My latest journey on my illustrious tour of the Grapefruit League took me to McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Florida, spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Some notes about the trip: once again I arrived late, I got lost in a neighboring town on an identical address to the ballpark (I got off the highway an exit early), and I saw no signs in Bradenton pointing travellers to McKechnie Field. This last point I found very odd. It was almost as if they didn't want people to go see the Pirates.
About the park: McKechnie Field is one of the oldest parks in Florida. Built in 1923, it first hosted the Cardinals in the 1920s and 30s, and has since been home to the Phillies, Red Sox, Boston Bees (Braves), Boston/Milwaukee Braves, the Kansas City/Oakland A's, and since 1968, the Pirates. According to the Pirates' Spring Training Program, the team and McKechnie Field put 18 million dollars in the Bradenton economy. I find this funny since it is just a hair under half of the Pirates entire 2007 payroll of 38 million.
Anyway, for all its historical nuance, getting into McKechnie Field is a pain in the dupa. Since it was built in the dawn of the automobile industry, there was probably little need back in the day for the park to accomodate a mass influx of cars. This tradition has been sadly continued. There is minimal parking at the park, although the fine surrounding businesses will gladly let you park on their premise, for a fee, of course. Again, it is almost like the city don't want guests to see the Pirates.
On to the game: because I wandering the countryside prior to finally finding the ballpark, when I finally arrived the game was in the top of the 3rd. The only event of note I missed was Twins starter Scott Baker's two innings of work. But I did show up in time for the offense. Right as I sat down, the Twins' Michael Cuddyer doubled off Pirates "ace" Matt Morris scoring Joe Mauer. Then Morris threw a wild pitch advancing Mauer. After Justin Morneau hit a sac fly, the next two Twins, Craig Monroe and Jason Kubel hit back-to-back home runs. 4-0 Twins. Wasn't Morris good a long time ago?
In the top of the next inning, having missed the first few Pirates hitters, the first Buc I saw at bat was Nyjer Morgan, most famous for being the namesake of the sports blog Nyjer Please. Nyjer isn't very good, and neither are the Pirates. The highlight of their day offensively was back-to-back home runs by Adam LaRoche and Ryan Doumit in the bottom of the 4th, making it only 6-3 Twins.
Among the other interesting sightings during the game were pitcher Jaret Wright and first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, both Pirates non-roster invitees who took the field in the bottom of the 7th. Wasn't Wright also good at some point in his career? The first pitch he threw was blasted over the right-center fence by the Twins' Jon Knott.
An inning later, Twins prospect Deolis Guerra took the mound. As one of the many arms the Mets gave up for Johan Santana, I wanted to see what Guerra was all about. I was impressed. Although it was against players who will be bagging groceries in a week, Guerra set the Pirates down in order in the 8th.
Not too much of note happened after that. Similar to the Blue Jays-Reds contest of last week, this game also resulted in an 8-4 victory for the team hailing from the American League.
Next week: Tigers at Rays in beautiful St. Petersburg. Adios.
(Photo from Brian Merzbach's Ballpark Reviews. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died after one pic. It would be nice if ballparks sold batteries, but that's a rant for another day.)