My Spring Training Experience! Toronto Blue Jays VS Atlanta Braves

We'll today I got to scratch something off my bucket list!  I went to my first spring training game in Dunedin Florida, and it was awesome!

To be honest it wasn't exactly how I expected it to go, but in the end I had a great time and I can honestly say that it's not something I will soon forget.  So instead of just letting it be, I figured I would let anyone who wants to read about it have the chance to....

So let me preface this whole re-count by stating that I have two very small children, and an amazing wife, all who really made this trip to the game unique in itself. 

So as anyone has ever gone to a game in Dunedin can probably attest to, the ball park pretty much just sneaks up on you.  I didn't even know we were in Dunedin until I saw this sign literally a block from the stadium!

Parking reminded me on going to a game at the old Tiger stadium in Detroit.  Tons and tons of people holding up make shift signs letting you park on their front lawn for $10.  Much different than the concrete jungle that i'm used to going to games at the Roger's Center.

Once parked we picked up our tickets and made our way into Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

I've heard a number of things about the  ball park over the years!  How it's outdated and it's probably the worst of all the spring training venues, and I can  see where those comments have came from.  The Stadium is indeed old and probably needs a little more than just some TLC, but I loved it!  It has character coming out the wazoo!

We got the the park fairly early so once we got inside we decided to explore all it had to offer.  Here are a couple pictures we took while we waited for the game to start.

Pretty neat big board as soon as you walk in that shows both teams line-up in a old school kind of way!

Me and my oldest waiting for the Braves to come take batting practice!  It's crazy how small the whole park is.  Seeing the park on TV makes it look huge when it's actually very intimate.

You can typically see this on TV, but the big building is the Jays training facility.  It's cool I guess, but you can't really see much even when your right beside it.

Here are a couple pictures of the Sportsnet desk located in shallow left field. Arash Madani, Jack Morris (Not Pictures) and Stephen Brunt were all down at the desk while we were there.  Weirdest thing I found was that around this desk were tons of fans and not one of them noticed that Jack Morris was standing right beside them. 

Reed Johnson was signing Autographs!  Always loved him as a Jay and he signed a ball for both of my kids, so he'll always be good in my books.

I thought this was pretty cool!  Our own Grill!  

I thought this was pretty cool!  Over in the RF concourse there's a plaque for each player that spent time in Dunedin and went onto the Majors.  There are a tone of great players on the list, it's pretty cool to reflect on all the players who started out in the minor league systems. 

About 30-40 min or so before the game started all the players made their way out to do all their stretching.  It was kinda boring except for when Reyes started playing the the crowd and then went over and signed autographs for about 10 minutes. 

So all that was just before the game even started!  We finally got to our seats and i'm not proud to say it, but we only really spent all of 2 innings in our seats. You try to keep a 2 year old boy entertained for more than that!

We were treated to pretty much an opening day line-up, which was awesome and most of them played 6 innings or more!  Greatness!

After we left our seats we found some the Dunedin Mascot!  I didn't catch his name, but he was nice enough to take a picture!

 
Funny story!  We asked some random guy to take out picture in-front of the line-ups and it turns out we asked the Jays photographer to take it.  He did an alright job I guess!

We then hit up the Canadian Grill again for a re-fuel!  Looks like the kid in the carrier had one too many himself!

Once the starters were taken out we made our way over to the clubhouse and JP Arencibia came out and signed some autographs.  Told by the locals down there that he does it after every game!  Baseball needs more guys like him!.

I don't know why I got so excited for this picture, but I almost jumped over two small kids to get it.  This is a picture of the Managers scrum after the game with Gibbons and all the Toronto Baseball media.  I thought it was pretty cool!

As for pictures the above was my last.  Your prototypical family shot outside the stadium!

There were actually a number of other highlights that I didn't capture on my camera.  And they are......

- The contingent of Canadians in the ball park all signing the National Anthem.  It's nice to know even when were in another country we Canadians band together.

- My Kid was being a little difficult and wanted a baseball and a security guard over heard the conversation we were having and brought him over a ball from BP.  He was jacked.  It's nice to know there are still nice people out there.

- My Wife sweet talking  Raja Davis into bringing her over a ball from BP!

- My kid almost taking out Pat Tabler when he wasn't looking where he was going!  I shook his hand to apologize.  My kid just acted like it was Tabler's fault and moved on.

All in all I had a great time.  Would I have liked to watch more of the game?  Sure...but I got to really experience almost everything that I would have thought a spring training game has to offer and I did it all with my family!

It was a busy day, but a great day! Go Jays Go.