but I do have a few pictures to share with you. (See my Astros Fan in Exile website and my Daily Booth for additional pictures this week!)
Tuesday's 3-0 Astros shutout over the Redsox was all about pitching, with Roy O kicking off the game with more great stuff. The Wiz threw four shutout innings in his classic fast-paced fashion. Oswalt gave up only a pair of hits and a walk, and suddenly the game was half over, just an hour or so after the first pitch. Things are looking really good for the Astros ace - he has not yet given up a run in Spring Training. It was a special treat to see Osewalt pitch, since last year he was away at the WBC when I was here. Let's hope that Tuesday's performance is a harbinger of what't to come with him this season, after last year's disappointing results.
Oswalt was followed by a string of relievers - uneventful single inning appearances by Lindstrom, Fulchino, Gervacio, and Majewski. Wesley Wright closed, earning a save, after pitching out of the Redsox's best chance of the day to catch up. I had not seen Lindstrom, an off-season acquisition, so this is my first Spring Training picture of him - sorry it's not much of an action shot. I will get better ones in a later game when I'm sitting closer to the action without the net.
After Oswalt, who's always the highlight of a game, my next biggest interest in the bullpen was to see Sammy Gervacio, who has adopted a very strange pitching ritual. I saw his odd delivery in a televised game against the Mets last week; it had the NY broadcasters in stitches.And I have to agree that it's very odd and somewhat amusing. Gervacio momentarily faces third base, holding the ball up to his right, then very abruptly turns towards the plate, before throwing in his sidearm pitch. I don't know when he adopted this - I did find it in some late-season videos on the mlb.tv archive, but he definitely was not doing it in Spring Training last year. At least, I never saw it, and it's not the kind of thing that you wouldn't notice. I tweeted Alyson Footer (the source of all arcane Astros player trivia) to ask her why he's adopted this weird pitching ritual, and she said "no idea." I will post a video of Gervacio's delivery on the Astros Fans in Exile Facebook group, but meanwhile, here's a snapshot of that sidearm:
This game was largely about pitching, but to win you have to score at least once. The Astros managed to eke out a handful of runs in a mostly small-ball type of way with the better half of a split squad. (Pence, Blum, and Feliz were among the players who went to Tampa for the evening loss to the Yankees.) Carlos Lee scored from third base on a wild pitch in the fourth inning; in the sixth, he hit into a double play, allowing Matsui to score from third. Brian Esposito, a late inning catcher, hit an RBI double in the eighth for the Astros' third and final run. Towles continued to make his case for a slot on the major league lineup with a pair of singles, bumping his BA to .550 in his first 20 at-bats. (That's a whole lot better case than last year's .190.)
You can read the box score to see the rest of the game numbers. Although this blog is about the Astros, it's also about the nature of fandom, especially for fans who cheer for teams that they rarely see in person. So last but not least, for today's blog - the Fans of the Day. First FotD is Dolly Niemiec Konwinski, who I met as I was leaving the ballpark. That's me with her in the picture up at the top of the blog. In case you didn't recognize the name, let me introduce you: In the early 50's, she was an infielder in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (the league of women players that was featured in the movie, A League of their Own). Dolly's not actually an Astros fan - she admitted to me that the cheers for her hometown White Sox - but she's a great fan and advocate of the game, so she gets top billing among my Fans of the Day.
My second Fan of the Day is my cousin Jon, who was kind enough to drive in from Tampa to watch a ballgame with me:
And I have to give a special callout to my Spring Training friends, who I met last year and kept in touch with on Facebook in the off season. They all have Spring Training season tickets and they've been keeping tabs on the team before I could get here. Here's Mitch and Kevin from NY:
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1 comment:
great opening day
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