Having such a great time just doing a double-header last year for Spring Training, I told my friend Tom Carbone that I wanted to go more extreme and do a “Spring Training Tour”. So, we did the planning in February, Tom got the tickets, I booked the hotels and we set out Thursday afternoon: Five games in Four days.

Needless to say, that was a lot of baseball, but it was awesome. The trip included visits to four different parks, two of which I hadn’t been to yet. The first was Brighthouse Field in Clearwater, FL, home of the Philadelphia Phillies and near the original home of Hooters (confirmed on Wikipedia). It was a very nice park, reminiscent of the Detroit Tiger’s Lakeland park: not too big and great atmosphere, which included awesome Philly Cheesesteaks.

The second park I hadn’t been to was the home of the Yankees: Steinbrenner Field. I would say this park was too big. It might have been our seats, but it didn’t feel like a Spring Training game. We were so far from the players and the park just swallowed up the atmosphere. The Astros didn’t look too good in the two games we saw, but it did get me pumped up to watch baseball again starting this weekend.

While I was gone, Jennifer’s parents decided to visit. Jennifer’s dad helped around the house, mainly cleaning out our garage (Thanks, Jack!) and helping to install some low-flow shower heads in the girls’ bathrooms. I appreciate all the help while I was out of town on my “tour”.