Orlando Spring Break

Space Coast Stadium gets its name because it's right down the road from Cape Canaveral and the NASA nonsense that goes on down here. It was a nice little stadium that serves its purpose as a minor league ballpark and spring training facility. We had decent seats, and they were reasonably priced. I'd say it was a good day.

I'm not too familiar with the rosters of the Dodgers and the Nationals, but these were two former NL Central players that I recognized. Normar Garciaparra was a stud with the Boston Red Sox, but had injury problems with the Cubs from 2004-2005. Kearns played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2002-2006.

The only thing that this stadium was missing were the bleachers or lawn seating. I like sitting in different parts of any ballpark, but I belong with my people out in the bleachers. I felt like I was a little bit lost here without bleachers, but I got over it quickly when I sucked it up and realized that baseball was being played here.

Despite this being the Spring Training home to the Washington Nationals, The Brevard County Manatees logo was still visible atop the dugout.

I was able to purchase Manatees hat, and Buck even gave me a discount on it. The only Buck I knew prior to this was Uncle Buck, and he was pretty sweet, so now I guess I know 2 Bucks that are pretty sweet. Because of the positive influences that both Bucks have had on my life, I am seriously considering naming my son Buck.

I had been to the NASA facilities in Cape Canaveral back in 1997 on a family vacation, but this model space shuttle was the closest to the real thing that I have been near since then. If we had more time, I would have gone back to learn more, because I didn't appreciate it enough the 1st time around.

I couldn't agree more with this sign. Even if the word local was removed and it just said drink beer, I still would agree with it. There's plenty of causes that people do and should believe in and stand for, and I'm fine with that. They have every right to do that. I'm going to believe and stand for my right to drink (local) beer.

Space Coast Stadium had this old-school manual scoreboard with a catwalk and a guy sitting on a stool who changes the numbers. I think it would be pretty sweet to have that job. You get to sit back, have a beer, and enjoy the game until something happens. Then you just have to get up and change a number. Where do I apply?

The only other thing besides the name of the stadium that was related to space travel and NASA were the foul poles. The left field pole was Columbia, and the right field pole was the Challenger. If I'm not mistaken, those are the names of the two shuttles that exploded sometime during their mission, killing everyone on board. A quick visit to the Wikipedia reinforces that my previous statement is indeed truthful. To this day, I'm still pleasantly surprised at my ability to retain and regurgitate common knowledge.