The Vero Beach Devil Rays are located in Dodgertown in Vero Beach. Up until this year, the Dodgers played their minor league games here and then decided to switch locations with the Devil Rays, whose minor league team operates in California. Here is the interesting thing—the Vero Beach Devil Rays are still run by the Dodgers. When you walk into the offices at the stadium, there are some Devil Rays logos, but they are significantly outnumbered by the Dodgers memorabilia on the walls.

Holman Stadium was built in 1953 and named after Bud Holman, the local entrepreneur who lured the then-Brooklyn Dodgers to Vero Beach (source). The stadium has a very relaxing feel to it—behind home plate sits the press box and concession area, and the rest of the stadium is seating down the first and third base lines. It is the only stadium in Major and Minor League baseball that has open dugouts, meaning that the dugouts are literally dug out of the ground and doesn’t have a roof over it.

Tonight’s game was a great way to cap off our doubleheader. Thanks to Katie and all of the Devil Rays staff for being so nice to us and giving us a great raffle prize. When we arrived at the stadium, we walked through a storage area where I spotted the same hot dog costume I wore in Rome. I had no other choice but to try to avenge my loss tonight. Tonight it was only me and Chris in the race—we were both dressed as hot dogs. The race was from the right field to home plate, much similar to our previous race. However, the race was almost over from the beginning. Chris turned on his jets right from the start and had a small lead on me the whole time. So I lost, again, but barely. I attribute Chris’ victory to the fact he was able to sleep from Lakeland to Vero Beach while I was stuck driving. I will vow to race in the hot dog costume again, and will keep doing so until I win.

Chris also got to throw out his first pitch tonight, and did a decent job of getting it over the plate.

Our first game today was at 10:30am in Lakeland—it was Education Day at Joker Marchant Stadium, which meant that 2,000 kids from local elementary schools packed the park with a few chaperones helplessly trying to keep everyone in line. It was controlled pandemonium.

Joker Marchant Stadium originally opened in 1966 and was recently renovated in 2003. The stadium is named for the City of Lakeland former Parks and Recreation Director, Joker Marchant, who headed up the effort to build Tigertown. The entire Lakeland Flying Tigers facility, consisting of several sets of clubhouses and practice fields, was built on the site of a World War II flight school. (source)

Today’s game featured the Lakeland Flying Tigers versus the Fort Myers Miracle. The Tigers’ offense jumped all over the starting Miracle pitcher today, and before long it was 10-0 in favor of the Flying Tigers. Our raffle table was situated in the main concourse (luckily in the shade and out of the sun) and was flooded with kids and parents all day long. We did a lot better than we thought we did today, all of which was made possible by Zach and the rest of his Tigers staff. Thanks Zach!

Here is a picture below of our winner, Timothy, who took away a team-signed Lakeland Flying Tigers baseball.

A whole 300 or so people came to see the undefeated Sarasota Reds take on the visiting Dunedin Blue Jays. It was a double-header for the Reds and the Blue Jays, as the game last night was rained out. The Reds took the first game, but the Blue Jays were able to sneak out of there with a 2-1 victory in the second game. The Reds play at Ed Smith Stadium, which is probably as basic of a stadium as you can get. The one thing I found was how easy it was to get a foul ball—two balls landed near us in the concourse area within 20 minutes of each other.

Our item to be raffled tonight was an autographed Ken Griffey (Sr.) jersey. More amazing than that, Griffey happened to be one of the 300 people watching the game tonight from behind home plate! I was told he is working as a scout for the Reds, and he was nice enough to autograph a Reds jersey for our raffle last night. Even with our smallest crowd, we were still able to raise a considerable amount of money for the Jimmy Fund. Thanks to everyone who was there last night and participated in the raffle. Much thanks to Dan who was able to set us up by the gate and give us such a great item for our raffle. Here is a picture of Chris with the winner of the Griffey jersey (he bought A LOT of tickets):

The first doubleheader wasn’t too strenuous… the nice weather made it a great day for baseball, and of course all of the fans who contributed to our raffles made it an even better day for us.

Clearwater! Home of the Threshers, and affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies organization. We were excited to get to Clearwater for several reasons—sun, palm trees, ocean views, and of course the 85 degree weather. Long gone on are the days of 40 degree game time temperatures. This is the place to be. It was a bit hot under the sun, but it nice not to have to wear multiple layers of clothing while trying to warm up your hands as you sell raffle tickets. There were even some local Philadelphians working in Clearwater, namely Bridget, the former college hallmate of Chris from his Temple days.

The Threshers play their games at Brighthouse Networks Field, which has been in existence only since 2004. The game took place on Wellness Wednesday, and anyone age 55 or older may purchase a game ticket for $1.00, Hotdogs for $1.00 and soft drinks for $1.00 each. Needless to say, the crowd was made up of a majority of more senior folk. I was able to again throw out the first pitch, and it was probably my best yet.

We were still able to do pretty well for a 1:30 PM game, and gave one lucky guy an autographed Threshers jersey. Thanks to Carrie and her staff for helping us out with everything!

We came to Jacksonville to see the Suns. We also came to the Sunshine State to the SUN. Mother nature had other plans for us. Heavily overcast skies and the on and off rain threatened to cancel the Suns game last night, but luckily the rain held off long enough for the game to get started. Upon arrival, we first got to meet the 83-year old owner of the Suns (who wanted to make sure we didn’t park in his spot) and then we met Stephanie, who hooked us up with both an autographed team bat AND ball for our raffle! We were able to set up our table in the main concourse so we had a perfect view of the game. The crowd was again a bit sparse due to the threatening weather, but that didn’t stop Chris and I from selling almost as many raffle tickets as the night before. By the 4th inning, the rain had started to fall so we ended our raffle early and picked three happy winners.

I had the chance to speak with Robert, part of the staff who was stationed next to our table. In addition to working at the Suns game, Robert also works at the Jacksonville Jaguars games in the fall and was even able to work at last year’s Superbowl. The best part of his job—watching the games, of course.

We left the game in the 6th inning after our raffle finished and the rain was still coming down. As Chris and I sat in the car mapping our next destination into our TomTom GPS system—a huge THUD sound is made on the front of the car. Chris bolts out of the car and picks up the foul ball that came from inside the stadium and hit the hood of a car. Another 12 inches and the ball would have smashed our windshield. Below is a video of Chris and his first foul ball.

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