First Stop: Tradition Field in Port St. Lucie

by gondeee on Mar 11, 2007 12:27 PM EDT

So after two days of driving from Atlanta to Jacksonville and then Jax to Port St. Lucie, I'm finally at a baseball stadium. Boy was the drive down I-95 boring as hell today - nothing but flat straight roads laced with early morning Florida fog.

I arrived a bit late at Tradition Field, but I was still able to get into the Mets clubhouse and talk to several players. I had a long conversation with Ricky Henderson who just got down to spring training and who is serving as a base-running coach for the Mets. I also talked with Julio Franco, who only mentioned God three times. I'll have both of those interviews transcribed and posted either here or at Baseball Digest Daily (or both) later on today.

I was able to get with Tom Glavine briefly; he's pitching today so he doesn't talk to media before the game. He indicated that he would try and make some time for me after he finished up his work later on in the game.

It's a bit different here in spring training as opposed to the regular season as the clubhouses are open pretty much the whole game with players coming and going throughout. I'll blog the first part of the game and give some highlights, if there are any, then I'm going to shoot down to the clubhouse and try to talk with Tommy.

It looks like a packed house here today for the Marlins split-squad at the Mets split-squad. This is a fairly new field and fairly big for a spring/minor league facility.

Tom Glavine throws the first pitch to Hanley Ramirez.
Glavine had a 1-2-3 first inning, but Ramirez hit a ball about 500 feet that went foul.

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

In the third

Glavine got touched up for a couple of doubles in the second inning and just gave up a leadoff hit to open the third. He's not looking too good, even in the first there were some hard hit balls off of him. The Marlins have now loaded the bases with the help of a Valentin error and a hit batsmen - with Miguel Cabrera coming up.

by gondeee on Mar 11, 2007 1:45 PM EDT reply actions

End of 3

Boy, I tell you, Shawn Green's arm in the outfield is going to be big liability for the Mets this year. The Marlins have run on him twice and scored both times, on balls that were not that deep. All told the Fish scored three runs off Glav in the third, two of which were unearned thanks to two Mets errors, one by Valentin and another by David Wright. They were also helped by a ball that could have been caught in short center but wasn't.

by gondeee on Mar 11, 2007 1:53 PM EDT reply actions

Er...

I don't' recall Green ever having a great arm to begin with.

IMO, I think the Mets have a few problems and I don't think they'll have it to take the division for a second straight year.

You think our Rotation is not all that great, the Mets are in the same boat. It's a 2 + 3 bullpen, with most of the pressure on Glav.

by Rain Delay on Mar 11, 2007 3:02 PM EDT up reply actions

Stretch time

The Mets got two runs back in the (very long) bottom of the third on a Carlos Beltran two-run homerun to right field. Glavine came out after the fourth, and the Mets tied it up in the sixth. I got down to the clubhouse to talk with Gavine for about three to four minutes, so I'll have that interview transcribed and posted tonight along with the Franco interview - some former Braves gracing the pages of Talking Chop.

Glavine was really nice and very gracious with his time - there were a throng of reporters lined up to talk with him. Hopefully you will enjoy his comments tonight. Until then, that's probably all I've got in me today - you know, it's hot in Florida. It's the bottom of the seventh now and I'm going to walk around and enjoy the stadium a bit.

by gondeee on Mar 11, 2007 3:20 PM EDT reply actions