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- AMERICAN SCENE, Page 10FloridaSpring's Old Sweet SongPreseason baseball's charm survives slick new parksBy J.D. Reed
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- Dry palm fronds rattle behind the right-field fence. The odors
- of peanuts, mustard and beer waft over the emerald green grass, and
- in the inebriating sunshine, laughter and catcalls issue from the
- bleachers. An eight-year-old boy waves a miniature bat, a
- bikini-clad college student ogles the first baseman, and a pair of
- guys in U.A.W. T shirts argue earned-run averages in the shade of
- an entryway tunnel. At the plate, a nervous hopeful up from the
- minors squares his batting helmet and prays to the puffy clouds
- above the orange groves: God, please send the next one right down
- the chute.
-
- Long before there was a Magic Kingdom, Florida was an enchanted
- land, a place where the vernal verities of spring training stopped
- time in its tracks. A recent preseason game between the St. Louis
- Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds in Plant City reassured like a
- Norman Rockwell painting: in some ways, things haven't changed.
- Bats are swinging, and all's right with the nation. The rituals
- that are played out in Florida and Arizona from early March into
- April are part of baseball's enduring legacy, and generations of
- Northerners have taken refuge here in the balmy revels and toasty
- traditions of the grapefruit league.
-
- Now, thanks to cable television, which beams preseason games
- back home, and to attractions such as Disney World, which draws
- millions of affluent tourists to Florida, spring training is
- becoming big business. That approach could threaten the easy charm
- of the national pastime, but so far, the sport seems to be
- succeeding on both offense and defense.
-
- Elaborate facilities and swelling crowds are transforming
- spring training. The New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals have
- moved into new and slicker stadiums since 1987. In 1982 only
- 778,000 fans visited the 18 teams that train in Florida; last year
- the number nearly doubled, to 1.3 million; an even higher total is
- expected for 1989. Similar gains have been made in Arizona's cactus
- league, where eight teams work out.
-
- Preseason contests used to be a bargain, a cheap way to see
- one's heroes at work. But now they're a pricey entertainment. For
- a preseason box seat at aging Tinker Field in Orlando, the
- Minnesota Twins charge $7, about what it costs for an average seat
- during the regular season at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in
- Minneapolis. In 1991 the Twins are scheduled to move to a new
- complex in Fort Myers. "Spring training is a very special time
- unique to baseball," says Dean Vogelaar, Kansas City Royals vice
- president for public relations. "But it's a tourist crowd now."
-
- The Royals, who spent 19 years at a smaller stadium in Fort
- Myers, teamed up in 1988 with an amusement park located just
- southwest of "Mouse Town," the locals' term for Disney World.
- Boardwalk and Baseball, which dominates the skyline over
- surrounding orange groves, features both the Lipizzaner stallions
- and first baseman George Brett. For a dear $21, a fan can spend a
- day riding the roller coaster and taking in a contest at the
- Royals' 8,000-seat stadium, where some 400 major- and minor-league
- games were played last year.
-
- Among the baseball-oriented attractions on the boardwalk are
- batting cages where kids can try out their Little League swings
- against pitching machines and a throwing game that clocks the speed
- of visitors' fastballs. Although they are Reds fans, Wayne and Ruth
- Thomas from Lebanon, Ohio, and their baseball-loving sons David,
- 8, and Mark, 6, were so taken with Boardwalk and Baseball that they
- stayed nearby on their first Florida vacation. "We've planned this
- trip for months," says Wayne, "and we've already been to five
- games."
-
- While Disneyfication may be packing them into the new stadiums,
- traditional aspects of spring training still bloom in the sunshine.
- Even in the parks closer to professional size, fans are much nearer
- to the action and the players than they are during the regular
- season. The game seems larger than life. Up close, the players look
- like a squad of stunt men pretending to be athletes. They are too
- healthy, have too many capped teeth and gold chains, and look a
- little too old to be the real boys of summer.
-
- Spring training remains a time of testing for regulars in the
- lineup and for minor-league hotshots. It is a process that remains
- accessible to fans. At the Reds' new 6,700-seat stadium in Plant
- City, for instance, the fences may be a bit higher and the beer a
- bit more expensive, but one can hear the chewing tobacco hit the
- grass and smell the liniment on sore muscles. Conversations drift
- into the stands as players jaw about nursery schools and batting
- stances, free-agent trades and restaurants. During a recent game,
- a Cardinals rightfielder edged close to the Reds' bullpen because
- he wanted to talk to a former teammate who was nursing his elbow
- on an ice pack. The Card would occasionally sprint away to stab at
- a fly ball, and then drift back for more gab. Says Minnesota Twins
- catcher Brian Harper: "The fields are smaller, so it's easier for
- fans to get to us. That's one of the best parts of spring
- training."
-
- For kids, spring training means touching heroes; for many dads,
- it's a flashback to their own childhood. At 8 on a recent morning,
- families stood by the Tinker Field gate to see Twins players arrive
- for the afternoon game with the Toronto Blue Jays. Boys and a few
- girls held out Donald Duck autograph books, baseballs, photographs
- and baseball cards to be signed by particular stars. Stephen and
- Gregory St. Jacques, 10 and 8 respectively, collected the
- signatures of pitcher Allan Anderson and second baseman Steve
- Lombardozzi, among others. "I never got to spring training when I
- was young," said the boys' father Jerry St. Jacques, a Virginia
- computer-program director. "This trip is a part of my youth too."
-
- Fans lined the fence by the Twins' batting cages to watch
- players, just a few feet away, groove their swings against
- automatic pitching machines. American League leading hitter Kirby
- Puckett (.356) whacked a few dozen balls and then wandered over to
- the fence to sign his name on caps, baseballs and odd pieces of
- paper. Puckett spends an hour or so a day signing baseball cards
- mailed to him by fans and sending them back in postpaid envelopes.
- He was joined by Cy Young Award winner Frank Viola, who pitched a
- 24-7 season last year. The chain link fence is some eight feet
- high, so kids tossed their books and balls over the top. After
- signing, the players threw the objects back over the fence, in one
- of Viola's favorite spring rituals. "I was a shy kid," remembers
- the Long Island native, "so I had my mom ask for Rick Barry's
- autograph at a Nets game once. He refused. So I take as much time
- as I can signing autographs. The kids take it as a challenge. I'm
- easy to get, but some guys are tough."
-
- Other time-honored spring rituals take place at the fences.
- The wives and children of players often come out to games in
- Florida. Babies are dandled at the chain link, to be smooched by
- unshaven dads wearing polyester knickers and adorned with smears
- of soot under their eyes. Unmarried rookies attract wilder rail
- birds. Young women wearing shrink-wrapped slacks call hello to
- bullpen inmates; dates are made and possibly kept.
-
- In Florida baseball cuts across the generation gap. There are
- two kinds of attractions here: adult, which means no children
- allowed, and family, indicating the loud presence of small people.
- But college students on spring break occasionally turn their
- beer-dousing noses away from Daytona Beach long enough to take in
- a game. Senior citizen Jack Keidel, who retired to Orlando some
- years ago and now works as a volunteer usher at Twins games, speaks
- for many of his peers when he says that baseball "breaks up the
- monotony of endless golf." A 14-year-old wearing a T shirt
- emblazoned with the face of the Reds' Chris Sabo, the N.L. Rookie
- of the Year in '88, says, "It's a toss-up. Baseball and girls are
- about equally boss."
-
- There may be new stadiums in Florida and big microwave dishes
- beside them to beam games to snowbound fans back home. But so far,
- at least, traditionalists need not worry. As the Reds battled past
- the Cards a couple of weeks ago, a boy ran a ballpoint pen along
- the bullpen fence. Jeff Gray, a young Cincinnati reliever, smiled
- and started walking toward him. The boy arced his baseball over the
- fence, and Gray caught it easily and said, "Where do you want me
- to sign?"