Stories [2]

I originally put this on The Post, but then I got to thinking, why keep it only there? I am going to add a few details to make it a bit more palatable, hope ye dinna mind!

Back when I lived in Florida, I would hop down to Spring Training.
Tampa [well, Saint Pete, actually] was a pretty cool place. In those days, the Yanks were still training down in Fort Lauderdale, and I was living with a gal from Williston. Money was tight, and we couldn't really afford to go clear across the state, but we DID manage the trip a ways down the road, to Saint Petersburg.
I remember yakking with some cats who had been coming since the '20's.
We were at Al Lang Field [must've been 1981 or 1982, something like that] and I don't remember if the guy meant it was at that actual site, or just a relative distance, but the topic was the older fellows all remembered Babe Ruth in Spring Training there, some of his on-field exploits. One old-timer pointed to a palm tree that the Bambino reached [whether it was at Al Lang Field or some other place doesn't really matter.... what does matter is sitting around listening to first hand exploits of the Babe, and the idea that the ball had to have gone 600 feet or so to get there. Remember, the first 'scientifically' measured tape-measure drive was Mantle, right-handed in '53 out of Washington, to 565 feet].

Oh, one other recollection [geez, I oughta save this for my own blog, {hahaha gues I did anyhow!!} but I just can't get over myself =:-0 anyway, I was sitting in Saint Augustine, in the outdoor amphitheatre, watching the State Play, "The Cross and The Sword". I looked to the end of the aisle, and the wrought-iron ending to the seats had a vaguely familiar interlocking 'NY'. Not really like the Yanks, kinda more like the Mets. I asked an usher when the arena was constructed. Yup. 1965. They had gotten seats and wrought-iron work from the Polo Grounds.

Man, I love stuff like this.... baseball, and history ;-) Let's play two!!