Saturday, March 19, Day 15, TWINS day Hammond Field Ft. Meyers

Click on picture to see the largest to view.
We woke with anticipation, Twins day. Not only that but will the tickets be there that we bought on-line for this event, they only cost about three times face. But I promised Shirleen a day at the ball park.

At the hotel I got a call from Dean our contact, sounds good, at least we have heard from the cloud. We drove over to the park at 10am, can’t wait to get there and take part in activities of the event. Got parked close to the waterfall. Walked over and no Dean, he did say either there on in the number one parking area. Many people walking around asking for any spare tickets. After five minutes I called, he said I am coming forward toward you. Well there he is with a big smile, shakes our hand and has five envelopes in his hand. I pass them to Shirleen, she checks to see the two in there. He said nice Corvette, he had a guy with a ’69 picking up some tickets also. He gave us his card, seems he and Mike both run this business all year long, this month is the only month he is home in Naples, I have his card, Executive Tickets. We watched the outside events, almost got walked over by Jack Morse, I even recognized him. Shirleen found a nice red Twins shirt, I found a nice polo, but there were no manly sizes left in that design. In the many designs there were only two manly sizes, well next time.

It is within a half hour of the game and we decide to eat, a couple ball park frank, Nachos and cheese and a water. We go to find our seats. The guy at the top of the walk said, you needn’t had brought that along, they get it for you?

We go down, down, till we get to the second from the front dugout row, not like the guy behind us who thought he had the first eats in the front row. As I, he did not know about these special seats.

That is the Tampa Bay Ray's dugout across from us.

The ticket says, Dugout Box section 106, row B, Seat ½. We sat down, full sun and temperatures said to hit 85 mid day. Game time 1:05pm. What a grand seat, worth every penny I spent. The lady in front of us is in a seat which allows them to go to the Ray’s dugout to talk with players. She is dressed to a T, with the southern charm hat on. We talk and she thought Minnesotans and even there ball park people are better mannered that theirs. She went on about Mauer and his good manners and that his good looks don’t hurt either. We went up to cool off before the game starts. Who do I run into, Pete Wendinger, they brought a bus load from New Ulm. Seems to never fail we run into someone.

Well we have now found a sheet that gives all of the Twins wins, losses and outtakes. Along with a special order sheet for food and beverages, prices a quarter or more per item.

It is time for the Twins to take the field, Mauer is the catcher today, what luck. Turns out my pictures are poor because we are to close to screen protecting us from foul balls.

Thome and

Span turned fuzzy. A couple kids were chosen to throw out the first ball. One was rescued from drowning by two EMT’s and they stood by him when he threw. There was a young, 10 to 12 year old to sing the national anthem. He hit the first note, then the mic went dead. A foursome behind us started singing loud and the whole 8,200+ chimed in to cover his disappointment. The game starts with the first three getting on base but none made it to home plate. Twins turn, out one, two, three. It was fun to see the crowd come to life when Mauer came to the plate to hit.

He hit a nice two bagger. The runs just came on, what a great way to see a game. High hitting and runs, with the Twins winning. Luckily there was a light breeze all afternoon, kept it bearable. Game over 9 to 2, hits 13 to 8. What a great way to spend a day.

Back to the hotel to do clothes and rest up from the heat, hit 91 when we climbed into the car.

We were headed to a strip of restaurants and saw a Lee Roy Selmon’s, turned out to be a great tasting smoked pork house. A couple beers for me, Yuengling and Shirleen a gin and tonic. Her three pulled pork sliders turned out to be to much for both of us, I ordered a Back Country Nachos – okra, tomatoes, pulled pork, cheese and chips.

That’s it for tonight. Jerr