My Spring Training Visit

[jasonxctf]

thought i'd share...

 

went to Saturday nights record attendance game vs LA. Boy are Dodgers fans annoying. At home games, Sox dont enter the park till 30 or so minutes before game time. They just stay on the back fields and practice or in their facility. Went to Sundays game too, much better atmosphere. Tracye almost landed in my lap on that foul ball he slid about 10 yards to try and catch.

 

visiting team has the stadium field to practice on. (for those autograph seekers)

 

Guys who were willing to sign

Robin was the best

Harold Baines

DeAza

Viciedo

Sale

Dunn (quick in and out)

Wyse

Alexei

Darryl Boston

Some of the minor league guys

 

Biggest dick about signing..

 

Jeff Kepplinger. Grumpily Says I'll sign after the game, then takes off after the 5th inning sprinting to the facility past the kids

Konerko didnt make much of an effort, nor did Danks, Floyd, Flowers (the day he wasnt playing) Beckham, to sign.

 

Overall great facility. Good food.

[jasonxctf]

oh yeah and got to meet Dennis Rodman at my hotel. Dudes a trip for sure. Nice though. Chatted for 5 mins or so.

[Middle Buffalo]

I was at the Sunday game, too. Best part was that my wife found tix through groupon for $6 each - 30 rows back behind Sox dugout. Free parking is a plus.

 

It's really annoying that the guys whose signature fans might actually want walk in and out of the stadium about 30 feet from the rail. You can fill up a ball with guys with jersey numbers in the 70s and 80s, though. DeAza signed for all my kids, so I'd rank him as the coolest regular. Oh well, I'm not an autograph hound anyway.

 

One of my first posts on this board was regarding a ST game at Oakland's Muni Stadium. It was and away game for the Sox (obviously), so the bus was outside the stadium. There couldn't have been more than 40 Sox fans there. One of the first guys out and on the bus - in full uniform - was Konerko. He stayed on the bus at least 30 minutes waiting for the rest of the team to come out and didn't sign one autograph. It was a little disappointing, but I was able to forgive him in the fall. World Series HRs will do that.

[CarlosMartinez]

My brother took his 3 young boys to the Sox at Reds game last week and had a great all around experience. He had never been to spring training so has nothing to compare the trip to but said the people at the Goodyear facility couldn't be nicer or more accommodating.

 

There were very few Sox fans there before the game so they had great luck with talking to Sox players and getting autographs. While the Sox were stretching a groundskeep walked by PK and let him know that there were kids wanting his autograph. He had the guy grab some stuff the boys wanted signed, signed it while he stretched and told the guy to tell the kids he'd come over when he was done. Sure enough when he finished up his stretches he came over and signed more items. The groundskeeper also did this on his own, my brother didn't ask him to go bother Paulie while he was working out.

 

His boys ended up getting autographs from Wise, Flowers, Tekotte and Paulie. He said all 4 were great with his kids as they signed their baseballs but also chatted them up for a few minutes.

[NorthSideSox72]

I went to the game last Wednesday with my four year old daughter, wife, father and uncle. Stadium is pretty nice, though most seats are very exposed. Food was good.

 

My daughter got her first autographs, in one of those Sox 101 books - she loved it. Here was our signing experience...

 

--Seth Loman was her first autograph. He had been making his way down the line, then stepped away and appeared to be headed for the dugout. Then he saw the little 4 year old girl in the pink Sox outfit holding out her book and marker, and he stopped and turned back to get to her. He also put a bible verse number (John 3:3) after his sig.

 

--Conor Gillaspie signed a few, including hers

 

--Harold Baines signed a ton, including hers

 

--Daryl Boston was making his way down the line, but got called away

 

--Finally, got Robin Ventura, who actually had a short conversation with my daughter which was nice, in addition to signing.

 

--She got tired of it after that, wanted to go eat... but Alexei Ramirez did some signing rgith after we left.

 

If you want autographs at Camelback, get seats along the 1B/RF line, from the dugout going outward. I bought ours just a day or so after they went on sale, and got 5th row, first section after the 1B dugout, for just $15 each.

 

 

[The Ginger Kid]

Go out to the practice fields and you can catch a ton of guys coming back from practice at 11:30ish. They're a bit more laid back and not getting ready to play a game. Hawk and Stoney were signing and chatting with fans, one even talked Hawk into giving him his home run call. Konerko chatted with us last year and Courtney Hawkins was pretty funny this spring and getting a lot of attention from fans. Omogrosso was hilarious talking to some of us.

[southsider2k5]

Sounds fun. Spring training is on my bucket/lottery winner list of things to do.

[ptatc]

Go out to the practice fields and you can catch a ton of guys coming back from practice at 11:30ish. They're a bit more laid back and not getting ready to play a game. Hawk and Stoney were signing and chatting with fans, one even talked Hawk into giving him his home run call. Konerko chatted with us last year and Courtney Hawkins was pretty funny this spring and getting a lot of attention from fans. Omogrosso was hilarious talking to some of us.

This is the best time for autographs. The atmosphere is much more conducive to talk to the players and get the signatures. Players do like to be bothered around the game even in Spring Training.