It's spring training time!

Tim and I took advantage of some great weather to head to Pirate City earlier this week. (It was baby's first spring training experience! I admit I *did* look at Pirates onesies.) We went on Monday, which was the day before the full squad was required to report for workouts, but a lot of the team was already there.

We watched the pitchers and catchers during some drills, and then we watched a few of the players take batting practice. It was a really windy day, and there weren't a lot of people out watching the team.

Spring training is the perfect place to encounter snowbirds, too. Tim recognized the former owner of the Lima Locos as one of the people "braving" the Florida sun to watch the workouts, and we also enjoyed hearing people talk about some Toledo-area high schools. We watched people aggressively try to get autographs from some of the players, too. I love going to the workouts because it's a) free and b) a much more intimate baseball experience than going to the games. It's just a totally different experience than the spring training games or the regular season games.

This year, the Reds aren't training in Florida, so Tim is feeling a little lost. We'd hoped to take a trip to Phoenix to visit Meg and Mike and see a few games, but that ended up not working out. The Orioles have taken over the Reds' spot in Sarasota, and we've got several other teams training within about a hour of us: Pirates, Phillies, Blue Jays, Rays and Yankees. Not too much farther away are the Tigers. We're hoping to get to several games this year, although it might be a bit tricky with Tim's wacky work schedule and my two jobs. But we'll do our best!

Here are a few photos from our trip:

Lastings Milledge, who grew up in Bradenton.
Andrew McCutchen is on the right edge of this photo.

Andy LaRoche takes batting practice.

Manny Sanguillen. We saw him last year, too. Here, he was watching the catchers.