Wednesday in Sarasota was made for enjoying games! Our first event was a 1:00 game watching the Baltimore Orioles play against the Philadelphia Phillies. Before the game we visited with grandma and grandpop in their respective ticket offices (mom works in the office in the outfield, dad works the ticket office behind home plate). Mom and dad hooked us up with amazing seats as usual. How amazing it is that we get to sit about 10 rows behind home plate in a spring training (i.e., smaller) stadium?
Later in the game when the stadium started to empty out we had room to spread out. John (a.k.a, Little LeBron) moved down to the row in front of our official seats for a better view. And no, I have zero power over John's choice of clothing, hence his choice of the brightly colored LeBron hat and the Heat jersey, pink Nike basketball socks and red tennis shoes. Amelia and I both told John that it is foolish to dress like a basketball player for a baseball game - especially when he owns a very nice Orioles t-shirt - but John paid us no attention as usual.
The kids were amazing during the game. Even Amelia - who admittedly likely doesn't enjoy watching baseball that much - followed the game and commented on the status, number of hits, and plays made. We all had a great time enjoying a fun baseball game in the beautiful Florida sunshine!
Our only disappointment came at the end of the game when John tried to get players to autograph his baseball. Earlier when we were in the ticket office grandma had given John and Amelia MLB baseballs that she had found during spring training games, along with a Sharpie. She told the kids that sometimes the players signed balls on their way from the dugout to the locker room, and that perhaps if they stood along the baseline fence players would take notice and autograph their balls.
We went down to the first baseline area during the bottom of the 9th inning, and John and two other young boys lined up along the railing with balls for autographs (Amelia declined). Much to our (my!) dismay, the players did not stop for autographs. There were only a few boys (plus a few adults) asking for signatures, so if each player had signed one item they could have easily satisfied all the requests since the demand was minimal. But the players didn't even so much as glance to the sideline! Instead they all walked down the baseline to the locker room as if there weren't three young adorable boys waiting with open arms for a little bit of attention. Disappointing! John was upset about this, more than I thought he would be.
Once grandma and grandpop finished working, we all met up and enjoyed our second gaming event of the day when we went to the Motorworks Brewing Company in Bradenton. This was a cool brew pub that grandma and grandpop recently discovered. In addition to having a huge selection of craft beer on tap from around the country, the huge outdoor patio is lovely and features a putting green, bocce ball, and cornhole games for entertainment. Below John and grandpop are putting on the green.
The grandkids and grand pop are engaging in a game of bocce ball below. Notice the large and pleasant deck underneath the huge tree on the outdoor patio.
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