BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING etc.
What better place to spend a week or two every March, in a (relatively) small scale baseball park somewhere in Florida. Watching Major League players ease into the first part of a 160+ game season. Who are sometimes as informal about it as that bunch of fans just arrived after an all-night drive from a snowbound town up North.
That's what I discovered while following the Toronto Blue Jays during their back-to-back World Series heyday in 1992-93. Perfect timing led to an assignment to write "The Official Kids Book of Baseball." Such a task required detailed research, best accomplished under the Florida skies as winter dragged on far, far away. Did my utmost to make the most of the occasion, took lots of photos.
And got a tan at the same time.
On a trip back to New York City, another research stop: this time to the original Yankee Stadium 'the House that Ruth built' now replaced by a much fancier establishment. But much to appreciate in that grand Bronx ballpark.
Between it all, I came across Mets super fan Billy Crystal and Red Sox legend Ted Williams. (GPJ)
What better place to spend a week or two every March, in a (relatively) small scale baseball park somewhere in Florida. Watching Major League players ease into the first part of a 160+ game season. Who are sometimes as informal about it as that bunch of fans just arrived after an all-night drive from a snowbound town up North.
That's what I discovered while following the Toronto Blue Jays during their back-to-back World Series heyday in 1992-93. Perfect timing led to an assignment to write "The Official Kids Book of Baseball." Such a task required detailed research, best accomplished under the Florida skies as winter dragged on far, far away. Did my utmost to make the most of the occasion, took lots of photos.
And got a tan at the same time.
On a trip back to New York City, another research stop: this time to the original Yankee Stadium 'the House that Ruth built' now replaced by a much fancier establishment. But much to appreciate in that grand Bronx ballpark.
Between it all, I came across Mets super fan Billy Crystal and Red Sox legend Ted Williams. (GPJ)
